170 University Web managers attended their annual conference and explored ways in which innovative use of the Web can ensure that Universities are well-positioned to weather the cuts which the sector is facing.
A variety of innovative ways of supporting teaching and learning and research were discussed at the 14th annual Institutional Web Management Workshop - and many of the technologies were being used by the delegates themselves at the conference.
A Twitter ‘back channel’ was used to allow the delegates to discuss the talks with speakers welcoming this form of ‘active learning’. The back channel was also used to provide captioning of the videos of the talks, thus enhancing the accessibility of the talks.
The JISC’s support for a rapid development culture was apparent at the event with demonstrations of a variety of technologies which were produced in the run-up to the conferences.
One of the main challenges of the current environment is how the sector deals with innovation and innovative practices. The conference focused on how innovation is a viable and valuable approach even when times are hard. Many talks focused on how new approaches to the web - cloud-based services, web-scale, shared services, etc - could be used not only to reduce costs but also to demonstrate value.
Several speakers also looked at how HEI web teams can demonstrate their value, by showing how online processes can radically reduce costs and help market institutions.
etc.
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The intention is to group-source a press release.
The press release will be sent to the Times Higher.
The aim is to have an article published which demonstrates the value of the Web to HE and the positive approaches which are being taken within the Web management and Web development sectors.
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A prominent researcher and author on Website Visibility from CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology), South Africa, Prof Melius Weideman, has attended the 14th IWMW Conference in Sheffield. He has been tasked with project managing CPUT’s designing and implementation of a new CMS and Web interface. He commented on the “practice what we preach” elements of this conference, where participants were using the very technologies they work with to provide a better conference experience.
“I was very impressed with the way UK university webmasters were participating in this conference using various innovative technologies. Live Twitter comments, video updates and a variety of applications contributed to the general sharing of information and learning experience. These eventually added value to what attendees got out of this excellent conference”, he said.
However, the most prominent element he became aware of, was the positive attitude towards providing better service to the client, even in the face of financial and other resource constraints. “The IT gurus really seemed to be bent on ensuring continuation of service delivery, even improving the user experience, in difficult times”.
Prof Weideman commented that he was not surprised that this event has survived for 14 years. “I wish your South African colleagues could take this idea and link the 23 South African universities in the same way. Whoever is behind this has done an excellent job of establishing a collaborative platform which really seems to contribute to creating and maintaining working, even popular university systems”. He promised to either attend future events himself, or enable other CPUT employees to do so.
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- VCs warned of the dangers of cutting web services
- Web holds the key to ‘weathering the storm’
Web services are key to helping lecturers, research staff and university administrators to increase the visibility and transparenccy of their activities, and generate much needed efficiencies in the face of cuts. This was just one of the conclusions to come out of the annual conference of university web managers, the Institutional Web Management Workshop, which met in Sheffield earlier this week.
The conference, which was themed 'The web in turbulent times,' brought together web experts from across the public and private sector to look not only at how web teams can respond to the challenges posed by shrinking budgets, but also at opportunities for web teams to make their institutions more agile and technology-focused.
Speaking at the conference, Ranjit Sidhu, Director of web consultancy firm Statistics into Decisions, said that in many for-profit industries, even in these challenging times, the one area that has been resilient to large expenditure cuts are internet and web services due to every pound spent being accountable and transparent, and therefore justified. Ranjit said that university web teams should be doing more to highlight the value for money that they already deliver, and compared ‘return on investment’ of using the web for student recruitment, with the cost involved in printing and sending hard-copy brochures to prospective students around the world.
Chris Sexton, Director of Corporate Information and Computing Services at the University of Sheffield, also speaking at the conference, said that the high expectations of fee-paying students with regard to online services, along with the growing mobility of access, meant that university web teams would need to continue to invest in innovation rather than 'just keeping the lights on.'