Networking

At the end of last week following the UCISA meeting I went to the RUGIT awayday - tortuous travel arrangements between Manchester and Warwick meant that I missed the first couple of hours, but got there in time to hear an extremely good presentation and question and answer session with the Registrar from the University of Warwick. Of course, we concentrated a lot on the financial pressures facing Universities at the moment, and looking at how we are going to have to work together to get through them. Two points I thought were particularly well made were -
- we mustn't allow the government to divide and rule us,
- we have to get involved in the debate and not let others set our future vision and direction.

Other sessions over the two days included a presentation on CampusM (from me - getting good at it now!), the future of desktop computing and the benefits of a centralised IT service as compared to a devolved one. Lots of good discussion, and as always at these events, a lot of very useful networking.

Today, some of us visited the University of York to discuss our approach to collaborative software with them. In particular they were interested in the implementation of our collaboration environment uSpace (based on Jive SBS software). Lots of interesting questions - most of which we knew the answer to. And I even got to do my CampusM presentation again! Again, excellent networking and exchange of ideas.

CSR and uSpace

Good CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) committee today. Started with a quick demo of uSpace by yours truly - tried to show that we don't want it to become a document repository and it works best as an interactive, collaborative tool. Documents need to be created within it, not uploaded as .docs or pdfs, and comments and discussions encouraged.

One of the main items on the agenda was how we can reduce our carbon footprint - we're part of a project called Degrees Cooler which is about changing the attitudes and behaviour of students and staff. Simple things like switching off, not printing, sourcing local and reducing water use can make a big difference.

Had another discussion about uSpace earlier in the day as we're trying to create a page which pulls together all the blogs that staff and students are writing to make them easier to find from both within and outside the University. Unfortunately despite what we were told by the company when we bought the product, this isn't as easy as we thought. However, I'm confident that as we have the best brains in the business working on it, it will soon be finished and will be wonderful. (I'm not trying to hurry them up with flattery, honest....)

Incidentally - ever since I came into this job I've wondered why software doesn't seem to come under either the Trades Descriptions Act or the Sale of Goods Act - we wouldn't put up with a washing machine that didn't work because we had to wait till the next version was released!

uSpace arrives

Our new collaboration environment, uSpace has gone live this week. You can use it to blog, to create wikis, discussion groups, collaborate on documents and join groups and spaces for discussion and social networking. Research groups with members from outside of the University can also use if for collaboration as we can allow external users access. We're quite excited about it and the pilots we've been running have identified a number of uses, in teaching and learning (it is being linked to our VLE), for research and for general collaboration and communication. Obviously this could be seen as just another service to overload our users with information and another place to search for information as it's another repository. We now need to produce guidance on what system to use for what - portal groups, shared areas on fileservers, document management system. Hopefully we will be moving to reducing the number of systems or at least integrating them so they are seamless to the user. My big concern is how many pleaces I now have to update my status. Wonder if we can integrate uSpace and Twitter.....

Quick update

Just a quick update on a few things. We've finally got the go ahead to really go with Google mail and calendar for students this September, so will be working hard now to get all of the technical stuff and integration in place.

Lots of excitement around the imminent go live of our collaboration service - uSpace. We did a stress and volume test last Friday and even I couldn't break it. It was great fun watching how inventive people were in starting discussions, posing questions and creating documents though.

No further updates for next day or two - I'm off to Chelsea Flower Show.

CLEX report published

The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience (CLEX) has just published its final report entitled "Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World”. I've just spent an hour reading it and would recommend it to anyone involved in IT or teaching and learning in Higher Education.

The report outlines some key findings about today's learners and their experience of the digital age. Some statistics are not surprising - 75% of 11 to 15 year olds have at least one social networking site, 90% use email and instant messaging and 85% own a mobile phone with camera. It also looks at the deployment of Web 2.0 technologies in Universities at the moment, commenting that although the use is relatively high, it is not systematic and comes from enthusiastic individuals, with patchy implementations in teaching and learning. The report makes a number of recommendations for Universities and the JISC which I'm not going to go into as they are very well presented in the executive summary, but I do want to draw attention to the conclusion:

"Web 2.0, the Social Web, has had a profound effect on behaviours, particularly those of young people whose medium and metier it is. They inhabit it with ease and it has led them to a strong sense of communities of interest linked in their own web spaces, and to a disposition to share and participate. It has also led them to impatience – a preference for quick answers – and to a casual approach to evaluating information and attributing it and also to copyright and legal constraints.

The world they encounter in higher education has been constructed on a wholly different set of norms. Characterised broadly, it is hierarchical, substantially introvert, guarded, careful, precise and measured. The two worlds are currently co-existing, with present-day students effectively occupying a position on the cusp of change. They aren’t demanding different approaches; rather they are making such adaptations as are necessary for the time it takes to gain their qualifications. Effectively, they are managing a disjuncture, and the situation is feeding the natural inertia of any established system. It is, however, unlikely to be sustainable in the long term. The next generation is unlikely to be so accommodating and some rapprochement will be necessary if higher education is to continue to provide a learning experience that is recognised as stimulating, challenging and relevant".

So, we're at the edge of major change with today's students putting up with what we give them rather than demanding a different approach. Look what it says about this being unsustainable, and tomorrow's students not being as accommodating.

Universites will need to change and embrace new technologies and new ways of working and interacting with students. I find it extraordinary that there could be resistance to this - especially from IT departments. I am always disappointed when colleagues aren't as excited by change and the potential of new technologies as I am, and in many cases don't even use them. How many of my department make use of web 2.0 or social software I wonder? Why aren't there more bloggers, twitterers etc? If we are the department who are facilitating and supporting students who use this software, don't we have a responsibility to know how it works rather than just dismiss it?

Perhaps our new social software will change all of this - uSpace will be launched at the beginning of June and will provide all staff and students with blogs, wikis, discussions, social groups and collaborative spaces. Pilots have been running for a few months and the feedback is very positive.

As a side effect of the CLEX report we got an unexpected bit of publicity in the Guardian article released to accompany its launch which told the world of our decision to implement Google mail for students, before we've actually formally agreed to do so. All publicity is good publicity though, and it has speeded up our decision making process - formal decision expected soon!

Waterloo

Departmental meeting last Friday - I really enjoy them - nice to see so much of the department together. We looked back over the last year and what we'd achieved, and looked forward to our two new strategies: Technology and Learning and Teaching. We had a presentation on action taken following recent surveys of our services, and launched our new liaison service. This will have 3 strands - strategic, technical and community. We also had a demonstration of our new collaboration product - uSpace.

I was pleased to present a number of long service awards to staff who'd been with us 30 years, and to one who'd completed 40 years service. Finally, this was the first occasion that we had our "above and beyond awards" for staff who had given that extra level of service. These have rapidly become know as the ABBAs, so maybe I should invest in a number of Mamma Mia DVDs to give out next time. Following the success of the karyoke at the Christmas Party, perhaps I should make it the sing-a-long version.

Collaborating smarter

Collaboration high on the agenda at the moment. UCIP Programme Board meeting yesterday, and a useful discussion on some of the projects which come under this programme.

We're moving forward with the implementation of Zimbra as our next calendaring and email system, and made a decision to roll it out to students first. A number of reasons why : we can roll it out in a phased way, starting with first years who have no experience of current systems so no data to transfer or new systems to learn; students don't have access to a calendar at the moment, and we do have a concern about how we're going to move all of the data over from staff calendars; students complain less!

Clearspace implementation also going well - production service just about in place, pilots identified and starting, and still a lot of buzz about the place as to how this will utilise Web 2.0 technologies to improve collaboration, communication and discussion.

We've also started to pull together a set of web pages about collaboration which will eventually develop into a repository of information and advice for staff and students. Still a work in progress, but moving in the right direction.

Teaching an old dog.....

Had an unusual experience yesterday - I went on a training course! I can't remember the last time I had to watch powerpoint slides for two hours and actually learn something, especially when the topic was a quite complicated HR related one. Still, I now feel equipped to determine how atypical workers (ie casual staff) can be assimilated onto regular contracts, and I think I understand the difference between an employee, a worker and a contractor....

Then to a meeting to discuss the concept of the Sheffield Graduate, which is at the heart of our Teaching and Learning Strategy . This defines 12 the attributes that we believe we should be enabling our students to develop and demonstrate impact, excellence and distinctiveness in their chosen field. I won't list them all here but they include being able to carry out independent enquiry, having core information literacy skills, applying creativity, enterprise and innovation to knowledge creation, identifying the wider social, cultural and economic context of their academic knowledge, and recognising their responsibilities as active citizens. All departments should be building in the concept of the Sheffield Graduate into their own teaching and learning strategies, and we will be looking at how we can build it into ours.

I then had a very useful hour with the PVC for Teaching and Learning where we discussed a number of issues, including the development of our teaching and learning support strategy, the minefield that is student printing (especially the requirement to print out all assignment, single sided and double line spaced), and the management of teaching space .

Finally an Innovative Comms project group - following our announcment of our decision to implement Clearspace, we received many applications from staff to take part in the pilots. Yesterday we had the difficult task of deciding which ones to go with as we couldn't support them all. We were looking to cover 4 different areas - research, teaching and learning, business processes and student activity and will run 2 pilots in each area. If all goes well, they will start in January, and a full service will be available in May.

Blogs and Wikis on their way

I've mentioned before that our Innovative Communications Project has been looking at web based applications, such as blogs and wikis, and we have agreed to invest in Clearspace. We've recently announced it to the University as follows:

A Internal Blogging and Wiki Service

We are investing in Clearspace, a collaboration environment, which we anticipate will have many applications within the University. Academics will be able to use it as a wiki and blogging environment in their teaching, linked from MOLE. Research groups, working with external collaborators, will be able to share and write documents together, and capture discussions as an alternative to email. Departments and groups across the University may use it to communicate and collaborate with colleagues as well as to publish documents.

In order to ensure the new service meets the needs of the University, we are running a number of pilots from Jan 2009 (through to May 2009), and the selected pilots will be asked to write a case study about how they used Clearspace and the benefits, and any problems of using it. If all goes as planned, the service will be available, to all, in May 2009.

We're well aware that many departments will be using external Web 2.0 Services within their work already - things like YouTube, Google, Slideshare or Facebook. These can be extremely useful applications, but there are some risks associated them including the ownership of the intellectual property of the ideas expressed through these tools and what happens if the application you're using is no longer available or the company providing it is taken over?

We have drawn together a number of resources to help departments consider the issues before they start investing time in using externally hosted web 2.0 applications.

User Group

Our User Group yesterday - about 50 people normally attend from all areas of the University, including students. We normally do a few presentations of things we're doing, new projects etc, and ask for questions from the floor. Yesterday we demonstrated Clearspace, our new social networking software which was very well received, gave an overview of the student satisfaction survey results and our action plan, and an overview of the Print Service. However, the item which caused the most discussion was our move to Office 2007 (2008 for our mac users).

There was a general acceptance that we had to do it, but a number of issues, particularly in relation to file formats and their incompatibility with previous office versions, and whether staff would have to upgrade their PCs to run the new versions. Lots of discussion about why we don't run Open Office as standard and avoid the "Microsoft treadmill" of upgrades. The student reps were very clear that they want to run the industry standard versions of Office, and as Microsoft make their software available cheaply to them, that 's what they have on their own laptops, and that's what they need on our PCs. I have to say we agree with them. We were asked whether their was any possibility of us moving away from our dependence on Microsoft in the future, and the answer is it's unlikely! However, we did remind our users that we have very little Microsoft infrastructure in place, prefering to run open standards and systems wherever possible.

Early morning start

On train on way to London at the moment – going to RUGIT meeting – lots of work to do on way down, but getting increasingly annoyed that East Midlands Trains seem incapable of supporting the business traveller – no power sockets for laptops, no wireless network. Thank goodness for my USB modem and iPhone – could do with some sort of power generator for MacBook though – solar panels maybe or a hamster in a wheel……

Thinking a lot about strategy at the moment – how we bring together all the work we’re doing on collaboration and new technologies, particularly with our recent decision to implement Clearspace. We’ve done a lot of work on a Teaching and Learning Support Strategy which I hope is about to be circulated wider and presented to the Teaching and Learning Committee, and a Technology strategy which will got to our Executive Board later this year. Work needs to start now on a research strategy, and one of the areas we will be working closely with the Library on over the next few months is how we manage research data - not just storage but the whole life cycle management, including curation, metadata, storage and archiving. I worry that there are some areas of the University who don't see the management of research data as a concern, despite the amount being generated, and who are content to store it on local servers, PCs or even CDs. Will CDs be readable in 10 years time I wonder?

Answers on a postcard...

Document management project update meeting today - several presentations about where we are, and some of the pilots we're running. This is a project that many people have sweated blood over - we've had tremendous problems getting the system to work as we want it to, and in getting live pilots off the ground. It has emphasised how important it is to get your business processes right before trying to model them in systems and workflow. I fear we still haven't got it right in some places. Still too much reliance on paper and signatures. But, progress is being made, and we are cautiously optimistic....

One of the problems we are still struggling with is the overlapping functionality of software - we have recently decided to implement Clearspace from Jive software as part of our Innovative Communications project. This is primarily a Web 2.0 social networking suite of software including blogs, wikis (confusingly called documents), forums and groups. It also has some (limited) document management functionality. Livelink (our document management software), also has groups, discussion forums and some collaborative functions. So - which bits of which software do we implement, and how do we ensure that whatever we do, everything is integrated, and our users are clear about what bits of which software to use for what??

Clearspace

As part of our Innovative Communications project, we've been looking at what software to introduce and support to handle blogs, wikis, collaboration, social networking etc. One of the products we've been looking at is Clearspace. We had a demo of it yesterday, and I was very impressed. It's a collaborative piece of software which integrates discussion forums, blogs, wikis, documents. and social groups. Because it's so integrated, it makes searching for common interets so much easier. You can search for a term and it will not just search tags, but text and bring you results from blogs, discsuion threads, documents, personal details, wikis etc. It's used by some big companies - the BBC "Have your say" site uses it, as does the Apple Support forum site.

We're evaluating it at the moment, and so far it's proved relatively easy to install and use. It could be quite disruptive if we decide to implemt it, but that needn't be a bad thing.....