Developing intelligent validation systems
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This project focused on addressing the need for institutional administrative systems to facilitate the sustainable take-up of emerging technologies and provide flexible access for their users to valuable functions and resources.
Executive Summary
The project had a number of aims:
- Speeding up validations by using the output of previous validations
- Using new technologies to link to administrative systems so they can be accessed easily
- Reduce the administrative burdens associated with the validation of courses
- Make the validation and processes more open
- Create a Community of Practice (COP) for validation support
We feel we have met the last 2 of the aims fully, and are on the way to meeting the other 3. We have opened up the validation processes in a way they have not been before. The overall approach was to try and get an accurate picture of the processes of validation as possible. We canvassed for experiences, opinions and views from with as many individuals in as many different roles as possible. Though the project was not as successful in meeting our aims as we would have liked we found an enormous amount of qualitative information that we have been able to forward to our colleagues in Quality Services. We have used the expertise gained in running a Community of Practice (COP), to help run a University COP and we now run a series of workshops for academic colleagues on setting up and sustaining a COP.
We found that support was needed in different ways to what we envisaged, for example, support was needed for new panel members as well as presenting teams. We found that Staffordshire University Regional Federation (SURF) colleges had different support issues than the university based people and did not really feel a sense of community with the university – this was outside the remit of this project but useful information.