Finding the right ways to use IT in further education

With the UKeU fiasco tainting perceptions of public sector elearning technology development, it's easy to forget the good work being done at the government's more innovative education centres.

Whereas the failed online learning initiative cost £50m and attracted just 900 students, the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), which supports post-16 and higher education learning in the UK, is finding ways to use innovative IT to support teaching, research and administration.

Sarah Porter, Jisc's head of development, says UKeU has left a big mark, but she's determined to find ways for education institutions to make use of ground-breaking technology.

'I remember people saying many years ago: "Whose idea was UKeU? It's complete madness. Maybe we should be exploiting the UK education market - but this needs some proper thought",' she says.

The market, as UKeU discovered to its cost, was insufficiently developed.

'If UKeU had really consulted properly with university vice chancellors and asked them what they wanted, the executives might have found there weren't all these online courses just waiting to be sucked up into the system,' says Porter.

'If anything on that scale is going to happen again, it must be something that isn't being done to the universities - it should be something done in partnership.'

For the past decade, Jisc has worked with UK academic institutions to develop innovative solutions to problems.

Its Athens access management system provides users with single sign-on to numerous web-based services throughout the UK and overseas. And Jisc's content procurement systems have helped saved universities millions of pounds.

Now the organisation is looking to branch out further. Porter, who used to be responsible for elearning, has a broader brief that encompasses research and development.

'It includes anything a university or college might want to do with technology,' she says. 'One of the big issues is looking at how communities can work together, and we're looking for a more cohesive approach.'

She says academic institutions often have their own approaches to teaching and content management, and that it's time for universities and colleges to look at the wider process - and consider software integration.

'If a lecturer creates a lot of content for a course, it's very difficult to re-use that knowledge for teaching - or to share it with a colleague. Content sometimes gets lost in the system,' says Porter.

'The big challenge for Jisc, therefore, is to pull people closer together so they can share content.'

Jisc is investigating potential technological solutions, such as grid computing. More specifically, it is concentrating on service-oriented architecture (SOA), which makes the application of standard components - based on web services - easier.

These components can be plugged into an organisation's IT architecture when required.

Jisc is working with institutions in Canada and Australia to study the use of SOAs in academia at three levels: * Defining the scope of the work, particularly the generic functionality required by academic institutions; * To map onto these functional requirements specific definitions for service definitions and standards; * To create a development layer, allowing Jisc to suggest what sort of web service tool kits should be built for universities and colleges.

Porter says this three-stage approach will help Jisc identify important areas for in-depth analysis.

'We can't include everything in that space, but we can put important work into a rapid development cycle of piloting and testing,' she says.

And while Canada is more interested in e-administration, accessibility and bilingual communication, Porter says the UK is likely to concentrate on e-portfolios and e-assessments.

Two weeks ago, the government's procurement agency gave the go-ahead to plans for the full rollout of online e-assessments.

The Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) is piloting an online e-assessment project, with the aim of extending the service to more than half-a-million year nine students (aged 13 and 14) annually by 2008.

Porter says there's a series of significant developments taking place.

'What's important is how people use technology and how it changes processes,' she says. 'Technology isn't just about shovelling content.'

Jisc's £4m Digital Repositories programme, for example, aims to encourage communication across activity areas and promote interoperability.

'Universities are getting students to provide more feedback on learning as they go. Some are using blogs and mobile phones,' says Porter. 'Institutions want to re-use and manage content as much as possible.'

To further this aim, Jisc is also looking at a range of content-related areas. The organisation is exploring the use of open-source technology to publish online journals, and Porter says there's a huge amount of interest in this area.

'Whatever the business drivers are, universities are wasting time collecting information and giving it away for free,' she says.

Blended learning - mixing online and traditional forms of education - also remains a priority for Jisc, particularly in the wake of UKeU and the new elearning strategy for higher education.

'You have to use the appropriate technology for the job. Systems such as portals are part of the game,' says Porter. 'We're aiming to push the development of these kinds of areas along - and this is where an SOA approach has come from. It's about flexibility and choice.'

The higher education elearning strategy

THE strategy, released last month by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), aims to help higher education institutions (HEIs) address seven strands of activity, including learning resources and student support. Some £33m will be made available for project funding.

Hefce intends to make available any residual funding from the UKeU project to support higher education elearning, and has agreed with the Higher Education Academy and the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) to provide funds to help embed elearning in HEIs.

The strategy suggests HEIs are struggling to 'normalise' elearning as part of the education process, and organisations undertaking elearning projects should not focus solely on the use of IT.

It proposes a definition of elearning that encompasses the many uses of technology that HEIs can adopt within teaching.

Hefce aims to 'support the higher education sector as it moves towards embedding elearning appropriately, using technology to transform higher education into a more student-focused and flexible system, as part of lifelong learning for all who can benefit'.

The programme will be aided by a 'virtual' national elearning advisory and support centre to co-ordinate activities, offer leadership and nominate elearning 'champions' from HEIs.