1. JISC Grant Funding: e-Learning programme Embedding Benefits
Cover Sheet for Bids
(All sections must be completed)
Name of previously funded Secure Work-Based Learning Administration through
JISC project: Networked Infrastructure (SWANI)
Name of Lead Institution: Coleg Sir Gâr
Name of Proposed Project: Pilot of the SWANI Project Administrative Network
(PotsPan)
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name: Dave Howells
Position: Director of Business Development
Email: dave.howells@colegsirgar.ac.uk
Tel: 01554 748370
Fax: 01554 748170
Address: Coleg Sir Gâr, Graig Campus, Sandy Road,
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
SA15 4DN
Name(s) of Project Partners(s) Swansea Metropolitan University
including JISC services, Pembrokeshire College
associations, etc (except The Prince’s Trust
commercial sector – see below)
JISC RSC Wales
This project involves one or Name(s) of any commercial partner company (ies)
more commercial sector partners PRP Training, Pembroke Dock
YES (delete as appropriate)
Length of 12 months
Project:
Project Start May 2012 Project End April 2013
Date: Date:
Which category of funding are you A. Micro funding £5000
submitting this proposal under? B. Single project
C. Collaborative capacity building
D. Take-up pilots
Total Funding Requested from JISC: £40,000
Institutional Contribution: £21,000
Total Project Costs: £61,000
I have looked at the example FOI form at YES
Appendix A and included an FOI form in this
bid
I have read the Funding Call and associated YES
Terms and Conditions of Grant
Summary Description
Describe your proposed idea in 3 sentences.
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2. The JISC SWANI Project successfully created a digitised administrative and management
documentation system for Work Based Learning in Wales that included a digital signature
system that satisfied the audit requirements of the EU and the Welsh Government.
The proposed PotsPan project will enable the system to be piloted by the three other
partners in the Skills Academy Wales WBL consortium (a second FE institution, a private
training provider and a national charity) as well as being evaluated by a University for use in
their general information management systems.
The outputs and outcomes of the PotsPan project are expected to confirm that the
successful SWANI project system is scalable across the region, delivers significant
operational and financial benefits, meets all EU and WG audit requirements, and is
transferable to any institution or region with similar administrative and management
requirements.
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3. Proposal Form
1. Benefits and Audience:
The PotsPan project aims to share the benefits delivered by the SWANI (Secure Work-
based learning Administration through Networked Infrastructure) LTIG project and promote
the embedding of them across the partner networks of WBL providers in Wales. It also
aims to demonstrate how the same benefits can be achieved by other institutions and
networks adopting the same approach for general administrative and management
purposes. The benefits are:
The complete digitisation of the WBL administrative and management system in
South West Wales;
The introduction of a digital signature system that meets the audit requirements of
the EU and the Welsh Government, whilst contributing to the digitisation objective;
The testing of the same system for administrative and management documentation
in multi campus institutions;
A significant contribution to the goal of data security and integrity by maintaining all
information on a central database;
A significant contribution to cost effectiveness by avoiding the need for physical file
maintenance, transport and duplication.
2. Evidence:
The SWANI project was designed as a proof of concept exercise and, if successful, was
always expected to be promoted to the other institutions in the Skills Academy Wales
(South West) WBL partnership for a wider trial. All partners have acknowledged the
potential benefits and have expressed interest in being involved in a further pilot. Given the
current constraints on institutional finance, they have particularly welcomed the possibility
of JISC funding to assist them to carry out their own piloting of the system.
A pilot will also be carried out by Swansea Metropolitan University, which is in discussions
about a potential merger with University of Wales Trinity St David. This will explore the
benefits of using the system for centrally digitising document management across a
geographically dispersed institution.
The key SWANI project deliverable of a digital signature system that satisfied EU audit
requirements removed what was previously regarded as an impenetrable barrier to full
digitisation. The expectation, therefore, is that the other regional WBL consortia across
Wales, funded by the same EU/WG system, will monitor the PotsPan project pilot activities
and outcomes with a view to adopting the system if shown to deliver the anticipated
benefits and efficiencies.
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4. 3. Deliverables:
The primary deliverable from the PotsPan project will be a more refined version of the
digitised document management system for the administration and management of Work
Based Learning in the region. The open source JOOMLA content management application
is being used and this is integrated with the digital pen application that is the basis for the
digital signature system. It is expected that the additional pilot exercises will add
significantly to the operational effectiveness of the overall system which will be made freely
available to the JISC community.
The proposed outputs will include:
A fully tested JOOMLA based document management system that contains
digitised version of all the documents that are used by the WBL administrative and
management system in Wales;
A fully tested digital signature system, based on the use of digital pens, that meets
EU audit requirements;
An evaluation report that details the piloting of the same document management
system for a geographically dispersed multi-campus institution;
A project report that provides a comprehensive technical specification of the
systems developed, as well as a detailed evaluation of system effectiveness;
A final project Workshop that will demonstrate the system and provides partner
evidence of effectiveness in the support of WBL;
A content package of resources available on the JISC Design Studio that includes
CMS installation tools, ‘how to’ guides and effective practice case studies;
A planned programme of conference presentations, seminars and journal
publications to disseminate the project outputs and outcomes.
The proposed outcomes will include:
An established rationale for a digitised document management system that meets
stringent audit requirements and is applicable to a variety of recording systems;
A regional contribution to the EU Commission’s goal of achieving electronic
signature recognition in all areas of financial and legal audit;
A reinforcement of the message that open source software and web based
resources represent an important and highly cost-effective option in educational
resource procurement;
A contribution to the JISC objective of promoting the value-added benefits of
innovative funding in education.
Delivery dates and target numbers:
The majority of the outputs listed will be delivered at the end of the project period in the
form of technical specifications, evaluation reports and user guidelines. These will include
case studies detailing the WBL implementation and the institutional document
management system. A project blog will provide a continuous commentary on project
issues as it progresses and the dissemination plan will include papers submitted to key
conferences in 2012/2013 beginning with ALT-C 2012. The audience will be WBL
practitioners in particular and institutional management and IS staff generally.
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5. 4. Activity Plan:
Packaging
The outputs from the PotsPan project will be made freely available to the JISC community
through the Design Studio, through the project Wiki and Blog and will be
deposited/registered with appropriate JISC repositories.
The outputs will be presented as a content package that will contain CMS and digital pen
installation tools, ‘how to’ guidelines, and case studies of effective practice in operation and
management. All resources will be made available in accessible formats.
Coleg Sir Gâr will be responsible for this action. The packaging of the outputs will happen
in the latter stages of the PotsPan project when the outputs of the SWANI project have
been piloted and evaluated and final refinement of the systems completed.
Capacity/events
The project will begin with a practical workshop where the digitised content management
system and the digital pen system will be demonstrated, and partners will have the
opportunity to gain experience in their use. Plans will be agreed at that time for the
installation of the CMS on partner servers and the management information protocols to be
followed.
During the period of the PotsPan project, two further workshops will take place where
interim and then final practical project outputs will be shared. The final workshop will also
be a project dissemination event with an invitation for interested practitioners in the JISC
community to attend. A target of 40 delegates representing 15 different institutions/
organisations would be a reasonable expectation for this event.
Also during the period of the PotsPan project, the emerging project outcomes will be
shared through the JISC programme meetings, through practitioner events such as the
JISC Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Group meetings, and through conference
presentations. A short paper on the SWANI outcomes has already been submitted to ALT-
C 2012 and similar dissemination opportunities will be sought during the project period.
Take-up pilots
The main activity of the PotsPan project will be to pilot the outcomes of the JISC SWANI
project with two additional institutions (one HE, one FE), a private training provider and a
national charity with a training function.
The Skills Academy Wales (South West) WBL Consortium consists of Coleg Sir Gâr, which
carried out the JISC SWANI project, Pembrokeshire College, PRP Training and The
Prince’s Trust. These latter three organisations were not part of the original project and it is
they who will be piloting the SWANI project outcomes.
Each WBL partner will trial the use of the digital pen system and will use it to interact with
the digitised document management system. A detailed evaluation will be carried out for
each partner and the outcomes reported. The final project report will identify effective
practice and implementation strategies that have the potential for wider-scale take-up.
Swansea Metropolitan University will pilot the SWANI project outputs in a different context.
The institution is in discussions about a potential merger with University of Wales Trinity St
David and the resulting multi-campus institution would cover a geographical area that
includes the Counties of Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. The SWANI digitised
document management system will be evaluated as a system that has potential for adding
significant efficiencies to the institutional information systems management.
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6. 5. Details of Partners:
Partner: Pembrokeshire College
Contact: Dr Geoff Elliott, Director of Marketing, Skills and Development
(geoffe@pembrokeshire.ac.uk)
Role: Piloting Institution. Supporting letter attached.
Partner: Swansea Metropolitan University
Contact: Kathryn David, Head of Commercial Services (kathryn.david@smu.ac.uk)
Role: Piloting Institution. Supporting letter attached.
Partner: PRP Training, Pembroke Dock
Contact: Shirley Laugharne (shirley.laugharne@prp-training.co.uk)
Role: Piloting Institution. Supporting letter attached.
Partner: The Prince’s Trust
Contact: Andrea Evans (andrea.evans@princes-trust.org.uk)
Role: Piloting Institution. Partnership confirmed by email.
Partner: JISC RSC Wales
Contact: Lis Parcell, Senior e-Learning Advisor (e.j.parcell@swansea.ac.uk )
Role: Support Organisation. Partnership confirmed by email.
6. Exit and Sustainability:
The outputs of the PotsPan project are expected to be sustained through the adoption of
the digitised WBL system across the consortium. A deliverable from the project will be a
business plan that will quantify the cost efficiencies of the system in comparison with the
paper based system.
This will be available as part of the package of project outputs deposited in the JISC
Design Studio.
The evaluation carried out at Swansea Metropolitan University will be factored into the
plans for management information systems integration, a process that is already taking
place through the existing JISC funded Transformations Programme project at the
institution.
7. Evaluation:
The Activity Plan and the Workpackages detail how evaluation will be an integral part of
the PotsPan project. Each of the pilot projects will be evaluated and the lessons learned
used to further refine the digitised information management system.
The project team will meet formally once per month during the project period and will
report on progress against targets. As the project is focussed on piloting and evaluation,
each meeting will contribute to the accumulation of evidence of effectiveness. This will be
recorded in the regular project Blog postings.
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7. 8. Risk assessment:
The risk management strategy for the PotsPan project will be as follows:
Risk 1: Potential loss of project management capacity and personnel during the project
period.
Mitigation: The project will be managed by Tony Toole who will be contracted throughout
the project period. He will work with the same online services team at Coleg Sir Gâr that
successfully completed the SWANI project. There is capacity, both in that group and more
widely in the Business Development team, for additional resource input should it be
necessary.
Risk 2: Lack of sufficient commitment and progress with pilot partners
Mitigation: There will be a partnership agreement that details the responsibilities of all the
project partners. The monthly project team meetings will review progress against targets
and will agree appropriate action to rectify any potential problems.
Risk 3: Impact of institutional change on project support and outcomes.
Mitigation: Top level institutional support will be established for the project at the outset.
The anticipated changes in the sector and in the partner institution circumstances over
the period of the project will be assessed and built into the risk management plan.
The plan for successful embedding of project benefits will be part of the overall project
development plan. The participation of the partners in the PotsPan project will be based
on an appreciation of the potential benefits and embedding will only be assured, of
course, on the confirmation of these benefits from the pilot implementation evaluation
outcomes. The aim will be to deliver that project outcome.
9. Workpackages:
Tasks Start / Outputs Responsibility
End dates
Work Package 1:
Project Startup May 2012- 1. Confirmed partnership agreement; DH, TT
June 2012 2. Project team in place;
3. Project plan finalised;
4. First Steering group meeting and
project plan approved.
Work Package 2:
WBL Digitised System June 2012 1. JOOMLA WBL document DH, TT, Partner
Pilot – Dec 2012 management system in place for managers
all partners;
2. Digital signature system in place
for all partners;
3. Digitised document management
systems workshop;
4. Evaluation report and system
refinement recommendations.
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8. Work Package 3:
Institutional Document June 2012- 1. Institutional document TT, KD, SMU IS
Management Pilot Dec 2012 management system in place; team
2. Institutional digital signature trial
completed;
3. Evaluation report and system
refinement recommendations.
Work Package 4:
System Refinement Dec 2012- 1. Refinement recommendations TT, DH, KD
March 2013 implemented;
2. Refinements tested and evaluated.
Work Package 5:
Dissemination May 2012- 1. Project Blog recording project TT
April 2013 progress and outcomes;
2. Project Wiki making all project
documents available;
3. Conference presentations
submitted and delivered;
4. Final project report and
dissemination event.
10. Project Team Members:
Name Institution/Organisation Role
Dave Howells Coleg Sir Gâr Project Director
Tony Toole Coleg Sir Gâr Project Manager
Lewis Jones Coleg Sir Gâr Document Management
System Developer
Geoff Elliott Pembrokeshire College Partner Pilot Coordinator
Kathryn David Swansea Metropolitan Partner Pilot Coordinator
University
Shirley Laugharne PRP Training Partner Pilot Coordinator
Andrea Evans Prince’s Trust Partner Pilot Coordinator
Appendix A: FOI Withheld Information Form
We would like JISC to consider withholding the following sections or paragraphs from
disclosure, should the contents of this proposal be requested under the Freedom of
Information Act, or if we are successful in our bid for funding and our project proposal is
made available on JISC’s website.
We acknowledge that the FOI Withheld Information Form is of indicative value only and that
JISC may nevertheless be obliged to disclose this information in accordance with the
requirements of the Act. We acknowledge that the final decision on disclosure rests with
JISC.
Section / Paragraph No. Relevant exemption Justification
from disclosure under
FOI
None
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9. Appendix B: PotsPan Project Budget
Directly Incurred Amount Total £
Staff Aug-July 2012 Aug-July 2013
Project Manager, Mgt pt20, 0.2FTE £3,000 £9,000 £12,000
Total Directly Incurred Staff (A) £3,000 £9,000 £12,000
Non-Staff
Travel and expenses £300 £700 £1,000
Dissemination £300 £1,200 £1,500
Evaluation £300 £700 £1,000
Equipment (Digital pens) £4,000 £0 £4,000
Consumables £150 £350 £500
Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff £5,050 £2,950 £8,000
(B)
Directly Incurred Total (C) £8,050 £11,950 £20,000
(A+B=C)
Directly Allocated
Project Director, Mgt pt20, 0.1FTE £1,500 £4,500 £6,000*
Web Programmer, APT&C pt17, £2,500 £7,500 £10,000
0.4 FTE
Partner Pilot Staff (Institutions £2,000 £8,000 £10,000
only) 0.4 FTE
Institutional Management Mgt pt £1,000 £3,000 £4,000*
20. 0.1 FTE
Directly Allocated Total (D) £7,000 £23,000 £30,000
Indirect Costs (E) £2,750 £8,250 £11,000*
Total Project Cost (C+D+E) £16,800 £44,200 £61,000
Amount Requested from JISC £10,000 £30,000 £40,000
Institutional Contributions £6,800 £14,200 £21,000
Percentage Contributions over Partners JISC Total
the life of the project 34% 66% 100%
No. FTEs used to calculate No FTEs Which Staff
indirect and estates charges, 1.2 All indicated
and staff included
* indicates institutional contributions
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10. Appendix C: PotsPan Project GANTT Chart
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