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Question 2: The academic plan calls for "providing faculty, staff and students with the latest technology tools for leadership in teaching, learning, research and career development..." Based on the work you do at Ohio State, what specific technology tools do you need?

Training and Career Development

  • training and support for training - training budget, ability to attend, ability to cut back on other projects in order to attend training
  • access to training before a project is initiated
  • training is critical
  • Training - more resources for faculty training and support
  • faculty are a workforce that needs retraining - faculty need help to make the transition - it has to be a part of the vision of how to get there
  • training for faculty and staff - people are getting further and further behind in their technical skills
  • there needs to be an inventory of skills for faculty and staff and address training around the skill levels
  • faculty don't want to be technical experts - it takes too much time - but faculty have to be IT-capable
  • for career development purposes, need online classes, webcasting, prerecorded sessions. Need equipment and commitment of resources and time

User Support

  • need to enable the functions available to us and make better use of these - PeopleSoft - much of payroll and benefits self-service in online but there is more that we could do
  • need to know what the campus wants and what the people in the trenches need
  • enable people to work from home
  • need to listen to the people in the trenches and need more feedback
  • it is hard to find information on campus - information sharing needs to be clearer and easy to find
  • 8-help should be available more of the time
  • expand the e-portfolio idea. Provide a place to record training and accomplishments for every employee, especially IT staff who are at risk of leaving - help us retain talent
  • need 24/7 help desk support - this is much needed and overdue. Need consistent hours that help is available
  • a better plan for supporting students, faculty and staff at a distance
  • our licenses are under-utilized because we're lacking people and training

Central Data

  • need a way to collect vitae information to produce annual reports, grant applications, etc., that would be faster and easier than the current method
  • searchable document storage - digital, searchable format
  • easier transfer of files
  • a university method where information is entered once into a central place

Outreach

  • ability to connect easily with alumni

E-mail

  • a Web mail element, a better directory, better remote access
  • Web mail and the infrastructure to provide this service
  • e-mail system is critical to get university business done - for administrative purposes. Maybe separate students from staff so students don't cause crashes
  • e-mail and electronic records management - e-mail isn't treated as records and subject to classification and storage guidelines
  • OSU e-mail account should be the student's primary e-mail account and the e-mail system should be Web based
  • concerned that we are sharing confidential student information via e-mail, concern that it may not be secure--one solution is secure Web sites

Central vs. Decentralized

  • transparent service for the user between local and central levels
  • if there is going to be decentralization, there needs to be standards
  • technology works better in a central environment - too many venues for services
  • look at the centralization, decentralization balance issue
  • digital initiatives - needs digitization, database resources, centralizing cooperative tools acquisition

Classrooms

  • some facilities well equipped (Fisher) while others not well equipped. All classrooms should be equipped with the basic technology
  • technology that is easy to use in the classroom - bullet proofing the technology so that it works every time
  • more rooms equipped with LCD projectors, and small things like laser pointers. Even slide projectors and overhead projectors can be valuable
  • flexible and committed spaces
  • every building should contain dedicated presentation areas with cameras, projection, laptop, etc., that the faculty know where it is

Tools

  • start using flash hard disk capabilities to take files from place to place - replaces expensive disk technology (Padre)
  • online survey tool
  • better access to servers for individuals to run and maintain their own Web sites
  • more computers for students
  • Internet - firewall - faster access
  • voice recognition transcribing
  • require students to have a laptop - provide a place to hook up
  • fast desktops
  • should be easier to get time on the OSC computer
  • the PC is moving to the same level as a pencil
  • H323 would be helpful for meetings with the regional campuses
  • there will be a greater emphasis on telecommuting, need to have the tools and keep them maintained
  • easier and better teleconferencing
  • need some type of personalized services, short cuts, quick help to get busy people the information that they need clearly and quickly - snacking
  • telecommunications and teleconferencing
  • presentation - multimedia tools
  • connectivity for satellites and global; positioning
  • laptops leased from the bookstore for students with basic software packages
  • need to focus on outcomes rather than tools
  • change must be built into our model - not focus on technology but on the solutions and services
  • what are the costs associated with having so many different platforms and so many packages - need to review
  • hardware, software and "wetware" - brainpower
  • staff should have basic tools - e-mail, PC
  • replacement, recycle policy - 3 yr. is too long
  • Structured Analysis Tools - CASE
  • CD burners, DVD burners as a way to transport data

Consultant Assistance

  • a consultant to help put ideas into effect - help execute insight into education and pedagogy - understanding of teaching and learning
  • design via template to let the end user be the change agent can capitalize on this approach to get away from contracting for services
  • need to do an assessment of what we can do in-house or outsourced
  • contracting out services, like website design, when there are adequate internal resources, can have design folks do with tools like Dreamweaver

Faculty Support

  • there needs to be a reward system and P&T incentives
  • a 4th element of the faculty reward system - technology
  • we need to look at who we employ as faculty - credentials of new hired - need to have technology in their backgrounds
  • need a reward system in place to provide incentives for the faculty to develop the content
  • people - support for faculty - web pages, etc.
  • incorporating technology into teaching has to be evaluated and recognized as a legitimate academic pursuit
  • need an incentive for faculty to reorganized courses and change the way they teach - rethink how they serve the customer (students)
  • need to rethink scholarship and research for electronic means

Wireless

  • not moving fast enough to a wireless campus
  • need to make sure we have the people to support the technology - people who understand wireless and interactive Web services
  • mobility - wireless, PDA's
  • med school is wireless, med students have PDA's
  • PDA's should be able to access and synch information from the OSU web site (information from the registrar)
  • be supportive of the PDA environment

Infrastructure

  • well support what we have
  • need to have basic central infrastructure for the campus - economies of scale
  • networking, LAN connection to every desk, stable e-mail environment, central desktop support
  • quality is the issue - not every department has the resources to be the best
  • need stability
  • infrastructure needs to be in place for new technology, such as streaming media, and we don't have the bandwidth in place
  • standard, high quality infrastructure environment

Standardization

  • purchasing very helpful - IUC contracts available, substantial discounts
  • software standardized
  • standardization would be good, but be realistic about taking advantage of this
  • would like to publicize any agreements university wide so that salesmen can't take advantage of individual departments
  • may be discounts available to all that were sourced at a regional campus

Security

  • security and access to information in the student system is antiquated
  • security - helping folks to learn more about how to keep their systems secure
  • privacy and security of information

Distance and Distributed Learning

  • two faculty members do not like WebCT and find it awkward to use
  • hates it - but we need to figure out what it is that technology does best - and make best use of what the technology does best
  • need an easy to use courseware management system - need a simple way to distribute grades and use the chat features

Student System

  • the registrar should have a modern information system - students should have easy access to their grades
  • acknowledgment that the registrar can't handle the super huge lecture classes - can't process electronic grades for classes over 500
  • work is stalled because of the lack of an integrated student information system - present system is cumbersome, time consuming and training new staff is difficult
  • it should be easy to change majors

Computer literacy

  • there are a variety of technical skills among students - we need courses in computer literacy for students to establish a basic proficiency level among the student body. The library's courses could be expanded and be required courses
  • software training - ongoing sessions, online reference guide, base line training university wide
  • training for faculty - few have web pages - professors are expected to have them
  • education of students in technology - core understanding of how to use certain technologies
  • staff and student core proficiencies
  • the courses should be hand's on, not computer-based training

Policies and Procedures

  • policies and procedures are needed to provide clear instruction and best practices for using systems and processes

Bandwidth

  • fast, reliable network
  • the network needs to have large capacity bandwidth

OSU Web site

  • improve the Web page for OIT - easier to find things - group by functionality instead of organizationally
  • additional database/ Web site development - elimination of so much paperwork
  • university communications has been developing a new student Web site for about 2 years and no movement on it in about one year. Who's in charge of the university Web site. No clear accountability/ authorization for it

Research Foundation

  • the Research Foundation - the PI portal is horrible - flexible policy should be set for access
  • look toward the private dollars - must become more entrepreneurial, align with the Research Foundation
  • disconnect between IT and the Research Foundation - there needs to be a link in the plan

Support Staff

  • super grad students - what happens when that person leaves - need better distribution of these resources
  • departments have lost IT resources - positions need to be "meteor proof"
  • staff with knowledge, market information, communication, give people choices
  • OIT does not treat student employees well - need to increase their pay
  • instructional designers needed, as well as additional resources

Site Licensed Software

  • program is not helpful - hard to use and know what is licensed

Funding

  • bond issuance for technology improvements
  • technology fee for the entire university
  • convince faculty, staff and students to pay for quality service - many say they don't want to pay our prices and develop on their own
  • need a different funding model
  • process for charging technology fees - why isn't it just a part of the fee package? - a percentage of the tuition
  • budget - needs to be more flexible for individual faculty

Teaching

  • chicken and egg issue - what comes first - content or facilities
  • need buy-in for the content

Leadership

  • capacity to motivate/ changes - create a receptive environment around technology and show incentives for doing well
  • structure, infrastructure, roles and responsibilities, leadership
  • you have to offer something that the people want, otherwise it is not going to b e used and supported
  • CIO/OIT need to learn how to say no in certain circumstances
  • define the vision, communicate it and provide leadership

Single point of authorization

  • Single point of authorization and authentication
  • simplify and unify password - LDAP

Portal

  • a fully integrated, comprehensive web portal - like Wisconsin's

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