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Kinds of Resources

The College distinguishes two types of centrally-provided ICT resources: Teaching Resources and Production Resources, though, in fact, outside of the 10.00 to 16.00 teaching day, all resources may be used as production resources.

What are the differences between production and teaching resources?

A teaching resource is a resource that may be booked for teaching. The computers in a teaching resource typically have a wider range of software installed, and the room will be arranged in an "eyes forward" configuration so that all the desks face in one direction. Teaching resources are equipped with a LeaF facility so that instructors can demonstrate software.

A production resource is a resource for students to work in. Production resources are typically arranged around a particular workflow, and are open access - that is, students can make use of the resource ad lib on a first-come, first-served basis.

Outside of teaching hours (10.00 to 16.00, Monday to Friday), all resources are production resources. This is to maximise resource usage, rather than to have teaching rooms lying idle when they are not in use.

How are resources decided on?

Although the number of ICT resources tends not to change from year to year (the number of resources is constrained by the number of available rooms), resources may move from production to teaching, or vice versa. The trend is currently towards more teaching resources at the expense of lower-end production resources. This is because recenent validations have emphasised hand-on training, and new student surveys have indicated that an increasing proportion of students have their own computers for production use. We will periodically produce forward planning documents (we call them roadmaps) on Confluence - the Ravensbourne Wiki which express our views on the future of ICT resources at Ravensbourne. We warmly welcome your feedback, as this helps us refine our thinking.

ICT work closely with programme and faculty teams to ensure that appropriate and best value resources are delivered. In addition, student feedback through the annual student survey, and through course committees is incorporated into resource planning. ICT team members attend course and faculty committees and are pro-active in responding to all matters raised, whether positive or negative. We believe in openness and transparency in our operations, and welcome questions and comments. Once it is approved, the ICT budget and workplan is available on-line.

To help us better fine-tune resources, ICT undertake periodic resource surveys. If you use the ICT resources, we strongly encourage you to participate in the surveys - because your feedback helps us provide you with a better resource.

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