JISC

What is JISC?

JISC is an independent advisory body that supports further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support teaching, learning, research and administration.

What is the JISC Collections Team?

The JISC Collections Team negotiates for, and, where appropriate, licences quality assured electronic materials that will provide the JISC community with a range of resources to support education and research.

The Collections Team works closely with the education community in order to ascertain what electronic resources are needed in different subjects and if there are any electronic resources already available that the community would like the team to licence. There are six working groups which advise the Collections Team in the acquisition of online resources. The membership of the groups is made up of FE and HE representatives.

What is JISC's involvement in Hairdressing Training?

The Learning Materials Working Group informed the Collections Team that there was a need for an online resource that would provide training to Hairdressing students. The Collections Team took this comment on board and discovered that there really was a lack of online resources available in this subject area. One resource was available but after consulting with the education community, the resource was not up to the necessary level required and was not of the quality that JISC requires…but it did have potential.

The JISC decided, after discussions with the content owners and evaluating the feedback from the community, that it would be worthwhile developing the resource to fit the needs of the community. JISC funding was provided and the resource was developed, tested, piloted and finally completed.

What has JISC brought to Hairdressing Training?

1. JISC has subsidised the cost of this resource by providing funding for the development of the resource and by funding the cost of the service delivery. This means that the subscription fee is low.
    
2. Colleges have to subscribe to Hairdressing Training to cover the costs of the continual updates and developments to the website. By subscribing via JISC, colleges receive the benefits of the JISC model licence.
    
3. The JISC model licence specifies that the resource will be delivered online and will use Athens Authentication allowing users to access the resource 24/7 from anywhere with an Internet connection. The JISC model license allows sections, images and text from the resource to be downloaded, copied, printed, and incorporated into learning materials, student assignments and teaching packs. In fact, the resource can be used in any way, as long as it is for educational purposes; there are no restrictions and no worries about copyright.
    
4. The JISC requires online content to meet specific technical requirements; the Hairdressing Training site was designed to meet the web accessibility standards, making the site usable by all.

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