As a follow-up to a podcast recorded with Talis last year, the Executive Secretary for JISC, Dr Malcolm Read, talks with Talis. In the current climate, JISC’s overriding priority is to help UK Higher Education to cut costs thus safeguarding quality, and Malcolm has in mind not only efficiency gains from back end systems, but also areas such as cloud computing and Green IT. A shift to a more private sector model for universities may result in the breakdown of the top-slicing funding model, replaced by more direct funding of JISC by the sector. We discuss whether it is true that JISC has achieved good things such as the Janet network, but perhaps not enough since its inception. Malcolm explains how JISC evaluates value for money across all its activities. We then discuss the recently published JISC Strategy 2010-2012, of which Malcolm provides a useful outline. He has a strong feeling that management information is currently under-exploited in universities and could be used effectively in key areas such as student retention. We explore the value of JISC initiatives in non-traditional areas such as learning spaces. Malcolm also discusses JISC’s espousal of the open agenda and explores ways in which JISC is opening up in its own practices. Finally we look at how JISC is trying to address some of the uncertainties of the future.

What do you think? Are higher education technologists outside the UK correct to envy the support that JISC provides to British universities? Is Malcolm right to concede that JISC could have achieved more since the giant step forward that the JANET network unquestionably was? And is JISC’s strategy radical or robust enough to face the challenges that both the higher education sector and indeed the UK as a whole face?

 

 Malcolm Read talks with Talis [00:30:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (82)

In this podcast, Sarah Bartlett talks with Niall Sclater, Director of Learning Innovation at the UK’s Open University. Niall reviews over four years at the Open University embedding a Moodle-based VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and the use of e-learning more generally across the institution. He describes the Open University’s transition from its origins in 1969 when it produced its own learning materials and sent out packages of books to its distance learners. In the adoption of learning technologies, the Open University is constrained in its freedom to allow teaching staff to introduce technologies independently, and Niall explains why that is. Niall also explores issues around student diversity – the growing importance of consistency of student experience, and the problems putting a minimum technical specification for home study in place in view of the institution’s traditional mission of inclusivity. The Open University is Moodle’s largest educational site, with around 200,000 students on the system, and 50,000 unique users over a 24 hour period, so it’s useful to hear about the institution’s experiences with Moodle, and Niall’s viewpoint on the future of the VLE. Niall also talks about learning technology futures more generally, focusing on cloud computing (exemplified by the Open University’s recent adoption of Google Apps for Education) and mobile learning.

 

 Niall Sclater talks with Talis [00:38:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (147)

In this podcast, I talk with James Clay from Gloucestershire College, ALT’s Learning Technologist of the Year, 2009. James is responsible for the VLE, e-learning, mobile learning, the libraries, digital and online resources and the strategic direction of the college in relation to the use of learning technologies. We talk about the achievements of James and his team in introducing innovative technologies at the college, and how encouraging experimentation with technology has gradually changed the organisational culture. With staff using a wider range of media resources with greater confidence, it is easier for his team to embed new technologies as they are alerted to new needs and expectations by diverse consultation methods they have in place with both staff and students. Students are also encouraged to use their own technologies – a neat response to funding constraints whilst simultaneously meeting student expectations. Many of the students at Gloucestershire College will be making their way towards a university course, and so it’s useful to hear James characterise those students and their relationship to technology. Indeed, it is his above all those insights that have brought James to the pragmatic position in the Is the VLE Dead debate for which he is known to many. We conclude by discussing the present and future of the VLE, and his experiences with Moodle.

 

 James Clay talks with Talis [00:23:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (207)

In this podcast I talk with Billy Brick who is Languages Centre Manager at Coventry University. We take a brief look at the history of technologies in the modern languages field and the inherently social nature of language learning which lends itself very well to Web 2.o approaches. We then turn our attention to a couple of cloud applications that Billy and his colleagues are making use of to augment language teaching tools at Coventry – Livemocha and busuu.com. Both of these contain online lessons and offer the opportunity to pair up with native speakers to practice language skills. Looking more broadly at the humanities, we talk in more detail about Humbox, an open education resources repository to be launched in Sheffield in February. We discuss some of the issues involved in repository development, such as openness and community-buildiing. Finally we look at BASE and BAWE corpora, which contain recorded lectures and seminars as well as a collection of student assignments.

 

 Billy Brick talks with Talis [00:24:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (172)

In this podcast, I talk with Aaron Porter, who is Vice-President (Higher Education) for the National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK. The student experience is generally acknowledged to be the most powerful driver within higher education in the UK right now. Aaron and I discuss various dimensions of the student experience in relation to two sectoral reports. The first is the recently published Higher Ambitions report from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. The second is a forthcoming NUS report, sponsored by HSBC, which presents findings of a survey examining student experiences around coursework, exam feedback and the use of ICT in higher education.

In the podcast, Aaron is forthright in his views that Higher Ambitions leans too heavily on a consumerist position and fails to display the imagination needed at this pivotal moment for policy-making in higher education. We discuss the information that students need to make the right decisions about their studies, the diversity of experiences among the student body, the position of the UK in the global HE marketplace, and how both students and businesses should be acting as active partners and co-producers in the sector.

The NUS report is part of a 3 year study of the experiences of full-time undergraduates in UK higher education institutions, and is funded by HSBC. This latest chapter explores the areas of coursework, exam feedback and the use of ICT. We focus on the shortcomings of student feedback and also the virtual learning environment. Aaron has recently been appointed onto the Task Force on online learning which aims to increase the UK’s market share of the global online learning market, and we discuss exciting developments around Open Education and what is needed to increase awareness and availability of open resources. Aaron draws us back repeatedly to what he perceives to be a central problem – the failure to develop a robust academic community in which students and academics are constantly challenging each other, identifying the atmosphere of consumerism as the main obstacle to reviving that sense of community in universities.

This podcast very much lives up to its promise as a robust and lively discussion of the main issues around the experience of students in universities today.

 

 Aaron Porter talks with Talis [00:47:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (218)