UCISA- SSG (Support Services Group) Annual Report

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "UCISA- SSG (Support Services Group) Annual Report"

Ginger Bates
5 years ago
Views:

1 UCISA- SSG (Support Services Group) Annual Report Purpose During , the committee reviewed and updated the purpose of the group as follows, to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of UCISA members: The Support Services Group brings together those with an interest in supporting, advising and training users of information, communication and learning technologies in HE. The SSG Committee aims to identify and share innovative and best practice, and connect and develop the IT support services community through: Seeking out innovation horizon scanning and identifying hot topics Running events conferences, symposia, workshops, webinars Developing resources case studies, good practice guides, toolkits Monitoring practice surveys, identifying trends, benchmarking Connecting people using lists, blogs, webinars and events to support each other, share experience and best practice The Support Services Group has a number of sub- groups focusing on particular areas. These are: Academic Support Group Communication Group Service Desk Group User Skills Group 2. Committee Membership The members of the SSG are the Chair (Amber Miro) and the Chair and Vice Chairs of the committee sub- groups: Academic Support Group (ASG) Julie Voce, Imperial College London (Chair) Fiona Strawbridge, University College London (Vice Chair) Jebar Ahmed, University of Huddersfield Athina Chatzigavriil, London School of Economics Richard Walker, University of York Service Desk Group (SDG) James Woodward, University of Manchester (Chair) Stuart Barkworth, University of Sheffield (Vice Chair) Sally Bogg, University of Leeds Jenny Jordan, Edge Hill University Communications Group (CG) Robert Needham, University of Sheffield (Chair) Vacant (Vice Chair) Sue Cunningham, University of Leeds Brian Kelly, UKOLN Abdul Majothi, University of Edinburgh Mandy Phillips, Liverpool John Moores University Jo Robinson, Newcastle University Marina Whitmore, Cardiff University User Skills Group (USG) Gillian Fielding, University of Salford (Chair) Paul Jackson, University of Wolverhampton (Vice Chair) Julie Adams, Staffordshire University Jane Hetherington, University of Leeds Caroline Norris, University College London

2 Franko Kowalczuk, Kings College London Alex Szymanski, University of Manchester Carla Thornley, Sheffield Hallam University Vince Woodley, University of Cambridge Phil Vincent, Sheffield Hallam University Grazyna Whalley, University of Sheffield Dilys Young (long- standing member and Chair of the Service Desk Group and member of the Support Services Group committee) stepped down this year, and the group would like to highlight and thank her for her outstanding contribution to the work of UCISA over the last thirteen years. 3. Committee Meetings 08 June 2011, University College London November 2011, University of Salford 08 February 2012, University of Wolverhampton Each of the sub- groups also met on three or four occasions during the year. 4. Events Event Number of delegates Summary of feedback Austin Court, Birmingham, April 2011 Austin Court, Birmingham, 6-7 June 2011 Advisory and Support Staff Symposium Looking out, Looking in - Shared Services and Collaboration Gillespie Centre, Clare College, Cambridge, June 2011 Presenters included: Tim Marshall (Chief Executive Officer, JANET UK), Lynne Tucker (Chief Technology Officer, King s College London), Chris Parry (Head of Systems and Security, University of Nottingham), Maxine Melling (Director of Library and Student 148 A joint event, organised and run by the SSG Service Desk Group and the Distributed IT Support Staff (DITSS) Subgroup of the Staff Development Group. The theme for the symposium, "Looking out, looking in - shared services and collaboration", built on the theme of the previous year s User Support Conference Delivering excellent services in hard times, with the two- day programme exploring themes of common interest to service desk staff and those involved with staff development. A rich mix of parallel sessions enabled delegates to

3 Support, Liverpool John Moores University), Howard Kendall (Founder and Chairman, Service Desk Institute) Austin Court, Birmingham, September 2011 Austin Court, Birmingham, 1-2 December 2011 Engaging Hearts and Minds Innovation Forum, University of Salford, 7 December 2011 Presenters: Frances Boylan (Dublin Institute of Technology), Mary Jacob (Aberystwyth University), Hennie Yip (University of Salford), Paul Lowe, (London College of Communication), Jon Rhodes and Paul Towers (University of Wolverhampton), Asanka Dayananda and Agi Ryder (Middlesex University) Austin Court, Birmingham, 08 December 2010 Service Desk Good Practice Guide Austin Court, Birmingham, 11 January 2012 Presenters: Alex Szymanski (University of Manchester), Stuart Barkworth (University of Sheffield), Franko Kowalczuk (Kings College London), Jenny Jordan (Edge Hill University), Sally Bogg (University of Leeds) pick those sessions which best addressed their individual needs and interests. 58 This event supported the Best Practice guide produced by the Academic Support Group, containing a set of ten case studies on engaging academics in the use of technology- enhanced learning. The event showcased six of the case studies and was very well received by the delegates. 42 This one day event built on two workshop sessions run at the Advisory and IT Support Symposium in June. The event, which was presented by the SSG Service Desk Group enabled delegates to complete the whole of the Service Desk Good Practice Guide, which was started at the symposium, and also focused on "Key Performance Indicators" (KPIs) for the Service Desk, seeking to determine typical values from across the sector.

4 Using Social Media to Communicate Austin Court, Birmingham, 18 January 2012 Presenters: Joe Nicholls (Cardiff University), Katie Christie (University of the Arts), Mike Kelly (University of the Arts), Steve Boneham (JISC Netskills), Martin Hamilton (Loughborough University), Brian Kelly (UKOLN), Michael Nolan (Edge Hill University), Pamela Agar (Imperial College London) 75 A one- day event looking at how social media can be used as a successful communication channel. Sessions covered how to get started using social media, what tools to use and how to integrate them into other communication channels and strategies. Total number of delegates 323 at SSG events Total number of delegates 80 at SSG- badged events 5. Engaging Hearts and Minds Good Practice Guide In conjunction with the event on Engaging Hearts and Minds, the Academic Support Group has created a Good Practice Guide to provide examples of good practice in engaging academics, and other staff, in the use of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). The guide contains ten case studies which look at a variety of methods for engaging academics such as: setting up communities of practice developing intensive training and support programmes incorporating TEL into Postgraduate Certificate courses encouraging academics to publish their research in TEL. Each case study describes the activity and the approach taken, provides an evaluation of the activity and discusses future developments and transferability.

5 UCISA- SSG (Support Services Group) Business Plan Introduction This document summarises the main activities planned by the UCISA Support Services Group (UCISA- SSG) and its sub- groups in the period March 2012 to February 2013 that have a financial dimension, and which may incur costs or make a financial contribution to UCISA funds. Details of the other activities and of the structure and function of the SSG and its four sub- groups, Academic Support (SSG- ASG), Communications (SSG- CG), Service Desk (SSG- SDG) and User Skills (SSG- USG) can be found at: 2. Plans for March 2012 to February 2013 The Support Services Group committee is an umbrella group, whose membership comprises the four Chairs and four Vice Chairs of each of its sub- groups. The UCISA- SSG committee meets three times a year in order to co- ordinate and support the sub- groups, and to work collectively on cross- cutting activities for the benefit of UCISA members from the support services community. The Chair of UCISA- SSG is a member of the Executive Committee of UCISA and provides the primary link between the Executive and the UCISA- SSG and its sub- groups. The group is also joined by the Executive Secretary and Business Manager at its annual planning meeting, which will take place in the autumn of Support Services Conference The main event in the SSG Calendar for is the 2012 Support Services Conference, a three- day event, jointly organised and run with the UCISA Staff Development Group (SDG). This year, the conference will take place from July at Crewe Hall, Cheshire, the first time this conference will be held at a non- academic venue. The full conference fee will be 395, which is an increase on the 2010 conference rate ( 350); however, it has been assumed that there will be little if any sponsorship and so the conference will be entirely funded from delegate fees. The organising committee is Sue Fells & Peter Tinson (UCISA HQ), Tony Brett & Nici Cooper (UCISA SDG) and James Woodward & Vince Woodley (UCISA SSG). The theme of the conference will be around the expectations staff, students and visitors have from IT services within a University. IT has experienced a number of challenges over the recent years and in turn has made a number of changes. With the introduction of higher fees for the next academic year IT departments are going to be put under even more pressure to enhance the service they provide. The aim of the conference is to bring together the different expectations from our various customers, look at how we can continue to deliver, keep up to date and manage our services in order to provide an excellent experience for all. Social Media for Training The User Skills Group is running a one- day event at the University of Salford, MediaCityUK campus on 18 April on using Social Media for Training. During the event, delegates will gain insight into best practice from across the sector, find out about some of the issues surrounding the use of social media and how to deal with them, understand how to make informed decisions about the use and potential use of social media, and learn how to get started, what tools to use and how to integrate them into other training methods.

6 Technology Enhanced Learning Survey The major activity for the Academic Support Group this year is the biennial Technology Enhanced Learning Survey (funded by JISC). The survey was sent out to all UK HE institutions in mid- January and from March to September the group will be analysing the data and writing the Survey report. As per the 2010 Survey, the group also intend to add a set of case studies to accompany the Survey report. The group expect to present the Survey findings at various conferences as well as produce a journal article to mark the 10th anniversary of the Survey. Service Desk Toolkit The Service Desk Group is planning to undertake a service desk toolkit survey and produce a report containing survey results and case studies. Online directory of IT training expertise in HE The User Skills Group will be investigating the possibility of creating a fully- searchable online directory of IT training expertise in HE, with content provided and updated by the community. 3. Finances General Policy The UCISA Executive Committee exercises financial oversight principally by approving the annual Business Plan of the UCISA- SSG. All events are organised in accordance with UCISA Financial Regulations agreed by the UCISA Executive. Compliance is ensured by the procedure of projected income and expenditure accounts for each event being submitted to the UCISA Treasurer for scrutiny and approval. Budgets and draft accounts for each event are discussed by the appropriate organising committee and endorsed by the Chair of UCISA- SSG before submission. Final accounts after each event are reported to the appropriate organising committee and Chair of UCISA- SSG for monitoring. Planned Income and Expenditure March 2012 to February 2013 Events: It is UCISA financial policy that groups will be overall self- financing for all their events in the planning period. UCISA- SSG will adhere to this policy, and while recognising that losses and gains may arise on individual events, aims to return a modest surplus of 5000 over the course of the year. Case studies: UCISA- SSG looks to promote best practice by producing, presenting and publishing case studies on its area of the website. A budget of 2400 is therefore requested in order to support the generation of two sets of case studies during 2012/13, with full proposals to be submitted to the Treasurer and Executive Secretary in due course. Web development: A budget of 2k is sought to create the online directory of IT training expertise in HE, with a full proposal to be submitted to the Treasurer and Executive Secretary in due course.

7 Surveys and Toolkits: We hope to obtain corporate sponsorship for the creation of the Service Desk Toolkit report and case studies. However, a budget of 100 is requested as an incentive to complete the initial survey. Committees: Committee meetings of the UCISA- SSG and its sub- groups do not normally incur significant costs, as members employing institutions take it in turns to host and cater meetings free of charge and pay the travel costs for members to attend meetings. The exceptions to this are the annual two- day strategy and planning meetings of the UCISA- SSG and SSG- SDG, where committee members are expected to stay overnight, and the costs of accommodation and dinner are covered by UCISA. A budget of 2000 is requested for the UCISA- SSG planning meeting and 1200 for the SSG- SDG planning meeting. Administration: General administrative support is provided by UCISA and is not costed explicitly in this plan. Administrative support for specific purposes such as conferences and workshops is included in the costing for each event through a per user levy. 4. Risk The maximum financial risk incurred is limited to the up- front financing of an event that might not realise the projected income or cancellation charges for an event that does not run. The maximum uncontrolled expenditure over the course of this planning period is therefore in the region of 53k ( 50k for the Support Services Conference and 3k for the Using Social Media for Training one- day event). UCISA- SSG 08 February 2012

Engaging with our stakeholders

Engaging with our stakeholders Report to: Board Date: 27 June 2014 Report by: Report No: Jenny Copland, Senior Communications Adviser Agenda Item: 6.3 PURPOSE OF REPORT To propose a format and processes