Poster sessions
The posters will be displayed along the wall just inside the Exhibition Hall.
There will be the opportunity to speak to the presenters during the poster session and drinks reception on Wednesday evening between 1800 - 1930.
An innovative new virtual desktop infrastructure environment using thin clients
Royal Holloway, University of London
TLC@bedford is an innovative social learning space which provides books, digital resources, IT facilities and group study areas in a fresh, contemporary environment. It is designed to encourage group work and collaborative learning.
The design brief for IT Facilities was that they must offer: efficient power consumption, low heat dissipation, small footprint on the desk, modern look and feel, good value for money. RHUL achieved this by implementing a cutting edge Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment using VMARE VIEW and WYSE thin clients to provide for 40 seats whilst making full use of the existing PC lab software build and avoiding the need for an extensive software rebuild.
LSBU Secure Web File Access and The TQEF Media Centre Project
London South Bank University
LSBU Secure Web File Access
This initiative was a collaboration between the ICT Department and our Staff Development Unit to facilitate off site file access to shared drives for staff and students. The challenge was to deliver a simple solution that could be utilised by all staff and students, whether IT literate or not. The simplicity of the solution means that no software need be loaded onto user PCs and all security authentication is carried out centrally using the users' standard account and password details. Additionally a 5 minute online briefing was created which takes staff through setting up such offline data access.
The TQEF Media Centre Project
The TQEF Media Centre Project, based in the ICT Department, is a part of the teaching and learning strategy at LSBU. It focuses on enabling Media Services staff to gain new knowledge and skills using work-based learning in order to provide innovative digital technology services and resources.
Integrating thin clients and smart cards to provide integrated E-assessment
University of Bradford
One challenge faced by Higher Education institutions (HEIs) is how large undergraduate modules with several hundred students can be assessed in a valid, efficient, secure and scalable way. Traditional paper-based examinations can be labour-intensive, slow and very time-consuming, and e-assessment has been proposed as one possible solution. At the University of Bradford the JISC-funded Institutional Exemplar project 2007-9, “Integrating thin client systems and smart card technology to provide integrated, flexible, accessible and secure E-assessment” (ITS4SEA), has used cutting-edge thin client technology to create a new 100-seater e-assessment cluster. The project has also looked into streamlining and automating administrative procedures, integrating the student record, exam scheduling and e-assessment systems. This builds on work carried out during the university’s 2007-8 HEFCE-funded Pathfinder project “Embedding support processes for e-assessment”.
This project has addressed several key issues that affect all HEIs:
- the need for secure and reliable systems to deliver e-assessments to large classes in a manageable and sustainable environment
- the need for flexible systems which can deliver a wide range of assessment types; full integration of e-assessment processes with the student record system
- streamlining of examinations management by integrating exam scheduling software with student record systems
- the need for effective strategies to manage and improve the learning and assessment process
- systems to provide IT facilities which are up to date, easily managed and responsive to academic staff needs for effective learning, teaching and assessment
- the development of sustainable and environmentally responsible approaches to our development in learning, teaching and assessment, particularly in the deployment of educational technologies
“What are they and do I even have any?": making skills visible with SkillClouds
University of Sussex
One of the aims of Higher Education is to improve graduates’ employment prospects. The ability to identify and successfully apply for employment is increasingly important for students who are facing debts when they graduate in an employment market that is shrinking in the current recession.
In order to take up employment opportunities, graduates need to be able to articulate how their degree and extra-curricula activities have enabled them to develop key general skills such as “team work”, and “communication”.
However, in many universities, faculty and students are often focused on the subject of study, with vocational outcomes being much more difficult to identify or express. Information on skills is often quite bland and can lack any personalisation that helps students to see how it might be relevant for them.
Sussex University wanted to improve the visibility and provision of skills information for students, and so we set up a project, SkillClouds, which received funding from JISC.
We worked closely with students and staff using a variety of user centred design techniques. This helped us identify a ‘User journey’ which mapped out the stages many students pass through in learning to recognise, articulate and apply their skills. This journey informed the structure of the SkillClouds tool that displays a tag cloud of the skills a student has encountered, the modules on which the skills may have been developed and tips on how to demonstrate these skills in a CV or job application.
The tool was embedded into our student portal pages and evaluated using representative groups of students and their academic advisors. Initial feedback was very positive. Consequently, the University has decided to use SkillClouds to help focus academic advisor sessions and we are working with departments to introduce this.
To find out more about SkillClouds including a demo site, see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/skillclouds
The UK Research Data Service (UKRDS)
In 2008 HEFCE funded the UK Research Data Service feasibility study under its Shared Services programme, to show how the UK can turn the vision of a coherent data infrastructure into reality by building on existing investment and good practice.
The study was also sponsored by JISC, RUGIT and RLUK and supported by UCISA and SCONUL. Using a combination of comprehensive desk research and the willing participation of researchers, computing directors and librarians in four case study universities (Bristol, Leeds, Leicester and Oxford), the study’s consultants, Serco, built up a substantial evidence base from which to estimate costs and propose a way forward. The study was completed at the end of 2008 and has shown that investment in a national approach to the management and exploitation of our research data will add significantly to the value of the UK research effort and strengthen the research base in a cost-effective way.
The first step is a two-year Pathfinder phase which will establish the UKRDS with a limited number of researchers and service providers. Depending on the availability of funding the service can then be built up over time to fill more gaps and include more participants UK-wide. The role of computing services and libraries in support of the UKRDS will be crucial, and during the Pathfinder phase a range of tools and guidance and skills training will be established to support universities in this endeavour.
The Great War Archive
University of Oxford
The Great War Archive (http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa) was a project led by the University of Oxford's Computing Services and English Faculty, funded as part of JISC's Digitisation Programme (Phase 2). It set out to demonstrate a new approach to digitisation and cataloguing by directly involving the public and encouraging them to submit personally held items related to Britain's role in World War One. As well as collecting over 6,000 items in three months, the project has demonstrated how such an approach can quickly assemble a range of key research material, often previously unseen, for a fraction of the cost of normal digitisation initiatives. It also shows how the public can be brought into a research project, and how such a collection can be exposed in new Web 2.0 technologies for use in teaching and learning. The project was Highly Commended in the THES Awards (2008), and the UCISA IT Awards (2009).'
This project was one two ‘Highly Commended’ entries to the UCISA Awards for Excellence 2008. See http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/members/awards/excellence/2008.aspx
The QMU thin client project
Queen Margaret University
The QMU thin-client project was initiated in November 2004 following advice from the main architects that implementing such a technology would allow them the flexibility of designing a campus that was, wherever possible, naturally ventilated. The project deliverables were set at replacing all staff and student PC workstations with a thin-client device prior to the main campus move to a new site in summer 2007 - Project Re:Locate.
This project was one two ‘Highly Commended’ entries to the UCISA Awards for Excellence 2008. See http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/members/awards/excellence/2008.aspx
Connecting People & Projects at the University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
Operating within a complex and ever-changing technical environment, Information Services (IS) at the University of Nottingham, serves the needs of 40,000 library/IT users. IS is expected to ensure the University operates competitively, responding quickly to new technologies and developments in the sector. To meet these needs, IS developed a comprehensive programme management methodology and project management training course to ensure IS could successfully implement new initiatives on the University’s behalf. The development of an all-inclusive programme framework and 1 day training course designed specifically for IS requirements has provided over 240 staff with core skills, tools and techniques in project management. As a result of the IS programme management framework and project management training course the number of projects delivered successfully (i.e. to time, budget and quality standards) has improved significantly within IS – there are now approximately 35 large-scale projects completed in IS per annum. IS, the University and the user community have benefited overall from the improved delivery of well defined and well executed projects run by confident and capable project managers and teams.
"IS is enhancing the skill sets of our staff enabling them not only to succeed with the rigors and challenges of projects but that also enhancing their management capabilities in their normal operational roles"
This project worn the UCISA Staff Development Group Best Practice Award 2008. See http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/members/awards/bestpractice.aspx
Bucks Knowledge Archive
Buckinghamshire New University
Abstract: Bucks Knowledge Archive is a JISC SUE Projects funded institutional repository project underway since March 2007. We have successfully set up a pilot repository to collect all forms of research output from the University. Due to the nature of the organisation we not only have traditional forms of research output - e.g. print, pre print etc - but also 3 dimensional and graphical outputs from our Creativity and Culture
faculty. The aim of the project has been to establish a repository of these materials to raise the profile of our research and bring this research together for the first time. It is still very new and very small but will continue to grow!
For more information go to http://dspace.bucks.ac.uk/dspace
or email Elizabeth.Chamberlain@bucks.ac.uk
Solving the 'data centre problem': outsource to increase resilience and flexibility
London School of Economics and Politics
In September 2008, LSE co-located 15 cabinets of equipment to SunGard Availability Services’s “TC2” data centre facility in London’s Docklands. This was the culmination of a two-year project to “replace” the School’s main data centre and immediately gave us some significant benefits: a state-of-the-art data centre that we could never justify building ourselves on campus, much improved business continuity and disaster recovery capability, 24/7 “hands and eyes” support to help us better manage our systems, and the ability to grow flexibly and on demand in the future. The move was completed over two weekends with very little disruption to end-users. At the same time LSE outsourced its data backup to SunGard and is currently working to implement an email availability and archiving service. This poster presentation tells the story of how we chose to adopt this approach, the benefits, and some of the challenges we faced along the way.
Collaborative Technologies
University of Sheffield
Collaborative working is a fundamental part of University culture and is of importance to all staff, students and our external partners. The University Collaboration Improvement (UCI) Programme seeks to support and enhance the various ways of working together, making the best use of the technology available. This poster presents uSpace, the University of Sheffield online collaborative environment. Within this space you can ask questions and get answers using Messages, voice your thoughts using Blogs and collaborate with others in Documents. RSS feeds enable you control the content and information you receive, and Tagging content will let you and others find your content more easily. The poster highlights one of the projects using uSpace - called BlueCloud - which is an online community for students of The University of Sheffield to share and talk about ways of using Web 2.0 technologies for learning - 'Owned by Students for Students'.
Please see http://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/collaboration
or contact Patrice Panella p.panella@shef.ac.uk for more information
