IT innovation and Careers Network join together to present at Education Excellence Conference 2024

Authors: Matt Edwards, Michael Parry, Robyn-Lee Murphy,  Tim Packwood About the conference The Education Excellence Conference is an annual conference hosted at the University of Birmingham that aims to discussed topics relevant to the enhancement of teaching, learning and assessment. It is attended by education experts from both the UK and abroad. With this year’s … Read more

IT Services present at Big Data London event

Authors: Jonty Lewis (IT Agile Coach), Max Williams (Data Engineering), Tim Packwood (IT Customer Engagement),  Julian Kobylarz (BI and Data Engineering Manager) What is Big Data LDN? Big Data LDN (London) is an annual event in London focused on the latest in big data and analytics. It features keynotes, workshops, and exhibits on topics like data … Read more

Using AI to improve the reporting of National student survey (NSS) responses 

Authors: Kate Whiston (Market Insight), Tim Packwood (IT Customer Engagement)  The External Relations Market Insight Team have been working in collaboration with the IT Innovation Team to develop new ways of analysing and understanding the large volumes of free text feedback that is generated by the National Student Survey (NSS).   Every year, final-year undergraduates are … Read more

Supporting university growth: Making the case for a university virtual assistance.

As student numbers continue to grow, the challenge of maintaining or even enhancing the student experience becomes more emphasised. With professional services and support staff unlikely to see significant growth in headcount, the question is, how do we continuously improve student experience and ultimately deliver more with less? Technology might be part of the answer. … Read more

Assessment, AI and prompt engineering – Augmenting the marking of reflective essays

In the world of higher education, marking essays is a fundamental yet time-consuming and often subjective process. But what if we could use generative artificial intelligence (GAI) to assist with this task? That’s what the IT Innovation Team have been exploring by making use of Azure OpenAI services – our private walled-garden instance of GPT. … Read more

Supporting University survey analysis – using AI to amplify student voice

The challenge The University receives a large influx of free text comments in the form of feedback from students throughout the year, including data from surveys like the National Student Survey (NSS) and module evaluations. With this constant stream of free text comments, many departments struggle to efficiently analyse all the data and respond in … Read more

What is a smart campus – showing the art of the possible.

A smart campus is a university campus that leverages the data generated by advanced digital, networking, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to improve campus operations, support sustainability, and potentially enhance the user experience. Over the last decade, the university has invested significantly in its physical campus with the construction and upgrade of a significant … Read more