August 2008 Destinations ® : The UL Experience Installing and amending Destinations ® Mary Sweeney Dr. Colm Cunniffe Cooperative Education & Careers Division University of Limerick

August 2008 Overview CCMS Partner Fellowship UL Project Details Project Schedule Project Team What have we done Work in Progress Reflections IT implications Q & A

August 2008 CCMS Partner Fellowship Aug 07 - CCMS Partner Fellowship Contract between UL and Reading –Installation of Destinations ® –Training & IT support –Community of Practice – 5 partners –Adaptation and deployment –Evaluation –Dissemination

August 2008 UL Project Details Customise website for Irish students –Identify Irish links and resources Pilot Destinations® with career module –Business, Public Admin, Language, Music, HPSS Develop as resource for work placements Promote through careers website Provide student feedback Disseminate outcomes to GCI colleagues

August 2008 Project Schedule Sep 07: Upload website & training Oct 07: UL references; video clips Nov-Dec: Review contents Jan-April: Customise text, amend resources, pilot with students March-May: Edit and upload video clips June-Sept: Create new videos, upload on VLE Aug 08: Upload new release Sept ->: Customise new release Sept ->: Use resource with class groups

August 2008 Project Team Cross Functional Project Team –2 Careers Advisors, Coop Ed Manager, Placement Officer, IT Coordinator, UL Web Editor, 2 Academics, Teaching & Learning representative, Student Monthly meetings Allocated tasks to small working groups Familiarisation, consultation, identification of changes

August 2008 UL Version Minimalist approach to text changes –Amend, correct, or add value –Reviewed contents, identified need for amendments Units requiring significant amendments –Careers & Employers –Postgraduate Study –Work Experience –Links and resources throughout –Disability information –Promoted Gradireland throughout Video Clips: Editing and transcripts

August 2008 What have we done? Installed on server and linked to website Filmed video clips of Irish employers –7 employers, 38 video clips Added, deleted, amended text –1229 files of a total 4055 files –90 new links created Amended teaching resources Customised graphics Designed posters & flyers

August 2008 Monitored student usage –600 pages, 4400 hits per month Commissioned usability studies Surveyed students –Early reactions –Reading online survey What else have we done? Promoted to students – s, workshops, fairs, publications, posters Piloted with Humanities class groups

August 2008 The Greening of Destinations® Video Clips –Cross section of employers Ericsson, Google, Kerry Group, Kingspan, PWC, Stryker, Ulster Bank –Primary focus on selection process: Applications, CVs, Interviews, Assessment Centres, Skills, Personality, Work Experience, Careers & Employers Text –Irish statistics, publications, CVs, Postgrad funding, Graduate Placement schemes, Employment legislation, Work Experience, Resources

August 2008 Work in Progress New and more professional video clips –Work Experience & Postgraduate study –Include Irish interview Customise new releases Use with new class groups –Business Studies & Postgrads Use on VLE – SAKAI Evaluation activities –Interview students –Focus groups of academics and careers advisors Share output with GCI community

August 2008 What do students think? Easy to use – structure & navigation Design and appearance of site Level of content just right Content useful and interesting Stimulates career thinking 3 best: information & advice, activities, videos 3 lowest: site map, links, videos

August 2008 What do we think? Reflections on our experience –Think, plan, act, review –Importance of positive & versatile group –IT expertise invaluable –Customising requires time commitment –Overlap between Destinations ® and own website Assessment of Destinations ® –Great careers resource, developed by experts –Flexible, versatile, accessible, relevant –Excellent teaching resources –Low cost – high benefit: win-win solution

August 2008

IT Implications Installing Destinations ® Upload Destinations ® folder to server using FTP or SFTP Where? –In the case of UL – Time Required –About 30min – 1 hour

August 2008 IT Implications UL Webserver –Linux webserver –Apache 2.0 –LDAP support (for authentication) –If using apache there is more sophisticated LDAP authentication in Apache 2.2 Securing Destinations ® –UL uses Active Directory –Two domains:- student and staff –Authenticated using.htaccess file and LDAP protocol

August 2008 IT Implications Important points for your IT admin –Set up server to process SSI (server side includes), this will be default on most servers –In our case we replaced <!-- #include file' with '<!--#include virtual –Server must be set up to recognize FLV file types –Secure using LDAP and Active Directory Amending Destinations ® –A good start is the technical documentation. –Editing using Crimson/text editor –All edits were done manually in order to adhere to the structure of the Destinations files. –Topic-breakdown, video log and download logs were amended with edits –Menus were updated as new sections were added

August 2008 Home Page