Report for April 2021

Report Date
April 2021

 

Report by Susan Ridder-Patrick (MVMLAT Programme Manager) for Philippa Burrell (MVMLAT Programme Owner) and Catherine Elliot (MVM Portfolio Owner)

Distribution:

  • Vet and Medical School sub-group IT meeting
  • College Administration Team (CAT) meeting
  • College Undergraduate Learning and Teaching (CULT) committee
  • Post Graduate Learning and Teaching (PGLTC) committee
  • Excerpts taken into CSG report

Section One: Programme Commentary, RAG and Resources Update

Commentary

Programme status: The overall status of the MVMLAT programme for April 2021 is AMBER. The CMVM Study Spaces project (MVM142) delivered this month, the analysis for the PathCAL/Labyrinth project (MVM141) was completed and the recently started MBChB Support student database (MVM146) is nearing completion.

The programme also secured additional project manager and business analyst support for Replacement of PathCAL/EROS & Labyrinth (MVM141) project. This is good news but there are four projects in progress with ongoing and emerging issues that could impact delivery in 20/21 and therefore work planned in 21/22.

Risks

  • Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19): There is a risk this programme may be impacted by any measures that are implemented to reduce impact from the spread of Covid-19. The risk is held at portfolio level.

Project highlights

  • MVM125: GREEN- Delay in distribution of teaching tablets requested by users
  • MVM136: GREEN - Vets completing marking with Practique before project closure
  • MVM139: AMBER - unable to secure time for final sign-off session
  • MVM140: AMBER - Delivery moved to end of May to accommodate with supplier and ITIL team
  • MVM141: AMBER - Analysis completed. Design, re-estimation and re-planning underway. Risk to delivery milestone.
  • MVM142: BLUE - Closure completed this month
  • MVM143: GREEN - Installation work has begun across several locations
  • MVM144: AMBER - Global chip shortage affecting production and delivery of computers
  • MVM145: GREEN - Progress continued on site audit and accessibility statements
  • MVM146: GREEN - Development addressing DPIA issues before delivery and closure

Please note that the project RAG status is following the revised guidelines: A one-page summary of the IS RAG status indicators is available on this page.

Forward Look - April 2021

Section Two: Projects Not Started 

Project Programme Manager's Commentary
None No further projects planned for the remainder of 20/21. Projects are being identified for the programme in 21/22

Section Three: Projects in Progress

MVM Learning and Teaching Projects Update

MVM125: Connectivity - Off-campus  - RAG Status: GREEN

Report by Alan Gilchrist  

Achievements this period

  • No progress due to delays from the associated sites noted in last month's report

Issues

  • None

Next Steps

  • Continue to deploy teaching tablets to relevant locations

MVM136 Practique Roll-out - RAG Status: GREEN

Report by Susan Ridder-Patrick

Achievements this period

  • Issue with period 5 payment resolved
  • Vets, BMTO, Admissions provided with discounted rates for 20/21
  • Some progress was made on the Vets' OSCES marking
  • Project closure report drafting underway

Issues

  • Vets required revised milestones to complete marking and confirm delivery  - resolved

Next Steps

  • Marking in Practique of Vets OSCEs to complete in start of May - this is final delivery
  • Complete project closure

MVM139 Curriculum Mapping Tool (COMMAND) RAG Status: AMBER

Report by Arek Juszczyk

Achievements this period

  • No development work done

Issues

  • Unable to secure time for final sign-off session

Next Steps

  • Final sign off by the stakeholders and hands on session

MVM140 CMVM eAssessment RAG Status: AMBER

Report by Alistair Wallace

Achievements this period

  • None

Issues

  • It became clear that the existing operational processes in BAU were not as effective as the business wanted.  A practical example with non UoE staff's names not feeding through evidenced that additional support was required in this area.  This issue has been highlighted again.  It has taken longer than anticipated to discuss and agree the operational processes required in BAU.  Target date is now end May 2021.  ITIL have scoped out the areas to review to improve Problem Management and Knowledge Management
  • Problems have been identified with the data download associated with reporting from Pebblepad.  While filtering can take place within the app, the download contains all the data and therefore is substantial and requires manual effort.  A meeting took place with Pebblepad on 31 March and a follow up has been arranged to discuss how to get the right data on a frequent basis to support the admin team preparing for the priority of the Year 4 & 5 board of examiners.

Next Steps

  • ITL to review IS processes and Knowledge Management relating to support for Pebblepad
  • Meeting with Pebblepad on 5 May about how to get the right data on a frequent basis to support the admin team preparing for the priority of the Year 4 & 5 board of examiners

MVM141 Replacement for PathCAL/EROS and Labyrinth RAG Status: AMBER

Report by Susan Ridder-Patrick

Achievements in this period

  • Business Analysis completed and approved
  • Majority of Flash conversion work completed and now awaiting academic feedback/approval
  • Initial design options being drafted before estimating and re-planning
  • Confirmed with JISC that the JISC PathCAL subscription service closed in August 2018
  • Programme allocated 19 additional days to retain PM and BA

Issues

  • It is proving difficult to get right engagement with academics for review of converted Flash work - escalation in progress and milestone revised
  • No resource yet identified for the more challenging flash conversions

Next Steps

  • Complete Recruitment resource for challenging Flash conversions
  • Complete process to identify owners of content that does not contain Flash
  • Design of future state for replacement of PathCAL/EROS and Labyrinth
  • Re-estimate project and re-plan
  • Provide update to stakeholders on design and where their effort will be required regarding content

MVM142 CMVM Study Spaces RAG Status: BLUE - Delivered

Report by Sheila Fraser

Achievements this period

  • Completed decommissioning of existing MS Booking solution
  • No further actions identified at this time to support planning assumptions for Semester 1, Project Sponsor agreed to move to closure
  • Project closure report completed and approved by Project Sponsor

Issues

  • Decommissioning of temporary MS Booking system blocked administrator from being able to access any other MS Bookings site (I210401-0411). This was identified as a Microsoft bug, a workaround was found, and Service Management will raise the bug with Microsoft - RESOLVED

Next Steps

  • Formal project closure steps with IS Applications

MVM143 Upgrading of Teaching Spaces 2020/21 RAG Status: GREEN

Report by Alan Gilchrist

Achievements this period

  • Work has begun in Vet School 1.4x rooms, Vet School Teaching Lab 1, Vets LAH Clinical Skills, Greenfield Suite side rooms and Henry Littlejohn rooms.  The work is expected to complete early May.
  • Purchase orders for the SMOTS systems for Chancellor's Building and Vet School have been raised.  The Chancellor's building PO needs IS management approval due to the cost.

Issues

  • None

Next Steps

  • Organise installation dates for the remaining rooms.
  • Confirm remaining budget to see if to upgrades can be made to any more teaching spaces this year.
  • Create AV designs and then tender documents for each of the new room upgrades.

MVM144 Upgrading of student computer labs, teaching and meeting room PCs 2020/21 RAG Status: AMBER

Report by Alan Gilchrist

Achievements this period

  • Purchase orders for remaining teaching spaces computers have been raised.

Issues

  • Global chip shortage is causing delays in the production and delivery of some computer chassis formats, so there's a possibility that some computers won't be delivered before the end of the financial year.  The issue has been escalated to HP management.

Next Steps

  • Discuss replacements with local IT teams to identify suitable dates for delivery and install.
  • Peter to start to look at possible alternatives to the standard student computer lab devices.

MVM145 Accessibility for MVMLAT applications RAG Status:  GREEN

Report by Karen Howie

Achievements this period

  • Working on a full site audit.

Issues

  • None

Next Steps

  • Complete project brief
  • Continue compiling full side audit
  • Continue working through accessibility statements.

MVM146 MBChB Supported Student Database RAG Status: GREEN

Report by Richard Lawson

Achievements this period

  • Added code to allow medical school admins to search by follow up date
  • Added code to handle interrupted students

Issues

  • It was discovered - while completing the DPIA - that we were holding student data for longer than necessary, which we will need to be addressed.

Next Steps

  • Write code to automatically remove students that have left the University. 
  • Finish DPIA for live feed
  • Organise set up of live feed
  • Setup hosting for live site

Projects outwith the MVM Portfolio Update

Report by Alan Gilchrist and Karen Howie (LTW):

EEMeC and EEVeC

The programme has been and continues to complete projects to close down functionality on both EEMeC and EEVeC with a view to eventually decommissioning.  There is a requirement to maintain (read only) access for a period and the programme is in the process of determining those dates for its 3 year plan.

 

TEL056: Edinburgh Surgery Online Learn go-live - RAG Status: CLOSED

DTP001: Apps to User Devices - RAG Status: CLOSED

HSS022: CAHSS WAM Deployment  - RAG Status: BLUE - Closed

TEL057: Learn Foundations - RAG Status: AMBER

Achievements in the last period

  • Continue Phase Three programme of engagement.

  • Continue Phase Three programme of user experience.

  • Continue with Phase Three workstreams, including:

    • Support and Guidance: Looking at additional support and guidance when using Learning Technology to make the most of out each course;
    • Best Practise: Provision of sharing best practise to afford colleagues the opportunity to review other courses that may enhance the delivery of their own course (or in turn, share their best practise for others to benefit from);
    • Template: Final decisions made on the next iteration of the template with the 3rd iteration of the template created and shared with all partner Schools.
  • Supported the Learn User Base Navigation (UBN) Project with user experience activities - pulling from the work undertaken by Learn Foundations in Phase One and Phase Three
  • The UBN project was aligned under Learn Foundations governance structure.
  • Recruitment for the 12 student interns began.
  • One additional School confirmed they would take the Learn Foundations approach in 2021 - now 22 out of 24 Schools and Deaneries are partnering with Learn Foundations.

Issues

  • Project has been reduced to Amber due to the recruitment freeze imapcting two core project team members being mitigated. 

Next Steps

  • Continue Phase Three programme of engagement.

  • Continue Phase Three programme of user experience.

  • Continue with Phase Three workstreams, including:

    • Support and Guidance: Looking at additional support and guidance when using Learning Technology to make the most of out each course;
    • Best Practise: Provision of sharing best practise to afford colleagues the opportunity to review other courses that may enhance the delivery of their own course (or in turn, share their best practise for others to benefit from);
    • Student Recruitment: Recruitment of student interns across the summer of 2021 to support with the delivery of the project.
    • Template: Final decisions to be made on the next iteration of the template in preparation for the Phase Three build being created.
  • Support the Learn User Base Navigation Project with user experience activities - pulling from the work undertaken by Learn Foundations in Phase One and Phase Three

TEL068: e-Assessment Procurement and Implementation - RAG Status:  AMBER

Last month.

  • The restricted process kicked off at the start of the month.
  • We have now closed the initial part where candidate companies are whittled down to 5.
  • The ITT was also published this month.
  • Evaluation will begin once all companies have completed their returns.

Issues

  • No major issues, although the team, are monitoring the workload of evaluators as we progress through the process.

Next steps

  • Evaluation begin on the 27th of May and runs through June.

TEL071: Provisioning of Teams for Teaching - RAG Status: RED

An interim options appraisal report updated on the 19th of Jan can be found here. https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/project/p0345

Last month

  • Use Case analysis has been completed and encompassed into our options paper.
  • Working with stakeholders we have written up a series of options for MS Teams support for Teaching.
    • Option 1.  Do nothing, which is not recommended.
    • Option 2.  An additional 0.5FTE within Service Management to work through the common issues and build minimum standards.
    • Option 3.  Option2, plus additional temporary Analysis and Data Analysis staff to supply data for Team creation and look at the data we already have.  (Recommended)
    • Option 4.  Build a full bespoke integration with Learn.  The risk here is it is superseded by the Learn Ultra work that is in the pipeline and will provide MS Teams integration.
    • Option 5.  Frame MS Teams as a gateway to Learn Ultra which will provide MS Teams integration potentially in academic year 22/23 and beyond.  (Recommended in conjunction with option 3)
    • Option 6.  Reverse growth.  Actively support teaching staff in the use of alternative systems.
  • The paper is in its final review and will be published in early May

Issues

  • There are large risks around the use of MS Teams within teaching as detailed in previous monthly reports.  Critical lack of support resource.  MS Teams data is unregulated.  Use within teaching has no minimum standards.  Some are already using MS Teams as a second VLE against agreed university strategy.

Next Steps

  • TEL071 will close on the publishing of the report.
  • SLT to decide which option to pursue and the appropriate service personnel allocated to push these options forward in service. 
  • A paper is also being taken to ITC to confirm the appropriate strategy for MS teams for teaching

 

TEL072: Zoom integration for Teaching - RAG Status: GREEN

An interim options appraisal report can be found here. https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/project/p0345

Last month

  • The Zoom test environment was setup with theassitance of ITI, Servcie management and Zoom.
  • Test users have also been setup.
  • The testing process is in place.

Issues

  • Nothing new.

Next Month

  • Finalise testing making sure no Zoom users are affected.
  • Retest the LTI connector in Learn Test and make sure the double user issue is resolved.
  • Plan the launch of the integration.

Section Four: Closed or Withdrawn Projects

Only those projects closed from 28th June 2019 onwards are included in this table. A full history of completed projects is available on the programme's website.

Project Info Project Manager's Commentary
MVM126 Upgrading of student computer labs, teaching and meeting room PCs 2018/19 This project started in October 2018 and closed on 28 June 2019. The Closure report is now available.
MVM129 Support for OSCEs in Practique for MBChB This project started in June 2018 and closed on 28 June 2019. The Closure Report is now available.
MVM131: Migration of 12 applications developed in Biomedical Sciences to central support - Analysis & Strategy This project started in December 2018 and closed on 28 June 2019. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM133: CMVM Curriculum Mapping Tool - Requirements This project started in April 2019 and closed on 9th August 2019.  The Closure Report is available to view. 
MVM130: Upgrading of teaching spaces 2018/19 This project started in October 2018 and closed on 1st November 2019. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM134 MBChB Evaluation System This project started in September 2019 and closed on 8th April 2020. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM137 Upgrading of Student Computer Labs , Teaching and Meeting Room PC 19/20 This project started in December 2019 and closed on 6th July 2020. The Closure report is available to view.
MVM132 MBChB ranking reports in BI Suite This project started in April 2019 and closed on 31 July 2020. The Closure report is available to view.
MVM138 Vets EMS Placement Management This project started in January 2020 and closed on 29 September 2020. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM112 Technology to support simulation teaching This project started in September 2017 and closed on 30 September 2020. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM135 Upgrading of Teaching Spaces 2019/20 This project started in December 2019 and closed on 30 September 2020. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM516 BMS - Honours Project Portal Future Support  This project started in May 2019 and closed on 19 October 2020. The Closure Report is available to view.
MVM142 CMVM Study Spaces This project started in October 2020 and closed on 3 May 2021. The Closure Report is available to view.

Section Five: Programme Meeting Minutes

Minutes for all programme meetings are available on the MVMLAT website. Only the most recent five meetings' direct links are included in this table:

Date

 Comments

22 April 2021 Programme Review Monthly Meeting - March 2021
8 March 2021 Programme Review Monthly Meeting - February 2021
18 February 2021 Programme Review Monthly Meeting - January 2021
14 January 2021 Programme Review Monthly Meeting - December 2020
15 December 2020   Programme Review Monthly Meeting - November 2020

Section Six: MVM Portfolio Projects Update 

The MVM Portfolio contains three programmes: CMVM Learning and Teaching - MVMLAT (this programme); CMVM Business Administration - MVMBUS and CMVM Research - MVMRES. Information on current work in MVMBUS and MVMRES are available on the following websites:

Programme Status
RAG Status
Overall
AMBER
Has formal escalation taken place?
No

Documentation

Not available.