Aligning IT withAcademic Goals

Judith Tabron, Ph.D.Director, Faculty and Student Computing

Hofstra University

Introduction

Session Description:

Pressure on education itself and media excitement about the educational uses of technology are causing new interest in aligning IT work and expenditures to academic goals. The business purposes of IT are well understood, but decades into the IT revolution most universities still spend few IT dollars on academic purposes. This presentation will discuss how we have aligned with academic goals in faculty and student computing at Hofstra University, from redirecting resources to online learning programs that generate revenue through today's expansion of STEM majors and the rise of important goals such as academic success and retention. This includes realigning student support to focus on learning support services as much as computer break/fix support.

“The cheapest part of IT”

● Largest expenditure will be staff● Requires solid management, as staff will not

always cooperate in being realigned (more later)

● Next largest expenditure is the LMS and it just goes down from there

The core of higher-ed IT

Anything you do for instructional support or success will be, hands-down, the thing most aligned with your institution’s mission

Low-cost investment, big ROI

● Pilot● Slow ramp-ups for licensing, deployment● Measure uptake constantly● Do not be afraid to sunset tools, redeploy

staff & money on other projects

What sort of ROI?

● Measurable positive outcomes for the instructional activities of faculty and students

● If you’re really onboard with the modern era, measurable academic outcomes

(But measurable academic outcomes are not the only possible ROI)

Bottom line:

What can the students do that helps them learn that they couldn’t do before?

What class is it for?

It’s not as hard as it seems

Yes, you get down in the weeds very quicklyAnd it looks like you have to buy everything for everyoneAnd research computing, OMG

But academic users arenot as diverse as they seem

For consolidation go by tools, not purposes● Storage● Software● Hardware (lead into cloud)

High performance computingTHE MASSACHUSETTS GREEN HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING CENTER

New York Blue; Brookhaven National Laboratory

Beware the resource that stands unused, aging, for two years while its users “get ready”

Consolidate andprofessionalize services

Instead of keeping “a guy” around to solve problems “if they should happen”,provide central, improved serviceswhich can then be leveraged to provide things like faculty development for distance learning

EXAMPLE: Centralizeacademic support to fund DL

Our faculty support teams (instructional design and academic operations) are centralized with great planningLeveraged time to grow faculty teaching DL and hybridSignificant revenue

If possible, mediate religious arguments

Duplication of tools costs in bothacquisition and deployment

See if customers are willing to standardize(Statistical packages, math packages)

Discuss

Negotiate

Consensus

My IT pyramid

My IT pyramid

Do not build it. They will not come.Pilot, pilot, pilot.

Year 1: 1 class; Year 2: 5 classes; Year 3: 8 classes (but “available to all”)

Only 20% of faculty

...will ever adopt any new tool you introduceunless they are pushed by deans and provosts or tenure incentives.

So stop worrying about what usage will cost you.(You can still worry about licenses based on FTE.)

Offer awesome servicesYou have to sell central IT

(Ouellette & Associates workshop)

You have to offer what they neednot what you wish they wanted

Exceed the status quo

Centralizing staff

Aggregate custom setup and/or programming services.There’s a lot of downtime in the work of the local IT digital servantShare among similar departments, a school, or everyone

DO Segregate some IT staff

Only for academic purposes.

(E.g. What class is this for?)

N.B.: they hate that.

My one Windows programmer:

Fixed a driver for out-of-date oscilloscopesFixed a custom Exchange directory that stopped working when its owner leftCustomized a data feed for our portal redesign teamAnd wrote us custom classroom testing software

Example: Classroom testing

Example: Software acquisition

Aggregate acquisition across multiple schools:

NVivo used only by a few researchers in our School of Education, and some social scientists in the College of Liberal Arts

Also streamlines reporting for security requirements (HIPAA, FERPA) and for CMDB use

Example: Software DEPLOYMENT

Combine the testing software with the license database

We know what should be installed where and can ensure that we do not exceed licensed copies

(software license compliance)

Your job is to simplify and deliver.Realize savings by aggregating whenever you can

(leases, acquisitions, image deployment)Improve basic service and security by offering

rock-solid basic services to everyone

Value communication andreliability over everythingelse.Faculty can teach without technologyBut the show goes on perhaps 30 times a semesterAnd if they lose time due to technical emergency they can’t get it back.I.e., there are no “slipped deadlines”

EXAMPLE: EmergencyClassroom Phone Service

Queue goes straight to a large pool of support specialists who coordinate on classroom visits if necessaryRemote service (to computer or Extron controller) is possible

EXAMPLE: CommunicateClassroom Hardware Failure

Inform affected faculty of any classroom hardware outageAnd of the repair(Coming this fall: “Nearest useful room" feature)

Have outs.

The psychology researcher who wrote a custom program that measures reaction times to the millisecond has a valid reason for wanting a machine without security software. Offer him or her a network zone for that machine (or just a tunnel to the Internet).

REMIND them: no backup or HD services!

Full lifecycle of a student’s experience of an academic application

Access Run TroubleshootApply Complete/Connect

In other words: deploy ITIL from an academic point of view(P.S.: this is where you can really get down in the weeds)

Above and beyond

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