Iriss

History

In 2003, the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE) was established as a sector-wide collaboration of the nine Scottish universities teaching social work with the objective of bringing about transformational change in the education and training of Scotland's future social workers

Stated goals were:

One of the first projects was the creation of the Learning Exchange, a digital repository, or library of bite sized chunks of learning or learning objects.

In 2007, SIESWE changed its name to Iriss which reflected an extension of the scope to include the social care workforce.

Work Programmes

Iriss's work is based on three inter-related programmes:

Projects are organised under a number of themes.

Principles

The principles on which Iriss operates are set out in the strategy for 2012-15. In summary:

Learning Exchange

In 2005, the Learning Exchange was launched as the world's first interactive library of digital learning resources for social work education. This repository is catalogued in accordance with international metadata standards and Learning object metadata, allowing interoperability with other systems. In particular the intention was that multimedia learning objects could be downloaded as IMS packages and uploaded into virtual learning environments in higher education institutions.

Originally the Learning Exchange was built on IntraLibrary software and access restricted to students and staff of the higher educational institutions in Scotland engaged in teaching social work. Access was password protected using the Athens Eduserve authentication system. Subsequently the Learning Exchange was added to the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) portfolio of content accessible via Athens Eduserve. This made Learning Exchange available to the higher education sector and the entire social services workforce.

In practice much of the content of the Learning Exchange did not require password protection, partly because in 2008 Iriss adopted a policy of releasing its own content using Creative Commons licensing. Password protection was therefore removed and a simple search interface OpenSearch created which queried the database by SRU.

In 2010, the Learning Exchange was rebuilt using Drupal, an open source content management system.

The ability to allow metadata harvesting by third parties means that Learning Exchange content is automatically searchable by Social Services Knowledge Scotland (SSKS), a portal to social service knowledge and information created by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in partnership with Iriss, Scottish Social Services Learning Networks and the Social Care Institute for Excellence.

Multimedia

In 2005 IRISS began creating web-based multimedia learning objects based on scenarios devised by social work educators, scripted, professional actors cast, and filmed by professional filmmakers. Examples include:

Audio and Video

In 2006, Iriss began recording research seminars and other events as an effective and inexpensive way of capturing and sharing knowledge. These recordings were made available as a podcast either direct from the Iriss website or from the iTunes Store.

In June 2012 the podcast series was superseded by IRISS.FM internet radio

Iriss also uses Vimeo, for video streaming.

Knowledge Management Strategy

Iriss collaborated with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and other stakeholders to create The Knowledge Management Strategy for the Social Services which was derived from Changing Lives. The Strategy stresses the importance of a workforce confident and competent in the use of the technologies that allow them to access and share knowledge.

The Knowledge Management Strategy for the Social Services was revised and new edition published by the Scottish Government in November 2012

As the ubiquity of the web has grown, new skills are required, known collectively as information literacy: ‘the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically'. In collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland Iriss developed a series of manuals aimed at helping social services practitioners develop their information literacy skills, as well as a simple interactive web-based introductory tutorial.

Evidence informed practice

Iriss has developed a number of tools and services to promote and foster the use of evidence to inform practice. Confidence through Evidence is a toolkit designed to help practitioners acquire, assess, adapt and apply evidence in practice. A complementary library of evidence summaries was created within the Learning Exchange.

A Champions Network has been established to foster links between Iriss and social services workforce in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.

The Research Advice Service was set up to support the social care workers carrying out their own research.

Innovation and improvement

The Innovation and Improvement programme promotes new thinking for social services in Scotland. The programme develops tools, training and interventions that will support and enable the sustainable transformation of social services in Scotland.

Technical barriers

In 2010, Iriss commissioned a report, Social Media in the Social Services which was published as an interactive document inviting comment and discussion. Iriss continues (partly though the Just Do It! blog) to urge public bodies to open up access to social media and trust professional staff to act responsibly.