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0010 SP: Available Technologies
“If you’re walking on thin ice you might as well dance”. Making
the most of available technologies to promote student choice.
Authors
Kirstie Coolin
Stuart Wood
Theme
Making things happen
Tags
browne, choice, data, IAG, learner,
linked, opendata, participation,
widening
UK Education institutions, support services and students are facing
significant financial and cultural challenges. Despite these, it remains critical
that the UK produces world class, highly skilled employees to underpin the
economy (Browne 2010). Substantial increases in tuition fees will mean that
students need the best information available to make informed choices. It
is therefore vital that information about courses together with peripheral
information about the labour market (LMI), transport, location, finance,
is current, accurate and informative. The University of Nottingham’s JISCfunded
SALAMI project is asking the question ‘How can Labour Market
Information be collected and used in ways that cut costs, enable shared
services and achieve more for less effort?’. Many different users are collating
and viewing LMI, each downloading, interpreting and describing data for
their own purposes resulting in significant duplication of effort (Booth and
Coolin 2010). The educational landscape is changing. These challenges
offer an opportunity for creativity to thrive in a new business environment
where hitherto peripheral technological approaches are considered as long
term viable business solutions. Shared services will help meet the needs of
careers professionals and curriculum planners, providing the information
element and enabling them to concentrate on offering quality one-toone
guidance. The session will cover how SALAMI has developed shared
web services for learners, employees and institutions through using and
joining sources of LMI, open and institutional data. New combinations
and ‘mashups’ of Information Advice and Guidance-related (IAG) data are
providing new, dynamic routes into intelligence thus empowering learners
to explore and personalise the pathways into education and employment.
The demonstration will present the mashups and IAG web services
developed with an emphasis on user journey which attendees will have a
hands-on opportunity to try out. Attendees will learn how open data mash
ups for IAG can:
• Reduce the duplication of effort collating and using LM intelligence
• Enable more agile and employer responsive curriculum
• Enhance information about learning and employment opportunities for:
– Information, Advice & Guidance
– Course search
– Curriculum planning
– Curriculum gap analysis
– Workforce development
– Regional planning
– Employer and business engagement activities.
References
Browne, J. 2010. Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education Booth, J., and Coolin K. 2010.
Shared Aggregation of LAbour Market Information: Baselining LMI use amongst SALAMI Project
partners
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