JISC

This project is part of the Joined up System for Institutions project cluster in this particular programme. Projects in this cluster intend to integrate a variety of different types of information systems to support learning and teaching (for example joining up the student record systems with the institution's VLE).

Background/Context

There is a growing concern throughout HE about the large gap between what central services have traditionally provided and what the academic populace at large now need. The INSIDE project seeks to identify and articulate these requirements and develop a model of distributed functionality that will drive a new set of value-added services derived from the existing information base. The principal theme is "joined up systems for institutions", with a particular focus on user-centred portals for staff. The integrated data environment will be developed and trialled by the project partners, the University of St Andrews and the University of Durham.

Aims

The aim of the project is to produce a reference model of distributed information sharing between administrative units and academic departments. This will act as a basis for understanding and managing the continuing change in needs, at both the central and the departmental levels, for appropriate interfaces to the distributed institutional information base.

Objectives

The objectives are:

• To understand what is desirable and achievable in terms of consistency of data across different systems
• To provide appropriate and effective security in terms of access, authentication and privacy
• Genuine interactivity - users should be able to enter and edit information
• User-centred portals updated dynamically
• Mechanisms and procedures for synchronising central and departmental systems, but not through a master/slave relationship

Project Design

Work is currently underway in related projects at both sites, concerned with the development of Intranets and distributed learning environments. The project will build on these efforts by capturing and articulating requirements; building a reference model of distributed functionality; refining technical development and evaluation plans; identifying and deploying glue technology where necessary; and disseminating findings to the sector.
The integration targets can be broadly classified:

• Integration between departments and central services
• Integration between existing central systems
• Integration between learning environments and departmental and central services

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

This MIS-related initiative includes academic departments as members of the project management group in order to ensure that the departmental viewpoint is reflected in the project's goals. Indeed, the co-operation between central services and academic departments is a particular strength of this project. All parties agree that a clearly documented model of distributed functionality is required; simply deploying new technology is in itself not a solution; and this is very much about people management. The two institutions currently function within quite different data management contexts, so methodologies and techniques that can be shown to work at both are likely to prove generic.