Focused Report

Comprehensive Standard 3.4.12

The institution's use of technology enhances student learning and is appropriate for meeting the objectives of its programs. Students have access to and training in the use of technology. (Technology use)

Off-Site Committee Finding

As noted in 3.4.9, the institution may have technology access problems due to issues with between one-fourth and one-third of its lab computers. Documentation is needed to show that these problems are being addressed.

The institution supplies evidence of ensuring that all students have training in the use of technology. According to the core curriculum in the University Catalog, students in various disciplines are required to take a core level class in technology and/or computers.

While evidence of the appropriateness of technology to education is indicated in the compliance narrative, no documents were supplied which contain policies and procedures for the use of technology to enhance student skills. The On-Site Committee should seek documentation that indicates technology training is appropriate to meeting the objectives of the institution's programs.

Albany State University's Response

3.4.12.1 Technology Use

The Strategic Plan adopted for 2006 through 2011, provides visionary direction and specifies objectives for long-term support for the academic and administrative environment of the institution. Below is a summary of the Strategic Plan Goals for Technology at Albany State University :

Goal 4: Provide State of the Art Technology

Provide and maintain state of the art technology infrastructure that supports the University's mission and goals. Components of the Technology Infrastructure include:

•  Instructional Support

•  Student/Staff Services

•  Administrative Services

•  Distance/On-line Learning

•  Business Processes

•  Training Support

•  Internal/External Communication

The Office of Information and Instructional Technology at Albany State University (ASU-OIIT) is charged with implementing operational activities and programs to address the campus needs outlined in the planned objectives. Prior to 2007, ASU-OIIT was a department reporting to the Office of Fiscal Affairs and technology related projects including academic computing endeavors, were not consistently delivered. President Freeman realized that in order to achieve the vision as outlined in the strategic plan, that organizational restructuring was necessary. As such, the Chief Information Officer, filled in January 2007, now reports directly to the President and the Chief Information Office serves on the Executive Cabinet role in order to provide equivalency with the other major units of the institution.

The newly reorganized ASU-OIIT is responsible for technology services for the ASU campus in the in the following major categories:

•  Infrastructure Support Services, such as network, e-mail and customer services;

•  Enterprise Applications Services, such as administrative and academic software needs used campus wide; and

•  Instructional Technology, such as Learning Management Systems training and classroom technology

In the Spring of 2007, the Campus Technology Committee, which serves in advisory capacity to the Chief Information Officer, was restructured to represent a cross-section of academic and administrative leaders. The committee's charge is to provide guidance on the major administrative and academic issues that require technology enablement. Following are the general findings:

•  The institution did not have policies related to technology asset management nor hardware and software lifecycle management;

•  Likewise, hardware and software consistency standards did not exists to ensure availability of adequate technical support;

•  Infrastructure and Enterprise Application services, such as e-mail, Banner and the network were unstable resulting in frequent service interruptions;

•  Availability of technology labs is limited due to the fact that departments require a lab monitor to be physically present for a lab to be open for student use in academic buildings;

•  Though several classrooms were equipped with technology, faculty were hindered by ease of use and consistency in the design of the rooms; and

•  Inadequate of formal training programs did not exist for faculty, staff or students to integrate technology use in daily tasks, administrative activities or instructional delivery.

Equipped As such with the advent of new leadership and the discussions related to the above findings, changes in the services and programs offered by the ASU-OIIT were initiated to enhance the administrative and academic support programs available to the ASU stakeholder community. As a reference document an overview of campus wide projects undertaken is outlined in the Enterprise Transformation Planning [1] presentation prepared for the USG Board of Regents Technology Conference. Additionally, following is a summary of the operational activity plans for each categorical service area.

3.4.12.2 Infrastructure Support Services

Service reliability and responsiveness to stakeholder groups (students, faculty and staff) is critical to achieving the effective use of technology at ASU. To address these concerns the following projects commenced in 2007

•  Policy & Standards Development

•  Cyber security enhancement and upgrade

•  Customer Service Requests Management

•  OneCare Access Expansion

The ASU-OIIT developed global policies related to technology services and reviewed with the Campus Technology Committee in the Spring 2007. The policies were adopted and various changes in operating procedures and definition of enterprise standards have ensued. For the complete policies, procedures and forms used to support campus wide infrastructure services go to http://www.asurams.edu/it/policies.php

Cyber security enhancement and upgrades have also been undergone to stabilize the ASU network and ensure reliable availability of key services. The campus network firewall is implemented using the Cisco ASA. Prior to reconfiguration, many areas of the campus had public IP addresses and as such direct external access was not monitored. A major overhaul was implemented to mask all internal network IP addresses and implement a NAT protocol for computers that used external licensing services. Likewise, protocol and port configurations have been implemented to block unwanted external traffic.

Another area of risk was the campus e-mail services. An appliance based spam/firewall has been implemented to prevent unwanted e-mails as well as to block viruses and spam before they hit the internal server. The following table provides an overview of the improved e-mail/spam blocking capabilities to improve productivity for student, faculty and staff using infrastructure technology services.

 

Operational health checks are maintained real-time and infrastructure support staff are able to view overall health of the network and identify operational issues proactively through use of the NetMRI. The appliance polls the network using an SNMP protocol to provide a birds-eye view of problems. Following are snapshots of the application views provided from the tool.

 

All ASU Students, Faculty and Staff have access to the Information Technology Customer Services Desk physically located in the Reese Student Union on the 1st floor, online (internal only) at http://tech.asurams.edu or by phone 229.430.4909. The Customer Services Desk is professionally staff and augmented with student technicians to provide assistance in all areas of technology available on campus. To manage support and to evaluate trends for overall customer service improvement, ASU-OIIT leverages the Numaras Track-IT System. Following is a report of work orders completed from January 1, 2007 - September 30, 2007 by work order type. [2]

 

3.4.12.3 Enterprise Application Support Services

Enterprise wide software is deployed throughout campus in order to support the administrative and academic support needs of the campus community. The following table provides a summary some of the general enterprise software applications used for administrative and academic support for student services

 

All faculty and staff who directly interact with students have access to the Sungard Banner Student Information System in order to provide student services in their direct areas of responsibility. (See Banner Security Access). Students also have self-service accounts in Banner that provide:

•  The ability to register for classes

•  The ability to review financial aid

•  The ability to perform degree audits in preparation for course planning

•  The ability to view grades and transcripts

For more information, reference the Student Technology Handbook [4] and Faculty Advising Handbook [5] .

3.4.12.4 Instructional Technology Support Services

Instructional Technology services predominantly focus on the use of WebCT for faculty and students only upon request. Following are the training workshops available to Faculty.

Effective Online Communication (60 mins)

•  Sending mail messages

•  Posting announcements

•  Providing timely feedback

•  Using the chat room for meetings and virtual office hours

•  Using proper netiquette

•  Determining when to use public versus private communication

Detecting and Deterring the Online Cheater (60 mins)

•  Identifying plagiarism/Turnitin Software

•  Creating sizeable and varied test question pools

•  Using alternative evaluation methods

•  Adhering to strict rules and guidelines

•  Common Excuses

•  Creating clearly defined expectations and instructions

Developing the Online Syllabus and Grading Rubrics (60 mins)

•  Define why grading rubrics are important

•  Provide examples of helpful rubrics

•  Identifying the necessary components of the online syllabus

•  Creating course schedules and/or course road maps

 

Online Pedagogy (60 mins)

•  Why Should I Teach Online?

•  Seven Principles of Good Practice/Discussion of best practices

•  Providing adequate learner support and resources

•  Ensuring interactivity and collaboration

•  Peer testimonial

Low Cost Technology Tools (90 mins)

•  Introduce faculty to the various free or low-cost technology tools available to enhance online or web-based courses (survey authoring, self-assessment quizzes, interactive activities, file conversion software).

•  Identifying websites containing multimedia instruction

*Developing learning communities and student interaction in the online environment (60 mins)

•  Planning and developing appropriate assignments and activities

•  Encouraging a positive online environment

•  Netiquette and dealing with inappropriate behavior and attitudes

•  Effective facilitation skills

•  Addressing diversity issues

 

Using WebCt - Vista

•  Discussions

•  Assignments

•  Assessments

•  Using Respondus

•  *Advanced Selective Release

•  Managing the Gradebook

 

The persistent training model used to provide workshops periodically began this past year and though the response has been moderate, offerings have been expanded to include student workshops to augment the formal course delivery by faculty. Attendance will be tracked using the Track-IT Training module in order to gauge effectiveness and to determine the appropriateness of the workshops for student education. A summary report of faculty training is attached for reference.

Supporting Documentation

[1]  Enterprise Transformation Planning

[2] Work Order by Month

[3]  List of Fall 2007 online courses

[4]  Student Technology Handbook

[5]  Faculty Advising Handbook