Colleagues,
Information Services (IS) are continuing to work on delivering an ambitious programme of work to support the University. I’ve started to send these emails as a way to update you on our progress, and inform you of some of the other interesting developments from our department.
We are here to help so if you have any questions about anything mentioned in this newsletter please don’t hesitate to
contact me.
Support for Research
IS have placed research high on the agenda as we continue to support this key priority for the University.
I’m pleased to tell you that deposits to the
Research Repository are growing, and last week topped the 5,000 records mark. To help satisfy Research Excellence Framework requirements, it’s important to send the full-text of your final post-peer review draft to the Repository. Either deposit it yourself, or email it to
repository@napier.ac.uk. This is also the place to put any queries, or if you need any assistance at all with the Repository. Please keep these submissions rolling in!
Support for the Academic Agenda
IS are currently trialling
Box of Broadcasts (BoB National) with teaching staff. It’s an online shared service which allows for the recording, searching, viewing and creation of extracts of programmes broadcast on digital and Freesat television. If the trial is successful we hope to subscribe to the service next year, it will replace the Library’s off air recording service whilst complementing the existing Omni Service.
The
NOVI Survey Support course in Moodle provides a range of resources to support students and staff in the use of NOVI survey for gathering and analysing data from different audiences, on and off campus. The course is available for anyone at the University to self-enrol, and a course forum is actively monitored for questions and comments.
The
Moodle Academic Forum is open to all academic and professional service staff to help guide the Moodle service in support of our learning and teaching activities. Discussions have touched on the visibility and content of programme sites, and so work is underway to develop a My Programme block. Staff and students can post enhancement requests via the new Moodle Feedback block, so feel free to
browse recent requests which have been completed or are under review.
Mahara ePortfolio is available for use by all staff and students by adding the block to your Moodle homepage on any course. A project is underway to develop a Mahara Community service for use by students after they graduate from the University. Staff who are participating in ENroute will shortly have an opportunity to use Mahara in support of their ENroute professional dialogue.
Learn more about our Academic Applications
Project Updates
IS are currently engaged in an impressive programme of work consisting of around 40 separate IT projects. Our current project portfolio spans several areas of work such as infrastructure, business processes, applications and student experience, amongst others.
The project to replace the University’s printers, copiers and scanners with sustainable and efficient
Multi-Functional Devices (MFDs) is nearing completion. In total 69 MFDs have been installed across all three campuses and 42 Colinton Road.
Supporting our Students
Within IS we pride ourselves in offering an excellent, customer focused service to our students.
We are committed to meeting their needs, particularly around the demanding exam period. To show our commitment we opened and staffed our three Libraries and the JKCC on the April Spring Bank holiday.
We were kept extremely busy and received lots of positive comments about our availability during this University holiday. It is something we will now look to do again when appropriate.
Kind regards
David Telford
Director
Information Services