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ITS Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1 Page 1 Steps to Vision 2012 D Internet Speed: On September 12, 2005, we tripled the speed of the Internet connection that pro- vides services to Blackboard, Banner and other services. How about speeds for web browsing? Thanks to a gener- ous donation by Derivative Corp, in cooperation with Broadband VI, the Internet speed has quadrupled for the University campus on St. Croix, bringing speeds up to 3 MB. Look for similar im- provements on the St. Thomas campus in Spring 2006. providing the technology solutions and Information resources to achieve Vision 2012 Libraries and Technology? How did that happen? At a time when the impact of tech- nology and the information age is the greatest, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) made the decision to pro- vide the resources to help students, staff, and faculty achieve success in the “information age.” UVI made the decision to merge two critical compo- nents of the University – its technology resources and its library resources— into a single component. The merger allows IT to maximize re- sources dedicated to overlapping ar- eas, creating a more learner-focused technological environment, providing IT services at the point where learners discover their needs. By combining resources and cross-training staff, a more customer-service focused or- ganization emerged with the skills to meet the University community’s tech- nological and informational needs. The trend in higher education is to merge the growing role of technology and the changing role of libraries and re-focus the services on a student population that grew up with the Inter- net and knows how to “Google.” By providing the resources to meet the needs of our learners where they are, we can provide them with the lifelong learning tools to turn technology into productivity, data into information, and information resources into knowledge. The new organization has a manage- ment structure based on constituency – not on equipment. The leadership role merged the Chief Information Officer and the Director of Libraries. Managers now have specific accountability to serve teachers, staff, researchers, and students with every hardware, software, print, or database solution needed to accomplish this. The new component has named itself Information & Technol- ogy Services (ITS) realizing a.) that tech- nology has become the primary ave- nue to information, b.) the work tradi- tionally done in libraries has been ex- tended by technology, and c.) provid- ing learners with the services to suc- ceed is our only purpose. Tina M. Koopmans has assumed the position of Vice President of Informa- tion Technology and Learning Re- sources at the University of the Virgin Islands. Koopmans is a seasoned Chief Information Officer with more than 15 years of significant experience in pro- viding managerial and technology leadership for information technology and libraries in the U.S. and Canada. “I’m looking forward to working with Ms. Koop- mans, whose expertise will help us integrate the University’s informa- tion technology and library services areas,” UVI President Dr. LaVerne E. Ragster said. UVI Appoints Tina M. Koopmans New VP of Information Technology ITS Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1 Page 2 D Customer Service: We are im- plementing an inten- sive plan to improve our overall customer service in ITS. Dr. An- nette Markham is leading the analysis of workflow and im- provement of com- munication. To set a benchmark for ex- cellent service and to better serve UVI, we need your feed- back. Please com- plete the customer service survey at www.formdesk.com/ UVI/helpdesk1 Ms. Koopmans served as Vice Presi- dent and Chief Information Officer at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan and had most recently been a vice president at an information technology consulting company in Sarasota, Florida. She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and an M.A. in Information and Library Science. At UVI, Ms. Koopmans will be responsi- ble for the operation of the Information Technology area, which includes aca- demic and administrative computing, and library services. Combining the infor- mation technology and library services areas has become an industry trend that UVI hopes to emulate. “We have a tremendous opportunity to become more customer-centered and student centered,” Koopmans says. “We will be staffed efficiently to solve prob- lems with one call. By having direct ac- cess, we will have everything we need to solve student problems. We’re taking the barriers down.” Introducing Information & Technology Services The new Information & Technology Services component at the University of the Virgin Islands is made up of some new faces and some familiar faces in new roles. The implementation of this new organizational structure will occur over nine to twelve months as “the way we do business” changes throughout the University. Since the technologies touch every department in the University and the success of the Univer- sity is linked to the success of the technologies, it will be necessary for the final imple- mentation of the organizational structure to maintain its fluidity. D Banner News: We are analyzing and improving the Banner system with the help of Ray Grant, who is lead- ing this initiative within ITS. Ray Grant joins us temporarily to conduct in-depth process analyses. With Dr. Musah and the enrollment man- agement staff, he is developing a plan to better utilize and in- tegrate Banner across UVI. Library and Student Technology Services This team will be the advocate for stu- dent needs. These responsibilities how- ever are tied very closely to other areas of the component. Sharlene Harris will lead this team with Erik Pattison supervising in the Learning Environments area, specifically focusing on class- room, computer lab, smart and video conference rooms. Classroom Readiness: This team will assume the accountability for main- taining facilities, machine configura- tion, videoconferencing equipment and testing software for requested by faculty, provide material access, sup- port technology assignments for fac- ulty, provide labor for classrooms and technology, maintain statistics and serve as the ‘owners’ of the classrooms. In essence they assume end-to-end responsibility for the classrooms. Learner Technology Support: By aug- menting the computer lab staff with video conference staff and staffing resources from the library, the learner resource team will provide learner sup- port to students in labs. The computer lab staff can take advantage of their connection to the tutors and their organ- izational connection to the library to lead the development of training of informa- tion literacy and bibliographic in- struction and to provide the neces- sary ‘just in time’ support. The team will also keep statistics, coordinate technical resources for resolution, track problems and make recom- mendations to technical staff to im- prove services. This team will have ade- quate technical resource access to meet learner needs as they arise and resolve learner concerns on the spot. Learning Environments: Erik Pattison is leading our effort to evaluate and im- prove all teaching and learning spaces across the university. We are examining everything from the layout of the room to the type of furniture to the use of technology. Our assessment of all the spaces on St. Tho- mas and St. Croix will yield an extensive plan to renovate learning spaces to best achieve Univer- sity goals. Sharlene Harris Erik Pattison ITS Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1 Page 3 ADA Compliance: This team will serve as advocates and monitors to make sure services offered are compliant with ADA standards. Library STT: As part of the learner re- source team, the library staff can pro- vide guidance and service regarding curriculum or learning objects database, laptops for faculty, etc. Blackboard Administration: To provide the technical resources to manage cur- riculum based software like Blackboard and make recommendations to expand their uses based on the strategic direc- tion of instruction. Instructional Design: To serve as a de- pository for instructional design resources both by providing access to such exper- tise and by developing the expertise in house; and employ instructional design techniques for all training material. Copyright: This team will assume the ac- countability for copyright training and enforcement for the University. Library STX: As part of the teacher re- source team, the library staff provides guidance and service on information resources to assist learners in the success of their course work. They will provide access to materials and support for man- aging student information needs in face- to-face and distance learning courses. The library staff will also provide biblio- graphic instruction and information liter- acy instruction, orientation and training for the services offered from the learner resource team. D Removing Social Security Numbers to Protect Your Privacy: In January, the Uni- versity will no longer use social security numbers for student and staff identifica- tion. ITS has been working diligently to make this transition as smooth as possi- ble for students and staff. New IDs will be available when you return to campus in January 2006. You should receive plenty of information about the proce- dures to follow to receive your new ID number. For informa- tion please call Cherie Wheatley at 1451. This team, headed by Judith Rogers and assisted by Debra Graulich, will serve as the advocate for UVI teach- ing faculty and is very closely associ- ated with the other areas within the component. Specific responsibilities: Training: This team will deliver training to faculty to enhance their use of technology to meet teaching, learn- ing and work goals. Training is designed both by the team and by departments and other compo- nents. It includes training on Ban- ner, Blackboard, and PC skills, appropriate use of tech- nology, curriculum enhancement, teaching strategies and other technol- ogy and non technology curriculum desired by the institution Emerging Technology Development: This team will track and review new technologies and work with instructors and departments to investigate imple- mentation and return on investment to the institution. Instructional Resource: This team will be familiar with available technologies and to work with instruction to further develop resources for curricula sup- port for faculty, i.e. promoting Black- board use for all syllabi, designing and implementing an automated information resources to assist learners in the success of their course work. They will provide access to materials for dis- tance learning courses and provide stu- dent support in managing distance learning classes as well as on campus classes. The library staff also provides bibliographic instruction and information literacy instruction, orientation and train- ing for the services offered from the learner resource team. Library and Faculty Technology Services St Thomas Library Staff Judith Rogers ITS Staff, St. Croix ITS Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1 Page 4 This team, led temporarily by Dr. Annette Markham, is responsible for ensuring high quality service to the cus- tomer and to provide quality assur- ance across other areas of the ITS Divi- sion. This team’s objective is to under- stand the customer’s perspective and provide advocacy for the customer in all ITS projects, policies, and proce- dures. Immediate tasks involve: x Focusing on improving communi- cation at the helpdesk. x Improving the helpdesk phone sys- tem to respond more quickly to customer requests. D Learning Environments: UVI’s most important as- sets include class- rooms and other spaces dedicated to teaching and learn- ing. Working with the faculty, Erik Patti- son is leading our effort to evaluate these spaces. We are examining every- thing from the layout of the room to the type of furniture to the use of technol- ogy. Our assessment of all the spaces on St. Thomas and St. Croix will yield an extensive plan to renovate learning spaces to best achieve University goals. This team serves as the advocate for the needs of the research faculty and maintains accountability for the reliability of the net- work infrastructure in support of the University's strategic direction, by enabling access to information technology services and global communication via voice, video and computer networks. The responsi- bilities of Telecommunications and Net- work Operations units were merged to form this new team. This team is proactively responsible for the development and promotion of en- terprise wide applications. This team ad- vocates for the staff’s needs and their use of technology to meet university goals. Specific responsibilities of this team in- clude: x Business Process Re-Engineering: work with departments to better or- ganize workflow with or without tech- nology to increase efficiencies. x Banner System Development Wesley Joyce, team leader, Mark Bough and Herman Hart are taking on the re- sponsibilities of : x Planning, implementing and main- taining the University's copper, opti- cal and wireless based networks. x Delivering university-wide voice and data communications systems x Procuring and maintaining all univer- sity servers in support of academic, research and administrative goals. x Building and maintaining information security across UVI’s infrastructure. x Collaborating with ITS units and func- tional areas of the University in sup- port of the educational environment (video conferencing, classrooms, labs) and other user environments. x Training on Enterprise systems and other application software x Data Warehouse design and devel- opment x Disaster Recovery operations x Other Enterprise Prism, Library System, Razors Edge, email etc x Improving the internal work process systems to solve customer issues more quickly. x Initiating ongoing process improve- ments across the ITS Division. x Identifying and maintaining service standards. Lead members of this team include Derval Prince, Cherie Wheatley, Jose Negron, Daryl Petersen, Reed Greaux and Nicho- las Penny. Customer Service Management Team Enterprise Network Services Enterprise Data & User Technology Services Wesley Joyce Jose Negron, Daryl Peterson, Derval Prince Herman Hart, Wesley Joyce, Mark Bough ITS Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1 Page 5 D Changes in email and shared calendars: Want a more robust email system? Better web mail interface? We heard you and we’re currently pilot- ing the implementa- tion of Outlook and Exchange. You’ll need to learn a new email program, but the reward is a much more user-friendly email interface that you can access from any computer using the web. This system will also replace Cor- porate Time. After we complete testing at the end of De- cember, we’ll begin training users and gearing up to imple- ment this exciting improvement. ITS Strategic Objectives 2005-2006 Objective One: Redesign and maintain a robust, reliable, state of the art informa- tion infrastructure to support the effectiveness and efficiency of administrative and educational processes x Increase the current capacity of the University Internet connectivity by December of 2005. x Assess and remediate the current network infrastructure to increase net- work uptime to 99.99% (approximately 8 hours per month of down time) by fall 2006. x Achieve a registration period where the systems are available through- out the registration process by September 2006. x Assess and remediate information security practices throughout the infra- structure by December of 2006. x Develop a business plan to support the University connection to Internet2 that is fiscally sound. Provide draft by November 2005. x Develop a disaster recovery and business continuity plan for the Univer- sity by January 30, 2006. Objective Two: Enhance the Enterprise Information System including the Banner ERP to allow seamless, anytime, anywhere access to resources, information and support. x Assess the current Banner system and develop a project plan and cost model to further implement the functionality of the system to best meet the strategic thrusts of the University by May 1, 2006. x During academic year 2005/06 develop policies and procedures to transform the library on STT into the primary resource for classroom sup- port including technology, videoconferencing, information literacy, tech- nology training for students. x Assume responsibility for CLE testing and training by Spring 2006. x Complete a classroom inventory and assessment to identify changes in environment to support student success and develop a plan to remedi- ate classroom assessment findings by December of 2005. Objective Three: Create learning environments within the University that promote service to students and contribute to the success of the students x During academic year 2005/06 develop policies and procedures to transform the library on STT into the primary resource for classroom sup- port including technology, videoconferencing, information literacy, tech- nology training for students. x Assume responsibility for CLE testing and training by Spring 2006. x Complete a classroom inventory and assessment to identify changes in environment to support student success and develop a plan to remedi- ate classroom assessment findings by December of 2005. ITS Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 1 Page 6 DOne stop Service: X1466 helpdesk@uvi.edu Don’t for get to con- tact the Customer Service Helpdesk. They will connect you to answers and resources for all your needs. DSignup for train- ing classes: Outlook Exchange Training Spring 2006 Blackboard Training TBA Start the year off right. Stay tuned for details ITS Strategic Objectives 2005-2006, cont’d Objective Four: Create a technology support system for faculty to support teaching and learning. x Create curriculum development and instructional design resources to meet the needs of the teaching faculty. Develop a plan by March 2006. x Formalize faculty training for the use of technology to enhance teach- ing. Develop a curriculum and plan by March 2006. Complete the renovations of space in the STX library to accommodate faculty needs by March of 2006. Objective Five: Develop and implement the new organizational structure for tech- nologies that focuses on the achievement of Vision 2012 and the Mission of the Uni- versity and builds a collaborative, cross-trained staff. x Develop a training plan for ITS staff to keep them up to date on new technologies and provide growth opportunities within the University. x Develop a communication mechanism to keep University stakeholders up to date on news related to ITS. x Improve technology customer service to student, faculty, and staff based on the comparative results of a University-wide satisfaction survey given in October of 2005 and August of 2006. This should show a statisti- cally significant shift. x Develop a floor plan and architectural design to relocate the staff of the component into the first and second floor of the STT library following the opening of the Harvey Center. Objective Six: Implement strategic budgeting to allocate technology funds appro- priately to achieve Vision 2012. x Compose a multi-year budgeting plan by July of 2006 that addresses effi- cient use of Title III, EPSCoR, technology fee and operational funding. x Develop a plan to remove IT positions from Title III by October 2010. Objective Seven: Research, assess and remediate information and access policies and procedures to assure University compliance with Federal legislation. x Make immediate strides to bring the University into compliance with FERPA and Graham, Leach, Bailey, legislation within 18 months. x Make immediate strides to bring the University into compliance with HIPPA legislation within 18 months. x Make immediate strides to bring the University into compliance with FSMA legislation within 18 months. x Make immediate strides to bring the University into compliance with GAZBY 35 within 12 months. Objective Eight: Provide technical guidance, planning support to enhance the ef- forts of UVI’s Technology and Research Parks.