JISC Progress Report Template - Full Before completing this template please note: This template is for completion by JISC funded projects Text in blue italics is explanatory and should be deleted in completed documents. The Project Management Guidelines (www.jisc.ac.uk/proj_manguide.html) explain the purpose of Progress Reports. Please remember to fill in the information on the header - i.e. project hashtag, doc version, and date) Project Identifier Project Information To be completed by JISC Project Title Making the most of Course Information: Stage 2 Project Hashtag Optional Start Date 12/01/2012 End Date 30/03/2013 Lead Institution Project Director Project Manager Contact email Partner Institutions Project Webpage URL UWE John Rushforth Jo Midgley (Acting) Jo.midgley@uwe.ac.uk NA tbc Programme Name Course Data: making the most of course information - Stage 2 Programme Manager Ruth Drysdale, elearning Team Innovation Document Information Author(s) Jo Midgley Project Role(s) Project Manager Reporting Period From 01/01/2012 to 25/05/2012 Date 25/05/2012 Filename URL If this report is on your project web site Access Project and JISC internal General dissemination Document History Version Date Comments 0.1 25/05/2012 Page 1
Table of Contents NB : This table of contents auto-populates - to update the table of contents place cursor in the table of contents, right-click your mouse, click update field, select appropriate option Section One: Summary... 3 Section Two: Activities and Progress... 3 Section Three: Institutional & Project Partner Issues... 4 Section Four: Outputs and Deliverables... 4 Section Five: Outcomes and Lessons Learned... 4 Section Six: Evaluation... 4 Section Seven: Dissemination... 5 Section Eight: Risks, Issues and Challenges... 5 Section Nine: Collaboration and Support... 6 Section Ten: Financial Statement... 6 Section Eleven: Next Steps... 6 Page 2
Section One: Summary Please provide a short overview (1-2 paragraphs) of project progress during this reporting period, which could be disseminated to programme stakeholders. In general the project is on target with good progress made in many of the work packages. There has been some rejigging of deadlines as some work have begun before anticipated. Significant progress has been made in reviewing content management, proof of concept, course marketing strategy and the courses publishing process. Work to produce a technical specification as a result of a data mapping exercise is ongoing. This will inform key areas including the ongoing review of the placeholder template. Project team has met to review progress and work stream leads continue to review achievement against planned objectives. Section Two: Activities and Progress Report on activities as outlined in your work packages for the period covered by this report and describe any changes to this, including the reasons for these. Do include any additional activities undertaken that are not in your work packages, providing the background to their inclusion. Work packages Stage 2 Project set up and major deliverables Proof of concept Applicant Facing Courses Marketing Strategy Business case Courses publishing process review Progress Made 1. Project team established 2. Project Initiation Document approved internally 3. Project approved by University Information Technology Steering Group 4. Identified need for new Project Manager following departure of previous role holder (interviews to be held 31/05/12) 5. Workpackage leads identified 6. Deliverables and deadlines agreed and allocated 1. Work on proof of concept complete. UWE is able to take feed from courses database and other internal systems and publish through XCRI-CAP feed 2. Work now underway on technical spec and data mapping exercise from UWE systems XCRI-cap and COOL URI 1. Student recruitment and marketing strategy agreed includes courses marketing strategy 2. Centralisation of marketing team in recent university restructuring has facilitated one university approach to courses marketing 1. Original business case revisited with new information about competitive advantage, future proofing and opportunities presented by improved visibility 2. Links to ongoing review of CPD provision at UWE and how best to present this to prospective audience and links to project discussed 1. Review of existing course publishing process complete Page 3
2. New guidelines written for completion of narrative fields in courses database Content review Technical and Systems Review 1. Audit of quality against new guidelines underway to be completed within 3 months 1. Technical data mapping exercise underway to inform technical spec and are changes to UWE systems required to facilitate Section Three: Institutional & Project Partner Issues Report on any changes or issues in your institutional context and/or any progress or issues with your project partners (where applicable). 1. Project Manager left and us yet to be replaced. Interim project management provided by Director of Student and Partnership Services. However workpackage leaders have continued to make progress and reported back to Project Board. 2. Technical team concerned about lack of a validator as this would help in data mapping and development of feed. 3. University undergoing large scale restructuring directly impacting marketing, admissions, IT services all of which are key stakeholders in project however this has not yet hampered progress on project. 4. New one university marketing approach and content review has highlighted significant differences in use of current fields in courses database and significant work to improve the quality and consistency will need to be undertaken to facilitate feed. Section Four: Outputs and Deliverables Are there any outputs or deliverables you would like to share (e.g. presentations, studies)? Please describe, provide URLs or attach documents etc. Not at this stage. Section Five: Outcomes and Lessons Learned Outline any emerging outcomes or lessons, if any that have been learned during this reporting period that could be passed on to other projects or JISC. Not at this stage. Section Six: Evaluation Provide brief details of progress in terms of the development and implementation of the project evaluation plan. Detail any interesting findings or emerging evaluation issues of interest. Eg How many courses is the project expecting to include in its XCRI-CAP feed? What types of courses are these (eg 20 Short Course in History, 10 CPD courses in Health, 3 CPD in Business all on which have 100% online delivery, 5 PG(T) Computing ) The project is progressing as planned and deliverables/objectives are on target. Page 4
UWE programmes in all subject areas including Business, Law, Sciences, Health, Creative Industries, Engineering, Built Environment: UWE will include all FT/PT taught programmes circa 600 CPD/short course provision circa 500 Section Seven: Dissemination Report on any communication or dissemination activities with project stakeholders or the wider community which have taken place during the reporting period. Attach or provide URLs for any relevant dissemination or presentation materials. Include details of any publicity the project received during the reporting period. Project Board/team meets monthly Monthly report provided to University Information Technology Strategy Group Dissemination through team meetings in relevant services Web-page to be constructed shortly Section Eight: Risks, Issues and Challenges Report on any issues or problems that have impacted on the development and implementation of the project during the reporting period. Detail what impact any issues may have on the achievement of project targets, and set out how you plan to tackle these issues. Report on any unexpected project achievements. In this section you can list whether there have been changes in risks, whether they have become issues and whether new risks have been identified. Risk type Risk Description P: 1 5 (1=low 5=high) Personnel Fatigue from One University Administration may impact appetite for further process change S: 1 5 (1=low 5=high) Risk Score (PxS) Detail of action to be taken (mitigation / reduction / transfer / acceptance) 2 2 4 Reduce effective communications about what the project is required to achieve and the advantages for UWE and the OUA Programme Engagement with key stakeholders who see the benefits of consistency beyond the project outlined readiness review gathered feedback from appropriate stakeholders and took account of concerns Ensure there is suitable Project Manager and work stream leaders clearly identified to drive through stage 2 Personnel Key people leave 3 3 9 Reduce New project manager identified along with contingency support Workstream leaders tasked with ensuring teams briefed on project requirements and deliverables Personnel Personnel Front line staff are not fully briefed on courses content changes so unable to respond to prospective applicant queries Competing demands on inhouse resource 1 1 1 Reduce Ensure implementation plan delivers ongoing communications about the project and includes a sustainability stage to embed the changes Consistency will provide significant efficiency and help front life staff in engaging with course content 2 4 8 Reduce Implementation plan has been developed Page 5
Technical (particularly supporting business as usual activity) on Project Team undermine project Scale and complexity of UWE courses means significant work to ensure consistency required which may require additional resource not factored into business case by key contributors to stage 2 in order to raise awareness of resource requirements Keep Project Board informed of resourcing and where bottlenecks are identified, JISC funding will be used for backfill resourcing 2 2 4 Reduce Quality review and improvements underway, regular review of process and update provided on progress to monthly Board for consideration of need for investment Section Nine: Collaboration and Support What areas of work would you like to discuss with other projects? How will this project link with the UCAS course search rewrite which is underway? Is there anything that you would like advice and support on? Do you have any specific training needs, requests or suggestions for supporting workshops for the programme? Will a validator for the technical data mapping be available shortly? Section Ten: Financial Statement Please update your project budget spreadsheet and submit to you Programme Manager alongside this report Section Eleven: Next Steps In this section you should very briefly list the activities planned and/ other information of relevance for the next stage of the project. Data mapping and technical spec development Ongoing quality audit and updates to ensure correct in line with new guidance on course marketing narratives Link to review of CPD provision at UWE to ensure all provision captured in database which will feed the XCRI link Data preparation work to commence Publication of data courses publishing workflow Checklist: Before you return this report: Ensure that your project webpage on the JISC website is up to date and contains the correct information. Attach details of any required amendments to this report. Project webpages can be found from: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/coursedata/stage2projects.aspx Page 6
If there have been any changes to the original project plan and/or work packages, ensure that amended copies of the relevant sections of your project plan are attached to this report. Page 7