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Distance Education Course Topics

Brainstorming area for Informatics Distance Education programme and course topic proposals.

Programme Areas of Interest according to Quick Web Analysis by Russell Bartlett and Sophie Graetz on 17-May-2012

  • Computer/Cyber Security
  • Software Testing
  • Big Data
  • Robotics and Machine Vision
  • Cloud Computing

Programme Areas identified at meeting of Austin Tate, David Richardson, Stuart Anderson, Sophie Graetz and Russell Bartlett on 17-May-2012

Analytics (with Business School)

Smarter Business

  • Business School Link (David Marshall)
  • IET Accreditation for CPD
  • Case Studies from partners such as IBM, NHS 24, Edinburgh Council

Cloud and Service-Based Computing (with EPCC)

  • TBA

Think Green Computing

  • Energy and data centres
  • With electrical engineering
  • With EPCC/HPC course link

Smarter Energy

  • Sensor networks

Advanced Interfaces

  • With ECA
  • With SICSA
  • Multi-modal interaction
  • Speech and speech production
  • Dialogue systems
  • Gestures
  • Virtuals worlds, non-player characters
  • Entertainment
  • Personalised advertising
  • Augmented reality
  • 3D cameras
  • Input devices such as Kinect

Data Visualisation

  • With ECA
  • TBA

Analytical Data Bases

  • OLAP
  • Structured data -> Learned data

Security

  • Napier current focus in SICSA
  • Andy Gordon (Microsoft and Informatics Professor)
  • Dependability and resilience
  • Security infrastructure
  • Risk management
  • e-Infrastructure security
  • Business continuity planning

Multi-Core Processing

  • ICSA focus
  • With EPCC
  • Ose of General Purpose GPUs as a hetrogenous computing architecture
  • Compiler course
  • Murray Cole
  • WPCC/HPC course
  • Field programmable gate arrays

Telehealth

  • With others
  • TBA

Systems Approach to Biology

  • To draw on ELSA/BBSRC biologists retraining programme (Gilmore/Sanguinetti)
  • With OU and UCL
  • TBA

Topic areas or courses identified by Dave Robertson and Stuart Anderson in April 2012

  • Computational Systems Biology (Gilmore/Sanguinetti)
  • Extreme Computing (Viglas/Osborne)
  • Applied Machine Learning (Lavrenko/Sutton)
  • Multi Agent Semantic Web Systems (Klein/Rovatsos)
  • Software Testing (Anderson)
  • Text Technologies (Lavrenko)

Proposed for MOOC and Distance Education Delivery

  • AI Planning (Wickler/Tate)

Other Possible Topics

  • Big Data
  • Robotics & Machine Vision
  • Multimodal Technologies
  • Proof Planning & Formal Methods
  • Design Informatics
  • Performance Modelling
  • Integrity Checking
  • Knowledge Engineering
  • Cyber Security/Computer Security (Aspinall)
  • Next Generation Internet
  • Configuration and Change Management

Possible New Areas not currenty taught by Informatics

  • Social Networking and Collaboration
  • Graphics, Modelling and Animation (with ECA)
  • Large Scale (and Cloud) Computing

All Courses?

Could list ALL current Informatics courses and modules and establish which have a distance education as well as on-campus delivery potential. The MSc level topics and courses are listed at:

We offer around 50 courses at masters level, grouped into the following specialist areas:

  • Analytical and Scientific Databases
  • Bioinformatics, Systems and Synthetic Biology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computer Systems, Software Engineering & High-Performance Computing
  • Informatics and Economics
  • Intelligent Robotics
  • Knowledge Management, Representation and Reasoning
  • Learning from Data
  • Music Informatics
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Neural Computation and Neuroinformatics
  • Theoretical Computer Science

We also collaborate on the following MSc programmes:

  • MSc in High Performance Computing
  • MSc in Speech and Language Processing
  • MSc in Informatics (at the British University in Dubai)
  • MSc in Design Informatics (with ECA)

** Below are a list of ideas, not necessarily all will be applicable or relevant - open to debate and discussion

Key Partners

  • School of Informatics
  • School of Education
  • Information Services
  • Communications and Marketing
  • Development and Alumni
  • Corporate Partners (e.g. HP, Microsoft, IBM)
  • Recruitment Agencies
  • Skills Development Bodies (e.g. SQA?)

Key Activities

  • Market Research
  • Course Preparation
  • Course Delivery
  • Marketing
  • Systems Support
  • Partner Management

Value Propositions

  • University Brand
  • Access to Cutting-Edge Research
  • Award-winning teaching
  • Becoming part of a well-connected and powerful alumni network
  • Increased awareness of technical and commercial research themes
  • Accessibility - anywhere, anytime learning

 

Customer Relationships

  • Online / Self-Service
  • Online Communities
  • Dedicated Account Management (for corporates)

Customer Segments

  • Corporate CPD
  • Alumni
  • ICT Professionals
  • Computing Science Teachers
  • Pre-University Students

Key Resources

  • Quality Teaching Material
  • Access to best practices in e-Learning (by working with the School of Education)
  • e-Learning platforms and technologies
  • Teaching Staff
  • Support Staff

Channels

  • Web Platform (direct)
  • Recruitment Agencies
  • e-Learning providers (e.g. Coursera, Udacity)
  • Skills Development Agencies
  • Open University
  • Other University Courses (e.g. Joint-study courses)

Cost Structure

  • e-Learning Platform and Tools Licensing
  • Teaching Staff Costs
  • Support Staff Costs
  • Hosting Costs
  • Content Licensing
  • Marketing
  • Administration Fees

Revenue Streams

  • Examination / Certification Fees
  • Course Fees
  • Sponsorship (e.g. Corporate)
  • Licensing Revenue (e.g. from licensing courses to channel partners)
  • in-direct revenue from additional research funding