Mediating Boundaries

Free One Day Conference with Etienne Wenger

The ‘Trialling Collaborative Online Tools for BCE’ project is glad to announce booking is now available for the ‘Mediating Boundaries: traversing the landscapes of online communities of practice‘ event.

This free one day conference will explore how technology can mediate and enhance the relationship between the academic community and the wider world. With a keynote presentation and interactive workshop from Dr Etienne Wenger, we will examine how online environments can act as boundary spaces for engagement, collaboration, and innovation between academics, practitioners, industry partners and other stakeholders, enabling informal and formal networks and communities of practice to emerge in ways impossible to imagine even just a few years ago.

For more information visit: http://collaborativetools4bce.jiscinvolve.org/events/mediating-boundaries

BCE at Newcastle University

Business and Community Engagement (BCE) is a diverse landscape covering many activities that involve engagement between higher/further education institutions and external organisations/individuals. The wide range of roles and activities within BCE can sometimes make it hard to appreciate the full extent of this increasingly important aspect of institutions’ missions.

The JISC Advance BCE Team have developed a set of videos and podcasts that highlight specific activities, issues and opportunities across a range of learning providers that relate specifically to BCE.

The third in this range of videos and podcasts provides an overview of BCE from a University School perspective focusing on professional development programmes and the collation of information that highlights business and community engagement related activities.

Based upon those areas outlined in the video, you may be interested to know of the following resources:

To see more videos from the JISC BCE Programme please visit our YouTube channel. A full transcript of this video is available here: BCE at Newcastle University - Transcript.

Embedding Business and Community Engagement…

…Through Business Process Improvement and Internal Engagement.

John Burke (Project Manager) and Clive Alderson (Project Consultant) launched the ‘Embedding BCE’ project outputs at the Lakeside Conference Centre to over 40 delegates from across UK Further and Higher Education (FE/HE) on 10th December 2009.

Funded through the JISC BCE Programme, and collaboratively delivered by JISC Advance, the resource provides FE/HE with a framework for evaluating and developing their approach to BCE. This was achieved using a self review methodology that looks in-depth at key enablers of BCE across a range of institutional functions and the way in which we can evaluate/develop what’s being done in those areas.

After the event one delegate commented on what they thought was the most valuable aspect of the conference:

“Hearing the different experiences from various organisations and the collective benefit of carrying out the process of self assessment and open discussion to create a strategic approach to BCE”

John Burke (Project Manager) mentioned:

“This resource helps an organisation identify any ‘disconnects’ between the way it supports traditional streams of activity e.g. T&L/Research and BCE-related activities. The project identified that core functions should consider whether BCE requires any different ways of working within the function, even if the decision is that it does not. An assumption that current ways of working will be sufficient can lead to placing barriers in the way of exploiting BCE opportunities. The resource offers a structure and methodology for review, some examples of both good practice and potential issues that each core function should test for and a downloadable tool to start the BCE conversation.”

Simon Whittemore, who leads JISC’s Business and Community Engagement programme, emphasised the value of the Embedding BCE online resource in the wider context:

In general, institutions have enhanced their strategic approach and capability in business and community engagement (BCE) in recent years, supported by Funding body grants for knowledge exchange and employer engagement. However, the infrastructure, business processes and information management needed to support effective, integrated BCE are less well-developed. In a challenging economic climate, ‘Higher Ambitions’ urges institutions to maximise their efficiency, play to their strengths and selectively pursue new opportunities. Data sharing across departments, defining internal processes and external markets, and ensuring operational reality reflects strategy are vital to both BCE and these ambitions. The ‘Embedding BCE’ online resource equips institutions with the means to evaluate these processes and target areas for improvement.

The online resource is available on the JISC infoNet website: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/embedding-bce

CRM, BCE & the Importance of Impact

Business and Community Engagement (BCE) is a diverse landscape covering many activities that involve engagement between higher/further education institutions and external organisations/individuals. The wide range of roles and activities within BCE can sometimes make it hard to appreciate the full extent of this increasingly important aspect of institutions’ missions.

The JISC Advance BCE Team have developed a set of videos and podcasts that highlight specific activities, issues and opportunities across a range of learning providers that relate specifically to BCE.

The second in this range of videos and podcasts provides an overview of BCE from Oisin MacNamara (now Director of Research Business & Innovation at Northumbria University) focusing on: the role of Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRMs); the need to embed BCE across the whole of the organisation; and the importance of impact.

Based upon those areas outlined in the video, you may be interested to know of the following resources:

To see more videos from the JISC BCE Programme please visit our YouTube channel. A full transcript of this video is available here: BCE at Northumbria University - Transcript.

JISC BCE and the New Engineering Foundation

Staff from the JISC Business and Community Engagement programme were pleased to be involved in the New Engineering Foundation Innovisions Conference held on 8th January 2010 in London. In addition to the programme being part of the exhibition at the event which included demonstrations of the recently launched Embedding BCE Online Resource, Simon Whittemore, JISC BCE Programme Manager, addressed delegates on the Impact of Secondments on Higher Level Skills.

The New Engineering Foundation is a grant-awarding charity that promotes the development of vocational education in science, engineering and technology and is a key stakeholder and partner within the BCE programme. They have recently produced a series of Golden Knowledge Bites. These are a series of videos commissioned by the JISC BCE Project Supporting Training, CPD and Staff Exchange for BCE to illustrate the value and importance of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) with a focus on secondments to build up knowledge and skills, and engender a culture of knowledge exchange.

This series of videos will be launched by the project and made available through the project website in Spring 2010.

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