JISC

Monitoring and evaluation activities of JISC have taken place over a period of time in response to the emerging needs of the education and research communities, particularly to support new applications and technologies. This means that they have had differing expectations, and sometimes with multiple sources of funding. This is a major strength but can also cause occasional tension. Monitoring and evaluation activities tend to reflect the needs of the JISC communities at the time of creation and many still work within their original terms of reference. However, the JISC community is not static. It currently includes FE (including the Specialist Colleges and, potentially, the Adult and Community Learner sectors), HE and the research community and has strong links with bodies such as the NHS, Resource, British Library and UfI. The needs of this wide community are changing and therefore the need to monitor such change should be reflected in the nature of data collection and reporting. 

Aims and Objectives

• test the current arrangements for the provision of all JISC funded monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure that they are providing a valuable, cost effective and relevant analysis of JISC activities to JISC and the JISC community;
• identify opportunities for improvement in the direction, management, provision and use of such monitoring and evaluation activities and identify areas that may benefit from expansion or be additional to current activities taking into account diversity and needs of the FE and HE communities and organisations involved in the wider life-long learning agenda;
• make recommendations for developing a complete and effective strategy for monitoring and evaluation activities, identifying any gaps or overlaps in the current work;
• make recommendations on changes to the commissioning and management of JISC monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure that activities relate to JISC’s strategic objectives.