JISC Regional Support Centre switches to SharePoint to manage its web content
The JISC RSC Eastern region have migrated their extensive web site into SharePoint for ease of management.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a public sector initiative which provides leadership in the use of ICT for higher education. The 13 Regional Support Centres (RSCs) support the development of e-learning and Information Learning Technology in Higher and Further Education. JISC inspires UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies, helping to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader in education. JISC provides:
- A world-class network - JANET
- Access to electronic resources
- New environments for learning, teaching and research
- Guidance on institutional change
- Advisory and consultancy services
- Regional support - RSCs
JISC RSC Eastern region supports some 150 learning providers. JISC RSCs (Regional Support Centres) exist to advise the learning providers of designated sectors to realise their ambitions in deployment of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to achieve their organisational mission. The network of JISC Regional Support Centres operates as a national service responsive to local needs through a strong sense of local ownership.
In 2008, JISC RSC Eastern contracted Parabola to implement SharePoint to support collaboration within the RSC team whilst at the same time assess how they would recommend it and support it. Encouraged by the success of this project the decision was made in 2009 to move the RSC web site to SharePoint. The SharePoint web site went live in November 2009.
Making content management easy
The objective was to enable any of the RSC staff to manage the large range of website content using the Microsoft Office based CMS interface.
“We really wanted to ensure anyone in the team could update content– not just one or two people”
Gerard Hayes RSC Manager
The advantage of this to the RSC staff was the familiarity of the interface and which removed previous dependency on staff with technical skills.
The web site content is broad and varied. Designed to provide information and support on e-learning the content includes a Media Centre for:
As well as
- RSS Feeds
- Blogs
- Forums
- An interface to Moodle
- An events diary
SharePoint search is used to provide a rapid index of the content.
Why Parabola
Parabola was chosen because of its extensive experience in the education sector and particularly for its expertise in developing web sites using SharePoint. Parabola developed the plan for the new web site and delivered all the key elements including:
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Configuring SharePoint to allow the new website to be hosted
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Applying JISC RSC branding to SharePoint to ensure it matched the existing JISC website templates
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Creating the sites and pages
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Transferring content from the old site to the new SharePoint site
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Delivering support and training
The infrastructure has been designed to enable the site to run on the same server as the RSC’s existing SharePoint collaboration portal, enabling the old website server to be decommissioned, providing significant cost savings to JISC RSC Eastern’s host, Anglia Ruskin University.
For further details on this project or general SharePoint enquiries; please contact Adam McCarthy on 020 8339 4380.