RSCs – Stimulating and Supporting Innovation in Learning
RSCs – Stimulating and Supporting Innovation in Learning
24th November 2009
Kingston College
“Really useful and informative”
“Ideas to take back to the college to improve some of the ways we do things”
“The presentations were really good”
The SharePoint in Education event at Kingston College was a response to the growing demand for information and support from those developing systems using SharePoint.
Over fifty delegates from across the London and South East regions made the journey to Kingston College.
The morning saw presentations on the SharePoint based developments at City and Islington College, Esher College and Kingston College. The common theme of all three developments was they integrated data from a number of different sources and made that information available to the user in a personalised context. However the approach and scope of these developments varied considerably.
After a lunch busy with discussion and networking we split into three groups to discuss in more detail what we had learnt in the morning and to share the experiences of other SharePoint development projects.
Students get a personalised user experience where they have single sign on to college systems. Web parts present information to them such as their timetable, individual learning goals, attendance, grades, library loans, assignment dates, etc. This results in a personalised one stop information portal. The Blackboard VLE is fully integrated with access provided directly to the student’s course areas. Students also have the ability to view the information held on them and update information such as contact details.
The SharePoint system at Esher College is a mature system that has been in use for several years now. Built on top of Esher’s custom MIS the SharePoint system provides a portal for both students and staff and is now the access point for almost all college systems. Rather than integrate a separate VLE this functionality has been built with SharePoint itself.
SharePoint developments at Kingston are still at an early stage compared to the others we saw. Kingston demonstrated the power of using simple workflows with a range of activities managed via the portal e.g. ranging from booking a computer in the LRC to accessing a wide range of “how to” videos on line.
The presentations provided plenty to talk about over lunch and during the afternoon discussions - the main focus of which was identifying the features of a successful SharePoint project.
During the plenary session it became evident that there was wide agreement that a successful SharePoint project had the following features:
Overall, delegates considered the event to be a great success. The RSC London team were delighted that well over a third of those present were at their first RSC London event. Delegates expressed a desire for extended support and to that end RSC London will be creating a JISC Mail list for continued discussion and are looking at the possibility of holding a similar event some time during the summer term.
Max Norton RSC Advisor
Martin Sepion RSC Advisor
