17 December 2010
BUSINESS & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
JISC infoNet, a JISC Advance Service, offers guidance to managers in the post-compulsory education sector promoting the effective strategic planning, implementation and management of information and learning technology.
JISC infoNet - Net Engagement By Caroline Ingram
The challenge for BCE Delivering business and community engagement meaningfully, in a way that allows you to manage and report on activities effectively, requires significant cultural and organisational change. JISC infoNet provides a range of online guidance that can help you through such a transition. Resources available include the: Embedding BCE infoKit; Strategy infoKit; Change Management infoKit; Portfolio/Programme/ Project Management infoKit; and the Process Review infoKit. Each of these resources are supported by complementary workshops. Exchanging knowledge is at the heart of BCE and core to the mission of most UK education establishments. Well designed ‘technology enhanced learning spaces’ can provide an environment that really brings this to life. JISC infoNet provide comprehensive guidance on the development of such spaces and are currently updating their resource with a range of case studies covering start-up spaces, spin-in/out spaces and incubation centres. JISC infoNet also offer a wide range of freely available resources covering a generic set of topics: time management,
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project management, information management and much more are all available from their infoKit page. Facilitating Engagement Members of the JISC infoNet team often work on projects which result in the delivery of their infoKits. The ‘Embedding BCE infoKit’ provides guidance that helps you to review and evaluate the extent to which BCE processes and strategy is embedded within the mainstream activities of your college/ university. An introductory workshop is also available and, if required, JISC infoNet can facilitate review workshops. The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) approached the team to deliver a one day workshop based on the workbook, or a facilitated walk through of the evaluation. JISC infoNet were brought into UCLan at a time when they were undergoing a restructure, part of which was to bring together a central team to coordinate external engagement. The participants of the workshop came from a variety of roles across the institution, but all were BCE practitioners. The aim of the day was to generate conversation across the institution with regard to BCE
activities. The team as a whole needed to get to know one another and to learn more about the range of BCE activities across the institution. Working through the Embedding BCE infoKit allowed the team members to make statements about the state of play in their area with regard to work with external partners. Thereby, pockets of good practice were identified, issues noted, and areas where everyone needed a new strategy flagged for further development. “Using the workbook associated with the Embedding BCE infoKit highlighted some interesting aspects about our approach to BCE at UCLan and made us as a group think about our overall strategy and processes”, said one of the workshop participants. The team were contacted approximately seven months after the event, to give them time to come to terms with their new status and to start to implement some of the plans made due to the workshop content. http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk
www.jisc.ac.uk/bce