JISC

In June 2007 JISC funded Netskills to develop and deliver a workshop to help the community explore and assess the core technical skills required to deploy federated access management technology at their institutions.  A pilot workshop was held in July 2007 and from the event and the feedback it produced, a full programme was put in place.

JISC funding through the JIIE committee enabled Netskills to deliver this training programme around the UK and offer over 100 free places on the events.  These were offered to participants from the FE sector and smaller HE institutions. 

The workshop programme ran from October 2007 to July 2008. JISC funding was in place from November 2007 onwards. In total 11 events took place during the funded phases, in the following locations:

Belfast                 London
Manchester          Cambridge
Edinburgh            Taunton
Coventry              Newcastle
Glasgow

Participants

136 attendess from 120 different institutions participated in the workshop programme.  Around 95% of the attendess described themselves as working in an IT/ICT related discipline.  Library staff or Athens administrators only made up a small part of the audience.  The institutions total represented a range of sectors, but was significantly targeted towards FE and a smaller HE audience.

Institutions represented Sector

93 FE
16 HE
3 Local Council/Schools/Library
7 JISC
1 Other

As the programme progressed it was also satisfying to observe a correlation between institutions that participated in the events and subsequent Federation registrations. In some cases this also followed with a speedy deployment.

Aims Objectives and Scope

Aims

To give a more detailed overview of the federated process and to discuss and assess the skills required to deploy access management technology at their respective institutions.

Objectives

• Increase in Federation registration and participation
• Up to date information on the deployment landscape across the Federated community
• Confident management and practice of identity driven access management
• Availability to provide options for both Linux and Windows platforms

Scope

JISC Access Management Team worked closely with Netskills , both to secure funding for the free place scheme and also to ensure that the programme was directly contributing  to the success of the transition activities.

JISC RSCs - In order to effectively target the FE sector, Netskills used its existing relationships with the RSCs throughout the UK. Each RSC was contacted personally and informed about the programme and the free place offer.  They were also provided with forthcoming dates and publicity ahead of time, to ensure that the take up of the free, funded places was as effective as possible.  In some instances Netskills worked very closely with individual RSCs to provide the widest geographical spread possible for the programme. In particular this relationship enabled fully subscribed events to take place in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Southwest England – which may have otherwise proved logistically difficult to run – as well as two larger events in Manchester.  The close co-operation of many RSCs has also allowed them to better support the colleges in their own region, by bring together local communities of practice and engaging them directly with ongoing JISC support. Terry Docking (RSC Northern) commented on the course, "It was very interesting seeing the delegates gradually seeing that the processes involved in setting up the Access Management made the DIY approach a "doable" option for their college."

Future Directions

Further training

Some funding has been brought forward into the 2008/09 as it was not possible to arrange a planned workshop in Wales before the end of the 2007/08 academic year. Netskills is working with RSC Wales to enable that to happen as soon as possible in the current year.

Service provider support

In the summer of 2008, JISC also funded the development of a complementary workshop, Federated Access Management: Core Skills for Service Providers for publishers providing online resources within the UK
Federation, along with provision for some paid-for places. This programme is due to start in September 2008, with workshops in London, before being rolled out across the UK.  The initial development for this workshop has been funded by JISC and the primarily aim for this training is to engage the smaller third party publishers who are yet to deploy services within the UK federation.  However the training will be suitable for all of the UK federation community.

Core Programme Dates