intouch the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands
Spring 2011 Volume 9: Issue 2
Contents 1 Doing more for less 2 Regional News 2 Using Learners’ Own Devices 3 Managing your data 3 A new data approach at Northamptonshire ACL 3 Shared Services 4 Assessment & Technology 4 The HELLO project 5 Best practice in the UK
Doing more for less The October Comprehensive Spending Review reduced the Further Education resource budget by 25% by 2014-15. The pressure is on providers to deliver more efficiently without compromising on quality. This edition of the RSC newsletter explores ways in which the use of technology can contribute to this – and how RSC support can help. Think about the following: • Consider your assumptions about the way things have to be done. Is learning face-to-face with a tutor in a formal classroom or workshop the only viable way of organising every course? Can staff work flexibly from home and in smaller but well equipped work-rooms? • Consider your underused technology. Your learning platform can earn its keep, raising retention and achievement by effectively blending face-to-face and online learning. Communication technologies can reduce the money and time costs of travelling for staff and learners, and can facilitate collaborative working when the minimum contract value is introduced by the Skills Funding Agency. • Consider your use of the technology your learners have. Many learners have powerful internet-enabled phones with multimedia capacity. Taking advantage of this is a lot cheaper than providing everyone with access to an up-to-date computer. And at a simple level you can text them about work deadlines or whether you are open during bad weather.
• Consider the unused technology you have. It is not uncommon to buy kit that spends its life in a cupboard. Sometimes this is because it was a poor investment decision in the first place – perhaps rushed or without a clear rationale. In many cases however potentially valuable kit is unused because the necessary training and support has not been provided.
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Resource Corner Hints & Tips Moving Learning Online Focus On: Business Processes JISC news Forthcoming Events Equipment for loan 2011 e-fair
• Consider how to improve the efficiency of business processes. The RSC is actively exploring how to capture benefits here, for example by entering data once only, or through the use of dashboards to give clear, co-ordinated management information as the basis for action. • Consider how technology can help you capture the learner voice. At a time of substantial change, it is essential to monitor the learner experience. Please get intouch with us if you would like our free support in exploring these and other related ideas.
Stimulating and supporting innovation in learning
Regional News Regional Case Studies Since the last edition of “intouch” several learning providers in the region have had case studies of good e-practice published on the Excellence Gateway website at www.excellencegateway.org.uk.
Using Learners’ Own Devices
• New College Nottingham: Using My Study Bar with learners • Acorn Training: Introducing an e-learning system to support teaching and learning for apprentices • South Nottingham College: Using a Learner Survey to improve the learning experience • Portland College: Using technology to support learners with memory difficulties If you have any good e-practice that you wish to highlight then please get intouch with Kevin Spencer on 01509 618112 or kevin.spencer@rsc-em.ac.uk.
Award Winners A couple of people just missed our print deadline back in September, so to make sure that they don’t feel left out here are belated notifications for winners in our Learning Technology Awards scheme from the 2009/10 academic year. Colin Kistruck at Grantham College who in classroom learning activities got students to actively produce wiki/glossary/database resources as part of subject development, formative assessment and co-operative learning.
Computers and technology in general are becoming cheaper, portable and better connected. Ten years ago, not many learners had the luxury of a mobile phone and a computer at home. The trend now is that learners have better access to technology and are more willing to use it for learning. Last year’s National Student Survey demonstrated that there is a high level of demand for improved IT facilities. This is not only driven from increased access to a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), but also the content-rich resources that lecturers are using. The Government wants a mobile workforce that is competent in the use of communications technology. Hence a learner’s experience should reflect this. Current learners and those in the near future already use technology to communicate and collaborate with their friends and peers. They have an amazing skill-set, so why not use them to enable learning? Some learners are readily using their own technology to enhance interaction in the classroom. For example using their mobile phones to respond via textwalls; collaborating through Twitter; and using their own laptops to make notes. So should your organisation spend their budget on better computers and more of them? Or could network access be opened so learners can use their own devices?
Pat Sutton at Linkage College used videos to collect evidence with hearing impaired learners and Kate Stubbings was the winner at Nottinghamshire Adult Learning Service. 2
IT departments will be cautious about allowing access to the network from any mobile device. So a balance has to be found between maintaining the integrity and the security of the network and still allowing users easy access to the applications they need. There are therefore some “overheads” about allowing mobile devices, most of which can also have a financial implication: • If the mobile devices require electrical power (e.g. laptop), are there power sockets available where the devices are going to be used?
• Does your organisation’s policy also stipulate that the devices are PAT-tested? • How many user connections are you anticipating at once and where are the connections going to be made e.g. wired sockets or wireless, classroom or refectory or library? • How will you check the device has the latest anti-virus updates or security patches and what will happen if it hasn’t? • What will be the depth of connectivity, will it be limited to only checking emails and surfing the internet? Or will there be more access needed to different applications and the user’s work area? • Should the mobile device network be kept separate from the main network, the so-called de-militarised zone (DMZ), and so restrict the potential of anyone doing unauthorised damage to the main network? • Are policies in place to guide users as to what is acceptable when using their mobile device on the network? The RSC’s learner survey is a free tool that can analyse learners’ views on network infrastructure and the use of technology in the classroom, and can be run in any organisation to help decide whether to allow learners to use their own devices. Whilst opening up access to mobile devices can allow a much better learner and user experience, it does require an investment in resources to get the best from this strategy. For more information, please get intouch with Steve Saffhill on 01509 618117 or email steve.saffhill@rsc-em.ac.uk.
Managing your data
Shared Services Some might have heard the phrase “Shared Services” before but not really understood what it means. The JISC Briefing paper “Shared Services in UK further and higher education” gives a clear definition:
“institutions cooperating in the development and delivery of services, so sharing skills and knowledge, perhaps with commercial participation”
© Dynistics Limited
Managers should always attempt to make decisions using insight and foresight rather than hindsight! Active data dashboards make this process more feasible. The dashboard in a car instantly helps you to monitor mechanical performance and critical information, such as speed. The dials, sounds and warning lights help you to make informed decisions as to whether any intervention is needed to maintain performance, safety or efficiency. Similarly an active data dashboard can provide you with quick graphic references to your critical business processes. “Active” meaning that you are being shown real time results. Usually what you monitor using a dashboard is up to you but you obviously need to have a source for the data in order to include it in your dashboard.
So, for example, if you decide that enrolled student numbers are critical you might decide to display enrolment numbers as they sign up and immediately show these as a graphical display such as a bar graph. You can use any information that you have at your disposal but the trick is to keep the amount of key information to a minimum and as relevant as possible and present it so that it is visually obvious what is happening.
Northamptonshire Adult Learning Service has made considerable efficiency gains and given better service to its learners by improving the operation of its main database.
To overcome these issues, Northamptonshire’s data manager Frances Jones consolidated all these varied systems into one database. The process was centralised so that all data flowed into the data team and was entered onto the central database, which could be updated by a small team of data entry staff.
1. A small organisation, with limited resources and budget, approaches another organisation to host pages on their Moodle server. 2. Two organisations are considering providing each other with off-site backup of their data files. Another alternative could be where your organisation may have a service that you want to offer to the sector, thus providing you with another source of income.
Most learning providers don’t actually lack appropriate data – they are just not presenting it in context and do not provide meaningful analysis.
Data in Adult Learning Typically many ACL services run a database of courses which can be used to submit funding claims. In addition they may have other databases: of tutors, of venues, curriculum teams, equipment etc. Maintaining this number of varied systems is time consuming and leads to errors and inefficiencies, as well as potentially losing fee income.
Shared Services provide an opportunity to possibly reduce expenditure and increase efficiency in your organisation. Two simple illustrations show how this could apply to you:
The system was then made accessible to all by the use of customised reports which helped managers to keep track of what was happening as it happened. A further benefit was that all the information which needed to go to learners and tutors about their classes could be distributed automatically by the system. Originally done in paper form, now approximately 50% of all learners are getting information about their classes via email and all tutors are informed via an automated email distribution.
The development of high-speed internet means that communication off-site is often fast and so distance is no longer an issue with sending and/or receiving data. Distant locations appear now to be situated on your doorstep or probably more accurately, on your computer desktop. So as you start to examine your business in much more detail for ways to economise or work more efficiently, consider working collaboratively with partners to share resources and running costs on operational areas. For more advice on Shared Services please get intouch with Gordon Millner at gordon.millner@rsc-em.ac.uk or on 01509 618120.
Frances comments: “my message is experiment with your systems. There are always improvements and savings that can be made”. 3
Using technology to support assessment
Using Moodle & Mahara to achieve greater efficiency
Do you have assessors who spend more time driving than assessing? Do you find that time allocated for assessment is often wasted because learners have forgotten their portfolio or haven’t completed assigned work? If the answer to either question is YES then you should be exploring the possibility of using technology to facilitate more effective practice and save your organisation time and money. By using appropriate tools you could develop your ability to carry out assessments remotely, to set, collect and give feedback on learner assignments, to enable learners to have access to resources and support at times to suit them. More and more providers are now engaged in developing their e-learning capability and here at the Regional Support Centre we can provide the guidance and support to help you – from the development of your ideas to the implementation of your plans. For ideas on how you can use technology to support assessment, why not have a look at the case studies from the Excellence Gateway website on assessment. These can be searched via the “assessment” tag in a set of Delicious social bookmarks at www.delicious.com/elearningcasestudies.
Whatever it is that you would like to do and want to achieve, a conversation with us will enable you to benefit both from current and developing practice in the sector and from the wealth of knowledge and expertise that exists within the RSC team. It’s never too early and all you need is the idea. Go on, get intouch.
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The need for greater efficiency in a changing environment was one of the drivers that underpinned a JISC-funded project run last year at Leicester College, Higher Education Lifelong Learning Opportunities (HELLO). The HELLO project was created with the aim of tackling three important issues facing Leicester College: • The accommodation project and subsequent new build had resulted in a 65% loss of student social space across the whole College; • The need to provide bespoke e-learning training opportunities for teachers and to actively engage with known pockets of inactivity; • The need expressed in focus groups to establish a Higher Education (HE) identity among staff and students. With a view to achieving these aims, the College implemented two major developments: the use of a Moodle VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) to build a Higher Education Student Community Site; and the adoption of Mahara, an open source e-portfolio tool.
Findings from the project have shown the impact on learners to be: • Access to online scaffolding exercises to help improve academic writing; • The VLE contributed to the sense of community, giving learners a means of growing their relationships online; • Meeting the desire of learners to have technology as a key part of their social life inside the College environment; • Through the “Show and Tell” activity, learners were given opportunities to seek the advice and support of their peers; • Learners have access to alternative forms of learning. At the same time the impact for lecturers was: • Improvements in the retention rate; • An opportunity to keep learners warm in-between sessions;
The VLE became a portal through which all HE learners and tutors could meet. Fourteen course-level, tutor-driven virtual common rooms were created.
• No longer looking at the VLE as a filing cabinet but as a chance to integrate subtle forms of learning that were fun and engaging for their learners;
This innovation was of particular success with the part-time learners who were able to carry out “keeping warm” and formative assessment activities week-toweek, and use the common room area for peer learning activities.
• Translated good classroom practice to be accessible any time of the day;
The adoption of Mahara enabled learners to build their own personal profiles, form groups and take ownership of their own space. The system was also used to form links with a business expert and student mentors from De Montfort University.
• Interactions with learners online provided opportunities for on-going, formative feedback. Overall engagement with the technology has been flexible and staff have been able to receive training on the use of Moodle and Mahara platforms and continue to develop their courses independently of support. For more detailed information about the project and all associated research go to http://hello.lec.ac.uk or contact the Project Manager, Lucy Stone at lstone@lec.ac.uk.
Best practice in the UK
In this edition of intouch our example of best practice looks at how one learning provider has used technology to become more efficient.
Resource Corner In this edition we’re following the theme of more for less by looking at Open Educational Resources (OER). The OER movement is about using technology and in particular, the Internet, to open up access to learning materials that are licensed to allow them to be freely shared, re-used and re-purposed without charge. Content may be stored in formal repositories, or simply made available via web tools. The benefits of OER include:
The challenge Fareport Training Organisation Limited is a work-based learning (WBL) provider operating throughout Hampshire and the surrounding area. Management there had noticed that staff were spending too much time at their desks at the expense of being out with the learners. Typically, assessors and trainers would be spending two to three hours writing up notes after each visit. The activity One solution was to use digital pens and pads. This involves using a special pen in combination with a base (sensor) unit that allows writing and drawings on a sheet of paper to be digitised and saved as an electronic file, which can then be used as an image or a source for recognition software in order to convert handwritten notes into electronic text. Carrie Heath, ILT Manager, explains: “It is a simple and cost-effective solution. It also fits in neatly with the working methods of staff with very divergent IT skills. Digital pens are also well suited to the environments that our assessors frequently operate in.” After a comprehensive evaluation of all the options, the company purchased 30 units and began rolling out the equipment to staff. The simplicity of the Digipen made this task relatively easy for Carrie.
Using a digital pen to save time
The main problem encountered when rolling out the Digipens was that old chestnut of reading someone’s handwriting. Like many handwriting recognition systems, the associated MyScript software needs to become familiar with a particular user’s handwriting style.
After approximately one hour of use, MyScript started to learn a user’s handwriting and the number of mistakes reduced dramatically. Fareport are now achieving between 80 to 90% accuracy depending whether the unit is being used hand-held in the field or flat on a desk in the office.
• the opportunity to share expertise; • raised profile and enhanced reputation – for the individual and the organisation; • efficiencies in content creation; • increased access to quality resources.
Find out more about OER JISC/Higher Education Academy Open Educational Resources programme www.jisc.ac.uk/oer Open Educational Resources infoKit http://tinyurl.com/oerinfokit Turning handwriting into electronic notes
The outcomes Child Care Assessor, Dawn Bunn, has most of her contact with learners in nurseries, which means she has to take lots of notes in the working environment.
“It only took me a couple of hours of practice before I felt confident enough to use the Digipen live. Before, it could take me between 30 to 90 minutes to write up each observation. Now I can complete each write up in less than 10 minutes.” Summing things up, Carrie says: “The Digipen represents a simple technological solution that is widely accepted by all my colleagues, and has had a dramatic impact on the time staff can spend with students.
“What was particularly great for me was not having to provide huge amounts of support as the Digipen was rolled out. In fact, the only real follow up action required was to order some more conventional ink for the pens as they were being used so much!” We hope that this will have given you some inspiration for your organisation. Our thanks go to the Excellence Gateway website for allowing the reproduction of this case study. To view the full version of this case study and find links to other resources on this topic, we recommend that you visit www.excellencegateway.org.uk/fare.
Five steps to Open Access: A practical guide to making Open Access work. Read this article in the new edition of JISC Inform http://tinyurl.com/oerinform
Finding OERs Jorum – www.jorum.ac.uk Through Jorum, you can find, share and discuss learning and teaching materials, shared by the UK Further and Higher Education community. OpenLearn – http://openlearn.open.ac.uk The OpenLearn website gives free access to Open University course materials. OER Commons – www.oercommons.org Free to use teaching and learning content from around the world. XPERT – http://xpert.nottingham.ac.uk/ A JISC funded rapid innovation project (summer 2009) to explore the potential of delivering and supporting a distributed repository of e-learning resources created and seamlessly published through the open source e-learning development tool called Xerte Online Toolkits. MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) – http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm A web-based publication of virtually all Massachusetts Institute of Technology course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. 5
Hints & Tips: Tools for teaching online
Moving learning online
The Moving Learning Online series (see right) is being delivered over the internet using a web meeting or “webinar” tool. Unlike video conferencing, which requires expensive private network connections, web meetings enable anyone who can get online to join in. All you need, to set this up, is an account with one of the numerous web meeting services and a computer connected to the Internet. The software provided then allows you to deliver a combination of presentation slides, a shared whiteboard, audio and video of the presenters, text chat, desktop sharing and polls or quizzes. Accounts are generally charged for but, if the service is used regularly, the costs can be quickly offset through savings in time and travel. Web meetings can be an efficient and effective way to support course delivery or hold business meetings online. However, care is needed to ensure they run smoothly.
If you had the opportunity to offer your learners an improved experience, focusing on the needs of each individual in a way that meets their preferred way of learning, letting them work at their own pace at convenient times, making learning available through engaging activities using a variety of media, whilst encouraging learners through instant positive feedback, what would be the result for your retention and achievement? If, at the same time, you can also give learners greater control over their learning, foster independence and develop interpersonal skills, what would it do for recruitment and staff morale?
The monthly webinars are free to providers eligible for RSC support. They each run over 45 minutes and are delivered online to make them convenient for busy decision-makers.
And if you can do all this within the funding rules and simultaneously improve efficiency, you would have to think very seriously about it.
The first three sessions covered the strategic role of online delivery, the context of online delivery within the funding landscape and the pedagogy of online learning. Forthcoming sessions are shown in the box below.
These are some of the potential benefits offered by blending online and face-toface learning. However, realising these gains is a different kettle of ferrets. Online delivery is flexible, efficient and effective – but it is not just about simply choosing the right technology.
Here at RSC East Midlands we are now running regular web meetings and can provide advice and support with choosing a service, setting up and running successful online sessions. We can also advise on alternative approaches, using a range of other readily available tools. You can get an introduction to the basics through a course we have provided on our Moodle at http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk. For more information and support in adopting webinar tools please get intouch with Ben Williams on 01509 618116 or ben.williams@rsc-em.ac.uk.
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Indeed, many providers have the technology already. Instead, it demands a strategic approach, driven by pedagogy but involving a critical range of organisational and educational decisions. In response to this, we are presenting a series of webinars examining the strategic benefits of online delivery and practical steps to achieve it. The seven sessions cover: • analysing and quantifying strategic benefits to inform decision-making; • getting online delivery right; • successfully managing the introduction and extension of the online curriculum. Our aim is to help you assess the benefits of online approaches in achieving your strategic objectives and provide you with the ideas and support you need to successfully implement or extend online delivery in your organisation.
16th February Strategic components of increased efficiency, consistency & compliance 16th March Learning & assessment activities: blends between online & face–to-face 27th April Learner support mechanisms 18th May Monitoring, evaluation & review of online learning
Each session is complemented by an associated course hosted on our Moodle site which includes a recording of the presentation, so that you can benefit by reviewing the webinars and cascading them within your own organisation. For example, in Session 2, Ainsley Cheetham made a strong financial case within the funding rules for moving learning online which is well worth exploring. Critically, RSC expertise is available to supported providers to help you apply the ideas. If you are interested, please get intouch.
Focus On: Business processes JISC news Open Source advice Management Direction
Curriculum Delivery
Operational Support
Without doubt these are tough times for businesses everywhere. Being a learning provider in the private or public sector is doubly traumatic with the looming funding cuts – savings have to be made. The cliché of doing more for less has never been more true. There are three obvious ways to go – reduce what you are doing, do what you do more efficiently, or do more for the same cost. So how do we begin to think about becoming more efficient? We can take it that no matter how big or small a learning provider you are, there are common functions e.g. Curriculum Delivery, Management Direction and Operational Support and these critical functions need to join up and work together effectively before major efficiency savings can be identified. This boils down to the other popular business cliché of “first learn to do the right thing, before you try to do things right”. There are many obvious quick wins that can be achieved by “joining things up”: • Improved Effectiveness – “Doing the right thing”: Personalisation, improving quality, meeting changing customer/learner needs and expectations. • Improved Efficiency – “Doing things right”: Increasing access and growth, reducing costs, best practice, innovating. • Reduced duplication and bureaucracy: A minimal set of processes ensures the requirements of the specific standards are co-ordinated, workloads streamlined and disparate systems avoided. By avoiding separate ‘empires’, responsibilities are made clearer and silos removed. • Reduced costs: Optimised internal and external processes, inspection, document control, training, administration, using integrated management systems (IMS).
OSS Watch provides unbiased advice and guidance on the use, development, and licensing of free and open source software. OSS Watch is funded by JISC and its services are available free-of-charge to UK higher and further education.
• Time savings: How much can be saved depends on your organisation and the range of issues. A single management system review is usually required. • Improved management of business risks: The consequences of actions are taken into account across the whole provider, ensuring that all understand how they affect each other and the associated risk mitigation is better understood. • Improved analysis of data: By defining critical and shared data sets it becomes easier to define cause and effect, and helps to provide early warning systems. • Improved communication, both internal and external: By having common objectives, a team culture can thrive and results in improved communication. • Enhanced business focus: A single set of strategic objectives of the organisation contributes to continual improvement overall. • Improved staff morale in times of change: Linking roles and responsibilities to objectives and measurable outputs, makes change and new initiatives easier to implement. Of course you will need to look at where cost savings can be made by putting a stop to doing some things but a fresh look at how your business systems join up, your operating processes, running costs and how the economic trends affect your business is more than worthwhile. For advice on how to use technology to tackle business processes in your organisation please get intouch with the RSC’s new advisor, Stuart Jones at stuart.jones@rsc-em.ac.uk or on 01509 618113.
If you want to find out more about open source software, and how this approach could potentially save you money, then they are the people to ask. OSS Watch publishes a monthly newsletter that showcases specially selected content and blog items from OSS Watch along with news and events. More information can be found on their website at www.oss-watch.ac.uk.
Single Equality Duty JISC TechDis has unveiled a wealth of support to help learning providers meet their obligations under the Single Equality Duty. Under the requirements of the Disability Equality Duty (DED) public bodies such as colleges and other learning providers are required to produce either a dedicated Disability Equality Scheme (DES) or a broader Single Equality Scheme (SES) covering all strands of equality. These should contain an Action Plan that is updated on an annual basis, while the main Scheme should be reviewed every 3 years. More details are available on the JISC TechDis website at www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/sed, including the Single Equality guidance booklet – Improve your 3Rs.
Previous newsletters are available via our website at www.rsc-em.ac.uk
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Forthcoming Events February 8th (online) 9th (full day) 10th (online) 11th (am) 15th (online) 16th (online) 16th (am) 16th (pm)
Online accessibility self-evaluation for senior managers Giving learners the best support New Build and Sustainability Forum Work Based Learning Forum Effective teaching using your VLE Strategic components of increased efficiency, consistency & compliance ILT Forum Advice and Guidance Network
March 1st (online) 3rd (am) 3rd (pm) 4th (pm) 9th (full day) 11th (pm) 15th (am) 16th (online) 23rd (online) 29th (am) 30th (am)
Top tools for creating e-learning materials Learning Resources Forum East Midlands Information Skills meeting MIS Network Developing and implementing your strategy SharePoint Forum Moodle Users Group Learning and assessment activities Technical Forum Adult and Community Learning meeting Teaching + Technology = Impact
April 5th (online) 7th (full day) 27th (online)
Accessibility and Inclusion Forum Accessibility and inclusion for library and LRC staff Learner support mechanisms
For further details please visit www.rsc-em.ac.uk where you can also sign up to our Events RSS feed. All our events and forums can be counted for CPD hours.
Get intouch JISC RSC East Midlands Loughborough College Radmoor Road Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 3BT Tel: 01509 618110 Email: support@rsc-em.ac.uk Web: www.rsc-em.ac.uk VLE: http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk 8
Equipment loans We have a range of equipment that can be lent to supported learning providers on a short-term loan for free, giving you a chance to try things out in practice, before deciding whether to invest in them. Alternatively it could be that you only need something for a specific occasion, so you could save money by borrowing on a short-term basis from the RSC. Amongst our general equipment are USB camcorders, e-book readers, eeePCs (notebooks), voting pads, a touchscreen monitor and a Wii. On the more technical side we have network monitoring tools and an example of a portable netbook classroom, constructed using 6 netbooks with a wireless router, which enables you to create a local area network.
Accessibility Toolbox
Each toolbox also contains a laptop loaded with Windows 7 and specialist software, along with a series of other devices such as a wireless keyboard & mouse; a digital pen and a voice recorder with integrated speech recognition. The Work Based Learning equipment is available exclusively to providers working in this sector and looks at promoting devices that enable learning to take place across multiple sites.
USB Camcorder set
We also have two sets of kit that are purposely designed to fit the needs of specific audiences. We have two mini accessibility toolboxes that contain assistive technology equipment. These include a number of mobile tools to help you make inclusion a practical reality in learning and teaching.
Options for borrowing include a Digimemo Pad to record written notes using ordinary paper; a one-touch video camera for simple filming and upload; and a digital wireless mini printer for instant photos from your mobile phone. For more information on what equipment is available to borrow call 01509 618110 or visit the RSC website at www.rsc-em.ac.uk/kitloans.asp.
e-fair 2011 unveiled The RSC East Midlands 2011 e-fair will take place on Thursday 23rd June in Nottingham at the East Midlands Conference Centre, on the main University of Nottingham campus in Beeston. After three years in Leicester at The Walkers Stadium, and the previous three at the University of Derby, we have changed venue again to spread the event around the region and to accommodate the growing number of attendees. Feedback from last year’s e-fair was very positive, and we plan to put on a similarly impressive event this year.
If you have any suggestions for topics or technologies that you would like to see at the e-fair, or if you would like the opportunity to present a project or some good e-practice from your organisation then please get intouch with us at events@rsc-em.ac.uk or on 01509 618110.
This publication is printed on paper from sustainable sources. In the interests of the environment, please pass on to a colleague when you’ve finished with it or recycle it. It is also available online at www.rsc-em.ac.uk.