Vision for Administrative Information Technology

Prepared by The Administrative Information Technology Committee:

The environment for information technology services at CU-Denver in the new century will be completely transparent to its users on all levels, and as accepted, ubiquitous and simple to use as the telephone is today on and off campus. Telephony and digital information technologies are converging into an integrated whole, and traditional paper-based administrative communication processes are becoming rapidly outmoded. New information technology will allow CU Denver to deliver access to information and services 24 hours a day to constituencies that are not limited by geography or the physical and bureaucratic constraints of a traditional campus.

The underlying integrated infrastructure of new network technology and advanced applications will support the transformation of the educational, research, and business missions of CU-Denver into a new context of high visibility, extension of services not limited by time or place, and responsive, service-based competition that will be critical in the higher education marketplace in coming years.

The growing importance of information technology service as a measure of quality in Higher Education makes planning for this transformation a necessity. Campus information technology is rapidly evolving from a service for specialized, motivated users to a universal context for all users. The challenge of planning and implementing necessary new technologies in this transformational context is twofold:

First, IT is an environment of constant change which cannot be addressed as a one-time investment of attention or money: campus IT services must continuously provide the best service at the lowest cost in a distributed, integrated environment, with ongoing attention to requirements of technology life cycles, demand for services, and practical realities of support.

Secondly, planning cannot stop. This requires what the Administrative Streamlining Project calls, in another context, "a continuous improvement mentality." IT demands unusual consideration of future needs and direction: managing campus information technology requires staying ahead of the technology and deciding which new technologies, applications, and infrastructure upgrades will be needed next year and the year after, in addition to managing everyday demands for allocation of scarce resources.

The planning process must also align multiple CU-Denver campus initiatives for technology development, related or system-wide initiatives of other CU campuses, and the shared facility, service, and infrastructure needs of the Auraria Library, Media Center, MSCD and CCD.

This report is one of the products of a four-month, campus-wide technology planning process at CU-Denver. The goal of the planning process is to develop a strategic vision for technology in both academic and administrative areas.

The Administrative Information Technology Committee is charged with developing themes and initiatives for administrative technology that support the campus strategic vision for information technology. This Committee was specifically charged with responding to the demands of the Administrative Streamlining Project and to anticipate how technology can make the campus more efficient and user-friendly.

This report will be coordinated with the strategic visioning document of the Academic Information Technology Committee by the Information Technology Policy Council and combined into a strategic vision for the campus.

All participants in the planning process are charged with incorporating, to whatever extent possible, consideration of the recommendations generated in a number of initiatives that have examined the role of technology in the evolving image of CU-Denver and its services: the Information Technology Initiative (ITI), Total Learning Environment (TLE), the New Urban University, and the Administrative Streamlining Project (ASP).

In an article titled Transforming the University to Serve the Digital Age, [CAUSE/EFFECT; v.20, no. 4, Winter 1997-98; p. 26] James J. Duderstadt of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, commented on how technology will affect the changing nature of higher education:

Perhaps most important of all will be the impact of information technology, which will not only eliminate the constraints of space and time, but will create open learning environments in which the learner has choice in the marketplace.

...tomorrow’s student will have access to a vast array of learning opportunities, far beyond the faculty-centered institutions characterizing higher education today. Some will provide formal credentials, others will provide simply knowledge, still others will be available whenever the student—more precisely, the learner—needs the knowledge. The evolution toward such a learner-centered environment is both evident and irresistible.

As a result, higher education is likely to evolve from a loosely federated system of colleges and universities serving traditional students from local communities into, in effect, a knowledge and learning industry.

CU-Denver and the other institutions of the Auraria campus will have some advantages in this new industry. Their resource sharing provides economies of scale and other potential efficiencies, and their constituencies are already non-traditional in demography, with trends toward lifelong learning and other educational sampling behaviors. CU-Denver is well-positioned to take advantage of this transformation.

Administrative procedures and technologies must undergo a transformation to meet the needs of a New Urban University which must be prepared to provide service anywhere and at any time. The outcome of the information technology planning process will be a strategic plan to enable CU-Denver to demonstrate leadership in moving from the "bricks and mortar" (and parking, of course) tradition of university services into a mixed environment of physical campus services and virtual lifelong educational service of the new university, a transformation of both the business and academic processes currently in place.

"User-Driven" systems - The purchase and implementation of new information technology, in itself, does not change or necessarily improve the use or value of IT on campus, make staff more productive, or generate cost efficiencies or better perceptions of services among users. Existing policies and practices regarding how information is handled, and how business processes, teaching, and related services are provided, constitute an embedded information culture that must be aligned to new technologies. With few exceptions however, technology should not drive the resulting evolved information culture, it should instead be driven by involvement and continuing engagement of its users.

The Administrative Streamlining Project (A.S.P.) is a system-wide call to action. A.S.P. is the direct result of numerous studies on the state of the University's administrative information technology, the University's administrative processes, and the recommendations that arose from those studies. A.S.P. is designed to take the first step in the change program needed to turn prior recommendations into operational reality.

The goals of A.S.P. are defined by three problem statements:

The University needs to minimize the amount of administrative effort and expenditures

The University's administrative information systems are incapable of supporting basic improvements in administration because they are technologically inferior, inflexible and have limitations in their breadth of application

The University's administrative information systems do not provide meaningful information to University personnel (Deans, Department Chairs, Administrators, etc.) responsible for managing the human resource and financial assets of the University.

Every campus in the CU system is charged with incorporating A.S.P. requirements in future planning and implementation of information technology, services, and new or revised business processes. The improvements called for in A.S.P. are critically important to CU-Denver’s ability to continue its mission and to grow in the increasingly competitive environment for higher education.

In response to the requirements of the Administrative Streamlining Project, review of processes and information policies has begun in affected departments and by campus committees in regard to anticipated benefits of new vendor applications and advanced technologies.

As processes of information handling are simplified and made more accessible and "user friendly" old policies and practices, for example regarding data reporting and sharing, may have to be modified or discarded to gain the benefits anticipated in the Administrative Streamlining Project plan. As noted in the A.S.P. online Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), this will lead to more uniformity or similarity of business practices throughout the University system, by combining process and technology changes:

The benefits from adopting simplified administrative processes that are similar across the entire University can be enormous. Similar processes allow the University to capitalize on economies of scale, leverage buying power, and eliminate the need to maintain different information systems to support processes with identical objectives. A.S.P. will look to create similar processes wherever it is possible to minimize administrative costs without creating service problems. Stated simply, A.S.P. will look for the best solution for the entire campus.

Even with similar processes, individual campuses will be able to tailor some of the "business rules" to meet their individual needs. One of the advantages of moving to a new technology base is the flexibility to structure our information systems to meet the changing needs of the University.

...A.S.P. is taking a global approach to change by combining the change in processes with the implementation of new information systems. This ensures that the processes are enhanced by the new information systems and the new information systems don’t just "pave an inefficient cow path."

This review is critical to the short term transition to new vendor applications and new technologies, but is also likely to become a periodic or continuing requirement of A.S.P.

As part of the planning process a staff and administration survey on the state of CU-Denver desktop computing, training needs, and attitudes about CINS service and support was completed and reported in April, 1998.

The survey results provide a snapshot of the IT environment at CU-Denver and measures of key attitudinal issues of information technology support and training on campus:

Eighty-one percent of respondents use non-Apple PCs of some type with Microsoft windows as the most common operating system. The majority of users (65%) have Pentium PCs. Fifteen percent have Apple Power Macintosh PCs, and 11% have 486 PCs. Seventeen percent of respondents use the Macintosh operating system; Nine percent still use the DOS operating system.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents also use a computer outside the workplace.

Microsoft software applications are dominant in several categories: Microsoft Word ( word processing, 56%), Excel (spreadsheet, 73%), and Access (database, 44%). However, Explorer (the Microsoft web browser) is used by only 7% of respondents (87% use Netscape).

As a measure of the lack of standardization (and resulting support problem), more than six e-mail packages are used, the most prevalent ones being Eudora (35%), Pine (25%), TCP (9%), NM (6%), Exchange (5%) and Outlook (3%).

Forty percent of respondents use their computers to connect to University Management Systems and only 10% use the Central Information Warehouse.

Seventy-nine percent do not have maintenance agreements on their computing equipment.

Sixty-two percent rate service from CINS in the past year as "excellent" or "good." Eleven percent rate CINS as "Fair" and 25% report CINS "needs improvement."

The majority of respondent’s computing problems (71%) were software related, 24% were hardware related, and 5% were both hardware and software related.

Service expectations are high: 46% expect service within 1 to 2 hours; 26% expect service the same day; and 11% expect service the next day. Forty-eight percent report receiving service the same day; 11% the next day; but 11% report waiting 3-4 or more days, and 17% wait 5 or more days.

Thirty-six percent of respondents report they have not had opportunities for training, but 70% "agree or strongly agree" that they have sufficient training in technology to perform their jobs effectively.

The results of the survey show that IT services and desktop technology are for the most part adequate on campus, but there is a great deal of efficiency to be gained by improved training and standardization of hardware, software and services. The PC/Software marketplace is moving toward standardization by default through the dominance of Microsoft. CU-Denver has much to gain (primarily reduced costs of training and support) by improved direction and standardization of IT, particularly in administrative applications. For example, if all new PC purchases were required to have a 3 year next-day service agreement, that would reduce the 24+ % of CINS service calls that are hardware related. Such service agreements will also be in line with the recent introduction of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) initiative, which requires maintenance costs to be addressed at the time of purchase for any new campus equipment.

Regular customer service surveys of staff, faculty, and student IT experience and attitudes could add significant measures of accountability to the IT planning and implementation processes on campus. This regular feedback, shared with departmental users as part of an ongoing planning or quality control process, would be in line with the A.S.P. requirement of providing better information for decision-making for CU administrative staff.

Early in the strategic planning process, members of the Administrative IT Committee conducted research on external IT activities and other environmental influences to better understand IT needs at CU-Denver. These external environmental scans provoked thought and discussions of how technology might be utilized in the future to modernize and enhance administrative practices, procedures and policies. External scans were produced for the following topics:

Financial Aid / Currency Changes / Tuition Policy

Human Resources

Telecommuting

Contracting for Services, Benefits, Conversion

Cultural Trends of a Consumer Society

IT Tools and Infrastructure

Campus Financial Systems

Industry / Partnerships

The results of these scans provided valuable background material for this strategic visioning process on both the changing environment of higher education and the broader environment of American culture, technology, and business. Among areas reported on were the practical aspects of current and future telecommuting; changing consumer attitudes towards purchasing products and services; and how technology is changing higher education financial transactions and general business practices.

IT, in the context of new media and rapidly expanding network communications, is frequently addressed in new campus initiatives, generally in terms of public image, efficiency, customer perceptions of performance, access to new technologies, and user-friendliness. Several recent and current initiatives address the development of CU-Denver IT services directly:

The New Urban University - Within its principles NUU includes among its objectives "connect to the community through such means as electronic media," and under the principle of user-friendliness, "one stop" support services and "comprehensive online information for students...enabling the campus to move toward a virtual university through electronic services." [NUU brochure]

The Information Technology Initiative (ITI) - The ITI (1995 Program Plan) will modernize the campus with information technology, enhance access to the campus, improve instructional delivery, support campus instructional programs, and retrofit existing facilities. The ITI identified five goals and detailed needed campus upgrades for IT. The goals were 1) Access and Integration; 2) Supportive Culture; 3) Faculty Leadership; 4) Student Utilization; and 5) Systemic and Continuous Improvement.

The Total Learning Environment (TLE) Initiative - The Total Learning Environment (TLE) was created to help prepare our students, infrastructure and the entire University community for the future. The TLE builds upon the strong relevant programs, philosophies and activities already in place. There are four TLE themes which require us to engage in new ways of thinking which augment and enhance the best of our innovations in teaching, research, management and planning. These themes are: 1) supporting innovations in learning, including both undergraduate and graduate education; 2) being more responsive to our students and other constituents; 3) using technology to improve teaching, learning, research and management; 4) enhancing the University’s human, capital, financial and organizational infrastructure. These themes allow a broad latitude on how the TLE will shape the University’s future. Technology will play an important role in implementing all of these themes.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - TCO is a new initiative that "...enables the development of system wide and campus based pragmatically homogeneous technology environments. A high degree of interoperability on and among the campuses is sought to assure that the total cost of ownership, including investment in acquisition, deployment, maintenance, support, training, and upgrades is minimized. The University’s technology investments should enable faculty, staff and students to obtain added value services at reasonable cost to the institution." [from Planning for Implementation of the Total Cost of Ownership Resolution, April 24, 1998]

Of all these initiatives, the Information Technology Initiative, as its name suggests, is about the actual implementation of technology which will make new teaching, campus access and administrative processes possible. This implementation will be done in such a way to result in the efficiencies called for in A.S.P. and with the purchasing/planning guidance of TCO.

The ITI was funded by the Capital Development Committee of the Legislature as a project which will retrofit campus buildings with technology. In the past the CDC has been given only projects which were bricks-and-mortar making this type of proposal new to CDC. The ITI project was funded with $8,949,379 over a two year period for a host of IT upgrades which include classrooms, labs, a video production facility, TV distribution system, campus infrastructure, and a training center. The fiber optic cable infrastructure will serve both the academic and administrative mission of all the entities on the Auraria campus. The high speed backbone will carry both the academic and administrative traffic for CU-Denver, including the traffic generated by A.S.P. client server applications.

Off-campus access will be provided by modem banks with a large number of high speed phone lines capable of fully graphical World Wide Web access. This modem access will support students, faculty and staff. Students and faculty will access the campus for both academic and administrative services. Connections will be made over fiber optic circuits to more distant CU-Denver sites such as Lowry.

Large-scale implementation of IT is, by the nature of budget considerations and other processes, uneven. With the best of intentions, the changes envisioned in this document cannot be achieved overnight or even within a single year. IT development and its resulting benefits are an ongoing, incremental process. The challenges are in prioritizing where maximum benefits and efficiencies can be obtained, and – not least – in maintaining high standards of customer service at all times.

There are five areas of development and implementation for Information Technology investment at CU-Denver: 1) coordination of electronic communication; 2) voice; 3) video systems deployment; 4) managing information technology resources; and 5) training and supporting a skilled workforce. Within and among these categories there are interrelationships between technology, service, management, and training that make coordination of services an absolute requirement. For example, to maximize usefulness, improving e-mail and web-based interactive service delivery for CU-Denver will require a corresponding development of directory/locator services and the directory service must be available both on the Web and via dial-up voice access.

As another consideration, within the category of resource management, it is important to keep in mind that the purpose of new information technology is not solely to "make old things new," but to encourage the discovery and development of totally new methods of information access, delivery of educational and administrative services, and research support. Improvements in the quality and delivery of information, for example, will provide CU-Denver administration with better, more timely information for responsive decision-making and support for implementation of "just-in-time" business practices.

In greater detail, the five categories of development and implementation for IT at CU-Denver are:

1. To Develop and Implement Coordinated Electronic Communication Systems

In the past few years there has been remarkable growth and acceptance of information delivery via the World Wide Web and the use of e-mail and other electronic means of communication. Secure online transactions and enterprise-wide staff and client communication are becoming the norm in American business. The quality of educational institutions is now partly judged by how well they keep up with technology developments of a private sector demanding new skills of its workforce. At CU-Denver, expansion of these services and implementation of new interactive applications will provide state-of-the-art enhanced communications capabilities to administrative entities of the university, to faculty, to staff, and to students.

Administrative technology initiatives such as the Administrative Streamlining Project (ASP) demand a communication system that is reliable, seamless, scaleable, and user friendly. As CU-Denver moves into the next century, the array of services such a system can offer will become the de facto standard for communication not only with students, faculty, and on-campus business units, but also with administrative entities at UMS and other system campuses.

Within the next two to three years, digital communication will emerge as the standard method by which individuals and organizations throughout the University of Colorado system routinely communicate with each other. The electronic communication system at CU-Denver will make available:

Advanced electronic communication - E-mail and other, more advanced forms of electronic communication will become the standard for interpersonal, interagency and intercampus communication. Access to and use of these services by all members of the university community will make it possible to use broadcast e-mail as the preferred method for distributing critical information to individuals and groups in a timely and efficient manner, with eventual cost savings as paper-based communication is gradually phased out. Electronic submission of homework, virtual (and asynchronous) office hours, chat rooms, listservs, and newsgroups are just a few examples of other forms of electronic communication options that can be provided. For example, CU-Denver will be able to use broadcast e-mail to send grades, room-change notices, up-to-the-minute bills, library overdue notices, and any other kind of official administrative notices to students in place of cumbersome and expensive conventional mailing. E-mail may also eventually be accessible via voice-synthesized "reading" from any telephone to address ADA requirements, the needs of low-skilled users, and convenience of access for users who are away from PC or terminal access to their messages.

Web-based interactive information presentation - the growing ubiquity and familiarity of web-based information provides a new channel of information publishing, academic programming, marketing, and program outreach for CU-Denver. A well-designed and comprehensive presentation of CU-Denver on the Web will expand its visibility in the marketplace by providing program and resource access to audiences such as metropolitan area high school students, for example (as called for in the "Information Technology Initiative," 1995 p. 5); to adult lifelong learners and potential degree candidates in a larger area; and through Web-based course delivery (currently available in preliminary stages) to a new constituency of telelearners virtually anywhere. The stated principle of "user-friendliness" in the New Urban University concept calls for development of "...comprehensive online information for students (...financial aid information, fee schedules, online degree audits, schedule of courses, online syllabi, faculty vitae, etc.) ...enabling the campus to move toward a virtual university through electronic services." Currently, this can best be provided on the Web, a common context for simple information presentation, complex interactive service provision (online surveys, or searching library catalogs and online reference databases, for example), and even electronic commerce. As an additional advantage, an increasing number of new students and employees will arrive already trained in its use by previous exposure in schools, at home, or elsewhere.

Directory/locator services - Both common and advanced communication services of any kind are only useful to the extent that resources or links to individuals (an e-mail address, for example) can be rapidly found and appropriately used. Comprehensive, easy-to-use directory/locator systems are a fundamental requirement for successful operation of the complex mix of information services envisioned in this document. These services will provide not only standard "phone book" information, including unit, unit location, telephone and mailing address, but also links to World Wide Web services, publications and administrative information for individuals on campus and for anyone seeking information from off-campus. For example, providing a link from a financial aid directory entry to a "Frequently Asked Questions" file and downloadable application forms, can provide an effective response to an information seeker and may reduce the workload of the financial aid office by reducing the number of phone responses, mail stuffing activity, or walk-in information requests. A useful and well-maintained set of directory services should also foster improved communication on-campus and between CU campuses, as well as provide better access to CU-Denver resources from outside the campus.

New Campus-wide Administrative Applications - The Administrative Streamlining Project effectively calls for recognition and action based on the change of management information technology from a back office function to a desktop function. New applications are needed that provide immediacy of information and efficiency of processes. Most of these can be purchased and integrated into CU-Denver’s client/server environment from commercial vendors such as PeopleSoft. However, in addition to the administrative applications acquired from PeopleSoft, other useful Web-accessible applications can also be provided. For example, a scheduling application can be offered which would allow a user to check several (participating) individual’s schedules to see if they would be available for a teleconference session or meeting at a specific time. Such new applications can be added as needs are identified, as model programs on other campuses demonstrate utility, and as campus workforce and student skills and familiarity with the technologies increase in coming years.

Customer Service Center (Help Desk) - The ease of use, ubiquity, and "user-friendliness" of the new environment called for in technology visioning processes such as the Information Technology Initiative (ITI), Administrative Streamlining Project (ASP), Lifelong Learning, the New Urban University, and the Total Learning Environment (TLE) will require extensive and well-coordinated customer support services. The campus Customer Service Center will become the primary agency responsible for integrating information technology services seamlessly into the fabric of the institution and for providing the ongoing support and training for their use. Based around a Call Center for technical support available sixteen or more hours a weekday, with weekend services as well, it can provide a central location for reporting problems, getting assistance, and receiving additional training. A central Customer Service Center could also coordinate teams of support specialists and technicians to handle complex problems, and more effectively , through shared experience, develop the skills of its own staff to ensure a consistent level of support for all users. The Customer Service Center should provide a single point of access ("one stop shopping") to assistance. Users should not have to call two or three different offices to get all aspects of their problem handled. A trouble ticket tracking system and periodic sampling audits will provide a means of reviewing response to customer problems and can also provide statistical information on training needs, interface problems, and other audience difficulties with systems or services. Routine tracking efforts will provide accountability and measurements of efficiency to the Customer Service function. A knowledgebase of answers to common problems could also be generated as a byproduct of recording customer service activity and recommended responses. The ASP report (February, 1998) called for integration of customer support into a "one stop shop environment" capable of responding to both process ("How do I...") and technical problems, noting, "...to garner all the benefits of ASP, the University will need to provide a robust customer support function."

It is important, also, to keep in mind that virtual services and access to advanced

technology will not replace physical presence. In the envisioned user-driven customer

service environment, human contact, rapid and courteous personal response to inquiries and problem reports, and convenient location of technical support staff and training sites will all affect user perceptions of satisfaction. From a resource management point of view, it is also important to design and operate a user support system so that appropriate staff and online resources are available for rapid response to problems at several levels of technical skill and problem urgency. For example, a simple "how do I log-in to the network?" help call should not be responded to by higher-level (and thus more expensive) technical staff, but by a lower level support worker. Done well, this kind of call filtering and direction system can free limited technical staff resources to handle more complex technical problems for more timely and more efficient customer service transactions.

One way to reduce training and support problems while increasing integration of campus administration systems is to purchase multiple applications from a single vendor. This will require an ongoing examination of existing and new vendor options. For example, the contract with PeopleSoft for purchase of the Financial and Human Resources systems also included an option to purchase the Student Administration System (SAS) within one year at a substantial discount. A team composed of representatives from all four CU campuses has been working to evaluate the student system for possible purchase. The SAS is the newest PeopleSoft application and as such is still quite immature. Advantages of purchasing SAS include integration with HR and Financials and implementation of student information in a client-server environment. In addition, there is a group working on planning for replacement of the current Student Information System and meetings are being held to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the current system. The group will then form a vision for delivery of student services in the future and improving the management of information for academic administration and strategic planning purposes. A final report that includes the results of the SAS evaluation and the work of the planning committee will be produced in August and given to the chancellors and the President.

Library and Media Center Support - At a fundamental level CU-Denver provides

access to the network backbone (and support) for the Auraria library and media center.

CU-Denver’s expansion of off-campus and remote access to its network and making available full graphical network access accounts to all students and staff will increase the value (and return on investment) of the library’s SKYLINE catalog, licensed databases, and possible multi-media/graphical collections services). CINS also provides technical assistance in evaluating and improving network technology for both the library and Media Center. CU-Denver (in its role as networking and technical applications development consultant) and the Auraria campus Media Center will take a team approach to developing advanced video and online multi-media applications for instruction and training.

In all, these elements contribute to the "more enriching and relevant learning

experience" called for in the "Total Learning Environment" (TLE) initiative, "... by: (1)

supporting innovations in learning; (2) being more responsive to our students and other

constituents; (3) using technology to improve teaching, learning, research, and

management; and (4) enhancing the University’s infrastructure." [Buechner]

 

Voice

Voice - The telephone is the most ubiquitous communication technology in the office today. An integration of telephony and computing has begun to happen. Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) blends capabilities from the telephone and computer worlds to enable new applications that increase the functionality and hence usefulness of both technologies. CTI pools the information and telecommunications assets of an organization. In particular, by having some "knowledge" of call content, the computer can manage calls more effectively, providing appropriate and timely information to staff who are receiving or making calls. CTI can link caller I.D. information with customer history databases. A majority of technology professionals believe that we will see the convergence of voice, data and video on our networks during the next three to five years.

In the future we will have screen pops where information about the customer becomes available on the computer screen automatically as a call is answered. We will see visual voice mail. Products are already available which integrate the voice mail and e-mail.

Some long distance vendors are putting their calls on their data networks as voice over IP. This trend will continue and allow the sharing of one backbone infrastructure at both a state and national level.

The PBX has become a file server. Will the PBX be replaced by computers and network equipment? Will the traditional telephone set be eliminated? Only time will tell. In the meantime we must make the most effective use of the telephone as possible. Special features need to be continually evaluated as to their effectiveness in different situations. Telephone customer service must be continued at high levels.

Video Deployment

Video - The process has already started to integrate video with computing and to use the data network for video applications. In the near future we will see the use of three video technologies on the data networks as video over IP or video over ATM. It is beginning to look like video over IP will be used for all applications except those which require high bandwidth such as medical imaging. Until video over IP is available for high bandwidth

applications, ATM will be used in these areas. The three video technologies are:

Content on demand is the use of high powered computers as video servers to provide prerecorded video with hundreds of simultaneous sessions over the network. As statewide and national bandwidth on the Internet and intranets increases it will be possible to deliver content almost anywhere. Until then, the video servers will be used on campus networks. During January 1999 the four campus CU network will be upgraded to provide content on demand and other video services. Content on demand is asynchronous allowing participants to view the content at their leisure. This type of video technology fits well with the use of the Web and the asynchronous delivery methods which seem to be favored by faculty today.

Video streaming or broadcast video will allow the distribution of television programming, live presentations or prerecorded activities across the campus and as bandwidth permits around the world. Video streaming is a synchronous activity.

Video conferencing will allow live synchronous distance education and conferencing. Next year the improvements to the CU four campus fiber network will allow many simultaneous video conferences to be scheduled at the same time. Video conferences will be able to be scheduled from classrooms, conference rooms and individual offices.

Television, and video recording have been around for a long time. Will video presented over the networks increase the use of video in education? Only time will tell. One certain conclusion is that video conferencing will become much more prevalent (for reasons of time management, reduction in travel/meeting costs, etc.) in our fast moving society.

4. IT Resource Management

CU Denver must develop an IT Resource Management Initiative to consolidate the technology and application requirements of administrative, academic, and other stakeholder entities to ensure continuous levels of planning, support for integration, and funding for all technology development at CU-Denver.

IT Resource Management is almost a misnomer. Information technology and its related costs are changing so rapidly that management and planning within constraints of annual budget cycles and traditional purchasing processes is almost impossible. Demand for services and support, as what was formerly a service used by only a portion of staff, faculty and students becomes used by all, is increasing exponentially. Yet staffing and dollars are generally conservative, if not shrinking. Add to this the requirement that technology services, to be successful, must not just meet user demand, but stay ahead of it and balance capacity so that users do not get busy signals or system failures of critical academic services or business processes.

The IT Resource Management Initiative at CU-Denver must set standards and implement controls for planning, budgeting/funding, development, and implementation for Information Technology at several key levels:

Network Standards - For the underlying infrastructure of network services on campus, the IT Resource Management function must establish networking standards which meet the need for local, CU System and Internet2 activities. Based on this set of well-defined network standards, CU-Denver can design, install, and maintain an appropriate network infrastructure that will ensure a high level of reliability, scalability and adaptability for voice, data, and video communications, both internally and externally.

Life-cycle Management - CU-Denver must institute an IT life-cycle management program to maintain standard levels of hardware and software availability throughout the CU-Denver campus. This process would identify a limited set of standard software and hardware that will be fully supported by customer support and training resources at CU-Denver. It would also provide recommendations, in the form of general specifications, for hardware purchases. This would improve on past practices of allowing users to purchase whatever they thought would work for them and then expecting technical support services across the entire IT spectrum. Also, the guidance provided by effective life-cycle management should help users get better value for the dollars they spend on technology. For example, a user might save a few hundred dollars on a desktop PC by purchasing a model with a slower processor or other limited features. However, this can shorten the useful life of the machine. The IT Resource Management function will also establish standards for selection and implementation of general-use software and hardware at CU-Denver. This will serve to narrow the insupportable diversity of machinery and software that resulted from past lack of direction in equipment and software acquisition and expectations of support. An established standard (changing frequently as technology develops) would define a selection of specifications for more leading-edge machines with predictably longer useful lives. IT Resource Management could also establish guidelines for equipment and software upgrades and help users decide when outdated technologies were no longer useful for their purposes.

Resource Allocation - The IT Resource Management function must establish resource allocation procedures to ensure adequate and continuous levels of funding for the integration, maintenance, and support of all IT initiatives over time. It must also ensure adequate distribution of appropriate resources (hardware, access to higher capacity network resources, etc.) and perhaps also attempt to address the problem of redistributing hardware or software which is no longer useful in its original setting, but which may still be useful in another context.

Total Cost of Ownership - Total cost of ownership (TCO) is an accounting method used to understand and control computing costs while preserving the productivity of the PC user. By accounting for all costs associated with a PC across its entire life span, TCO analysis seeks to make technology procurement, management and use more efficient. The "soft" (indirect) costs of operating a PC far outweigh its "hard" ( capital) costs. Researchers consistently estimate that 60 to 70 percent of a PC’s TCO is directly related to the time and effort spent supporting it. Automated procedures such as DMI (Desktop Management Interface - a means of remote support, control, and inventorying PCs in a network), trouble tickets, on-line help and a database of solutions to potential problems will help cut TCO costs. The efficiency of PC utilization is affected by such things as IT architecture, interoperability, standards, uniformity, robustness of hardware and software, help desk and technician resources, user training, and policies, including limits and IT procedures. The best levels of TCO will be reached by a team approach where the team includes both the user and IT support staff. Selecting one PC hardware vendor, purchasing three-year on-site equipment warranties, and supporting a standard set of software which can be purchased at the lowest possible price are key actions which will help CU-Denver achieve TCO goals.

IT Resource Management is Architecture not fire fighting - Better design of the baseline infrastructure will allow for better coordination of IT technology implementation and services within it by redirecting limited staff time and resources away from the "fighting fire" type of problem-solving (characteristic of less-well coordinated systems) and toward the continuing development and failure prevention of a more reliable resource. Architecture is the uniform and consistent application of a set of standards within a design that provides for both internal needs (all departments) and external requirements (other CU campus systems, Internet2, etc.). In the article Crisis In Information Technology Support, McClure, et. Al. define IT architecture and describe the ideal of a reliable IT infrastructure in a higher education environment:

Our current environments have evolved through a process that has yielded satisfactory results but is far too inefficient for the 1990’s. An infrastructure design must start with an information architecture that describes the information needs, databases, and information processes common to the entire institution.

The architecture expresses the information and information processes that are most important to the institution in terms that we can translate into technology. It helps us maintain a holistic perspective, so that we do not over-solve some problems and overlook others. Even more important, it prevents us from investing too heavily in technology that is interesting but that has little relevance to real problems. The architecture also provides a set of guidelines for interconnecting environments that address the unique needs of departments and individuals to environments that address institution-wide concerns.

...The most important contribution we can make to reducing inefficiencies is to establish a highly reliable information infrastructure.

The infrastructure should be defined by user needs, be intuitive and consistent, and require minimal effort to learn and use. It must enable us to do simple things simply and do repetitive things efficiently. Most important, the infrastructure should be available when needed, be engineered not to break, be vigilantly monitored, be quickly repaired when things go wrong and have minimal resource requirements. It should create a base for:

the development of solutions to more complex problems

the exploration of new applications

the exploration of new technologies

[CAUSE Professional Paper Series #16 The Crisis In Information Technology Support: Has Our Current Model Reached Its Limit?, 1997]

The second part of this quote (from "...The most important") provides a concise description that can be taken as a mission statement for the continuous implementation, change, and improvement of services that is the everyday work of higher education IT resource management as we move into the new century.

Developing and Maintaining Workforce Skills

CU-Denver must implement IT training programs designed to develop and maintain the highly skilled workforce necessary for effective use of advanced digital tools. The quality and effectiveness of training will directly effect productivity in the administrative work environment of CU-Denver and will maximize the value or return-on-investment for the dollars spent on IT and related infrastructure on its campus. Quality training should result in improved productivity and in self-reliance that will reduce ongoing support demands and expense. It is unrealistic, however, to expect training to be done just once. Software upgrades, rapid changes in technology, and increasing automation of administrative functions will likely require ongoing learning by CU-Denver staff at all levels.

Ninety-eight percent of respondents to the CU-Denver IT Survey agree or strongly agree that technology training is important for their career and for on-the-job performance, and 97% feel that ongoing technology training is important to remain effective in their jobs. Approximately two thirds of respondents feel that their technology interests are job-specific rather than related to personal growth, and only 70% agree or strongly agree that they have sufficient training in technology to perform their jobs effectively. These results suggest a general awareness of the importance of IT for career and job performance, a lack of motivation or personal interest in IT, and (of particular note related the objectives of ASP) that as much as a third of CU-Denver staff may lack sufficient training to perform their jobs effectively. In response to this, training efforts must address motivation as well as skills, and overall provide staff with a sense of confidence and comfort (ideally beyond mere adequacy) with the use of IT in their jobs.

The priorities within the set of training programs to be provided, along with support services, should be defined by several factors, including: 1) technology initiative (TLE, etc.) and administrative service requirements (ASP) ; 2) perceived customer demand; 3) audit and research of problem areas; and 4) new service development for advanced technology needs (for example CU-Virtual). Training will be needed not just for use of IT but also to increase awareness of the array of tools and information services which are available. For the purposes of this plan, training requirements can be described in the following five categories:

Core Competencies

Position-specific application training

User-selected Elective Training

Advanced Application Training

Options

Core Competencies - The training equivalent of a highly reliable baseline infrastructure is training support for basic skills in the use of various common forms of computer and information technologies. Core IT competencies and skills are those that each position needs to operate effectively on the CU-Denver campus. These competencies include the ability to use network tools including e-mail, World Wide Web services, and other campus electronic communication facilities. Use of computers, computer peripherals, and computer software for word processing, use of e-mail, and information access via the World Wide Web, are becoming the routine requirements of many staff positions. In addition, access to data, and the ability to manipulate data and present it effectively are becoming critical skills for management and higher-level administrative positions on campus. Attention to core competencies is a necessary foundation of any training program.

Most students, staff, and faculty arrive on campus with some exposure to computers and IT from previous environments and everyday life. Increasingly, IT use is not just a workplace skill. In the recent IT survey of CU-Denver staff and Administrators, 69% of respondents reported that they also used a computer outside the workplace. In the same survey, 94% of respondents "feel very confident about being able to use a computer." This data suggests, at worst, that a quarter to a third of CU-Denver’s staff and administrators may need instruction in some basic IT skills, and at best, a relative handful (less than 1 in 10) may have such needs. To some extent, these anticipated core competency deficits among CU-Denver staff can be addressed over the long term with new employment requirements, but consistent campus-wide assessment and training is needed for the near term improvements called for in ASP, and realistically will be needed in continuous training offerings for effective IT use in the future.

Position-specific Application Training - Although there are applications and services in which everyone should become proficient (primarily word-processing, e-mail, and basic Internet navigation skills), different jobs will require training in specialized applications. Positions that involve budgetary management, for example, may require advanced skills in both Microsoft Excel at the desktop and in use of online financial administrative and reporting packages. This category of training includes services which must be provided to transition users to applications being brought into service from new vendors, such as PeopleSoft (which may include packaged training as part of its implementation). The IT training/skills requirements of a position may be described in the job description maintained by the HR department; defined by Departmental experience; or determined and initiated by individuals themselves. The Office of Teaching Effectiveness provides faculty training in instructional technology, for example, but a faculty member may also have interests in generating a desktop or online database, and may want to learn Adobe Photoshop for their personal/class web page development. What this means for staff training is that regular training in occupational applications should be easily supplemented with a wide array of available training in additional applications, for both the specialized needs of some positions and for interested and motivated individuals.

User-selected Elective Training - Although preference in training attendance should be given to those who require training for their positions, the CU-Denver training system and course offerings should be designed to encourage increasing skills and active maintenance of skills by staff, faculty, and students. Online computer-based training (CBT), tutorials, and FAQs can meet some of this demand, but these individuals may also have to be referred to external training resources if their demand for training services cannot be met on campus.

Advanced Capability Training - As noted elsewhere in this document, IT provides not just a way to "make old things new," but new capabilities that were not possible previously. Information sharing and publishing, group discourse, interactive applications, targeted communication, simulation, asynchronous services, and unique specialized research services are just a few possibilities. The training programs at CU-Denver must also allocate resources and services to train campus users in exploring the utility of these new applications and to diffuse them appropriately into the campus, administrative, teaching, and information access environments. In particular, new technologies and new forms of service delivery will be necessary to provide training for the distant consumer/staff/faculty that will comprise the new audience of the virtual university.

Options - The scale of the training task makes centralization of training impractical, but coordination of the training resource; development of materials and methodologies; "trainer training" to support distributed trainers; and provision of assessment/needs analysis functions should be centralized. There are several training projects currently funded to address campus IT training needs:

Teaching Effectiveness Training for the Total Learning Environment (TLE)

On-line Training for Students, Faculty, and Staff

Technology Training for Staff and Faculty

Student Instructional Corps

In addition to these projects, CU-Denver must pursue a number of options for training which include:

supports for professional and technical mentoring

internship opportunities to enable students to transition to employees

partnerships with academic departments to provide specialized training

partnerships and exchange agreements with local IT providers for training

building and maintaining a training facility for faculty and staff

and creating an IT research and development center for faculty and staff.

Training and support are activities which increase the value of technology to the extent that it can assist staff, faculty and students to do things more efficiently and productively. The underlying principle of education and IT training services in the new university environment should be that learning is not something that requires time out from productive activity: learning is the heart of productive activity.

CU-Denver has no residence halls and its students are mobile, needing asynchronous access to both instructional services and administrative processes. Electronic access has become a necessity and has been identified as one of the highest priorities for the future. It is not necessary for students to come to campus to use the electronic library or access administrative applications, but new online forms of access to CU-Denver must not have electronic waiting lines. Students, faculty, and staff must be able to access the campus network infrastructure on a timely basis.

High quality electronic access can be a competitive advantage for CU-Denver as the institution moves toward being a virtual university. Flex-time and flex-place will characterize the marketplace of students and knowledge workers tomorrow. The University is charged therefore not only with redefining its products, services, and business processes for the students of tomorrow, but also with reconsidering its physical and virtual workplace of tomorrow for faculty, staff, and managers. Telelearning and telecommuting are only transitional concepts to help us understand that, as students and workers, we no longer depend on our ability to travel to a certain physical space at a defined set of hours to learn or be employed in some task. In the not-too-distant future, the environment created by the new technologies envisioned in this document will ultimately have lost the sense of saved travel or time and will instead consist of a commonplace expectation that learning and the financial rewards of work can be achieved anywhere at anytime. The measures of learning and work will necessarily have to become more product oriented in such a future, and efficiency, accountability, and value will be the higher level outcomes provided for by the infrastructure and IT processes envisioned in this document.

High performance interconnection with other CU-Campuses must also be upgraded periodically to support new and advanced technology applications and remote access to UMS. The four CU campuses have been connected together for ten years with fiber optic circuits which have been used mainly for uncompressed video. Several T1 circuits have also been used for data and telephones. Until recently, there was a charge to use these circuits which caused them to receive little use. About two years ago the CU System removed this cost, opening the way to increased utilization.

The technology used for the Four Campus Fiber is old and outdated. During January 1999, the campuses and the system will upgrade these circuits to higher bandwidths, use modern ATM or SONET technology, use video compression and provide service for data, video and voice. The hub of this network will be at CU-Denver.

On a higher level, to provide quality access to networked technology, CU-Denver must pursue the most leading-edge network connection capability with other higher education campuses and the rest of the networked world. CU-Denver is being considered as a host site for the western states gigaPoP for Internet2. A GigaPoP is a regional network aggregation point being formed by Internet2 universities to connect to a variety of high performance, and other types of networks. GigaPoPs provide scaleable high-speed connection points. The Internet2 project will make a qualitative difference in the use of advanced network applications in higher education. Internet2 will provide new environments for faculty, student, and researcher interactions, independent of distance considerations (and the performance considerations, chiefly speed of the current network), for teaching, learning, and research. New applications will include collaboration environments that incorporate shared digital libraries, access to remote resources, and new forms of information visualization.

An initial step in achieving Internet2 performance is connection to the Very High Performance Network Backbone Service (vBNS), using Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and SONET technologies. This advanced network technology operates at speeds of 622 megabits per second (at which speed 322 copies of a 300 page book can be sent every 7 seconds). The vBNS could serve as the initial interconnect for Internet2.

There will always be new technologies, remarkable new applications, and advanced performance initiatives. CU-Denver should establish and maintain a leadership position in adopting and making available to its constituencies a network environment of the highest quality. The purpose of this pursuit is not vanity, but competitive advantage that will allow CU-Denver not to just exist, but to grow in importance and visibility as a higher education provider in the new age of virtual universities.