The HEAT Scheme

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The JISC Techdis HEAT Scheme began in 2006 as a way to encourage staff in Higher Education to use emerging technologies in innovative and inclusive ways in their teaching practice. It invited staff in Higher Education to bid for items of technology to run small projects up to one year in duration, using them innovatively to develop or uncover an aspect of inclusive practice in their everyday activities - not all were involved in teaching- sometimes explicitly to benefit students or staff with particular impairments, sometimes implicitly in developing a use of technology which is by nature more inclusive than the previous, often non-technological method. The advantage of small scale funding is that it can be highly targeted and the administration and auditing burden is much lower than in large projects. Success comes quickly.

It was created as a partnership between JISC Techdis and the Higher Education Academy subject centres, funded by the Higher Education Academy and JISC. Over 210 bids from 112 HE providers have resulted in 85 projects being commissioned over four rounds of the scheme in all disciplines in teaching, as well as staff development, libraries, careers services, support services and more.

Here are outline details of many of the projects within HEAT which illustrate how a small fund, carefully applied, can make a much larger difference.

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