Building Information Governance

To govern information requires mastering a diverse, portfolio of legal and ethical rules, technology standards, business policies, and technologies, all applied across increasingly complex, distributed systems and repositories. Businesses and public agencies are under increased scrutiny regarding information governance and are being required to demonstrate compliance to standards and openness regarding their uses of data.

This course introduces participants to a structured approach that enables strong and resilient information governance to be incorporated into the design and management of digital systems and assets. 21st century information governance must navigate and embrace records management, privacy and confidentiality, electronic discovery, compliance, information security, corporate governance, and transparency of operations—all of these will be considered in this course. The overarching goal of the course is to ensure students are able to demonstrate that the systems and information they produce in producing are seen as Trustworthy.

The course is structured as a set of interactive lectures and facilitated small group sessions that will enable students to analyse real-world scenarios to apply their learning. Case studies and examples will draw on a range of domains, with an in-depth look at the challenges of delivering effective information governance in particular settings such as healthcare.

Note: this course does not focus on Information Security and detailed technical knowledge is not a prerequisite.

This course offers a comprehensive overview of the technology, legal, ethical and business rules that define information governance and explores how trust in digital information can be achieved. You have the opportunity to gain valued skills that will enable you to provide better leadership across teams engaged in designing and managing complex systems and information assets. Successful strategies for collaboration will be presented that enable the professional to be more effective, deliver improved outcomes, and reduce the risks of overlooking requirements that can undermine a project’s budget and success.

Frequency

This course normally runs twice a year.

Course dates

Objectives

The course is divided into modules, with each day including two to four modules.  Student input and class progress may influence the priorities and allocations of time among the different topics.  Students may be assured, regardless of any adjustments that may be made, that the course content will be substantive and that all related course materials will be available. 

Here is the syllabus that will be pursued:

• Defining Information Governance in the 21^st Century
• Identifying the Rules for Governing Information: legal, ethical, and professional frameworks that govern information use
• Building and Executing Assessments and Requirements Analyses for Information Governance in different settings: the role of standards
• Navigating Current Technologies and Innovations: the role of engineering solutions in promoting Information Governance, technical approaches
• Trust and trustworthiness: organisational, societal and political influences on responsible data use
• Preparing the Final Assignment

In the opening module on Monday, a more detailed map of the course content and the learning objectives for each module will be made available. 

Exercises

Students should plan to make active contributions in class discussions, participating in working groups to complete exercises, and completing overnight readings.  

If any specific student will be unable to attend all or any part of any class session (e.g., due to an unexpected illness, work crisis, etc.), they should provide me notice as soon as practicable (so that class sessions, exercises, and discussions can be adapted to their absence). You are reminded that Oxford has established certain minimum attendance requirements to qualify to submit a final assignment.

Grading and Assessment Criteria:

The grades in this course will be determined on the basis of the Examination Conventions set forth in the Handbook for Software Engineering, found here .

Final Assignment:

This course requires you to develop and apply your substantive skills in integrating the knowledge you are acquiring into a proposed, executive-level, corporate information governance plan which is to be submitted as your final assignment.

Contents

The course is divided into modules, with each day including two to four modules.  Student input and class progress may influence the priorities and allocations of time among the different topics.  Students may be assured, regardless of any adjustments that may be made, that the course content will be substantive and that all related course materials will be available. 

Here is the syllabus that will be pursued:

• Defining Information Governance in the 21^st Century
• Identifying the Rules for Governing Information: legal, ethical, and professional frameworks that govern information use
• Building and Executing Assessments and Requirements Analyses for Information Governance in different settings: the role of standards
• Navigating Current Technologies and Innovations: the role of engineering solutions in promoting Information Governance, technical approaches
• Trust and trustworthiness: organisational, societal and political influences on responsible data use
• Preparing the Final Assignment

In the opening module on Monday, a more detailed map of the course content and the learning objectives for each module will be made available.

Requirements

No particular technical knowledge is required beyond that possibly required for admission to the OUDCS program.

Students are expected to have laptops or similar devices that allow them to access Net-based resources (such as the OUDCS servers, YouTube, etc.) and also include presentation capabilities, such as PowerPoint.

Several of the class exercises will involving collaborative problem solving and the sharing of the solutions developed for which visual presentations will be useful. In previous instances of this course, those presentations have been white-boards, but digital presentations are welcomed.

This course will draw on a range of source material that will enable you to gain a comprehensive overview of the area. References will be provided in electronic form with the teaching material. The textbooks for the course are:

• Smallwood, R. (2014). Information governance. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Although due an update in late 2019, this gives a comprehensive overview of IG, although is light on recent developments such as the GDPR.

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/n28kah/oxfaleph000624075 - Ebook available to registered students only

• Carey, P. (2018). Data protection. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. This provides good coverage of the GDPR and other UK law relating to the processing of personal data.

Physical copy issued during the course week.