Workshops

Abstracts and biographies of workshops leaders are below the table.

Please use the links below to find out which sessions you have been allocated.  It was not possible to give everyone all their first choices owing to restrictions on capacity for some sessions.

• Workshop session 1
• Workshop session 2
• Workshop session 3
• Workshop session 4

                         

  

Workshop 1
Tues 1 July
1620-1720

Workshop 2
Weds 2 July
1000-1100

Workshop 3
Weds 2 July
1415-1515

Workshop 4
Thurs 3 July
1000-1100

SDI’s ITSM simulation game
Bruce St Leger, Service Desk Institute

Palmer 105

Blended & innovative approaches to communicating with users
Lynne Gornall & Martin Lynch, University of Glamorgan 
Handout 1
Handout 2

Palmer 102

Models of collaboration between learning technology support staff and academics
Richard Walker, University of York
Helen Fletcher, Buckinghamshire New University
Handout 1 
Handout 2 
Handout 3 

Palmer 104

SDG Award winner:
Connecting People & Projects at the University of Nottingham
Sharon Caine, University of Nottingham
Handouts 

Palmer 104

The Microsoft Collaborative Campus
Matthew Fox, Microsoft
Handouts   

Palmer 101

What’s behind the name?
Simon Tindall, Desire2Learn
Handouts 

Palmer 104

Advisory Services strand

Techno-bedouins: the nomadic learners have arrived at your helpdesk.

Will Stewart, University of Bradford

We live, work and play in an increasingly connected world. All those gadgets (mobile phones, laptops, PDAs) that we have been carrying around for years, and which tantalised us with promises of quick and easy access to an online world (but only if you had a techy friend who knew the 40 steps needed to achieve this) are now finally delivering the goods. Thanks to the arrival of faster and reliable cellular networks, getting connected through our mobile devices is now straightforward. Through an ever increasing number of wi-fi hotspots, connectivity from anywhere is finally happening.

The nomadic learner is defined not by the gadgets and devices that they carry, but by what they leave behind. Just as the nomadic Bedouins don’t carry water because they know that they will be able to get some at the next oasis, nomads learners don’t carry documents because they know that they can access them online when they get to there destination.

This session will examine how these techno-bedouins will arrive at your helpdesk, and what they will expect when they do.

Will is an e-Learning Adviser at the University of Bradford, working across the University to support staff in the use of technology to enhance learning and teaching. He is particularly interested in the use of the web based tools, mobile technology and 3-D virtual worlds to improve the learning experience of students and to bring about educational change. Will is also Project Manager for the Audio Supported Enhanced Learning Project (ASEL), a JISC-funded project looking at the use of audio to support learning.

SDI’s ITSM simulation game

Bruce St Leger, Service Desk Institute

A great team building exercise, the simulation can be a valuable addition (or even alternative) to full ITIL training. Based on a fictional IT organisation and its service desk, this is a memorable and fun way to quickly develop and understanding of the issues and benefits associated with IT service management. For everyone looking to banish the misconception that the service desk is a drain on cost and gain an understanding of service desk performance in the context of an organisation’s financial successes and failures.

Bruce St Leger is an approved Service Desk Institute consultant with a wealth of experience in the ITSM industry. Bruce has programme managed all aspects of transition management for large managed service provider organisations and has managed teams of service management consultants responsible for transitioning service into the live environment.  Bruce’s years of best practice knowledge and practical hands-on experience will bring added value to your ITSM simulation game experience.

How to recognise and beat staleness in helpdesk staff

John Fahey, STI Ltd

Working on a helpdesk or service desk can be a demanding and stressful job. People tend to contact the helpdesk when they are in trouble or want something. Helpdesk staff spend a great deal of their time, working under pressure, trying to turn negatives into positives. It is no wonder that this can become draining and eventually have a negative impact on attitude.

Helpdesk managers often say that the most difficult staff member they have to deal is someone that has gone stale. Someone that has gone stale is not necessarily a bad person or deliberately setting out to perform below par - they have just gone a bit stale. In some jobs this may not matter, but it does in front line support provision.

The presentation will look at:

• What are the symptoms of staleness?
• What are the causes of staleness?
• What can individuals do to combat staleness?
• What can management do to combat staleness?

The material used is taken from the STI Helpdesk Professional Two course and attendees will receive a copy of the presentation. There will also be a chance to complete a questionnaire that should suggest attendees’ current levels of staleness!

John Fahey has been Principal Consultant with STI since 1989. In that time he has developed the STI Professional Helpdesk Programme and certification schemes. He has also regularly presented training courses on behalf of the Help Desk Institute.

John has developed and presented helpdesk training to many major organisations such as British Airways, British Telecom, Ericsson, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, HJ Heinz, Pfizer, Shell International, Siemens and the United Nations. STI have about 25-20 universities and other academic institutions that regularly use public and on site courses.

He is also an accomplished consultant and specialises in reviewing helpdesk performance and defining and implementing enhancement project plans. Major clients have included DTI, EON, NHS Supplies, Pfizer, Sanofi Synthelabo, West Midlands Police and Welsh Water.

John is a Fellow of the Institute of I T Training. He has worked in the IT area for over 25 years in both the public and private sectors. He is sought after as a seminar and conference speaker and has a reputation for being both informative and entertaining.

Is a helpdesk shared a problem halved?

John Fairhall, University of Bradford

This workshop will investigate the multiplicity of issues to do with supporting mobile devices being used by students spread across 5 different Universities.

Since October 2007, some 900 mobile devices have been distributed to students as part of the Assessment of Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). Over this period the University of Bradford has been running the ALPS help desk as well as hosting the infrastructure to support both the students and devices. The workshop will highlight both the technology required to support a large platform of mobile devices and the different issues behind running a shared helpdesk service.

John graduated from Leeds University with a BSc (Hons) in Information Systems in 2001. He immediately started work in the School of Health Studies at the University of Bradford, providing a wide range of IT Support. Over his time spent working there, John developed a specialism in mobile technology. In October 2005 John became involved in the pilot study for the ALPS CETL, later becoming a member of the ALPS IT group.

In March 2006 he became the University’s Mobile Technology Advisor acting as project manager for mobile-related projects in the University’s E-Strategy, as well as developing, documenting and supporting the mobile systems.

In June 2007 John made a successful proposal to host the ALPS IT solution and provide the Help Desk service.

Communications strand

Customer consultation - innovative stakeholder management

Rhion H Jones, The Consultation Institute

Rhion Jones is Programme Director of The Consultation Institute and is an acknowledged authority on customer service, citizen participation and e-government. He is the author of CRM in the Public Sector, and over 30 other thought leadership White Papers and Briefings. In his role with the Institute, Rhion has pioneered a comprehensive portfolio of training courses for those involved in public and stakeholder consultations, so that the Institute can now offer its Certificate of Professional Development.

Blended & innovative approaches to communicating with users

Lynne Gornall & Martin Lynch, University of Glamorgan

This session will highlight the University of Wolverhampton's winning case study from the Communicating With Users 'Good Practice' guide published by UCISA earlier this year, and also show two new case studies that develop the theme. These will focus on more interactive forms of communication, such as the GlamStart simulation from the University of Glamorgan, presented by Martin Lynch. GlamStart allows new students to take control of a virtual student and guide them through their first ten days of student life, providing them with useful information on how to get the most from their first year.

Lynne Gornall is leader of the Knowledge Networks team within the Enterprise and Third Mission Group of the University of Glamorgan. Originally involved in teaching HE Communication Studies, she has worked within IT Services and Development for ten years, helping to increase user engagement and innovative applications of ICT. One of these, GTi, the University's hotdesking graduate business service, has won substantial external funding as well as recognition for its contribution to core University objectives. Lynne has been an active member of TLIG and the Communication Working Group since 2000.

Martin Lynch is the Team Leader of the Multimedia Services, eSupport Team, at the University of Glamorgan. Martin originally studied for a BA in Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, but he has been developing interactive multimedia learning material for the last 11 years and has specialised in creating educational simulations. Martin has presented two jointly authored research papers at the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA) August 2006 St Petersburg.

Liaison and relationship management - finding out what our users want and need

Marina Whitmore, Cardiff University

Chris Adie, University of Edinburgh

Chris Wright, University of Leeds

Finding out what users want is a problem faced by us all. Some institutions approach this problem by employing dedicated staff to liaise closely with users, however establishing the difference between what users want and what they actually need (and then agreeing whether it can be delivered or not) is actually more a process of relationship management. This workshop looks at the ways that liaison/relationship management is being approached in three Universities (Cardiff, Edinburgh and Leeds) and then considers key related issues (which will be explored in more depth in the later discussion session) on topics such as:

• what are the key factors to bear in mind when looking to adopt a liaison policy?
• how we can measure the value of our liaison activities?
• how do we balance the needs of a part-time liaison role with the demands of a second role?
• how do we facilitate strategic, as opposed to operational, liaison?
• how can relationship management avoid the duplication of services?

Chris Adie is currently Academic Liaison Director for the College of Science and Engineering and the Information Services group in the University of Edinburgh. He provides a key strategic link between the College and Information Services, and is tasked with adding value to their relationship. Recently, he led the development of Edinburgh University’s Guidelines for the Use of External Web 2.0 Services which has had significant influence on thinking in the academic services community about the risks involved in this area.

Marina Whitmore has worked for Cardiff University, in various customer oriented roles, since 1998, following five years of teaching IT in further education. Her current job title is Principal Consultant and User Enablement Manager, the primary focus of this role being to ensure that customers/users get the full value out of their investment in the University's central ICT provision. The aim is to work in partnership with this user base and to focus on their strategic needs, as well as assisting where necessary with operational issues and the needs of distributed IT support staff.

Chris Wright is Communications and Customer Relations Manager at the University of Leeds' Information Systems Services . She recently conducted a review of the Relationship Management role in order to meet changing expectations in a University that underwent a reorganisation a few years ago. In particular, she investigated and put forward practical proposals to ensure customer input and feedback are effectively influencing ISS services and plans. The role is under continuous review to keep in step with evolving Faculty organisations and IT delivery structures.

no session

Learning & Teaching strand

In this session we will encourage discussion on the key findings from the 2008 UCISA Survey on technology enhanced learning in UK higher education. Through reference to previous surveys, we will provide some insights into how the UK HE sector is evolving, particularly in relation to the adoption and support of commercial and open source e-learning tools, and the organisational, policy and support challenges between institutional and student managed tools. A draft version of the Report will be available prior to the Conference. Results from the earlier UCISA surveys can be accessed at http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/tlig/surveys.aspx

Martin Jenkins has been a member of the UCISA Learning and Teaching Working Group since 1996. He is Academic Manager for the Centre for Active Learning (CeAL) at the University of Gloucestershire, with responsibility for strategic management, educational development, project management and evaluation of the CeAL project. Prior to this post Martin was Head of Learning Technology Support at the University of Gloucestershire. Martin was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2004 and appointed as a Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University, UK in January 2007. He has presented at conferences internationally and published in the areas of e-learning, specifically around the management and implementation of new technologies.

Tom Browne is a member of the UCISA-TLIG Learning and Teaching Working Group. He has been both an academic and in professional support, having been a lecturer in Geographical Information Systems, and IT User Support and Educational Technologies Manager. He is now the Assistant Registrar for Educational Policy at Exeter. He has served on the JISC Learning and Teaching Committee and is a member of the JISC Learning and Teaching Practice Advisory Group. He has served as an HEA Accreditor and is an NTFS reviewer. He has published widely on organisational and practitioner technology related learning and teaching issues.

Richard Walker is Deputy Chair of the UCISA-TLIG Learning and Teaching Working Group. Richard moved to York in 2003 and is the VLE Project Leader and e-Learning Development Team Manager at the University. Previously, he held research and teaching posts at Nyenrode Business University and at the Euro-Arab Management School in Granada, Spain.

Helen Fletcher, Buckinghamshire New University

Richard Walker, University of York

In this session we will focus on the relationship between support staff and academics in fostering the use of learning technology to support instructional activities. Support priorities have moved on from simply encouraging academic staff to get to grips with web technology, to thinking about ways in which learning technology may be used to transform the learning experience for students. We will look at a series of models for engaging staff in the use of technology to promote student centred activity and transformative pedagogy. We will also explore training and support provision and how they relate to different institutional contexts.

Helen Fletcher is a member of the UCISA-TLIG Learning and Teaching Working Group and has worked with TLIG for about seven years. Helen is currently Director of Learning and Information Services at Buckinghamshire New University, but spent the 1990s in the Faculty of Technology teaching systems analysis. She is an evangelist for e-learning as she knows how much it would have benefited her two evenings a week part-time students.

Richard Walker is Deputy Chair of the UCISA-TLIG Learning and Teaching Working Group. Richard moved to York in 2003 and is the VLE Project Leader and e-Learning Development Team Manager at the University. Previously, he held research and teaching posts at Nyenrode Business University and at the Euro-Arab Management School in Granada, Spain.

Lecture capture: prospects and possibilities

Steve Ryan, LSE

Interest in lecture capture has increased considerably over the last few years. Some universities are now capturing many hundreds of hours of lectures and are investing considerable sums in equipment and support.

The London School of Economic (LSE) has been experimenting with lecture capture for a while and is now scaling up and developing plans for site wide lecture capture systems.

This session will explore the range of options from podcasting to full lecture capture and will describe how lecture capture has moved from an innovative experiment to a mainstream service based on the Echo 360 system. The session will include examples and demonstrations, consider student and staff perceptions of the service and discuss cost and support issues.

Steve Ryan is Director of the Centre for Educational Technology at the LSE where he leads a team of learning technologists supporting e-learning developments across the School. He is also vice-chair of ALT. Steve has worked widely in education and has led or contributed to a number of national and international projects in the field of learning technology. He is currently co-director of DART, a major project jointly funded by JISC and the NSF. Steve has also undertaken consultancies in the health sector, the community and criminal justice sector, on behalf of the Home Office and for major corporations on a range of topics relating to online and distance learning. His research interests currently focus around the impact of ICT on campus based teaching and issues relating to reuse, repurposing, and learning design.

Staff Development strand

SDG Award winner:
Connecting People & Projects at the University of Nottingham

Sharon Caine, 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 management framework and 1-day training course designed specifically for IS requirements has provided over 200 staff with core skills, tools and techniques in project management.  This session describes the background, initiation, development and establishment of a programme management framework within IS and relatedtraining course in project management.

Sharon Caine has worked at the University of Nottingham since 1991 in a variety of management roles in academic Schools and Information Services (IS). In 1995, Sharon was appointed Programme Manager to set up and establish a dedicated Programme Office within Information Services, working with colleagues across 3 IS divisions to determine necessary roles, procedures, training and documentation to support a comprehensive programme management framework. In the 3 years since the programme framework was introduced, the Programme Office has been engaged in the development and training of over 200 IS staff and has seen the successful delivery of 100+ large-scale strategic projects. Sharon's role is currently concerned with the expansion of the Programme Office roles and functions and extending good practice and training opportunities within IS and to other University Central Support Services.

Leadership skills for the new HE agenda

David Rundell, Heriot-Watt University

Sarah Chaloner, University of Wolverhampton

As members of the first cohort of the successful "Future Leaders" Course run by the Leadership Foundation, Sarah Chaloner and David Rundell will lead a workshop on how leadership is an important feature of a changing environment. Sarah and David will draw on tools and techniques from the course and share their experiences on how these have worked for them in practice. This will be followed by a discussion workshop on specific aspects of the course to see how they may be useful in your own context.

no session

Do my skills add up - piloting a CPD toolkit for IT staff

Dave Hartland, Netskills

The need for IT staff to continually up date their skills is greater than ever. However, both staff and IT services often find it difficult to evaluate their skills current skills, identify gaps and map staff needs to development programmes. Netskills is developing a pilot toolkit to help staff and IT services with these issues. This workshop will provide attendees with a change to explore the toolkit and provide input to its development. 

Dave Hartland is the Director of Netskills and helped establish the service in 1995. He has experience in every aspect of Netskills' work including developing web and internet related training materials and running training courses, as well as management responsibility for the Netskills team.

He has regularly provided presentations at national conferences including UCISA User Support Conference, UCISA Management Conference, JANET User Support Workshop, and the Institutional Web Managers Workshop.

Prior to University Dave worked for the Sports Council in London providing a wide range of sports courses and coaching programmes in deprived London boroughs. He maintains his sporting interests playing football, running, supporting Newcastle Falcons rugby club and climbing mountains in the Highlands.

User Skills strand

no session

Speed training - ideas for innovative delivery

Nici Cooper, University of Wolverhampton

Julie Adams, Staffordshire University

Susanne Hodges, University of York

Donna Haugh, University College London

Tim Hunnybun, University of Leeds

Amber Miro, London School of Economics

Miles Seecharan, Sheffield Hallam University

Modelled after the speed dating format, delegates will circulate round tables of presenters, who each have just 3 minutes to get across one good idea they have used successfully for developing the skills of end users in their organisation. As they move round the room, delegates will fill out a card, rating each idea according to whether it’s something they fancy and would like to pursue, not their type, or a definite turn off. After that, delegates will have the opportunity to share their own good idea with the rest of the group (in 3 minutes, of course!), and at the end of the session, we will reveal the results of the voting.

Nici’s role covers a portfolio that includes the provision of ICT training to University staff. She has been involved in the design and delivery of training since the mid 80’s starting with Wordstar, progressing through Word 2.0 for Windows 3.1 to the heady heights of Office 2007, IP telephony and teaching technology with all sorts in between.

Julie works within the Learning Support Team at Staffordshire University alongside IT, helpdesk and library colleagues. She has a wide ranging role which includes IT skills training for University staff and the provision of online Learning Support materials for staff and students. She is currently interested in how new technologies can be used to support the diverse needs of our users.

Susanne Hodges has been IT Training Manager at the University of York since 2001 and is responsible for managing and developing the delivery of IT training to staff and students. She is an avid reader and likes cycling, theatre, music and film.

Donna has been working at UCL for the past 13 years in a variety of support and training roles. These include first and second line support, with a move to faculty based support, where she now manages the faculty based team. She is currently investigating how best to improve electronic communications and the delivery of training and support using web 2.0 technologies.

Tim’s department delivers of a wide range of courses to staff and Research Postgraduates as well as IT inductions for undergraduates. Involved in IT Training since 2001, Tim’s recent focus has been in the area of training delivery skills and achieving departmental accreditation with the Institute of IT Training.

How Microsoft prepared its workforce for Vista and Office 2007

Asif Jinnah, Microsoft

Asif Jinnah is a member of the EMEA leadership team and a central point of contact between business units and IT divisions within Microsoft. Asif works closely with the UK executive leadership team and Solutions Delivery Director to transform IT around the business on a day to day basis. He is currently the voice of Microsoft in its How Microsoft does IT executive level showcase presentation.

Suppliers strand

Virtual Communication, Real Income!

Ross McLarnon, Youth Media

At a time when your students are demanding access to an increasing number of online resources, how can computer mediated communication help to deliver integrated, up to date information directly to desktops?

This session will provide an insight into one such option. YouthWire is an online, desktop based tool that is a no-cost, income generating, integrated digital communication solution.

Youthwire can assist in service delivery, highlight important content and promote/link to essential resources without any extra costs, helping to meet the changing needs of educators and learners.

The session will demonstrate how YouthWire can help improve your interaction with users, disseminate information and bring your services to the fore of every PC user session at a time of increased power browsing and data skimming. At the same time, income is generated for your department by displaying appropriate and relevant opportunities, offers and services.

If you want to learn more about this innovative and free interface and its capability to link students and staff in a virtual community via PC desktops, come to this session by Youth Media. As well as Q&A throughout, there will be a group discussion on bespoke future development to meet your needs.

Ross is the IT Manager for Youth Media UK Ltd and manages a team that delivers the company’s digital services to over 140 educational institutions across the UK. He is responsible for the company’s IT projects and oversees the development of Youth Media’s desktop application.

Having joined the company in 2006 as Network Manager, Ross has worked closely with IT Managers and Desktop Infrastructure personnel in HE, FE and secondary education for over two years. He is also integral to developing partnerships with new institutions.

For the 6 years prior to joining Youth Media, Ross worked as a Network Administrator for the UK’s leading independent coffee roaster, providing network and desktop support to all office and field based users.

Ross graduated from the University of Paisley in 2000 with a BSc in Computing Technology and is also qualified in PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner.

P.S. He scored a breezer of a goal at 5-aside on Monday night, which onlookers said was reminiscent of the Zinedine Zidane goal in the Champions League Final of 2002.

The Microsoft Collaborative Campus

Matthew Fox, Microsoft

With a theme of the "Collaborative Campus", Microsoft describe how a mix of software and online services can be used to develop your IT services to meet the rising expectations of students, whilst helping to manage your delivery costs.

As part of this service, Live @ Edu provides a range of free online services designed for a university. Services include hosted email, online SkyDrive storage, collaboration services through Office Live Workspaces, and a range of other communications services.

The outcome is a reduced cost of service delivery to students and faculty, with more flexibility of student & staff email, storage and collaboration technologies. For example, by moving to a hosted email service, you can expand student mailbox storage whilst reducing your own running costs. And by providing online file storage and collaboration for students, you can reduce student reliance on USB memory sticks - enhancing security, improving resilience, and reducing cost.

Matthew has been a member of the Microsoft UK education team for the past 7 years and has worked in a variety of partner and customer roles on large infrastructure projects that demonstrate the potential that technology has for impacting and enhancing teaching and learning. In his current role he is responsible for the hosted services that Microsoft offers to the education sector providing secure online storage, collaborative functionality and email - predominantly to students and as a service that institutions can take advantage of to gain competitive advantage.

Multiple choices: multiple challenges - current and emerging practice for voting systems in higher education

Matthew Pearson and Nick Deakin, Steljes

This workshop will explore current and emerging practice in the application of electronic response/voting systems within higher education. Drawing on case study materials from a number of universities who have deployed TurningPoint^®, we will examine how pedagogy in higher education can be adapted to ensure maximum benefit from these systems. A key theme will be how practitioners can use response systems to support and enhance higher order thinking skills within students. Used to their full potential, response systems offer a route to a more dialogic form of teaching, based on real time feedback from students, a use which transcends the confines of the multiple choice question. Universities also face the challenge of managing the logistics of wide scale adoption of voting systems and the workshop will also contain practical insights to make this process successful.

Matthew Pearson is an educational consultant with Steljes, the exclusive representative of TurningPoint in the UK. Previously, he was a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University and conducted research into transformative pedagogies and new technologies for teaching and learning.

Neil Deakin is a product pioneer at Steljes and has been supporting universities in the adoption of TurningPoint for two years. He has extensive knowledge of the rapidly evolving market for response systems in higher education and the corporate sector.

What’s behind the name?

Simon Tindall, Desire2Learn

You may have heard of Desire2Learn, but likely know little about the company and its solutions. Building on our exponential growth in the North American market over the last 2-3 years, we are now going global.

Desire2Learn are now established in the UK market, and are bringing new approaches and new ideas in providing innovative eLearning solutions to the further and higher education sectors. This session will introduce the Company behind the name, showcase our product suite, including our new ePortfolio solution and highlight why UK customers are choosing to build their learning businesses on our platforms.

Simon Tindall, Regional Director, EMEA is responsible for establishing and growing Desire2Learn’s business in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joined Desire2Learn in early 2008. Simon has over 20 years experience within the IT sector, most recently with Sun Microsystems, with a number of international and worldwide roles in sales, business development and marketing. For the last 6 years, Simon has focused on the education and research sector, and has been involved with such innovative projects as e-University, and Buildng Schools for the Future in the UK, where he is currently based.