Developing an online Information Environment
JISC’s Information Environment will provide a range of services, tools
and mechanisms for colleges and universities to exploit fully the value of
online resources and services. It will enable presentation, delivery and use of
online resources in ways tailored to support individual and institutional
requirements in learning, teaching and research.
Introduction
Considerable investment at both the institutional and the national levels has
been made to provide high-quality digital information resources for further and
higher education. But students, lecturers and researchers are nevertheless
currently faced with a vast and sometimes bewildering range of potential sources
of electronic information. Each source of information has its own name, its own
interface, features and search facilities. Little wonder, then, that many users
remain unaware of their existence or fail to discover their value for their own
learning, teaching or research.
A key challenge is therefore to achieve a managed, coherent and shared
information environment that will overcome these obstacles. It is an environment
that will need to be compatible with the many developments that are taking place
within colleges and universities, such as the growth of institutional
websites, portals,
Intranets and virtual learning environments (VLEs) and managed
learning environments (MLEs). Collaboration is crucial to the work and
strategy of the JISC and is a central feature of its Information Environment
programme.
Helping users find digital information
There are two major aspects to such an information environment and to the
tools and mechanisms that it will enable institutions to use and exploit. The
first relates to users of the services. Being able to cross-search and use
customised, value added and other services will considerably simplify users’
interactions with online resources. This should encourage take-up and greatly
improve means of accessing these resources. In turn, institutions will be able
to incorporate a range of these services within their own institutional online
environments, presenting local content alongside nationally provided resources.
Facilities will also be provided for institutions and individuals to create and
to share content, and in many cases to adapt them to local use.
The second aspect relates to making the information environment actually
work. This requires the implementation of a range of commonly-agreed technical
standards and protocols. This is a complex undertaking, involving influencing
national resource providers and services, commercial suppliers and vendors and
content creators, and requires considerable ongoing investment.
This continued investment is a necessary one if JISC is to provide the
technical framework that will offer further and higher education institutions
the means of enhancing access and use of online resources for the benefit of all
users.
How we will do this
The Information Environment programme consists of a number of strands,
each of which will deliver specific services, tools and mechanisms which will in
time make up this managed and coherent environment. The key strands are:
- Doorways to the future – Accessing online resources through
portals Portals developed by the programme will enable
cross-searching across otherwise distinct and discrete resources. They will
provide easy and seamless access to a range of resources, both by subject but
also by data type, such as images, moving pictures and sound, and so on.
Crucially, these portals will be able to be integrated into institutional
learning environments and local portal developments.
- Making the most of our wares – Building and sharing community
resources Institutions and individuals create resources that
are potentially of immense benefit to others. Programmes within this strand
will develop a range of tools and mechanisms that will encourage new ways in
which the education community can build and share resources together.
- Joining up delivery – Developing 'shared' services
To enable portals and other services to deliver diverse digital
resources, machine-readable information about services, content, rights and
users is required to act as the “glue” between portals and the content itself.
'Shared' services will provide this mechanism, enabling the user to interact
with relevant resources according to subject, institutional and personal
profiles.
- From libraries to learning – Digital resources in practice
This strand of work will explore practical implementations in the
joining up of information resources and VLEs. Institutions are grappling with
these issues and this work will ensure there are exemplars and generic models
for the community to learn from.
These are the key strands that currently make up the Information Environment
programme and some of the tools and services they will in time deliver. They add
up and point to the development of a learning and research environment that will
considerably enhance the experience of all users of online resources within
further and higher education.
The technology underpinning all this continues to change rapidly, while the
needs of students and staff evolve too. The needs of institutions will also
change as new practices and new models of e-learning develop and become
established. Other national initiatives, such as the Research Grid, offer
considerable opportunities for collaboration and integration, and these will
need to inform strongly the direction of the JISC’s work in this area.
The Information Environment programme will therefore need to develop to meet
these evolving needs and to respond to the challenges that colleges and
universities face now and in the future. Collaboration lies at the heart of this
process, and understanding and responding to the needs of institutions will
remain paramount to the programme.
For further information, please contact Rachel
Bruce.