Yesterday the JISC convened a meeting of people and projects providing support to JISC programmes. I attended with our colleague Patsy Clarke. Paul Bailey was at the meeting, too, balancing his JISC hat with his Institutional Innovation Benefits Realisation hat.

First, I was amused at how I reacted when asked to collaborate beyond the boundaries of “my” programme: is there time? will it be more work? do I have to report? can I afford to involve other team members? can I claim direct to the JISC for travel or do I have to spend my own budget? This was a helpful, if somewhat ironic, reminder of how every project manager feels when asked to look beyond the bounds of their own project through the assembly process to discover affinities with others.

Second, and more importantly, was the process of discovery itself. If there was one “take-away” it is that programme support needs to balance the needs and drives of the centre (JISC) with the needs and drives of the periphery (projects and individual participants).

These cannot be assumed to be always aligned and especially cannot be assumed to be aligned in a subordinate, centre over periphery, relationship. Regardless of the flows of funds and the direction of reporting, the actual undertaking of work leading to both intended and unintended outcomes and the realisation of the benefits therefrom needs to be transparent and collegial and to allow for negotiation, iteration and the emergence of shared understandings on all parts.

There were five programme support projects represented (6 if you count Emerge). I was peripherally aware of activities in the Learner Experience (LEX) programme and the Curriculum Design and Delivery (CDD) programmes, but was not aware of the support services for Design for Learning (D4L) and Open Educational Resources (OER) programmes. Two of the represented programmes (D4L, Curriculum Design and Delivery) were supported by JISC services: CETIS and JISC InfoNet. One programme (OER) was supported directly by a JISC programme manager. LEX and Institutional Innovation (and Users and Innovation) are/were supported by Oxford Brookes University’s Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD). All of the support projects, whether run by the JISC directly, through its support services or through OCSLD make extensive use of networks of independent consultants, or people who work for service-providing departments of various universities such as Strathclyde and Oxford Brookes.

The best thing about the day was sharing experiences of programme support, seeing how people did things similarly and differently. We combine support, synthesis and benefits realisation. Some support projects have an explicitly evaluative role. Others combine synthesis and evaluation. For some, like ourselves, it is important not to be seen as the “JISC police”. Other supporters take a more directive and positively shaping role.

We broke into tables with two support projects per table and compared notes. We were with Marianne Sheppard, who heads up support for CDD on behalf of JISC Infonet.

We considered a number of aspects of programme support.

Clustering

Clustering is very important. These may be formed in various ways. There is probably no one right way. CDD formed cluster groups around “challenges” such as stakeholder engsagement rather than around technical or procedural themes.  Themes often shift for projects and rise and fall in importance depending where the project is in its cycle or what issues are uppermost at any particular time.

Events

Events are important features of programme support. It almost doesn’t matter what the event is or how immediately successful it is perceived to be, participants gain a sense of shared experience through shared participation in a common programme. Obviously events should be relevant to projects’ needs and should not be run if they have no relevance, but the larger and more complex the programme the more challenging it may be to satisfy all the people all the time. Events need to allow sufficient time for participants to engage in project and programme-related discussion.

Critical Friends

Critical friends (see Critical Friends Network) are a useful and important component of programme support. This role is separate to that of the programme manager.

Newsletters

Central communication to the programme is appreciated in providing information as well as helping a programme identity to develop.

Social networking systems or discussion forums

There are still generational differentials and different degrees of comfort, even within the JISC, with eliteracy practices and virtual communication spaces. Nevertheless it is important to provide appropriate onlne communication environments and to be in a leadership position, not so far out in front that no one follows, but not too far behind a leading edge, either. Suppot projects need to provide models of good, and in some cases appropriately novel practice. At the same time don’t expect participation to be equal.

Sense-making/synthesis

Regardless of whether the support project has the explicit task of synthesising the programme it is essential that the support process be able to help projects to see the wider picture, to scan the horizons of the programme and to help them to make sense of the wider drivers and developments in the field.

Analysis and discovery/engaging with teams

Similarly, whether or not the support function is constructed around critical friendships, the support team needs to get to know the projects and to help the projects to feel supported (rather than driven). The support project needs to analyse their field through the projects in the supported programme/

Professional development

Support projects always have an implicit developmental role in helping project participants to advance in their careers, whether this is in learning to be better project managers or how to use novel communication technology or becoming aware of the wider political context within which HE and JISC development projects function. Sometimes this role can be made explicit. More usually it remains a tacit aspect of support.

Support “space”

Support projects need to provide a sense of shared space (virtual, metaphorical, conceptual) to which their projects can go where they can explore with others in similar circumstances the aims, objectives, tasks and team issues with which they are faced on a regular basis.