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JISC receives award for federated access management work

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:35:32 GMT

JISC received an international award today for its work in federated access management in the UK at the Educause conference in Denver.

The catalyst award is intended to recognize technology innovation and initiatives that provide groundbreaking solutions to major challenges in higher education, or change prevailing conditions in remarkable ways so as to allow new solutions to be arranged.

Federation Services Manager at JISC, Nicole Harris, who accepted the award on JISC’s behalf, said: “The award really shows how far access management has come, with parts of the UK experience considered so embedded that they have become informative history.”

Educause is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

Julie Little, Educause senior director of teaching, learning and professional development, said: “This year the catalyst award recognizes a complex, far-reaching web of initiatives that has had broad impact on higher education and its partners in less than a decade.

“Although many federal identity management organizations exist, we wish to identify several with this award to represent the field as a whole and acknowledge their work as representative of the many organizations that manage federated identity systems worldwide.”

The ultimate goal of federated identity systems is to allow users of one domain to securely access data or systems of another domain seamlessly, without the need for them to change their password or do other administrative work.

However, there is also a need to protect the user’s privacy, so this has spurred the development of open-source software and work on standards. As a result, a federated approach was adopted by many countries as a basis for advancing their infrastructure to support 21st-century research, education and collaboration.

Earlier this year, JISC launched new infrastructure to lead the colleges and universities towards more effective access management. To use the new system, institutions and service providers need to join the UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research, which is run by JANET(UK) on behalf of JISC and Becta.

Read about JISC's work in this area

Mapping the needs of a generation

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:49:34 GMT

Interim findings of major study of doctoral researchers indicate urgent need for libraries and universities to develop their understanding of ‘Generation Y’.

Emerging findings from a major three-year research study into the information-seeking behaviour of doctoral students have highlighted the need for far greater understanding of the generation born between 1982 and 1994 – commonly dubbed Generation Y. Researchers of Tomorrow was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to establish a benchmark for research behaviour, against which future generations can be measured

Researchers of Tomorrow was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to establish a benchmark for research behaviour, against which future generations can be measured – and also to provide guidance for librarians and information specialists on how best to meet the research needs of Generation Y scholars.

Earlier this year 70 full-time doctoral students at UK colleges and universities were recruited for a longitudinal study of their research habits during the course of the next three years. The study will investigate their research habits in digital and physical environments, as well as their use of resources both off- and online.

The longitudinal study will be supported by a number of surveys to establish the wider context of the doctoral research landscape. The first of these surveys has just been completed; it surveyed a representative sample of all doctoral students in the UK and yielded a number of significant interim findings.

Information format Three quarters of Generation Y students – more than those in any other age group – found the information they sought in an e-journal article
Emergent technology Only a small proportion of respondents (10-30%) in any age group say they use ‘emergent technology’ – such as wikis, virtual research environments, social networking and other Web 2.0 applications – in their research, Of those that do use them, more generally find them useful in their research than not
Help and advice Fewer Generation Y students than other age groups say they regularly use library staff support to find research resources (11% of Generation Y compared to an average of 17% for other age groups), or take advice from subject specialist librarians (4% compared to 9% average). More Generation Y respondents (46%) than any other age group turn to their fellow students and/or supervisors for support in using emergent technologies
Location of work Compared to other age groups, more Generation Y researchers work from a dedicated or shared office space (or laboratory or studio) (40%), than work from their own home (39%).

See Researchers of Tomorrow

68 colleges and universities around the UK collaborated with the distribution of the wider ‘context-setting’ survey, and a total of 6562 questionnaires were returned. This excellent response rate provides a detailed and nation-wide snapshot of doctoral research across all types of education providers.

Joanna Newman, the British Library’s Head of Higher Education, said, “The interim findings of the Researchers of Tomorrow study provide a fascinating snapshot of current research behaviour of doctoral students. It’s perhaps surprising that so few researchers in the 21-27 range really use the wide range of Web 2.0 applications for research or collaborative working. And when it comes to emergent technology, they’re more likely to seek the advice of their peers or supervisors than librarians or information specialists – a finding that could suggest a need for professionals to rethink how best to deliver advice and support in this area.”

Charles Hutchings, JISC’s market research manager, said, “Of those students who have used advanced technologies in their research 27 per cent have received no advice or guidance at all or they self-help for instance using online guides and manuals. This could be because these technologies are being underused and undervalued, due to a lack of understanding of the benefit they can deliver during the research process. As the study continues it will be interesting to see if this is true.”

The study is being conducted by Education for Change, in association with The Research Partnership, and builds on the study by CIBER of the Google Generation, which was published by the British Library and JISC in January 2008.

Joanna Newman concluded: “Although it’s still early days with this project, we’re already uncovering some fascinating detail about how doctoral research behaviours are evolving – some of which throw into question some of the key assumptions often made about Generation Y in particular. The three-year longitudinal study that began this September will add much concrete detail to our understanding of researchers’ changing needs and, once complete, will help inform and guide research support over the coming decade.”

Have your say about the JISC website: survey launched

k.down@jisc.ac.uk (kerrydown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:14:33 GMT

We need help from the JISC user community to be able to make our website better. This year we’ve made some changes to the JISC website. You can now customise your JISC homepage, search for publications in a new way, navigate via topics, see the ‘most read’ content, and search for information across all of our JISC Services sites using the JISC search box.

We’d like to get your feedback on these changes through a survey and user testing so that we can improve the website even further.

Survey

Give us your views by completing our short survey. You also have the option to enter our prize draw to win a £30 Amazon voucher. The survey (8 questions) should only take about 10-15 minutes.

User testing

Enter our prize draw to win a £30 Amazon voucher

We're looking for volunteers to take part in usability testing of the JISC website, particularly if you're based in London, Oxford, Birmingham or Manchester. If you're chosen to take part in the testing, you'll earn £40 for your help. Sign up at the end of the survey and remember to fill in your contact details too.

Closing date Friday 4 December 2009

Complete the survey

Virtual trenches immerse students in First World War poetry

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:41:47 GMT

With Armistice Day fast approaching a JISC project team has taken an unusual approach to ensuring that people continue to learn about the First World War.

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University have collaborated on an exciting new project in the 3D virtual world Second Life to simulate areas of the Western Front 1914-18. The team believes this is the first time anything of its type has been done on Second Life.

This project, which is funded by JISC, has arranged a range of digitised archival materials like poetry manuscripts, letters and diaries from the major poets of the First World War including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg and Vera Brittain, along with contextual primary source materials. These materials have been supplemented with new interpretative content and a spectrum of interactive tools and tutorials, streaming video and audio effects.

Watch the video to explore the virtual trenches and find out more

JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT

The artefacts have been drawn from the highly successful First World War Poetry Digital Archive, launched in 2009 to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the war. By placing them in an online virtual model the project aims to make the collection more useful and engaging to a range of different user groups across UK education sectors, research communities and the heritage industry.

Ben Showers, digitisation programme officer at JISC, said: “The First World War Digital Poetry Archive is constantly pushing the boundaries of what it means to be an academic archive, and now users are able to interact with the collections and materials. JISC funding for this additional virtual environment means students, researchers and everyone interested in this material can collaborate and become immersed in the world of the Western Front to experience the immediate context of these manuscripts and poems like never before.”

Visitors to the virtual trenches are given a unique immersive experience where they can explore a training camp, dressing station, a trench network and No Man’s Land. The terrain is waterlogged and difficult to navigate, rife with rats and littered with poppies. Moving nearer to the front line the clamour of shell blasts and artillery fire becomes louder and louder.

Dr Stuart Lee, lecturer in English at Oxford University, said: “Attempting to form the context of a particular piece of literature is a key critical approach in the discipline, which normally involves studying secondary material, or in rare case, site visits. By piloting the use of Second Life, the First World War Poetry Archive is approaching this in an innovative way. More importantly it is showing how new technologies (virtual worlds) can be utilised to provide more interesting access to key research and teaching resources.”

As guests explore the simulation, they can listen to the voices of veterans recounting their experiences of the war, watch original film footage from the time, and learn about life on the Western Front. Within this context they can encounter some of the most powerful poetry in English literature by handling the original manuscripts, turning the pages of the poet’s war diaries and letters, and listening to readings.

At the end the visitor is teleported out of the trenches to a teaching area. Here they are asked to consider the memory of the war, and to confront their own prejudices and stereotypes - was the war really all about trenches, mud, and rats, or are their other aspects to it that we now need to consider? Should it only be remembered as mass slaughter, a gross act of futility, or more a collective act of unparalleled heroism that ended ultimately in a victory for Britain and its allies?

Kate Lindsay, project manager, said: “Virtual worlds create opportunities to do things that are impossible in real museums. By simulating parts of the Western Front, we can embed an entire exhibition's worth of content within in the space. This can be further enhanced by placing digital versions of real archival materials and narratives along the paths that visitors take. The result is an immersive and personal experience. It's not 'real' but it does offer possibilities for understanding a part of history that is now beyond human memory."

Explore the virtual Western Front in Second Life

Find out more about the project

See JISC's Getting started in second life guide

Podcast: Minister David Lammy speaks to JISC about the new HE Framework - Higher Ambitions

h.peebles@jisc.ac.uk (hectorpeebles) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:25:35 GMT

In 2008 John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills launched a consultation called the HE Debate, to seek expert thinking, fresh ideas and comments on the future of higher education for the next ten to fifteen years.

Today, the new HE Framework - Higher Ambitions was launched by David Lammy (Minister of State for Higher Education) and in this podcast interview with JISC’s Rebecca O’Brien, he explains the Government’s vision of the future for UK higher education and shares his thoughts on the future of learning, teaching and research.

Listen to the podcast (Duration 9:13)
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT

Find out more about JISC’s work in online learning

Find out more about JISC’s open education resources programme

Read the Government’s announcement on the HE Framework - Higher Ambitions

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Commercial radio archive online for the first time

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:12:50 GMT

The UK’s first online commercial radio sound archive has been launched with JISC funding, preserving over 5,000 searchable recordings including the first hour of UK commercial radio in 1973, coverage of five UK general elections and the end of apartheid.

The collection is available online for researchers, lecturers and students at the LBC / Independent Radio News (IRN) radio news audio archive which gives access to the catalogue and audio of reports filed by some of the UK’s leading journalists including Jon Snow, the late Carol Barnes and Dickie Arbiter.

Thanks to funding from JISC of just over £760,000, the Centre for Broadcasting History based at Bournemouth University has spent the last three years digitising the noteworthy radio dating from 1973 up to the mid-1990's.

Paola Marchionni, JISC digitisation programme manager said: “I'm particularly proud of what this project has achieved and the many challenges it has overcome in curating and making accessible this material. Audio recordings are still relatively little used in research, teaching and learning. The JISC funding for this archive contributes to broadening the pool of resources available to researchers and students not only in media disciplines but also relevant to the study of society, history, politics and popular culture.” The Centre for Broadcasting History based at Bournemouth University has digitised noteworthy radio dating from 1973 up to the mid-1990's

Making the 7,000 reels of tape available online has been the role of the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) which has extensive experience in the online delivery of moving image and sound.

Professor Sean Street, project director and director of BU’s Centre for Broadcasting History said: “This is the most important commercial radio archive in the UK and provides a unique audio history of the period. We are extremely grateful to JISC without whom none of this would have been possible.

“As well as turning previously inaccessible material into a web-based archive for all, this project places key material within a teaching and research environment where it can be exploited for future knowledge,” he continued.

Among the 4,000 hours of radio are a number of historic events covered by LBC/IRN including:

The first hour of UK commercial radio including the first commercial radio news bulletin
Broadcasts of the Falklands War, the miners’ strike and Northern Ireland
The live reporting of UK election results from five general elections, giving a unique sense of the political shaping of the country
News related to the whole of the Thatcher government
The whole of the 'Decision Makers' series 1974-86: weekly 30-minute programmes of political and current affairs analysis which provide a unique insight into politics and its reportage within the UK at the time
State President PW Botha’s speech at the opening of the South African parliament in which he announced that the era of apartheid was over, with political and journalistic analysis of this event

Commercial radio in Britain was launched in October 1973 when IRN and its sister organisation the LBC were granted their licences. A joint LBC / IRN archive of programmes and news items was established and this, together with its catalogue, constitutes the contents of the archive.

Jonathan Richards Programme Director of LBC 97.3 added, “It is only right that the UK’s first commercial radio station has its proud history preserved in this fashion for future generations to learn from. The current staff of broadcasters and producers know they are building on the excellence of the past, and remain proud of the LBC’s rich heritage. I wish to pay tribute to Professor Sean Street and his team at Bournemouth University for this invaluable resource.”

The archive was unveiled by internationally-acclaimed broadcaster, radio historian and academic, Professor Seàn Street, at the Radio Centre in London.

He said: “This was at a time before the Broadcasting Act of 1990 which brought significant change to the structure of British broadcasting. The change in commercial radio since this period is extraordinary. It is impossible for the young student of radio, born since this time, to imagine that such independently funded radio could have existed. As a result, it is vitally important that these programmes be preserved, as part of the evolving history of post-war British broadcasting.

“This archive forms an important part of the history of radio broadcasting since it provides an alternative source of radio journalism and news and current affairs broadcasts to the BBC’s own collection,” he concluded.

Find out more about the project

Visit the archive

Culture change in Asia tracked through new online archive

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:53:31 GMT

Rare images showing rituals, festivals and everyday life for isolated tribes in the Himalayas are to be preserved online by JISC and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) for the benefit of researchers, teachers and students.

Highlights among the 10,000 images include rich textiles and jewellery of the Nagas and the shaman-led rituals and acrobatics of the Apatani tribe.

These extraordinary moments were photographed by a professor of anthropology at SOAS, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995), who studied tribal cultures in South Asia and the Himalayas from the 1930’s to the 1980’s.

His photographic collection consists of more than 20,000 images of which approximately half, from India and Nepal, are now online for people to browse, download and use non-commercially free of charge.

Digitisation programme officer at JISC, Ben Showers, says: “Life has now changed forever for the tribes that Fürer-Haimendorf photographed, but JISC is safeguarding these collective memories held in the images of the rituals, events and cultural interactions. This open archive will allow researchers and students working far into the future to have online access to some of these hugely significant moments.”

Visitors to the archive will find a host of resources to guide them through the collection, including biographies, maps, background on the different tribes, and an interview with the photographer, as well as a comprehensive search facility.

The online archive is the first digitisation project of SOAS's new Centre for Digital Africa, Asia and the Middle East, created in part to make the invaluable archives of the school more widely available. Digitisation is essential for the preservation of fragile material and to give researchers online access to rare or difficult-to-access books, manuscripts, photographs, sound and film recordings.

Stuart Blackburn, the SOAS Centre’s academic coordinator, says: “At a time when tribal cultures are undergoing rapid change, including religious conversion and language loss, these photographs of Fürer-Haimendorf are a valuable resource for the study of change and continuity. From my experience in the area, I know that the tribal peoples themselves, many of whom have computers, will find these images endlessly fascinating.”

After 12 months of archiving, an open day celebrating the launch will take place at SOAS on Friday 30 October.

Launch event

The launch event for the online archive will include lectures, discussions and an evening reception at which the online collection will be officially opened.

It will be held from 10 am to 6.30 pm on 30 October at SOAS's Brunei Gallery Thornhaugh St., London WC1H 0XG.

Visit the archive

million+ launches research into the impact of funding

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:51:45 GMT

A report published today (29 October 2009) by the university think-tank million+ confirms the value of funding projects to advance the innovative application of digital technologies in UK universities.

The application of technology to enhance learning and wider university activities has been a source of interest not only to universities, their staff and the funding councils but also to Ministers and government departments. Technological innovation in universities is supported by project funding from JISC of the UK’s higher education funding councils.

The million+ report ‘From inputs to impact: a study of the impact of JISC funding on universities‘ examines the outcomes of 113 JISC-funded projects in 28 universities over a six year period. The report concludes that this funding had a far ranging impact which was often not limited to the university which had won the JISC award. Many projects benefitted a wide range of learners, providers, partner organisations and the wider community. The million+ research, undertaken by Leeds Metropolitan University in partnership with Middlesex and Bedfordshire Universities, also sought to identify barriers in both the bidding process and in those universities which had not benefitted from a JISC award in the six year period.

Pam Tatlow Chief Executive of million+ said, "The UK’s global position as a world leader in higher education will only be maintained by the innovative use and application of digital technologies to learning, teaching, research and operational activities. This research shows that even very modest funding awards of £30,000 can have a profound impact with universities and individuals supported to undertake exploratory projects in a low risk environment.

"Very often the impact of project funding is much broader than originally envisaged and results in changes to university policy as well as improvements in technology enhanced learning. 69% of projects met or exceeded their objectives and 44 % of projects provided additional benefits that had not been envisaged at the outset."

million+ is a leading university think-tank, working to solve the complex problems in higher education

Pam continues, "Far-reaching improvements in teaching and learning resources were achieved but networking and collaboration were also key components of many projects. Sustainable partnerships were created which went far beyond the academic community of the university. Projects included support for work-based learning, problem-solving second life learning environments for paramedics and health and social care mangers, a digital archive of the East End’s contribution to theatre (now a national resource), the creation of quality-assured open level HE content, improving student assessment using audio feedback, projects with FE to develop technological habits and a more learner driven approach to education, the application of e-learning to support personalised learning within a regional life-long learning network and enhancing the use of remote digital libraries.
"Universities which were the most successful in bidding for JISC funds had invested in the expertise to draft thorough and detailed bids and built time for bid-writing into staff workloads. It is also clear that JISC can do more to support the bidding process by offering better feedback and fostering links between successful bidders and those universities which have not yet benefitted from JISC funding."

Read the full report which includes case studies from the Universities of Coventry, Staffordshire, East London, Derby, Leeds Metropolitan, Bolton, Greenwich and Glasgow Caledonian.

Read the full report.

Need guidance on applying for grants or invitations to tender? Read JISC's advice

JISC competition finds stars in library user data

n.yeeles@jisc.ac.uk (nicolayeeles) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:52:51 GMT

Figures showing everyday use of a university library are the unlikely stars of a JISC-funded competition showcasing innovative approaches to presenting library data.

The winning entrant, an undergraduate computer scientist, created an imaginative ‘book galaxy’ showing books as stars in the galaxy of library resources accessed by University of Huddersfield students and staff - scroll down this page to see it.

Alex Parker’s space-age entry presents library data in three different ‘galaxy’ views where library books are represented as moving stars that change speed and location according to how popular they are within a given course. They also join together in constellations to show books on connected topic, while orbited by meteors representing the courses of the students using those books.I had an idea that if you linked similar books together in a 'web' and did that for every book in the library interesting patterns would emerge.

JISC’s MOSAIC (‘making our shared activity count’) project is investigating the possibilities for data showing user activity, such as book circulation, in UK university libraries.

Balviar Notay, JISC programme manager said: "JISC has funded this innovative research to really probe how we analyse and exploit library data. It's exciting to see the potential of this data and how it could provide library users with a new personalized way of browsing the shelves.”

Starry-eyed Alex, a University of Southampton student, admits that he was “amazed” to hear the news of his winning entry. He explains: “The main reason I entered this competition is that I think that doing a keyword search and presenting lists of books to users is not always the best way to find what you want in a library, especially if you're not sure what you're looking for. I had an idea that if you linked similar books together in a 'web' and did that for every book in the library interesting patterns would emerge.

“I hope to see the ideas presented in my application applied to library search systems as an alternative to keyword searches, but not as a replacement,” he concluded.

Other entries include an application which suggests a subject course based on the books you’ve enjoyed reading, a facility for sharing your reading list with others, and way of finding out which books students on a given course have taken out, as well as how much they’ve saved by using the library rather than buying them.

The judges were looking for applications that demonstrated ease of use, usefulness, potential and coolness. Judge Ken Chad commented: “I had an enjoyable couple of hours with these applications; it warmed my heart to see them.” He explained that all of the entries exceeded expectations in terms in terms of quality and imagination.

Book galaxy

Move your mouse around the galaxy to see the titles. Blue dots are books, yellow dots are courses. If nothing is appearing, you might not have Java installed. Download Java

JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT

To sign up for the final MOSAIC event at the University of Wolverhampton on Wednesday 18 November 2009, which will feature all of the competition applications, email david.kay@sero.co.uk Full details

Explore the book galaxy

Find out about the competition and the other entries

Find out more information about the MOSAIC project

Podcast: Professor David Baker discusses JISC and the new Chairs’ committee

h.peebles@jisc.ac.uk (hectorpeebles) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:11:54 GMT

In this podcast Professor David Baker, Deputy Chair of JISC and Chair of JISC's Chairs' Committee, talks with Nicola Yeeles about JISC and his aspirations for the Chairs' Committee's work.

Listen to the podcast (Duration 11:17)
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