Fridge cams and robot projectors

A Happy New Year to you all, and welcome back.  The first week back after the Christmas break always seems longer than 5 days, and the things we talked about before Christmas a dim and distant memory. But, we son get back into the swing of things, and this week I've been having some discussions about setting up a Digital transformation team - I dont think it wil be called that, but that's it's working name.

We've also had a Process Improvement Unit Steering Group where we had a report form a recent event to improve and streamline the production of our prospectus which has been very successful.

I'm doing a bit of work over the next few weeks to help another University review its IT systems and services, and I've spent a day there getting to know the IT staff.

Finally, I've been keeping my eye on what's been going on at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. New technologies often appear in the consumer space first, and it important we keep up to date with them. Things that have caught my eye this year include wearable gadgets, which are getting smaller, and more integrated with clothing, 3D printing, which is quickly becoming mainstream, and virtual reality.

Some of the weirder gadgets include the smart fridge cam
 
which takes a picture of the inside of your fridge everytime the door opens so you can check what's on the shelves whilst you're shopping.





And the Tipron - a cross between a robot and projector. Apparently it learns the layout of your house and can wander into your bedroom and project the weather forecast onto the wall...  Spooky!

The importance of well designed underwear, and the rest of the conference

One of the sessions at the AMHEC conference was about communicating, especially in times of change. The basic principles of be open and honest, understand and know your audience, and make your point clearly were all illustrated, and also some good examples of how not to do it. Tell your audience what's in it for them, pick the right channel and medium, have a purpose to what you're saying, understand the message and get the right sentiment across sound like common sense, but some people get it disastrously wrong.

Everyone remembers the sacking of soldiers last Christmas by email - a clear case of choosing the wrong channel. My favourite was the UBS dress policy. UBS are a big swiss bank, who decided to update some policies, and in doing so came up with a 44 page dress code which contained such classics as:

"Underwear is among the most intimate parts of our clothing."
"Your underwear must not be visible through your clothes, or stand out."
"Your figure should not suffer from the way you wear your underwear.

The code quickly went viral, and had to be withdrawn and rewritten - a clear case of not understanding your audience!

Lots of good advice, including the importance of motivating staff and providing good leadership. Share everything, even what you don't know, stay connected and visible, and think of yourself as a marketeer in times of change.

Another session was on next generation learning environments, and focused on the importance of well designed spaces. The presenter was from Woods Bagot, and they'd done some nice work in Australia - the University of South Australia, and the University of Melbourne. Some innovative work, with many of the principles we used when designing the IC - a variety of learning environments, including those to support active learning and peer to peer learning. Lots of good stuff about the importance of healthy spaces - fresh air, ability to control temperature and light, and windows to maintain contact with the outside world. Of the three different sorts of space - learning-centred, student-centred and informal, the latter is growing in importance, and will soon overtake the other two in terms of student choice. It's the reason if you don't provide it, students will go the nearest Starbucks to sit in a relaxing, wifi enabled atmosphere!

The next session was by yours truly, and as I was speaking to a mainly non IT audience, concentrated on some of the challenges we face around user expectations, mobility, support and the place of social media in communication. I also concentrated on the need for IT departments to work in partnership with other departments, and for them to understand our challenges and work with us.  Seemed to go down well - but suppose only the audience can comment on that.

An enjoyable conference, and nice to be with a mixture of different professionals.

Admission review and litigious students

Spent yesterday afternoon at the first meeting of the UCAS admissions review steering group. UCAS, (which used to be UCCA, as it was when I went to university), is 50 years old. What's interesting, is the basic processes have barely changed in those years, yes it's gone from paper to online, but if you look at an admissions handbook from the sixties the same terms are there. Conditional offer, insurance offers etc. And yet the world has changed, and is continuing to change. In the sixties most applicants were male, 18, doing A levels, and intending to do a 3 year full time course. Now we have a much more diverse population, in terms of age, gender, education, type of study, social class, everything. This review is going to have a really in-depth look at the process and the service offered by UCAS, with the aim of coming up with a system offering a better experience to students and HEIs. One area which is ripe for review is the number of transactions which take place, many of them not leading to a place, so they are valueless.

Yesterday was the first meeting, but I'm looking forward to getting involved in the review. Whatever happens, there will be IT and system implications which we'll have to deal with.

After the meeting I had to travel to Chester for the Annual Conference of AMHEC, the Association of Managers in Higher Education where I'd been invited to speak. Unfortunately I'd missed the first day because of the review, but got there for the evening. It's an interesting association because it is made up of managers from different disciplines, HR, Finance, Estates seeming to be the main ones, but it's open to all. It's also 50 years old, so well established. It grew out of smaller, specialist colleges, but I understand anyone can join.

First session this morning was delivered by Eversheds, and was on Delivering to Promise. It covered the legal issues of making promises to students, and then not being able to deliver on them.
In the new fees world, student expectations and how we manage them are important. Can we say "you'll enjoy the course" for example? What if they don't? What if we specify contact hours, and don't deliver? What if they don't get a degree?

The student/ institution relationship is contractual, and there are many interesting legal issues and pitfalls. The contract is formed early on in the relationship, when the student accepts an offer of a place. Students are consumers and they can use consumer law. So, what we say is important. The contract can be oral as well as written, so what an academic says to a potential student on an open day could potentially be seen as part of a contract.
A contract has to be fair and reasonable, and can exclude some sort of liability and included the ability to change things.

Things to consider:
Set our the student's obligations clearly
Review all marketing material, information could be on web sites, in a prospectus, in open day literature. Check the information is accurate and promises are deliverable.
Consider ancillary contracts, eg with accommodation.
Consider disclaimers to exclude certain things
Make sure all the documents are consistent.

Some thought provoking stuff, all in the context of students becoming more likely to complain as higher fees are introduced. Will be interesting to see if that happens.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad