One of the initiatives heavily tied in with projects like DIVERSE is the Student as Producer agenda. The Student as Producer agenda is all about putting the focus back on research at university. In their own words Student as Producer:

“Student as Producer restates the meaning and purpose of higher education by reconnecting the core activities of universities, i.e., research and teaching, in a way that consolidates and substantiates the values of academic life. The core values of academic life are reflected in the quality of students that the University of Lincoln aims to produce. Student as Producer emphasises the role of the student as collaborators in the production of knowledge. The capacity for Student as Producer is grounded in the human attributes of creativity and desire, so that students can recognise themselves in a world of their own design.”

As part of the I’m a Producer day ran yesterday, we gave a demonstration of DIVERSE and also took part in a Q & A session regarding DIVERSE and Student as Producer. Overall this session went well, and provided us a good oppurtunity to further spread the word about DIVERSE. Furthermore the students who attended this session  showed a definite interest in DIVERSE and liked the idea. All of this will hopefully prove invaluable when DIVERSE is fully rolled out and in use properly next semester.

For more information about the Student as Producer click here

We’ve made some changes to DIVERSE and to test these out we’re hoping to organise another workshop with third year Computer Science Students. We’ve taken their feedback on board and are eager to find out if our changes have made an improvement.

More to follow once the workshop has been organised!

Just a quick update about our recent meeting with Business and Law. Myself and Ben took part in two lectures (one with first year students, one with third year) to introduce them to the work we’ve been doing on DIVERSE. We went through the steps involved with using DIVERSE and highlighted how we think it can benefit them. The plan for the coming weeks is to get the two groups actively working with DIVERSE and using it as a research aid to the work they are currently undertaking. We’re hoping that through this not only will they benefit but they will also provide us with active feedback regarding DIVERSE.

It shouldn’t be long until DIVERSE is fully underway in both Business and Law and HLSS so keep posted for more updates!

Just a quick update of recent events regarding DIVERSE. The main news for today is that myself and Max took part in a meeting with lectures from the faculty of Health, Life and Social Sciences who are interested in using DIVERSE in their modules. The meeting proved there was a definite interest amongst the lecturers regarding DIVERSE. Furthermore we gathered yet more ideas and opinions on what can be added to DIVERSE in the future; for example one interesting area to consider is the idea of staff creating their own semi private clouds as part of their research, so DIVERSE becomes helpful not only for student research, but also for staff collaboration on research projects. This alongside the other demonstrations of the tool means we have a wealth of ideas to improve DIVERSE.

The current plan is to start integrate DIVERSE with students in HLSS in the coming weeks. More on this will be posted once the timetable for this roll out is finalised.

Finally just to keep you updated with other project goings on, myself and Max have 2 sessions with students from Business & Law tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for more news on that shortly.