Organisational Context

Digital technologies have clearly changed the HE and FE environment over the last 15 years. Network technologies now enable different modes of information (e.g. text, sound, video) to flow quickly and securely across departments, functions, locations and traditional organisational boundaries permitting better access and sharing of information. Access to the information can be controlled and customised for different requirements and users through robust access management, facilitating new ways of working and collaboration. This has implications for how the organisation conducts its core functions, the roles of the people within it and its working relationships with other partners and stakeholders. Such organisational integration requires a holistic and strategic approach, underpinned by common systems which can communicate with each other.

In a recent JISC-funded book, The e-revolution and post-compulsory education (Boys and Ford, 2008) which explores the lessons HE and FE can learn from best practice in E-business, Les Watson argues that despite considerable investment in hardware, systems and networks and an awareness of the potential of open standards and service oriented architectures to achieve interoperability between systems in the sector there is little high level strategic impetus to achieving integration and many systems within institutions still cannot 'talk' to each other. He argues that this is stopping the post-compulsory education sector from taking advantage of many of the opportunities offered by new technologies and what is required is 'a fundamental review and rationalisation of business processes' to offer an integrated service to students, staff and other stakeholders.

The tendency in the sector has been to use ICT as an operational enabler to meet the needs of its core functions rather than an agent for strategic or transformational change (Duke and Jordan 2008). Despite this information and communications technologies have challenged and changed most institutions' core functions of Learning and Teaching, Research and Management.

Learning and Teaching

The sector has come a long way in its use of learning technologies. The 2008 survey of technology-enhanced learning for higher education in the UK by the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA 2008) highlighted that whilst a wide range of centrally supported software is used, students are using many other technologies for a variety of purposes: e-assessment, e-portfolios, podcasting, blogs and wikis. Added to these there is a growing demand from learners for streaming media, mobile computing and other Web 2.0 applications such as social software. These were all highlighted as tools supporting learning and teaching.

Students now expect to use their own equipment to engage in learning in an institutional context and to personalise institutional services (JISC/MORI), they are used to communicating and having access to timely and relevant information, through a plethora of devices, anywhere and at anytime. In many institutions physical learning spaces and the services they accommodate have to be designed, to meet some of these expectations. The developments of Web 2.0 technologies, virtual worlds, services such as Google Apps, and open content repositories are all challenging conventional concepts of information creation, use, ownership, quality and storage.

There is recognition that the student experience needs to be more integrated across the institution and that the impact on student learning is wider than just the teaching and learning process. HEFCE recently revised its e-learning strategy to broaden its focus from learning technology to the wider processes and practices which impact on learning.

'The term 'e learning' can now sometimes be too narrowly defined to describe fully the widespread use of learning technology in institutions. We think it is more appropriate to consider how institutions can enhance learning, teaching and assessment using appropriate technology. 'We wish to focus on the benefits and the outcomes from using technology to support learning and related processes, which will be different in each institution. Underpinning infrastructures, management practices, architectures and services have an impact on learning, teaching and assessment, as do services for learners more generally... Our emphasis is on recognising that technology has a fundamental part to play in higher education, but that institutional contexts and strategies are key, with the implication that institutions need to consider how to invest block grant appropriately'

HEFCE 2009

Research

A study commissioned by JISC and the British Library into the information behaviour of future researchers, termed the 'Google Generation' (CIBER 2008), claims that although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information they find on the web and that HE needs to continue to provide learners with higher order information skills.

Advances in technology and the sciences have changed the nature of research. Ambitious international research projects ( e.g. CERN Large Hadron Collider) create ever more data and the question for researchers and librarians is how to store it and make it accessible to a wider community, as software to access data sets becomes obsolete and custodians of the data change libraries are being asked to store research data. Developments such as in online journals, institutional repositories, grid resources for data storage or computation, virtual environments to share data and exchange ideas are all challenging traditional concepts of accessibility, ownership, creation and storage of information as well as testing existing business models for research publication.

Management Information

HE and FE institutions operate in a competitive world with ever-scarcer resources and greater external scrutiny. The need to have up to date business intelligence is key for the decision making processes within institutions. Effective records management is essential for digital preservation and legal compliance. Web services have significantly changed administrative processes such as admissions, course management, and finances etc, making self service a necessity. Students and staff now have far better access to information than in the past. In addition the line between study and work is blurring as lifelong learning and student mobility become more established. e-portfolios and the student achievement record (Burgess Group Report 2007) demand greater personalisation and sharing of student data across institutions and employers.

The Government's Transforming Government Though Technology initiative is also encouraging public sector organisations to develop shared services as a means 'to reduce waste and inefficiency by re-using and sharing investments' which will have implications for institutions in mapping and costing business processes (Duke and Jordan 2008).