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About Netskills

Projects

Netskills undertakes a wide variety of projects, ranging from research studies to development of resources and specialist workshop programmes.

Projects have been funded by numerous organisations and funding bodies, including the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and many others.

Current Projects

The Projects

Assessment for Learning: Harnessing Technologies

As part of the Higher Education Academy/JISC Collaboration Initiative and its assessment campaign, Netskills is providing two workshops for the higher education community entitled Assessment for Learning: Harnessing Technologies.

Google Maps Project for School of Geography, Politics and Sociology

Netskills developed an interactive map to show the range of countries where research is carried out within the School of GPS at Newcastle University. The approach taken was to use the Google maps API to create a custom map overlaid with appropriate markers and user controls.

Federated Access Management: Core Skills Training

Netskills is developing a workshop to help the community explore and assess the core technical skills required to deploy Federated Access Management at their institutions. Following a successful pilot, a full programme of events is now in progress around the UK.

JISC i-Skills Self-evaluation

Following on earlier projects to develop and test content for the i-Skills Self-evaluation tool, this project involves converting the content to an online format and making the tool available.

Eduserv Information Literacy Projects

Based on recommendations from pilot projects in 2006, the Eduserv Foundation has granted further funding for two further projects. The projects aim to support the development of plagiarism awareness within schools and to equip teachers and support staff to teach information literacy.

Collaboration Tools Study

As part of JISC work on Business and Community Engagement (BCE), Netskills conducted a study of the experiences of staff in using tools to support collaboration. A survey and interviews led to a set of "user reflections" documented against a compilation of available tools for collaboration.

E-Administration Think Tank

JISC recently coordinated a national Think Tank on e-Administration, facilitated by Netskills staff, with 40 invited experts. The event aimed to discuss and contribute to the JISC e-administration agenda, supporting institutions in their use of ICT for administrative activities and organisational processes.

Development of an Online Phonetics Tutorial

The teaching of phonetics (the science of speech sounds) at Newcastle University uses a set of video recordings from the 1980s. Funded by an internal innovative teaching and learning grant, Netskills have been commissioned to assist with the recording of new materials and development of a Flash based online tutorial.

Web Site Evaluation for JISC Services

This short project is to evaluate six JISC Services web sites. A presentation of initial findings was delivered at the JISC Services Skills Day plus an overview of the evaluation criteria. The findings of the evaluations will be written up as a short report for each service who volunteered for evaluation.

Podcasting Training for JISC Users and Innovation Programme

Netskills was commissioned to develop a practical training session on the use of podcasting. The event was piloted at Netskills in September 2007 and received excellent feedback. This event is now running as part of our national workshop programme and is also available for onsite delivery.

Using Technology for Project Communications

This custom event demonstrates how web technology can enhance project communication and dissemination. The event considers how innovative uses of technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networks provide new and effective ways for projects to engage with their communities.

Higher Education Awareness for IT Suppliers

Netskills, with the UCISA procurement group, has developed a workshop to raise awareness with suppliers of IT systems and services on the nature of higher education, and the purchasing processes within institutions.

UCISA CPD Framework and Toolkit

This project provides a framework and toolkit to help support the ICT education community understand the CPD landscape. A "skills matrix" has been developed, in conjunction with tools and guidance on practical ways to link skills, qualifications, CPD activity and job descriptions.

Enterprise Simulation for Precast Concrete Operations (ESPCO)

Collaboration with University of Teesside's Centre for Construction Innovation and Research (CCIR), in a Java developer supporting role. The project makes use of simulation software to model and simulate precast concrete processes, using Java for development of the processes and interfaces.

Devolving Diasporas Research Database Project

Netskills is supporting an AHRC-funded research project based in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, designing and developing a web-based database for their research output.