W4D2a Dominican's Information Technology Plan
I have pasted all of your recommendations for the next Dominican IT Plan below. That way, you can see what was said in the other Discusison Groups. Many of you focused in improving Dominican's ability to create and deliver good online courses. This included related logistical issues such as 24/7 technical support, the ability to Register without coming to campus, and improvements to Remote Access (remote desktop).
Some of your comments implied curriculum changes and other actions that are outside the scope of IT. That's OK. Even though IT does not have the power to order professor's to attend training, IT can develop the material (in consultation with Provosts, Deans, and Faculty) and conduct the courses. Academic Management (Provosts, Deans) would then encourage faculty to attend the session(s).
Your comments were greatly influenced by your experience. Little was recommended to improve technology or data for fund raising, marketing, or recruiting new students.
Personally, I think the ability to develop and teach very good online courses is now required for survival of most institutions. Some courses that were "forced" online for Covid will remain online at least for some sessions (my opinion).
If I was creating a five year plan for Dominican's tech department I would certainly include the implementation of cloud based computing or IOT as a key priority. Cloud computing has become the standard for storage, application processing power and system monitoring for almost every sector of online computing. Cloud based computing offers both the School and students safety, convenience and efficiency while also lowering costs for both parties.
Your Comments
3. One goal that I would suggest DU includes is the optimization of its current infrastructure. As great as the improvements have been, I do feel that DU could have a far more cohesive remote learning program. Canvas is easy to use, but each instructor has a different way of utilizing it. I've had professors that request that we utilize modules while others request that we use the grades section for each week's assignments. Overall email communication is used minimally and speaking to one another through Canvas has also proven to be difficult (at least for me). There seems to be a disconnect between the text we're required to purchase/use and Canvas. I'd love if DU included textbooks within Canvas as that would make it easier to study and digitized all documents so that we wouldn't have to download anything.
3. One goal I would include in the plan is revamping the MyDU site. It seems very out-dated and is not user friendly. I have been a student here for a year now and I still have trouble navigating it. I believe it could be far more useful and an asset for students if it was better designed. My undergrad had a similar system that was better designed and I used it often to find important information, easily pay my bills and keep track of things.
3. One Goal I would include would be the technology for taking classes online. I would enhance that more where there is a support team 24hrs chat so that it can help the students and also the professors. I would make classes more online so that it is on your own self pace that gives a much wider flexibility and can be managed around your schedule
To answer question 3, I have somewhat of a unique perspective on this because during my undergrad I served 3 years in student government, 1 as a senator and 2 as student body president. I worked with Jill by advocating for the implementation of technology as a means of increasing safety within the school. Installation of more cameras and increased security to access buildings. I know that this was in the works as I graduated and if I were to write the five year plan, I'd still include this. Not only for security but for data analysis. This data would allow us to see most frequently utilized facilities and parking spots, figure out why they are being utilized more than others, and perhaps allow us to improve the quality of student-life.
3. One of the goals that I would love to include in a 5 year plan is to "integrate" all systems, so everything is more automatic. Instead of having MyDU, canvas, email, wellness center, or housing in different systems, I would prefer to integrate it all together into only 1 platform, so I can have access to my tuition, but also to my courses and more in one same place
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3. I would include a goal of continuing to make improvements for the remote connection server. I have had some trouble with this and I have had to use it for my nutrition coursework and my MBA.
If I were attempting to write a plan I think that I would like to focus on making the online database more user friendly and making content easier to find.
Because I think communication could use improvement I would keep this in the plan. Whenever I had to attend a F2F class, I would work on my laptop and I would always have to connect to my phone’s hotspot. DU’s wi-fi just never worked for me on campus, neither on my phone nor my laptop. This could have possibly just been my devices but if not, this is something DU can work on.
In the future goals for the next five years, I'd focus on cutting overhead. The numbers thrown at achieving these goals were way too high. And that means the maintenance for managing these machines has a high TCO too. I would focus on machine deprecation and moving the university applications to the cloud. Not treating the cloud like another datacenter, but moving these applications to the cloud and refactoring them to become cloud native (serverless).
3. If I was writing the next five year plan for technology at DU, I would add the goal of community involvement. I am not totally sure how this would be made possible, but I think it would be great for the university!
3. One goal that I would include in the plan would be allocating funds to the Dining Services department to improve their IT infrastructure. The scanning system for meal swipes was physically falling apart, and as such malfunctioned nearly 50% of the time. Additionally, they began a online ordering system called "DU To Go" but the kitchen does not have a way to receive electronic meal tickets. As such, one manager relied on checking her email often enough to see an order, run to the printer to print it, and walk it down to the kitchen staff. Of course, we often did not see an email immediately, which did not contribute to success of the new program. DU Dining Services does contribute revenue for the school, so if dining patrons' experience was improved, it's likely even more students and faculty would utilize the program.
3. Thinking about the next five years and technology is important, as we all relied so heavily on in for our work, and our learning, this past year.
I would think one goal would be bringing back the goal about technology for teaching and learning. Technology updates are needed in the classrooms - and in meeting spaces. When I needed Zoom for a meeting, I was extremely limited in the rooms I could choose from. I was new to Zoom at the time (had never used it actually) but now that we all have used it with great regularity I think we need all meeting spaces equipped for video conferencing. Classroom furniture needs to be updated and design as well. Not to say the lecture-style setup should be wiped out but we need classrooms with Smartboards, round tables to facilitate group work, etc. There are classrooms with large monitors, but I think those are mostly used for PowerPoint lectures, not active learning or other technology. Related to this, I think that training and education about the useful technologies for teaching needs to happen (again and with regularity) and there needs to be information on the web about this that is easy to find. I think this is being done to a decent extent - I've attended various presentations on Canvas, Panopto, etc, but it's important to have a lot of resources we can turn to as needed - videos, documents, etc.
If I were actively participating in developing the plan for technology for the next 5 years, one my bigger goals would be to gather even more input from students that are learning remotely (which was pretty much everyone the last 18 months). There are definite opportunities for improvement overall and I think the students may have good input on exactly what those are. I would also love to see DU have a better reach via social media marketing to prospective students. I didn't even consider the MBA program until a good friend put it on my radar. Maryville University in St. Louis has a really compelling marketing campaign aimed at perspective students which warrants consideration.
3. If I were writing the next five-year plan, I would include continuing upgrading goal #1. Since technology is always changing, there is always a better teaching platform invented. Incorporate multiple platforms is also another option. Or to provide the student with free access to basic creating platforms such as Canva, etc.
3. Definitely expanding online learning to accommodate students and offer the option to take courses online. There is a huge advantage for in-person learning but virtual learning offers flexibility that allows students to achieve their educational goals that would have been almost impossible otherwise.
3. One goal that I would include in the plan is to increase student engagement though technology. When there are event happening on campus it seems like the only way to know about them is by seeing the posters around campus. I would try to find a way that would make it easier for students to know that there is an event on campus and try to increase the number of students that attend the event.
3. If I were writing the next 5-year plan for technology at Dominican University, I would be sure to include the implementation of a more sophisticated videoconferencing platform. Even after the pandemic, educators might continue lecturing over Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms so the ability to have cameras in classrooms to broadcast lectures and give the flexibility of coming to class or joining virtually to students is beneficial. Having access to a more sophisticated platform that allows for a more collaborative, more authentic, and richer interaction would definitely be worth investing in, in my opinion.