STANDARD 7- LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESOURCES

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Computing and Information Technology Services

Description

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The new management team of Computing and Information Technology Services, led by the Associate Provost for Computing and Information Technology, consists of a Director of Educational Technology and Support Services, a Director of Information Technology Systems and Services, and a Director of Internet Development. A team approach now provides unified services for the following: Computing Support; Cluster/Classroom Operations and Support; Information Systems; Internet Development; Microcomputer Maintenance and Repair; Networking and Systems; and Operations and Access.

Mission

Computing and Information Technology Services has four major roles to play in support of the mission of UMass Dartmouth:

1. Vision Facilitator - assisting instructors, researchers, and administrative service providers in understanding the potential benefits and resultant costs of innovative technologies and in developing a vision for information technology in their work.

2. Infrastructure Builder - designing and constructing the technology environment (the network, servers, desktop hardware and software suites) which will enable and support the computing needs of faculty, staff, and students.

3. Development Partner - working with faculty and staff to develop the teaching, research, and administrative applications that implement their visions.

4. Training and Support Provider - conducting frequent and ongoing training sessions and symposia to permit broad introduction of new systems, including on-request support to individual users.

Vision Facilitator

CITS has worked with the campus to develop and articulate a campus vision which effectively and appropriately utilizes information technology.

In 1993, the Provost charged a committee consisting of faculty, staff, and computing support personnel to develop a vision statement and plan for computing and information technology at UMass Dartmouth. The resulting report, issued in April 1994, has been an effective roadmap, and a large majority of its goals have been achieved. Preparation for a new, year-2000 visioning and planning effort is in progress.

Within that general vision, CITS staff have continually worked with their constituencies to develop and implement more detailed, focused visions in major areas of campus interest. For example, CITS and the campus Computer Users Committee have developed an Instructional Computing Initiative (ICI). The initiative addresses such issues as student ownership, computing standards, faculty development, pedagogy, infrastructure requirements, and funding opportunities. The first stage of the initiative planning, ICI Principles and Structure, was completed, reviewed by Faculty Senate and Student Senate, and passed by the Faculty Senate during the Spring 1999 semester. Planning and implementation will continue over the next several years.

In the area of administrative systems, CITS staff have been essential participants and contributors in the UMass system's Administrative Redesign (ARD) project. ARD began in the fall of 1995, and has focused on the re-engineering of administrative processes to improve service levels and increase resource utilization efficiency. Technology is a major driving force and enabling agent for these efforts. CITS has been a prime player in UMass Dartmouth ARD projects such as one-stop student enrollment services, quick-trip reimbursement, and procurement cards. Stemming from ARD is the University-wide implementation of the PeopleSoft administrative systems for human resources, finance, and student administration.

From the outset, CITS has seen the Web as a way to extend the basic functions of the university, not simply to publicize the university. CITS has offered faculty/staff seminars and courses centered around effective utilization of computing and the Web in instruction and in its business functions, and has developed an on-line virtual resource center. It has partnered with other campus entities, such as the Center for Teaching and Learning, in these activities.

The basic objective remains to empower people to use the new computing and communications media to serve the fundamental university goals of information creation, storage, retrieval, and dissemination.

Infrastructure Builder

Networking and Servers

The backbone of institutional computing is the UMass Dartmouth campus ethernet network, UMDNet, which provides access to campus computing activities that include email, the library system, the campus Web site, CyberEd, administrative systems, distance learning, and access to the Internet. UMass Dartmouth email runs on the DEC Alpha computer cluster with an Open VMS operating system. It is accessible from every part of the campus including student housing via direct Ethernet communications. UMDNet is a part of the Internet global network making communication and access to off-campus locations possible. All students, faculty and staff receive accounts to use UMDNet services.

As the residence halls gained access to their network, nearly 1250 resident students (more than 50%) connected to the campus network at the beginning of the Fall 1999. Minimum hardware configuration recommendations are available through CITS' Getting Wired flyer. This flyer is updated annually and distributed to existing and new students.

Faculty and staff electronic mail accounts are generated as new hires are confirmed by Human Resources. Faculty and staff have access to electronic mail from their desktops. Electronic mail accounts for enrolled UMass Dartmouth students are generated automatically. In August, 1998, a total of 7,955 student accounts were created: 7,487 undergraduate and 464 graduate. Once generated, student e-mail addresses are fed into the Student Information System so that faculty can retrieve student e-mail addresses easily. Students can access electronic mail from their campus residences as well as every public access computer lab or classroom. Students, faculty, and staff can access e-mail from home via a modem and a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) of their choice.

Public Access Clusters

CITS offers nearly 300 Macintosh and Windows microcomputers in seventeen public access computing labs and classrooms located in the Library, residential housing, and most academic buildings. Since 1995, CITS has doubled the number of computer labs and classrooms, increased public access hours more than 80% and increased student Computing Assistant positions more than 50%. The increase, especially in dedicated labs, is largely the result of CITS collaboration with campus partners (Colleges of Business and Engineering, Computer and Information Sciences and English Departments, and the Library). Partnering offers prioritized access to the campus partner in specialized labs during designated class hours and public access to all students in all majors usually in the evenings and on weekends. Additionally, the increase in student employment opportunities within CITS often leads to graduates with solid technical skills, a direct result of their on-the-job learning.

Faculty and Staff Desktops

The majority of UMass Dartmouth faculty and staff have desktop access to a Macintosh or Windows-based microcomputer. At this time, workstation replacement is decentralized and under the auspices of the appropriate college dean or division. CITS and Administrative and Fiscal Services are in the process of developing a plan for the systematic replacement of desktop technology whereby desktop computers have a life span of three years. Campus-wide access to state-of-the-art technology becomes especially important as Web-based instruction, the expected recommendation of student ownership, and PeopleSoft implementation proceed.

Wide-area Networking

In the Fall of 1993, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) offered to convey a fiber-optic cable system stretching along the Mass Pike from Boston to Springfield to the State for public use. The State's Executive Office of Economic Affairs (EOEA) was subsequently asked to develop a plan for using this valuable resource to enhance the ability of individuals to compete in the increasingly competitive global marketplace. As a result, The University established a public-private partnership known as the Massachusetts Information Turnpike Initiative (MITI) which includes the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, MTA, and a number of technology firms. The fiber backbone will ultimately employ advanced all-optical switching technology, delivering terabyte-range switchable services. Although MITI was initially implemented among the five UMass campuses, with connection to the Internet, community colleges, four-year colleges, and other affiliated schools are now connecting through the University campuses. UMass Dartmouth has membership on the MITI Executive Board..

Multi-way Video

An Information Technology Bond Bill of 1997 administered by the Technology in Academic Development Subcommittee (TADS) of the UMass Information Technology Council (ITC) provided funding for distance learning facilities at all of the UMass campuses and the President's office. CITS currently supports three distance learning classrooms on the main campus and one at the Center for Marine Science and Technology (CMAST). To date, more than 25 distance learning courses reaching more than 300 students have been offered/received via UMass sister campuses (Amherst, Boston, Lowell, Worcester) as well as Martha's Vineyard and Attleboro. System-wide policy regarding use of these facilities is coordinated through TADS. As faculty development and support programs are implemented, CITS expects to facilitate even more courses through this medium.

Development Partner

Academic

CITS is assisting and instructing faculty and staff to develop their own Web pages through the development of "wizards" - interactive software that allows the creation of departmental and personal Web sites, quick generation of highly-interactive Web sites for class use, the creation of on-line quizzes, and special tasks. Departments have moved high-priority tasks from a paper process to a more efficient electronic process. For example, several surveys for the NEASC report were performed on-line through the Web and tabulated by a database integrated with the Web forms. Other traditional paper products, such as the campus phonebook and University Catalogue have been made more accessible. Students may now sign up for computerized placement testing and computer training sessions through the Web.

In collaboration with the English Department and Academic Advising, CITS piloted the implementation of the basic computer and information literacy segment of the UMass Dartmouth General Education curriculum during Fall, 1998. The vehicle for delivery is the ENL101 course required of all freshmen. Students attend mandatory computer training (Basic Skills: Macintosh or Windows and Electronic Mail). Analysis of Pre- and Post- Tests revealed improvements in basic word processing (up 9%), advanced word processing (up 15%), world wide web skills (up 25%) and electronic mail (up 40%). The planning committee continues to assess this aspect of the new curriculum. A CITS team is currently testing ways to permit public-access electronic peer editing which will enhance collaborative learning in computer and information literacy.

Through the CyberEd program, UMass Dartmouth has offered Web-based courses to students from around the world for more than four years. Classes in music, writing, physics, history, chemistry, computer science, Web design and others have been offered at the graduate, undergraduate or non-credit level. CourseBuilder, an in-house developed tool, assists faculty in incorporating the Web into course delivery. CourseBuilder provides for syllabi, assignments, links to outside resources, papers, lecture notes, and course discussion items, all posted through Web browsers with no special skills required of faculty or student. The technology has been adopted for all English 101 classes, and more than one third of the total faculty have used it. As course offerings have expanded, CyberEd faculty, students and staff have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of teaching techniques and on-line technologies.

While the emphasis has been on delivering a quality learning experience to students, CyberEd has played an important role as a living laboratory allowing faculty to experience distance learning environments and challenging them to test the limits of this new medium. To date more than a dozen UMass Dartmouth faculty from all five colleges have participated. Enrollments have held steady at about 100 students per semester with nearly half of these coming from within the region and the others scattered around the country and the world.

In response to a mandate by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, a Planning Committee involving CITS, Enrollment Management, Academic Advising, and the Academic Resources Center developed and administered a system for computerized placement testing in Math, Reading, and Computer Literacy. Electronic tests were used in 1999 to place nearly 1200 freshman appropriately.

Administrative

There are more than 25 systems and sub-systems supporting 30-plus administrative offices across the campus as well as the academic community. UMass Dartmouth's financial (FRS) and student administrative support (SIS) systems run SCT Plus 2000 on an Alpha cluster running Open VMS. HRMIS is a centralized personnel/payroll system run for all UMass campuses by the University Information Systems in the President's Office. To support development efforts, the Foundation and Alumni run Millennium, under MS/Windows on an NT LAN server. The Office of Grants and Contracts is running a customized Fox/Pro application to support the campus's grant activities, with the FRS system providing grant-accounting support. The above systems will be replaced with the PeopleSoft product suite over the coming years.

In order to facilitate faculty in advising students, on-line, real-time access is given to the locally-developed Student Information System (SIS). Once trained, faculty and appropriate staff are able to view class lists, generate an up-to-the-moment transcript, view general student biographic/demographic information, generate a student's class schedule, list courses for a given semester, review course catalog listings, and run a degree audit. During specific times of the year, faculty and appropriate staff can register students on-line. The Web interface Web Student, allowing ready electronic access to such things as semester course listings, schedules, grades, billing information, and financial aid, went on-line in Spring 1999. A process for Web registration is currently being studied. CITS plans to make kiosks available in key public campus locations such as the Campus Center and the Library. However, sufficient budget has not made that possible to date.

Department chairpersons, department directors, principal investigators and appropriate staff view budgets, encumbrances, and expenditures using the Financial Records System (FRS). On-Line Requisitioning allows trained individuals to generate and sign electronic requisitions as appropriate.

Email-based systems such as UMDAlert, UMDNotify, and UMDAnnounce, along with Web-based systems, are being used for timely electronic distribution of UMass Dartmouth campus-wide emergency notification, key information, and general announcements to and from faculty, staff, and students. Email serves as a first line of communication, while the Web serves primarily to extend and archive it.

CITS is responsible for guiding UMass Dartmouth's Year 2000 computer-bug remediation. A project manager was assigned from CITS, and a project team drawn from across campus divisions and departments. The Commonwealth's Information Technology Division, Auditor's Office, and the UMass auditors have been helpful in providing information and feedback. All strategic and critical systems are now compliant.

Training and Support Provider

At the beginning of each semester, CITS offers student training sessions for Macintosh and Windows operating systems and supported applications such as electronic mail, word processing, spreadsheets, and Web browsers. Training is available to students during the day, evenings and weekends and is free of charge. Students sign up for new-user sessions through the CITS Website. As part of the training, the responsible-use policy is explained and stressed.

For faculty and staff, one-on-one informal training and group training is available for supported software including administrative applications such as the Financial Records System and Student Information Systems during the semester, and on demand. A collaboration between CITS and the Center for Teaching and Learning resulted in the Technology Empowerment workshops offered to faculty during May 1999.

In-house documentation for most supported software is available in the public access computing facilities and upon request, free of charge to faculty, staff and students. Documents such as the Student Guide to Computing and the Getting Wired flyer are distributed at Discovery Days, Open Houses, and Orientation.

CITS provides multifaceted help desk services through a student Help Desk located in the Library, a student Residential Help Desk located in a computer lab in student housing, and a faculty and staff help desk located in CITS' Computing Support Center. Technical support is available face to face, via the a telephone hot-line for each help desk and through electronic mail for an on-line response.

The same materials used successfully in face-to-face interaction with faculty, staff, and students will help form the foundations of the new Virtual Resource Center. This Web-based center is designed to provide "just-in-time" help. It currently contains a variety of documents ranging from brief tips to complete tutorials.

Professional staff work closely with the Deans and/or departmental designees to offer total office solutions including workstation purchase recommendations, deployment of hardware and software, training, and post-sale support for faculty and staff. Maintenance for computer equipment in faculty and staff offices, CITS' computer labs, and partnered computer classrooms is available through CITS' Microcomputer & Repair facility.

System-Wide Collaboration

Although the UMass system is relatively new, CITS is an active member in system-wide initiatives. The Information Technology Council (ITC) serves to bring the advantages of information technology into the daily lives of the students, faculty, staff, and other constituencies. The mission, objectives, and minutes of the ITC subcommittees (World Wide Web, Policy, Infrastructure, and Technology in Academic Development ) are available at the ITC website at http://www.umassp.edu/html/itc/itc_toc.html).

In addition, CITS has worked on the development of CyberEd (with Lowell), multi-way video course offerings (all campuses), and ARD/PeopleSoft (all campuses and the President's Office).

Outreach

CITS supports numerous outreach activities such as the use of public access facilities when appropriate (Camp Success, Upward Bound), access to the Internet through UMDNet (Southern New England School of Law) and providing advisory services for the New Bedford Public School System. CITS training courses, offered through the Division of Continuing Education, are available to the public, and the Virtual Resource Center is being designed to support the needs of K-12 educators as well.

Financial Support

From 1984-1988, the university made a large investment in initial campus networking, microcomputers, and administrative computing. From 1989-1993, state budget problems hit UMass Dartmouth quite hard. Campus computing was hobbled, and major information technology (IT) expenditures were cut back or deferred. From 1993-1997, the computing budget began to grow slowly. As the economic picture improved, computing usage increased, and IT infrastructure from the mid-1980s was gradually replaced.

Since 1998, strategic system-wide and campus initiatives involving administrative redesign, distance learning, and instructional computing have necessitated reallocation of money and positions into CITS. While service expectations have grown faster than CITS' staff, budget, and space resources, there appears to be a realization that computing needs are strategic to the institution, and this is reflected in increased CITS budgets.

Appraisal

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Organization and Budget

Administrative commitment to a full-time Associate Provost for Computing and Information Technology, and the adoption of a team-based organization in 1996, validated the importance of information technology at UMass Dartmouth.

The campus community appears to have embraced this reorganization. CITS forty full-time professionals and nearly one-hundred students are responsive to the needs of the campus community, even though the demand for services frequently exceeds staffing resources. CITS has formed numerous campus partnerships to build a successful support structure. These areas include public access computing, campus wide leasing, instructional support, residential networking, etc.

While CITS financial resources could be greater, the last ten years has shown a modest but consistent increase in resources. The campus has made a strong effort to provide the budget and staffing needed to achieve its technology goals. This will need to continue for the foreseeable future.

As limited space is a campus-wide concern, the deployment of information technology is often adversely affected and this directly impacts technology initiatives. This ranges from departmental labs to CITS office space for existing and new staff.

A formal professional development budget for CITS professionals is still lacking in many areas. CITS continues to make strides toward securing funding for annual professional developments funds as part of its operational budget.

The increased importance of technology to support the academic community's needs puts increased demand for support on the technology organization. CITS must continue to have an increase in human and fiscal resources to support the current and anticipated growth of technology driven initiatives.

Most of the recommendations from the 1994 computer plan have been achieved. Two recommendations, to move telecommunications and computer retail sales to CITS, have not been implemented and should be re-evaluated as part of an ongoing effort to further articulate the campus vision for information technology.

Infrastructure

The UMass Dartmouth community has widespread access to information technology services as evidenced by the significant increase in connectivity to the campus and worldwide networks, desktop workstations and public access availability. Faculty, staff, and students have the ability to communicate with each other via electronic mail. Usage of electronic media such as the UMassDartmouth Website, class mail servers, and the UMDAnnounce system have all experienced significant increases.

A reliable network infrastructure is in place and is funded annually to ensure an up-to-date campus network infrastructure. Over the past few years, wiring upgrades together with network technology were implemented to allow for expansion and growth with enough capacity to handle the increasing information needs of the campus community. Such upgrades to the campus network are expected to continue.

To date, the campus does not have an official replacement plan for faculty, staff, or public access computer labs and classrooms, though the administration is considering a scheduled-replacement program for hardware and software for all faculty and staff.

Development

CITS has formed numerous campus partnerships to build a more successful support structure in the areas of public access computing, campus wide leasing, campus wise software licenses, instructional support, residential networking, training and more. Combining resources and collaborating on implementation of such new initiatives has resulted in increased and improved services to students and faculty alike.

CITS expects distance learning will continue to play an increasingly important role in the future of higher education, but more important still will be our ability to integrate distance learning technologies, particularly the Web and two-way video, with the traditional classroom. We need to extend this technology to better prepare incoming students for their university experience, and to help alumni make the dream of lifelong learning a reality.

Integrated, real-time access to administrative applications is evidenced by the Student Enrollment Service Center's one-stop student registration service implemented in October, 1999, and the recently implemented Web Student system which allows students to review student information such as schedules, transcripts, financial aid and billing information. Implementation of the PeopleSoft administrative system will integrate workflow technology that will enhance the processing of business functions. Use of electronic media such as the university Web site, class mailservers, and UMDAnnounce enhances communication.

The newly-released UMass Dartmouth home page and department Web pages provide a solid UMass Dartmouth Web presence for Admissions, Alumni, Foundation, and other administrative offices. Additionally, the campus intranet offers electronic access to important information such as recent news events related to the campus and region, Faculty Senate minutes, and surveys.

Projection

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Information technology continues to play a major role in both the academic and business functions of UMass Dartmouth. Modest but consistent budget increases during the 1990s have allowed the campus to enjoy critical improvements in information technology. As the current budget does not sufficiently support existing commitments and new initiatives, CITS has begun exploring supplementary funding sources such as grant development and entrepreneurial opportunities. CITS expects to have additional funding mechanisms in place by FY 2001.

Preparation for a new information technology year-2000 visioning and planning process is underway. CITS' strategic objectives will be developed in concert with the UMass Dartmouth strategic plan currently scheduled for completion by April 2000.

CITS' Academic Instructional Initiative will consider the collective impact of technology on faculty, staff, and students in areas such as pedagogy, campus-wide hardware, software licensing and replacement plans, instructional and professional development programs, and student ownership. Working through the campus Computer Users Committee, appropriate working groups produced initial reports in fall 1999. Plans and budget proposals will be prepared for inclusion in the Initiative Budget Process for FY2001. A subsequent document, Instructional Computing Initiative: Plans and Budget, will be issued for review.

Over the next five years CITS will focus on continued investment in UMass Dartmouth's campus computing infrastructure from a network standpoint ensuring that the central services meet the information demands of the campus community. These demands include administrative systems, electronic mail, Web servers, and network services.

CITS' Web initiatives will reach into every aspect of university life, including dissemination of news to campus constituencies, recruitment, fund raising, learning on campus, and distance learning. A Web interface is expected to be added to many existing systems and created for new ones, making it easier to carry out a wide variety of campus transactions. Since UMass Dartmouth was the first campus in the system to use the Web for distance learning, it expects to play a significant role in the planning just begun by Trustees who are placing special emphasis on new distance learning and corporate continuing education initiatives. At the same time, a new distance learning committee on campus will also address this topic.