nof-digitise programme
The £50 million Digitisation of Learning Materials Programme
(also known as the nof-digitise programme) is the largest
initiative of its kind in the UK. 154 institutions were awarded
grants following a 2-stage assessment process. Grants ranged
from £14,000 to £4m and were allocated to 37 consortia and 34
individual projects. Together they have produced a digital
learning materials foundry of well over 1 million images, tens
of thousands of audio and video clips, innumerable pages of text
and many hundreds of new learning packages on a diverse range of
topics. MLA, in partnership with UKOLN and the AHDS has provided expert advice to The Big Lottery Fund since the
programme's inception. For an overview of the initiative take a
look at this short
Flash clip.
The
EnrichUK website offers collection level descriptions
and links to all of the nof-digitise projects in a searchable
database. Alternatively for a quick overview of projects download the project list
(Word 191KB)
 .
nof-digitise technical standards
Technical standards are important in order to ensure content can
be found and used without specialist tools, that it can be
managed effectively in the immediate and the long term and that
it can be shared seamlessly across programmes (i.e. be
interoperable). This is why all nof-digitise projects were
required to work within a technical standards framework
and why all subsequent content creation initiatives which will
be delivered as part of the People's Network Service will also
be required to work within a similar framework. This framework
has been developed from the NOF standards as part of the EU
Minerva project and also reflects UK e-government standards with
which content must also comply. Access the Minerva technical guidelines for
digital content creation and e-government documentation. A very
useful summary of the materials for e-government available is at
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/documents/metdatagcl_trail.doc
nof-digitise technical support service
The development of the nof-digitise standards (which every
project was required to adhere to) has gone some way to helping
projects make the right technical decisions during their
planning stages. However, for many organisations developing and
implementing their projects still involved a steep learning
curve. nof-digitise was a first-time digitisation experience for
many of the applicants. The Fund, therefore, recognised that
some organisations would benefit from technical help when
developing and implementing their projects. The technical
advisory service was established and run by UKOLN, in
association with the AHDS. It has provided support mainly via email and its website to nof-digitise projects. The site
houses a project manual which was
compiled for the nof-digitise programme to support grant
recipients through the content creation process.
nof-digitise shared materials
The following are examples of good practice in risk and impact
assessment which have been prepared by nof-digitise projects
during the course of their work. We are grateful to them for
their permission to share materials. A number of useful sources
of information relating to copyright and IPR are also provided.
Risk assessment: Risk assessment undertaken
by the Sense of Place South East projects (Word 268KB)
Impact assessment: Monitoring and evaluation
plan prepared by the Citizen's Advice/Seamless Portals
consortium (Word 214KB)
Copyright and IPR resources
Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation were vital elements of the nof-digitise
programme as it was important to be able to measure its impact
and to share lessons and good practise for the future. Part of
this work has been carried out at programme level by the Fund
and its partners, and in part by individual projects.
Projects were required to undertake evaluation of their work to
show how they met their objectives, contributed to the
over-arching aims of the programme, identified lessons learned
and highlighted achievements. Projects were also required to
provide the following quarterly progress reports to The Fund to
meet their monitoring requirements:
Section A: business plan reports (revised January 2003)
Download section A of the report (
DOC 163KB) (
RTF 1,476KB).
The
Fund has required quarterly project progress reports during the
term of the grant and reports on beneficiaries for three years
following the end of the grant payment period. Quarterly
progress reports have related to ALL aspects of the project
business plan and were designed to be cumulative so that each
section was completed once it has been achieved. In addition the
Fund requested projects to evaluate the learning benefits of
their projects as from January 2003.
Sample completed
business plan report ( DOC151KB).
This example reflects the level of
feedback The Fund was looking for in progress reports on
business plans. It reflects a project which is in the early
stages of development, recruiting staff and revising budgets and
plans in the light of grant received.
Section B: technical specifications
Download Section B of the
report ( RTF 32KB)
This section of the report is
designed as checklist for you and The Fund to track the
technical progress of your project and ensure it complies with
the programme's technical standards. It was a cumulative report
which required information to be saved each time and updated
with the proceeding quarterly returns.
For reporting requirements
see annotated Section B form (RTF 118KB)
These requirements for reporting
explain when the information on each section needed to be
completed. It was essential that reports were completed as fully
as possible to enable The Fund to track progress in implementing
the standards and to support projects in achieving technical
compliance.
Sample completed technical specifications forms
Good practice example:
Sandfordshire (RTF 338KB)
Non-compliance example:
Metro Boro of Grit (RTF 335KB)
These examples were intended to illustrate good practice with
respect to technical standards compliance and a situation where
a project has failed to comply with standards. The good practice
form also reflects the level and nature of information required
by The Fund for this aspect of project progress reporting.
Further information about the technical aspects of monitoring
your project are available on the UKOLN NOF Technical Advisory pages.
Workshop materials
All materials from previous workshops that were held to support
nof-digitise grant recipients are available on the UKOLN website.
Good practice
Some examples of good practice in the use of
digital materials and useful links to other content
creation programmes have also been drawn together.
nof-digitise newsletter
DigiNews Issue 1 (Dec 2001)
(Word 1MB)
DigiNews Issue 2 (Aug 2002)
(Word 1MB)
DigiNews Issue 3 (Dec 2002)
(Word 2.6MB)
nof-digitise email discussion list
The nof-digitise email discussion
list was established for project teams and partner organisations
to share information and experiences throughout the project
process. A searchable list archive is still available from this site.
Resources from stage 2 of the application phase
 The Themed Approach (PDF
40KB) This article informed the eventual structure of the programme.
Stage Two business planning
(Word 206KB) Business planning advice and examples.
Stage Two FAQs (Word 75 KB)
FAQs
There are a great number of questions and answers relating to the
nof-digitise programme including aspects of project planning,
technical aspects and policy issues.
nof-digitise FAQs from
stage 2 of the application process (RTF 75KB) (earlier
in the programme prior to when people had started their projects)
nof-digitise FAQs after the
application process (RTF 64KB) (for grant recipients
during the development phase)
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