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Chief Information Officer

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Technology Leadership

• Launched the Information Technology Strategic Planning process, PlanIT. Thus far, with representatives from throughout the university, we have drafted a vision statement, proposed strategic initiatives and guiding principles, and started to define implementation strategies and costs.
• Partnered with OARnet / ITEC-Ohio with support from the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) to design, build, and test a prototype trailer-mounted, mobile Tachyon Satellite Internet System (TSIS). This highly mobile solution provides a pragmatic, cost effective way to extend the benefits of the Internet to underserved populations and remote locations where standard Internet connectivity is limited or nonexistent. The patent-pending TSIS has been successfully tested and used at locations across the United States. It enables virtually endless application possibilities for business, education, research, human services, medicine and government. Ohio State is working to encourage the transfer of this technology to the commercial market.
• Presented a report on the progress of the e-Learning Implementation Plan to the Council of Deans. The report, which was requested by the Distance Education / Continuing Education Committee headed by Vice President Bobby Moser, reviewed e-Learning operations, implementation strategy, initial steps in building a support organization, and also covered internal and external partnerships, needed policies and procedures, investing in faculty and support, and an online portal as a point of presence for e-Learning at Ohio State.
• Initiated a campuswide evaluation of Course Management Systems (CMS) to explore alternatives and campus needs at the enterprise level. Ohio State's current CMS, WebCT, which serves 40,000 students on servers and systems maintained by OIT, and the colleges of Medicine and Mathematics and Physical Sciences, must be upgraded.
• Collaborated with Faculty and TA Development, the OSU Libraries, OSU's Web Media Collective and outside partners to obtain grants from the Ohio Learning Network to build a "learning object" and host a conference with other state colleges and universities also building learning objects.
• Collaborated with University Libraries and the School of Journalism and Communication to develop and co-teach a new and groundbreaking course on learning objects: JCOMM 850C, Digital learning Objects: The Building Blocks of Online Course Design.
• Partnered with the Nisonger Center to modify learning modules (built with an Ohio Board of Regents grant) to help high school students with disabilities gain information technology literacy and competence.
• Hosted Megaconference IV, which brought together representatives from 200 universities worldwide via Internet video.
• Contributed to outreach by partnering with University Libraries, the Moritz College of Law Library, and the Health Sciences Library to bring a national satellite teleconference on the Patriot Act and privacy rights to campus.
• Became active in the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), a membership coalition of more than 70 institutions, corporations and organizations sponsored by EDUCAUSE. One staff member chairs the Learning Objects work group and was appointed to the initiative's advisory committee; another staff member co-facilitates the organization's Learning Objects Virtual Community.
• Participated in an Ohio Valley Internet2 Consortium workshop to build and strengthen the relationship between central and distributed IT staffs and also help to prepare the campus for newer networking technologies.
• Shared recognition for five Ohio State projects nominated by Microsoft for Computerworld awards for innovative technology. The projects are the Transportable Satellite Dish, Web Media Collective, Stepping Stones and Faculty and Administrator Modules in Higher Education (FAME), Scientific and Information Literacy in the Life Sciences, and the Pew Statistical Buffet.

Technology Services

• Developed an on-campus certification preparation course for networking staff that will cost less than half the price of off-campus equivalent training.
• Reduced many UNITS phone line rates, which helps Ohio State departments with their own budget reduction requirements.
• Instituted new Web-based payment methods, online user self-service account management features, and improved customer service for UNITS services.
• Installed telephone and cable television services for the new Blackwell Inn at the Fisher College of Business on time and nearly one-third under budget.
• Contracted with Wide Open West to upgrade basic cable service for 5,000 campus outlets, primarily in residence halls, with new services, including pay-per-view movies and events.
• Relocated, with no service disruption, a major campus fiber optic cable route that supplies network service to six buildings, campus cable TV service, and Ohio Stadium's broadcast video circuits. The fiber route was moved to prepare for Larkins Hall's renovation and expansion.
• Installed telecommunications wiring and equipment in preparation for: OSU Managed Health Care's move to Ackerman Place, the broadcast of the Jeopardy television events from the Schottenstein Center, the conversion of Fawcett Center hotel space to office space, and the construction of the new Physics research building.

Technology Infrastructure

• Began implementation of a more robust central e-mail system that enables us to meet growing user needs, handle increased volume, and support newer e-mail access methods such as Web-based mail.
• Partnered with OSU Human Resources and OSU Medical Center in moving the PeopleSoft HR system to a Web-based platform on version 8.0. This upgrade lays the groundwork for providing new employee self-service functionality.
• Continued working in partnership with the Office of Finance, the OSU Medical Center, and the OSU Research Foundation to create an integrated Financial system, which includes the conversion and installation of PeopleSoft Financials Release 8.4 and a new grants management system.
• Upgraded network backbone routers to increase speed, capacity and reliability. The upgrade also provided ResNet service with new, higher capacity equipment.
• Increased the university's bandwidth total to 170 megabits for non-Internet2 Internet bandwidth, a 70-percent increase since last spring.
• Developed disaster recovery and business continuity plans for operations at the Kinnear Road Center as the first phase of an overall OIT business continuity plan that will serve as a model for a universitywide approach.
• Purchased and installed an IBM Z800 enterprise server to replace the aging and obsolete mainframe server. The new server, running most major university legacy systems and supporting instruction and research mainframe processing, will improve input/output capabilities and reduce software and hardware costs.
• Completed upgrades to eight classroom pool technology classrooms and added technology to another two classrooms in collaboration with the university's Classroom Readiness Committee. Also, upgraded student computer centers.
• Upgraded the central campus WebCT server, which supports a Web-based course management system, to version 3.8.