Excellence Gateway
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) Eastern on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Further education colleges, Sixth Form schools/colleges
Keywords: U3 technology, quality assurance, quality control, quality management, innovation, flash drive, USB, handbook
This case study looks at the innovative use of U3 technology at Thurrock and Basildon College, which has improved institutional effectiveness by keeping staff regularly up to date with college policy and quality standards. In addition, the implementation has saved the College a significant sum of money in printing costs. While the U3 Quality Pen is only used at staff level, it promises to be an effective tool for learners once it can be developed and harnessed effectively.
Thurrock and Basildon College is a vocational college serving the age ranges of 14-16, 16-18 and 19+. The College provides courses leading to qualifications from Pre-Entry to Foundation Degrees, creating pathways to learning for all abilities.
U3 technology is a new generation of mass data storage devices that are capable of carrying software as well as data files. When you plug the U3 smart drive into any PC, it will automatically run software that is installed on it, making any PC your own PC. When it is unplugged it leaves no personal data behind.
As part of the Quality Improvement and Performance Reporting project, Thurrock and Basildon College was reviewing the delivery of the curriculum to ensure an enhanced learner experience. This meant that the whole of the documentation supporting learning and teaching had to be re-issued.
Traditionally, their approach would be to publish a College Quality Manual. Instead the College decided that it wanted to find a more innovative way of doing so. Initially, the college staff intranet could have been used but there was not a way of ensuring access had taken place. The second approach would have been to use a memory stick or pen, but this could simply be erased and then became null and void. What was wanted was a way of using the strong points of both.
At this time the U3 technology for memory pens was beginning to be known. On investigation it was found that it was possible to utilise this technology to create a memory pen that consisted of two sections: one which appeared as a small (50MB) read-only CD and the other a normal memory pen data area. This allowed the College to create a bootstrap program that would run every time that the pen was inserted into a workstation.
On insertion, the bootstrap automatically checks if the workstation is part of the college network, checks for existence of the correct directory on the memory pen and, if it meets these two conditions, reads the publishing directory to check the date stamps on the two sets of documents and updates the Quality Pen with any later or new documents. It then displays a web-based menu to the Quality Manual. If the Quality Manual directory does not exist on the pen, it is created and a complete set is recopied to the pen.
The result of using Quality Pen at Thurrock and Basildon College has been that staff are consistently teaching in line with the Quality Improvement & Development Policy, linked to the learning and teaching agenda. In addition, the College has saved £44,000 in printing costs, validated at the Efficiency Measurement Model for Further Education (EMMFE) workshops this term.
It is hoped that the College will be able to adapt this technology in a way that can be embraced by the learners. The idea is that each learner will be issued with a U3 device, which will have Moodle VLE software running from within. This means that students can be regularly updated with the latest resources posted online every time they log on to a network machine. Furthermore, they can take the pen home and load up the software on their home PCs regardless of whether they have access to the Internet or not.
To find out more, watch the video (approximately 10 minutes long) that accompanies this case study. Andy Blakey, Director of Information and Resources, and Diane Mitchell, Hair and Beauty Faculty, explain how U3 technology works and what impact it has had on their teaching respectively.
Important note: To view the video, you will need Quicktime Player software installed on your PC. Download Quicktime Player for free at Brothersoft.com.
Watch the video (29MB, MP4) format
Read a transcript of the video
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Disclaimer: The Regional Support Centres (RSC) and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) support the development of educational e-learning. We may refer to specific products, processes or services. Such references are examples and are not endorsements or recommendations and should not be used for product endorsement purposes.
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/134662.
