Jisc case studies wiki Case studies / Course Data - The Arts University at Bournemouth
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Course Data - The Arts University at Bournemouth

Funded by the: Jisc e-Learning programme.

Lead Institution: The Arts University at Bournemouth (AUB).

Learner Provider Type: Higher Education

Project Duration: January 2012 - March 2013

Key Words: Course Data

Case study tags: course data, process improvement, enterprise architecture (ea), course information, creative assembly, stakeholder engagement, arts university at bournemouth

Note: This is an abridged version of this project's final report.  The full version is available here.

 

Arts University College Bournemouth

Project Summary

The Arts University Bournemouth is an art, design, media and performance institution which offers study for home and overseas students on short courses, further education, Honours degrees and postgraduate degrees. Information on short and postgraduate courses can be difficult for prospective students to track down and trying to compare this type of course from more than one institution is difficult. The information held is organised in a variety of ways and the information is not consistent between institutional websites which compounds the problem.

 

The aim of the XCRI-CAP project (eXchanging Course Related Information - Course Advertising Profile). was to make information on our short courses, undergraduate part-time provision, postgraduate taught courses and those courses offered to international students more visible and accessible through providing information in a standard format, and making this available as a feed for internal and external stakeholders.

 

As a result of this project, we have put in place effective and efficient processes and work flows which provide accurate information that populates a repository. We have developed a feed which is taken internally by our website and it is expected that there will also be external aggregators who take the feed to enable prospective students to easily compare standardised information on courses across a range of institutions.

 

An internal review was carried out which considered the information flow for short course and MA information: it identified certain shortcomings in our processes and work flows which had tended to develop organically. Once we had recorded current practice we worked with stakeholders to design new working practices and build a repository using the XCRI-CAP standard, which holds data in one place and produces a feed for internal and external stakeholders.

 

The biggest challenge was gaining the understanding of stakeholders and conveying to them the benefits for their teams and for the University as a whole. Once this had been achieved the project became easier to deliver.

 

What did we learn?

We were over ambitious in our expectations of how much we could cover in the project in terms of the number and types of courses we could include but we recognised this early on and scaled back. It has not compromised the success of the project, but we would bear this in mind next time.

 

The mapping in Enterprise Architecture took longer than envisaged to document. It is apparent that in future stakeholders need to be open about current processes and those interviewing them need to be skilful about asking the right questions to ascertain this information. Sometimes stakeholders need time to think about the processes themselves, as it can be hard to view processes with detachment when heavily involved in them.

 

The results threw up interesting anomalies and inconsistencies in the presentation of information. In some teams processes needed clarifying as some staff roles in the production of information had not previously been defined. With hindsight, more time should have been allowed for this in the work package, although it did not impact on the overall timescale.


Stakeholder engagement

Getting stakeholders on board is a major issue for any project. Trying to “sell” the main purpose of the project was made harder by the lack of a high profile external stakeholder to take the feed. With hindsight it might have been easier with short course staff to focus entirely on the in-house benefits which were strong enough in their own right to make the case for the participation required.

 

Early on, project meetings were held on days that suited stakeholders who had been invited to them as part of informing them about the project. We also ensured that the items relevant to them were covered first so they did not have to sit through the whole meeting. This demonstrated our awareness that they had busy schedules and our acknowledgement they did not need to know everything about the project, only the parts relevant to them.

 

Once the Head of Marketing and the Short Courses Manager realised what the project could achieve for them, they were supportive and progress was easier to achieve. The Head of Marketing exclaimed “That’s brilliant! It will save so much time.” when he realised the implications of the project for him and his staff. He now has responsibility for the marketing of all courses so for him the benefits have multiplied.

 

The results of the project have been impressive and one of the satisfying aspects has been winning round stakeholders who were initially disinterested and did not understand how the project could help them although this did take time and several conversations.

 

Convincing stakeholders who were very busy with their own work that it was in their interest to spend time understanding the project and investing their own or one of their team member’s time in doing some work for the project was challenging. It is harder to sell a concept: what stakeholders need to see is what the finished product looks like and how it will work in practice.

 

Collaboration

We realised during the project that networking and collaboration are important. Networking through the Jisc meetings (online and face to face) facilitated initial contact with colleagues at other institutions and individual contacts were maintained after the meetings which kept us in touch with the progress of other projects. It was interesting hearing what colleagues were doing and the large number of participants meant there was great variety in how the projects were approached. Networking and talking to colleagues at other institutions was useful in getting a sense of how others’ projects were developing as well as understanding that they were tackling similar issues.

 

The Assemblies were a good way of linking participants together although some seemed to work better than others. The Creative Assembly was particularly helpful for us as it involved institutions of a similar size as well as discipline areas which gave us all a lot in common. The drawback for the Creative Assembly was the difficulty in getting together and the short timescale of the project. With hindsight it might have been better had we arranged further online meetings (using Skype) at the first meeting. The monthly project meetings worked well: they were invaluable in checking on progress and identifying next actions with a timescale and played an important part in keeping the project on track.

 

It was not possible to update the blog regularly; this does require a time commitment from project team members and it did tend to slip to the bottom of the list: next time we will ensure responsibility for it is clearly identified at the start of the project.

 

It would have been helpful had there been a high profile aggregator to take the feed as it would have demonstrated the benefits of reduced workload and increased efficiencies and would have helped the University and our internal stakeholders to understand the external value of the project. The Plymouth aggregator for the creative arts sector does illustrate the benefits for internal and external stakeholders but has come too late in the project to help with advocacy. It is hoped that Graduate Prospects will be one of the first external aggregators and be an exemplar

 

Immediate Impact

 

The project made us think about how we collect and hold information and has resulted in changed processes which will be expanded to enable the collection of data for undergraduate courses and then to provide solutions for other information needs. The project provided the opportunity for project team members to have discussions with teams, record information about current practices and introduce improved working practices, none of which would otherwise have happened.

 

It also came at an opportune moment for AUB. During the project the Head of Marketing became responsible for the marketing of all courses (which had previously been carried out by different teams). What seemed to be an extensive task (to collect all marketing information together) suddenly became much more manageable as this project offered a long term solution.

 

Anything such as this project, which saves time and resources and enables inputting data once and making it available for multiple uses, has got to be good. Head of Marketing & Communication  

 

The Marketing team is taking a feed to populate the short courses area of the AUB website, which is already saving them time as previously the information was collected from more than one person and it was not clear which was the most recent version.

 

We now have one place to hold information on short courses and Masters courses. This covers more than fifty courses, and for many of these, details change on a termly basis. The processes for collecting data have been simplified: there is now one form to input the data. The review of processes gave the opportunity to re-assess who could and should have access to the data; specific staff have now been identified who will input the data and have editing rights. Holding the data in one place has removed all the confusion that arose from several staff collecting or producing data and holding it individually. Having one place to hold this information with access limited to specified staff has saved the Short Courses team time and reassured them about the integrity and accuracy of the information held.

 

In my area I feel that what we have built to facilitate XCRI will enable us to be more efficient in the building of our short courses for the online store. In the past we have had issues with data inaccuracies, due to data being held in more than one location and uncertainties over the master copy, therefore this should resolve these kind of issues and streamline the process.  Information Manager

 

Enterprise Architecture has already proved a useful tool outside this project and has been used by the IT and MIS sections in the areas of: virtualisation of servers; carbon management reduction; consideration of new online systems; and improving business efficiencies.

 

It is intended to use the EA process not only for recording workflow processes but also for transparency in system developments and business efficiencies. EA has enabled middle and senior management to understand the complexity of systems and workflows and it has proved to be a good tool for demonstrating duplication in processes. Following the completion of the project we intend to develop the Enterprise Architecture workflows to help ensure that the editing and publishing of certain data is restricted to identified stakeholders who will update the live feed; this will include audit processes and email integration

 

The wider community within the University will benefit from the legacy of the project. At project team meetings over the year there have been suggestions about how this method can be extended to other areas such as programme specifications and course validation and review.

 

The Creative Assembly has provided the opportunity to share details of the project with other creative arts institutions. Notes from the meeting held at AUB in March 2012 demonstrate the value of coming together, sharing practice and discussing common issues. This experience would be of benefit to other small institutions in particular who might consider undertaking similar work, as this type of institution has particular challenges which may not apply in larger institutions.

 

Future Impact

The project team is discussing the next steps for the institution at the project team meeting in March. The project team believes that this project has enabled a step change in our approach to course data. One possible development is the creation of printed material from the feed through Adobe InDesign to produce accurate pdf documents which can be downloaded from course sites: these pdfs will be produced only from the feed to ensure accurate data. The intention is for AUB to have its main and internal web sites feed from the XCRI repository for all course related information.

 

If this is rolled out to all courses then it will be very useful for the main website, content will be pushed back onto the site, one central resource for content should help with consistency of copy. Senior Web Development Officer

 

One member of SMT wants to instigate a system for holding other course information centrally, such as data for the annual course reviews, which are currently not held in one integrated database. He is particularly interested in the reporting functions so he can pull together all information on, for example, work placements, by School and Faculty.

 

The approach at AUB using SharePoint 2010 as its XCRI repository will be of use for other institutions using the same provision and the work done could be shared or developed and utilised for other institutions and customers.

 

It is intended that following the success of the XCRI projects the Creative Assembly will disseminate project methodology and the benefits of XCRI-CAP feeds to other institutions showing how members have used different management information systems and web site content management systems for staff in the areas of marketing, IT, management information systems and senior management teams.

 

This will be demonstrated through members’ use of XCRI-CAP and its integration into their own systems, and also through the creative arts aggregator. The aim is to develop the creative arts aggregator further so it provides students with a site to compare Masters courses in the creative arts.

 

We intend to develop and adopt a user template for information producers to use for courses which will identify the repository information from which core data can be taken for different purposes and audiences. This will help in auditing paper-based publications.

 

Conclusions

This is the first Jisc project in which AUB has participated and it has been an interesting and rewarding experience. The project provided opportunities and resources to enable staff to carry out improvements to our data management and infrastructure which would not otherwise have happened. It has saved considerable staff time and created clear and transparent processes enabling us to develop a feed which is of use internally and ready for external aggregators to use.

 

Working in an Assembly also brought benefits in sharing and collaborating, even though different approaches and systems were used. It has been extremely valuable to have a group through which we were able to develop and refine the XCRI-CAP process, in particular the openness and willingness of colleagues to collaborate has provided the potential for developing a creative arts based aggregator that can be used for demonstrating and supporting XCRI-CAP within the sector in the future.

 

No doubt once organisations can see the feed in action it will encourage take-up: however it is harder to see how websites which currently devolve responsibility for institutional entries to the institutions themselves will be motivated to put in the work required to take the feed, although hopefully if one or two sites take the feed and are seen to have a competitive advantage others will be encouraged to do the same.

 

Once the XCRI feeds are taken up by external stakeholders, universities who have not had the opportunity to develop such robust systems and work flows should be interested to learn about those who have, so the final reports should be of value to the sector, and the number of participants means that institutions can quite easily find reports from institutions that match them in size or type.

 

Recommendations

Online meetings are a good idea: however going through PowerPoints which are on the website is frustrating for those of us who have taken the trouble to read them already. The online meetings should enable participants to learn information not available elsewhere (at that time).

 

The face to face meetings are useful and it is sensible to hold them in two venues when there are so many participants so they can attend the most convenient meeting. The content of these meetings could be reviewed: it felt as though there was a lot of repetition of things that were already on the website or had been mentioned at online meetings. The opportunity to network at these meetings was the most positive aspect of them.

 

The creative arts based aggregator could be used in future XCRI-CAP projects to encourage other specialist art institutions to see the benefit of XCRI-CAP and integrated feeds.

 

Given the lack of external stakeholders for the output of this project, some kind of mock-up of the finished result to show internal and external stakeholders at the start of the project would have been useful.

 

It would be appropriate for Jisc to showcase some of the institutions’ aggregators being developed with associated feeds, particularly from different subject disciplines in the sector, building on the Birmingham event. Course comparison is key and this would engage those institutions, organisations and stakeholders who may be struggling with the concept of XCRI-CAP and enable them to engage with partners and the process.

 

Further details: email and contact names etc

Project Director - Jon Renyard, Director of Academic Services

Project Manager - Julia Waite, Head of Library and Information Services

Contact email - jrenyard@AUB.ac.uk

Project Web URL - http://xcri.AUB.ac.uk/