Abstract

The paper describes the growth of the information strategy at University College Worcester (UCW) and shows how it has become part of the strategic portfolio of the institution. In addition the paper reports on the growth in the adoption of information strategies in institutions across the UK and describes the recent extension of the Information Strategies Initiative of the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). A particular aspect of the paper is the inclusion of learning and teaching issues in the information strategy approach. Traditional Information Systems Strategies tend to focus on management and administrative information but the JISC approach tries to broaden the scope.

Introduction

The particular concept of "Information Strategy" used in the UK was recommended to universities by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK national funding agencies. The JISC’s Information Strategy Initiative (JISC, 1998) became fully operational in 1996 and its beginnings are described in a paper presented at EUNIS97 (Rothery and Hughes, 1997). The idea of an information strategy is to set up an institution-wide approach to information of all kinds, linked to other key institutional strategies, which acts as a driving force for the development of more technical Information Technology or Systems strategies.

It is now two years since information strategy development began at UCW and it is interesting to see the extent to which this has been absorbed into the institution. UCW is one of a small group of UK institutions chosen by JISC and given "exemplar" status in respect of its information strategy in July 1998.

In the following sections, there will be an account of the development of the JISC information strategy approach in the UK. Then the developments at UCW will be explained, showing the impact on the institution in both specific and strategic terms.
 
 

Information Strategy development in the UK

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) launched its Information Strategies Initiative in 1994. The first major promotion of the idea was the publication of the Guidelines for Developing an Information Strategy at the end of 1995. JISC set up six pilot sites, universities chosen to act as a test bed for the new initiative and to assist in the dissemination of the approach taken. The JISC also appointed a national Information Strategies Co-ordinator, Ann Hughes, to be responsible for co-ordinating the activity in the pilot sites, general dissemination and organising workshops. Full details of the initiative and relevant reports and documents are published on the JISC Web site (JISC, 1998).

Following this period of initial development, evaluation of the experience of the pilot sites and indeed that of many other universities who started to adopt an information strategy resulted in the publication of revised guidelines, Guidelines for Developing an Information Strategy - the Sequel early in 1998. These were published in recognition of the growing interest in information strategy development. The Information Strategy Co-ordinator has reported that she has made direct contact with around half the universities in the UK and most have begun or are seriously interested in beginning to follow the JISC approach.

An extension of the pilot sites scheme was announced in the summer of 1998. The new scheme saw the designation of "exemplar sites"; eight institutions, including University College Worcester, were chosen to further broaden the initiative. These sites received additional support from the JISC, have each worked on some particular aspect of information strategy development and agreed to participate in further dissemination.
 
 
 
 

Information Strategy at University College Worcester

University College Worcester began to develop its information strategy during the 1996/97 academic year. An account of the intended approach is described in a paper presented at EUNIS97 (Rothery and Hughes, 1997). An Information Strategy Group chaired by the Vice Principal was set up and it carried out a programme of initial information analysis and a survey of staff views. The outcome of this was the publication of a Phase I Report (UCW, 1997) which set out "Information Objectives" together with a list of 21 recommendations for immediate action.

The Information Objectives are a brief statement of general standards providing a background to future progress. Many of the recommendations concerned the use of e-mail, the Web and other forms of electronic communication, but many related to the dissemination and location of key paper documents too. At the strategic level, the Phase I Report recommended the creation of a formally stated Learning and Teaching Strategy and a revision of the existing IT Strategy. It also set out the plan for implementation of Phase II of the Information Strategy.

Phase II commenced in October 1997. The notion of an Information Strategy Group chaired at pro-Vice Chancellor level continued, but efforts were made to involve wider groups of staff by setting up separate groups for information analysis of specific topics. One of the aims of Phase II was to embed the notion of information strategy into the work of the institution, but in recognising that it is not possible to deal with every aspect of UCW work simultaneously two themes were adopted: "Learning and Teaching" and "Administrative Systems". The College also created a part-time post of Information Strategy Co-ordinator to assist with the operation of Phase II.

During 1998, the role of the Information Strategy Group focussed on (a) checking the implementation of recommendations from Phase I, and (b) setting up groups to carry out further information analysis. For example, two groups set up considered the following topics.

The first carried out an analysis of the process of producing statistical returns to the funding councils, linking the work of the Registry, Personnel and Finance departments.

The second group carried out an analysis of the information and communication needs within learning and teaching, specifically the process of doing an assignment, linking student and staff roles and responsibilities. This analysis is described a little more in the next section.

In addition to activities specifically related to the published recommendations of the strategy, the Information Strategy Group also surveyed related activities within departments and found itself in a consultative, co-ordinating role.

The Phase IIb Report was published in June 1998 (UCW, 1999a) and at the same time, UCW became one of the JISC ‘exemplar sites’.

In addition to pursuing its established themes, two new goals emerged as part of the ‘exemplar site’ project. One was to investigate ways of involving a wider cross-section of staff; the other was to pursue the communication and information requirements of working with ‘partner Colleges’ in the local area.

In respect of local partner Further Education Colleges, the immediate action in the spring of 1999 has been to organise a one-day workshop to identify topics of concern for further analysis. The specific topics which were agreed at this workshop were: (a) sharing information across Libraries and Learning Resource Centres, (b) communications using C&IT in support of learning and teaching, and (c) sharing information on student profiles for strategic purposes. A more detailed workshop on each of these themes will be held during the early summer of 1999.

Learning and Teaching

An important message arising from the Information Strategy Initiative is that learning and teaching processes are just as much a part of information management as areas such as administrative and management information systems (MIS).

The information analysis carried out at UCW related to "doing an assignment". A group of teaching staff, support staff and students met to investigate the different processes in this task. These covered the information and communication requirements at the time of setting an assignment, the academic information needed during the "research phase", communications needs between tutors and students, and feedback from tutors about assignments.

In some instances it was felt that current arrangements were perfectly satisfactory; in others there were concerns, and proposals for change. A major area of concern turned out to be the return of work to students. Suggestions were made to improve the security and confidentiality of the processes used to return assignments and provide feedback. One seemingly minor suggestion was that communication would be improved if tutors' comments on assignments were "typewritten" rather than handwritten; and indeed would be further improved if sent by e-mail, thus guaranteeing legibility, confidentiality and providing an introduction to further communication between tutor and student. Though this seemed a minor suggestion at the time it has proved to be quite a major change to implement.

The results of the analysis therefore produced a whole list of recommendations and suggestions and these have been fed into the college system at various points. An interesting feature of the project, typical of information strategy analyses, is that the process focus cuts across several different departments and areas of institutional responsibility. Most quality control measures tend to focus on reviewing the work of one department; in contrast this process approach covers several.
 
 
 
 

Communication and information technology

One of the claims for adopting an information strategy is that changes in technical infrastructure should be led by users’ needs rather than "technology for Technology's sake". Certainly at UCW there have been a number of substantial C and IT developments, all of which have related to recommendations coming from the Information Strategy Group.

For example the entire institutional Web system was overhauled during the last 12 months and a number of interactive information systems were developed for the Web. A pilot scheme was carried out to investigate a prototype of a data warehouse system; a new strategy for future MIS developments was adopted to permit better exchange of data between systems. The C and IT Strategy was updated and a new one published in January 1999 (UCW, 1999b). There has been a growth of interest in the use of electronic communications in learning and teaching both traditional use of e-mail and the Web and technologies such as a videoconferencing and computer conferencing . This has been pursued both in terms of the UCW campus and its partner colleges in the local region.

It would be naive to suggest none of these changes would have occurred without there being an information strategy. Certainly many of these would have been considered in any case. However there has been much greater articulation of the relationship between the way people work, their information needs and the developments in the technical infrastructure which have been set up.

Issues related to communications, exchange of data and wider access to information have achieved a much higher profile within the institution and this in turn has led to a closer involvement of the IT Service with general developments. This is a much healthier relationship.
 
 

Strategic Context

An information strategy is meant to be an overarching strategy. In other words, other strategies are supposed to follow from the aspirations and attitudes promoted in the information strategy process. Clearly however, despite the all-pervading nature of information issues, information and communication are not the only issues; the institution's overall strategic plan is of course the primary overarching strategy. Resulting strategies in some areas may not likely be significantly bound up with information strategy.

Strategies which have the most connection with information strategy have proved to be the Communication and Information Technology Strategy, the Learning and Teaching Strategy, and the Research Strategy. Each of these has very clear links with information strategy concerns. Nevertheless, even these close partners have goals of their own, and therefore not merely a ‘consequence’ of the information strategy. The way they achieve their goals is however likely to be very closely connected with communication and information issues.

In effect an information strategy is not like an institutional strategic plan; it does not set out the specific goals which other strategies then have to take on board. However it does direct and work alongside other strategies; and many of the specific recommendations coming from information analysis groups and other investigations turn into specific projects, which then become part of the strategic development of a particular area.

Conclusion

At UCW we have found the information strategy approach very useful. It has been suggested that this may well be because ours is a relatively small institution (around 4000 students) based mainly on a single campus and therefore more able to co-ordinate a strategic initiative than institutions which incorporate substantial autonomous faculties, or consist of several distinct campuses.

However, UCW has begun to make progress in using the information strategy approach in examining processes which link our work with that of a partner FE colleges in the local region. So there is no reason why an information strategy should not be helpful in co-ordinating the work of separate components within an organisation.

Experience suggests that the best way to get the most advantage from an information strategy is to view it as an ongoing "quality management" process. It is not a strategy in the sense of a forward plan which everyone has to sign up to, but a series of activities which will lead to improvements. Though the specific projects carried out relate to a particular focus, there is a "spin off" in that the attitudes and values stimulated by specific projects can, once articulated, become more generally adopted in other areas of work.
 
 
 
 

References

JISC (1998) Information Strategy Initiative Web Site, Error! Bookmark not defined.

Rothery A. and Hughes A. (1997), Information Strategy – a tool for institutional change, EUNIS97 Proceedings, Error! Bookmark not defined.

University College Worcester (1999a), Information Strategy Web Page, Error! Bookmark not defined.

University College Worcester (1999b), Communication and Information Technology Strategy, Error! Bookmark not defined.
 
 
 
 

Address

Dr A Rothery, University College Worcester, Henwick Grove, Worcester, WR2 6AJ, England, UK
 
 

Telephone: (+) 1905 855348

Fax: (+) 1905 855132