Services

Now that Jisc Advance has taken over responsibility for the Vital website, it has never been easier to access information and support from the full family of Jisc services highlighted below.

Jisc Legal

Jisc Legal, a Jisc Advance service, works to ensure that legal issues do not become a barrier to the adoption and use of new information and communications technologies in education. Jisc Legal operates at the cutting edge of IT and education law and provides access to the latest news, current guidance and academic papers on legal topics covering: Law, Technology and Assessment, Intellectual Property Rights, Curriculum Design, and Identity Management.

Jisc Legal Plus

Jisc Legal Plus offers a suite of essential training for frontline and administrative staff. Schools can access more services from Jisc Legal via the Engage with Jisc subscription.

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Jisc Digital Media

Jisc Digital Media, a Jisc Advance service, works with educational professionals to help them find, create, and manage digital images as well as providing interested parties with a wealth of tips, techniques and useful sources. As a leading sector authority, this service offers guidance on the best practice and standards regarding digitisation. In addition, Jisc Digital Media hosts workshops, webinars and a range of accredited courses to help you design, record and produce accessible and innovative digital material. Keep up to date with current news stories and the latest digital developments via a dedicated Blog. Schools can access more services from Jisc Digital Media via the Engage with Jisc subscription.

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Jisc infoNet

Jisc infoNet, a Jisc Advance service, helps organisations in the Higher Education, Further Education and Skills sectors to operate more effectively, getting the best value for money and delivering high-quality learning, teaching and research. The infoNet infoKits contain a wealth of 'self-help' methodologies and good practice, all based around a simple 'what, why and how' structure.

Jisc infoNet also provides a collection of practical tools that can be adapted and used in a variety of circumstances, underpinning both infoKits and workshops. Look out for infoNet workshops and facilitated events that help people acquire and enhance skills as well as providing valuable networking opportunities. Schools can access more services from Jisc infoNet via the Engage with Jisc subscription.

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Jisc TechDis

Jisc TechDis, a Jisc Advance service, is the leading advisory service for technology and accessibility, providing expert advice and guidance. Through the use of exemplars and case studies, the service demonstrates effective tools and techniques and the application of technology within both education and business contexts. Through Jisc TechDis, you will have access to cutting-edge resources designed to minimise barriers to learning by reducing the amount of support disabled learners need to participate.

Engage with Jisc subscribers benefit from a free Online Accessibility Self Evaluation Service (OASES), a quick and easy tool to benchmark your organisation's accessibility practices and generate a personalised list of widely accepted 'reasonable adjustment' recommendations.

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Jisc Netskills

Jisc Netskills, a Jisc Advance service, helps practitioners and managers to develop the skills and techniques necessary to harness the transformational effect of web-based technologies within the education sector. Jisc Netskills helps individuals and organisations to make effective use of innovative technology. With an unrivalled reputation for delivering exceptional-quality training and staff development, Jisc Netskills also: conducts research; develops materials; investigates new technologies and how they can be used; and also provides consultancy support.

Speak to one of the team at Jisc Netskills to find out more about their accredited online and face-to-face workshops. Become an Engage with Jisc subscriber and you will receive a 10% discount on all Jisc Advance training.

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Jisc Procureweb

Over the coming months, Jisc Procureweb, a Jisc Advance service, will be focusing all its efforts on GeM, an online contracts database and store for the Higher and Further Education sectors. GeM provides a central location for HEIs and FECs to purchase all their goods and services directly from consortia-negotiated contracts.  

By concentrating all its efforts on the delivery of GeM, Jisc Procureweb will ensure that it is able to help organisations to save money by enabling users to buy a wide range of everyday goods and services directly from national, regional and local contracts. GeM will streamline the procurement process across supported organisations resulting in quantifiable savings, time efficiencies and procurement compliance.   

As part of this change, Jisc Procureweb will become known as GeM from 31st July 2013 and existing services will be stopped over the next few months. This means that from the 30th May 2013, Jisc Procureweb will no longer be offering its Coding tool, HELP or CuPID Archive. Jisc Procureweb is currently looking for alternative organisations to manage Tenders.ac.uk and Xchange; and will keep the sector updated over the coming months.
 

Jisc Advance Nexus

Jisc Advance Nexus is a new Jisc Advance service that seamlessly connects software applications to transfer data securely and efficiently between educational establishments and select external partners. Nexus has been created to help drive efficiencies through better, faster and more cost-effective administration processes. Helping to reduce administration overheads and operating costs, the Nexus process supports improvements and system interconnections that result in a better student experience.

Jisc Advance Nexus is a commercial service which uses open-source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) technology from WSo2 to connect software applications for the purpose of information exchange. This platform is already used by online auction site eBay to manage transactions, and can now be deployed by education organisations using the Nexus service;

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Jisc Regional Support Centres (RSCs)

As part of Jisc Advance, the 12 Jisc Regional Support Centres (RSCs) form a UK-wide network to provide local support and advice to the HE, FE and Skills sectors as well as underpinning all the specialist services of Jisc. Operating as a national service, the Jisc RSCs are responsive to regional requirements through a strong sense of local ownership, providing strategic advice and support through visits, events and peer-to-peer networks. Working in tandem with other Jisc Advance services and partners, Jisc RSCs stimulate and support innovation in learning by tailoring advice and guidance to suit individual needs.

Jisc RSC staff work closely with nearly all the UK FE colleges, a growing number of Work-Based Learning companies, Adult Community Learning organisations and Offender Learning providers. From teaching and learning to management and inspection backgrounds, dedicated RSC staff offer exceptional, impartial advice and guidance on how to optimise technology to improve teaching and learning outcomes. Schools can now access individualised support with their own designated e-Learning Adviser via an Engage with Jisc subscription.
 

JSC Online Resources (JCS)

JCS Online Resources (JCS) is a Jisc Collections service. This landmark initiative in the schools sector is continuing despite the closure of Becta and the premature loss of funding. JCS JCS) enables schools worldwide to save up to 80% on trusted online subscription resources. This service provides a wide range of materials to support the needs of teachers and learners at all levels, including: Subject-specific resources incorporating full text databases, journals, e-books and multimedia; academic reference resources; newspaper archives; copyright-cleared images and videos; and curriculum-mapped games and exercises. JCS Online Resources has negotiated excellent pricing and licensing terms. Subscribing is easy, allowing schools to save both time and money with minimum effort when they order through JCS.
 

Digimap for Schools

Digimap for Schools is an online mapping service for use by teachers and pupils in schools. Established in 2010 and building on the EDINA Digimap service for Higher and Further Education, Digimap for Schools is a collaborative venture between EDINA, JISC Collections and Ordnance Survey. This service provides easy access to a range of current Ordnance Survey maps including: the most detailed mapping available for Great Britain and OS MasterMap; as well as digital versions of Ordnance Survey's famous paper maps (the Landranger and Explorer series). Also included are street-level maps showing street names and road-atlas style maps. Annual subscriptions start from £69 per school

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JiscMAIL

JiscMail, a Jisc Advance service, is the National Academic Mailing List Service. Designed specifically for the Further Education, Higher Education and research communities, it is the foremost strategic collaboration tool within the academic community. JiscMail uses the world-wide web and e-mail to enable groups of academics, practitioners and support staff to communicate and share information. There are thousands of mailing-list groups covering many categories. If you are unable to find an existing group that suits your needs, you may set up your own specialist mailing list (subject to satisfying the JiscMAIL criteria). At the time of writing, more than 1,275,000 people subscribe to JiscMAIL. Schools can access some services from JiscMAIL via the Engage with Jisc subscription

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