IT Collaboration Hive

I've had a quick look through this and it looks fine. Is there a proposal for how we will go about implementing the goals?  I think goal 7 and 9 are very important.

Reframe administrative needs to reflect that we're here for students.

Have issues with the wording of Environmental Factor #1.  The inference is that budgets have been shrinking when in fact the amount of money that has been going to IT has been steadily increasing. 

As we discussed yesterday there is a lot to unpack under each one of these goals during the next implementation phase.  Liza comments reflect some very relevant issues and ideas.  There are others.  Thanks to both of you for keeping the strategic planning process moving forward.

Here's a raft of comments - suggestions for additional text and notes of explanation or question.  It may be more than you wanted or bargained for!  I'd be glad to explain anything in person for you on Monday.

 

The main things for improvement or clarification I see are these -

 

- ambiguity throughout the document for the word "support"  - it's used to discuss both curricular or academic support for teachingwith IT and technical support for individual users of IT.  But the two types of support aren't distinguished anywhere and this led me to be confused a couple of times on my first reading.

 

- a few stylistic things about consistent verb tense, parallel phrasings, and so on, for you to take or leave.

 

- no mention of adaptive and assistive technologies for people with special needs - visual impairment, learning disability, mobility issues.  Certainly an accurate reflection of the current state of affairs on campus but something that also really needs somehow to change.

 

- no mention of improving support (ugh - there's that word) or collaboration with off-Oly users - like coordinating with Tacoma, res-based program.  Maybe these last two points are beyond your charter?

Overview:

 

 
IT Environment

 [--- Note: I reordered the bullet points in this section for emphasis (to place teaching/central mission as top priority) – and changed the wording of the last three bullet points to make them complete sentences like the first three. ----]

• The evolution of digital technologies is changing the paradigm of how we teach, learn, work, live and relate.
• Different community users of IT need many different levels of technology and support.
• Evergreen exists within a competitive environment where the level of available technology and support can influence student recruitment and retention.
• A recent history where Overall budgets have been shrinking yet the Evergreen community is demanding an ever increasing degree of functionality from IT.
• An increased Risk and accountability for the security of confidential data continue to increase.
• A distributed The model for supporting IT and for the development and application of technology tools is distributed.  [--- Note: By distributed do you mean fragmented or decentralized?]
  

Guiding Principals
1.    Support [--- Note: Here's the confusion for me again about the double-duty of the word support. This seems to be about curricular support for teaching, but then there's nothing in this section about technical support.]
Effectively support Interdisciplinary study, collaborative learning, learning across significant differences, personal engagement and linking theory with practical application will be supported through the use of IT.  [--- Note: I suggest this grammatical change and the rest below for style - to make your use of the passive voice consistent throughout this section and to make a complete sentence to match the rest. Another solution would be to change all uses of the passive voice to active.]
2.    Collaboration
Collaboration and community will be used to build technology for Evergreen.
3.    Security and Accessibility
Reasonable measures to ensure the stability, security and accessibility of systems and infrastructure will be considered at every step of IT implementation.
4.    Sustainable Systems
Function, fiscal responsibility, cost of ownership, supportability and flexibility will be considered when implementing long-term IT solutions.
5.    User Driven Environment
The needs of the community are will be the drivers behind IT implementations.
6.    Innovation
The use of IT will be used to promote innovation and enhance the distinctiveness of our educational excellence.

[--- Note: BTW, the points in some sections are bulleted and in others numbered.]

Goals:

1.    Manage resources effectively.  Building sustainable academic and administrative systems requires optimizing limited resources to maximize the college IT assets.

2.    Improve communication and collaboration by implementing technologies in support of curricular and community-based activities.  Supporting easy-to-use technologies will enable community members to collaborate in areas including but not limited to curriculum, governance work, student activities, academic data sharing, professional staff and faculty development, [---Note: Typo here?  Comma instead of period?]

3.    Improve the ability of the community to quickly and easily access and update information.  Access to and maintenance of information will improve accuracy and quality of communications and support community engagement of students, faculty and staff. 

4.    Increase security of networks, software, hardware and data.  Security and control of access to confidential information will meet Evergreen trust requirements and protect community members. 

5.    Foster a well defined, predicable and transparent process for IT projects.  Cost, scope and outcomes will be more predictable through the expanded usage of standard project management tools… [---Note: Typo here?  Period?]

6.    Foster and promote a more IT literate community. Fostering and promoting IT literacy is now a fundamental responsibility in the provision of a full liberal arts education.  Evergreen must step up to meet this new responsibility.  [---Note: Something like this - once again for style and consistency of text, but also by way of elaboration.]

7.    Enhance the partnership between faculty and staff that integrates technology with curricular expertise to enhance the instructional environment. Encourage innovation, creativity, and the support of early technology adopters. [---Note: My sense is that the "early" days of IT are long gone and an important additional goal is to create incentives for holdouts, unsophisticated appliance-model users, and other "late adopters" to get involved.]

8.    Improve faculty, staff and student IT technical? support, including hardware, software and support for instructional technologies.  Given Evergreen's distributed support environment, work to develop a more comprehensive approach to providing timely, holistic support for the diverse set of user needs.

9.    Ensure teaching and learning spaces are kept technologically current to meet the needs of the curriculum. From classic computer teaching labs to wireless areas, the evolving nature of both technology and the curriculum means our teaching spaces need to reflect that evolution.

10. Support a more accessible learning repository through creation of and increased access to digital collections. Improve the access to digital collections to enable/enhance both instructional and research needs.

[---Note: I see a couple of references to "access" like the one above, as in making IT accessible to the general user, but I see nothing about accessibility issues for people with special needs - adaptive and assistive technology for people with visual impairments, learning disabilities, and/or mobility issues.  I think this issue really ought to be added as a goal - 'cause right now the state of this kind of "support" on campus is fragmented, incomplete, and under-emphasized.]

Goals:

 

1. Manage resources effectively.  Building sustainable academic and administrative systems requires optimizing limited resources to maximize the college IT assets. [Rognas, Liza]   To me this goal is very practical. At its base, it means that every unit buying, servicing, and maintaining public computers needs to coordinate hardware, software and formats (Mac/PC) so that users can easily move from a computer in one building to another in a different building and assume they'll enjoy the same access to basic technology resources.

 

2. Improve communication and collaboration by implementing technologies in support of curricular and community-based activities.  Support easy-to-use technologies for community members to collaborate, including but not limited to governance work, student activities, academic data sharing, professional staff and faculty development, [Rognas, Liza]   See below--#3 and #6

 

3. Improve the ability of the community to quickly and easily access and update information.  Access to and maintenance of information will improve communications and support community engagement of students, faculty and staff.   [Rognas, Liza]  **In my view, three areas in the library and campus computer world represent challenges for meeting this goal:

1. Seamless access across campus to library electronic resources and public domain resources. Hardware, software and server variations among the various public computer access points on campus often frustrate students because they cannot easily access, download and print, or save to/from their disks, thumb drives, TESC student accounts/scratch accounts. It's my opinion that budget priorities and communication problems among the various units across campus inhibit access simply because the age of the computers, the software they contain, and the maintenence they receive varies so widely. Also, in the Library, we suffer from MAC and PC format translation problems that compound those caused by the across-campus hardware/software generation gaps. Many students now carry their life and their academic research around on USB (?) drives suspended from cables around their necks. They want to plug these "thumb drives" into any available computer and work or print. Most public library computers can accomodate this only if the user is willing to pull out the computer, fight cables and use a flashlight to find the port. In some cases, the data stored in their little "memory pendants" cannot be called up by our computers because it requires software we do not have. Additionally, many floppy discs used by students on one machine on campus will not be read by another in a different location.

2. Firewalls and database configurations. I do not have the technological background/language to discuss this well, and suggest you also consult Steve Metcalf, Phan Nguyen and Brian Gerheim. I do know that because all electronic Library subscription resources are limited to authorized student, staff and faculty, we use a proxy server to enable user ID access from off-campus. Thus, all who access these resourceson campus also go through the proxy server by default (?). This configuration slows downloads on many computers and adds to the frustration factor. In the library and across the campus,  firewalls and administrative controls on all computers prohibit downloading from Web sites. While these security measures protect our system from user interference, viruses and other unwanted "bugs," they also sometimes prevent students from downloading documents and assigned materials from academic program pages, or prevent them from capturing material they want from the Web. The vast variation among public campus computers makes access to Academic Program Page electronic materials difficult. For example, I've often worked with students in the library on weekends who could NOT download material from their Program websites from the Library OPACs, but who realized easy access to the same material if they moved to the CAL, and vice-versa.

      Also, because many/most patrons of electronic Library subscription resources have not been educated about their use, many attempt to print from the screen using a browser print command. Most electronic, subscription, databases have a print command built into the database that, when activated, reconfigures the article for printing. Library computers have been programed to automatically default to the database print configurations. It's clear to me, via frustrated student/faculty anacdotes, that this is not the case across campus in the CAL or the GCC, and certainly not the case for individual staff and faculty using their office computers. Thus, these users experience terrific frustration downloading articles from academic library databases, and sometimes from public domain PDF files.

3.  Library Account Mis-information. Each and every day I encounter students, staff and faculty who are frustrated because they cannot access subscription Library electronic resources from off campus, order books through the Summit Catalog, or use Interlibrary Loan. Each one of these electronic library services demands an active library account in good standing. The main reason for their frustration is because they do not know they must actually activate/update their account in the library every year. They are told by many, many people across campus that their student/faculty/staff ID card is their library card. They think that by having a campus ID card that they automatically have a library account. I hear this misinformation spoken by the students who lead orientation tours, I hear it from students, staff and faculty who come to reference, call and email. We've tried every trick in the book available to library staff and faculty to stop this myth. I'll say it again here with some force, pardon the caps: STUDENTS, STAFF AND FACULTY MUST ACTIVATE AND UPDATE THEIR ACCOUNTS AT LIBRARY CIRCULATIONEVERY YEAR IN ORDER TO ACCESS LIBRARY ELECTRONIC MATERIALS OFF CAMPUS, AND IN ORDER TO USE INTERLIBRARY LOAN AND THE SUMMIT CATALOG. If this process can be steamlined--great! Until then, we could use some assistance in informing and educating staff and faculty about the basic routine needed for library access.

4. Increase security of networks, software, hardware and data.  Security and control of access to confidential information will meet Evergreen trust requirements. 

[Rognas, Liza]  I don't understand what this goal means. What are Evergreen Trust Requirements?

In the Library, every public computer is anonymous in a sense. No one has to sign in using a password and ID to use the computers. By having open and anonymous access, every patron is guaranteed security and privacy. Individual use can only be tracked if they deliberately sign into the computer using their ID and password. I am very concerned that other public terminals across campus require ID and password access because such authentication procedures greatly impinge upon the privacy of the users and places the college in the unfortunate position of holding information that could be used against members of the campus community.

 

5. Foster a well defined, predicable and transparent process for IT projects.  Cost, scope and outcomes will be more predictable through the expanded usage of standard project management tools…

[Rognas, Liza]  This sounds great! I don't know what it means, exactly, but I do wonder if your system here can inform other units as we try to also make our work and the costs of our work more transparent.

 

6. Foster and promote a more IT literate community.  [Rognas, Liza]   Great! Yippee! See my "caps" message on Goal #3.

Other campuses across the country require a course in IT--usually technology-based--as a prerequisit to graduation. I don't advocate requirements. I do advocate serious orientation for new students/staff and faculty and encourage stronger emphasis on IT skills and literacy across the curriculum. This can be done by deliberately including Library faculty and staff/ academic computing staff in all faculty summer institute Curriculum planning offerings, new faculty orientation, and new student orientation. I do not mean a "Library Tour." That's as meaningless as giving a computing tour. A "See the machines, see the books" focus just wastes time and promotes the idea that if one knows where something is, one knows what something is. Knowledge and literacy is not about locating a machine or a book. Encouraging faculty to see IT skill and literacy as part of program content is the key. Academic computing staff, CAL staff and library faculty can/do teach/work with faculty teams and actually generate credit. Several programs on campus successfully integrate their curriculum in this manner every year. I'd like to see this highlighted and showcased. Making this practice a stronger part of the curriculum will require visible and vocal support  in hiring and by the Planning Units. Such work demands that faculty gain a broader and deeper understanding of the curricular support available to programs and an advocacy of this important work by Academic Advising, the Deans and PUCs.

 

7. Enhance the partnership between faculty and staff that integrates technology with curricular expertise to enhance the instructional environment. Encourage innovation, creativity, and the support of early technology adopters.  [Rognas, Liza]   Yes! See above, #6.

 

8. Improve faculty, staff and student IT support, including hardware, software and support for instructional technologies.  Given Evergreen’s distributed support environment, work to develop a more comprehensive approach to providing timely, holistic support for the diverse set of user needs.

[Rognas, Liza]  And staff. This goal assumes much staff time and all but requires additional hires in specialized areas. I'm all for it!

 

9. Ensure teaching and learning spaces are kept technologically current to meet the needs of the curriculum. From classic computer teaching labs to wireless areas, the evolving nature of both technology and the curriculum means our teaching spaces need to reflect that evolution.

[Rognas, Liza]  Yes! As we turn to wireless technology, we need to ascertain that the individual laptops and desktop computers used by teaching faculty and staff will actually integrate with the instructional technology gadgets, software and machines available in the classrooms.

Right now, our Tacoma campus and our Reservation-based campuses cannot easily connect to the systems on the main campus. Many of these machines were purchased on grants and are not maintained by the campus. And, many faculty computers do not interface well with the technology closets/stations in the various buildings on the main campus.

And, while the problems with downloading and writing to the various contract and evaluation forms present behind every smiley face on the MS Word programs on public computers has been greatly improved, Tacoma and reservation students still have problems.

 

10.         Support a more accessible learning repository through creation of and increased access to digital collections. Improve the access to digital collections to enable/enhance both instructional and research needs. [Rognas, Liza]   Out on the Web several excellent digital and audio collections exist with complete public access. But they were created using various technologies and often require specialized software (usually available for download on the site) to access. For example, please go to the Washingston State Library site and attempt to download their digital newspaper collection after searching for info on Grand Coulee dam. Dare ya! Go here, see what happens.

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/newspapers_results.aspx?k=grand+coulee+dam

[Rognas, Liza]  You need to download a LizardTech Djvu plug-in. It's not possible for a patron to access this collection from any public computer on campus because administrative controls prevent the download. We've added it to the Library OPACs, but how many more are out there? How can we begin to meet these access needs?

Across the campus several caches of wonderful information/research and images/film await the time and money needed to digitize and then make  this information available in an organized fashion so that access is easy. They could live on the library website. Campus-wide collaboration is required to do this work, but first, people need to assess what's available and then prioritize the projects. Currently, there's no communication network in place to find this material. It's worth our attention, but it will, again, require faculty/staff time, money and investment in technological resources. This is mundane work in a sense, and does not easily translate to the "new" and "Innovative" protocols demanded by our in-house grants. We just need to digitize--and we need the staff/faculty and techological support to do it. It's basic and big--but necessary. It's worth a concentrated DTF focus, the results of which could be organized into grant proposals. Our archives and faculty and staff offices are full of innovative and creative work that no one sees or uses because it's not collected, organized or available. We're sitting on many gold mines, like dragons hoarding treasure. And as staff/faculty/students leave and retire--they throw it away because they don't know what else to do. A campus awareness PR push, backed with some cash and some specific goals, could really turn these goldmines into important resources for future student research--and for campus PR/ recruitment. It amazes me that so much important work/research done in programs disappears when the class is over.