Information Technology Services Report to the Board of Trustees September 19, 2012 Information Technology Services September 19, 2012 (Prepared August 30, 2012) STUDENT SUCCESS Commitment to Excellence 
The data warehouse production system is being setup and expected to be completed by mid‐September. The user acceptance testing is nearly complete for the reports delivered in phase one of the project. Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence Phase two requirements and fit gap analysis have been completed, and a detailed requirement definition is nearing completion. This phase of the project is on track for the NSF report deliverable at the end of the year. The benefit of this project is that the University will have a single source of information which will reduce conflicting interpretations of data. The data will become more transparent and open internally which will enable the University to monitor and manage its strategic planning initiatives in a “real time” environment with accurate and current data. 
ePortfolio (MyDesire2Learn) Pilot MyDesire2Learn is a new product offered by Desire2Learn that allows students to take their ePortfolios with them after graduation. An ePortfolio is a place where students capture their best work and showcase it to the public, including potential hiring managers. Students receive free storage including the ability to add to or edit their existing e‐Portfolio. This is hosted by Desire2Learn, reducing the load on ITS resources to maintain access after graduation. UA is helping Desire2Learn pilot test this new capability in anticipation of making this available to UA students in Spring 2013. 2|ITS UPDATE
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The University has commissioned a group of its best students to develop a mobile application that will support students in finding a more intentional and aware path through their college experience. Successful U The students have determined that the application will be focused on first year undergraduate students and will provide awareness of activities and engagement in communities that are related to six critical student life skills: 
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Personal Growth & Wellness Leadership & Volunteerism Personal Relationships Academics & Career Health & Fitness Financial Awareness In addition to creating awareness for and connectedness with the students’ life skills, the application will serve as a touchstone for each student to set and monitor his/her progress in each of these areas with an ongoing goal journal and self‐assessment. The Application will be called Successful U. Discovery of the requirements was completed during the last week of August and the development of the application is set to commence immediately. 
The University has contracted, as part of the Akron Experience initiative, with renowned author and career consultant Don Philabaum to provide an internet portal for parents. Career Portal CareerParents http://www.uakroncareerparents.com/ is an online community for the University’s parents designed to give parents the knowledge, skills and understanding of what their student will need to build successful career strategies. CareerParents provides Videos and Webinars with tips and counseling from authors, career coaches and hiring managers. Books, reports and articles will provide further resources for parents and students alike. Finally, a community of parents is created so that parents can discuss issues with one another in familiar social networking settings. 3|ITS UPDATE
GLOBAL RELEVANCE Develop Dynamic and Globally Relevant Programs 
UA hosts and supports PeopleSoft for LCCC (Lorain County Community College) application environment including Campus Solutions, Financials, Human Capital Management, and application development tools. Shared Service: Supporting PeopleSoft at LCCC Help Desk: We are continuing to study how the like‐business processes at both schools can be combined and organized. It is hoped that by combining staff the two institutions can increase coverage, improve the quality of service, and add new functionality. The current business processes at UA and LCCC have been reviewed and documented. It was determined that in order to combine the operations at both schools, a single technology platform is required. A Gartner Group recommended using the application at UA, FootPrints, as it was an economical choice and had sufficient functionality to meet all current and future requirements. Work is underway to create a future state model and once agreed upon, the business case. Institutional Effectiveness & Planning: LCCC needs assistance with institutional reporting. UA will meet with LCCC to determine how they can help with immediate requirements and investigate the possibility of hiring staffing that will work at UA but support LCCC. All costs associated with supporting LCCC will be charged back. 
Online (eLearning) Learning To scale our eLearning initiative, a search committee has been established to locate an experienced academic administrator who will lead our online unit. We are in the process of seeking a third party to help scale course development (instructional design) and online marketing. An internal team is working to define the online student experience. 4|ITS UPDATE
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Shared Service: Innovation Alliance The Innovation Alliance partnership between LCCC, Stark State College, and UA studies shared services as a way of controlling the costs of administrative services. The partnership is intended to accelerate educational efficiency, knowledge creation, and economic development within an area called the Innovation Corridor. The high level study has been completed and final recommendations were presented to the Steering Committee. It was determined that the payback period for two schools sharing payroll departments would be approximately four years. However, the study showed that scaling the number of schools or including other business functions (i.e. HR, etc.) would dramatically reduce the payback period. Another recommendation was using Software‐as‐a‐Service (SaaS) next generation technology to support shared service business functions rather than the current Peoplesoft applications. SaaS is a software delivery model where the application and related data are hosted in the cloud saving money over ERP applications. UA and LCCC will investigate the business case for upgrading to a SaaS HCM. If it is determined that a business case exists, both schools will participate in the modeling and implementation of a SaaS HCM at UA. If successful, LCCC would follow. DISTINCTION Facilitate Faculty Development and Success by Expanding Clusters of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research 
Design and Development Services has been instrumental in sponsoring various levels of training for faculty related to Quality Matters (QM) Standards. Nearly 100 individuals have participated in one or more of these training sessions focused on excellence in online course design. The QM Course Review Program is a faculty‐centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online and blended courses. There are 41 specific review standards that receive a "met" or "not met" vote by a team of three certified reviewers. Twenty‐
one of the standards are considered “Essential” and the course cannot pass the review if these are not met. Overall the structure must achieve 85% or greater to receive QM Certification. This rigorous evaluation uses a peer‐based approach and continuous improvement in online education and student‐centered learning approach. QM is considered a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition. Three faculty members thus far have achieved QM certification for the quality of their online courses. Quality Matters 5|ITS UPDATE
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Integrator is a term used to describe alternative approaches to traditional education that unbundle instruction, assessment and location to create new economies of scale. A small team is researching the potential impact on the University of recent developments in massive open online courses (MOOC's) and open educational resources. The teams are exploring challenges and opportunities in the areas of content, delivery systems, and assessment/credentialing. Integrator University ENGAGEMENT Build and Sustain Vital Relationships and Partnerships 
At the start of the semester, several digital signs were active, primarily in the Student Union, Bulger Hall, Bierce Library and the Law School. More screens are planned for these areas. Most of the hardware is in place for many more signs. Those will be operational within a few weeks of this writing. Digital Signage 
Research Security The Sequris Group has been engaged to work with IT and the research areas to provide security awareness and best practices. This limited engagement is designed to offer a security framework to protect our University’s intellectual property. Disaster Recovery It is the University’s responsibility to provide disaster recovery services for our most critical systems. The focus initially is to provide recovery operations for vital communications such as web, network, email and PeopleSoft. We have reviewed many different options to provide this service along with their associated costs. A Request for Proposal will be submitted. 
As reported previously, these screens will display static content. Messaging will be maintained by each location and be appropriate to their operations. However, the plan is to also provide University‐wide messaging as well. We will continue to work on expanding the signage to other areas of campus. COMMUNITY Promote Vibrant and Engaging Environments and Facilities 
The University of Akron Police Department continues its pursuit to partner with the City of Akron Police Department to share the City's Computer‐Aided Dispatch and Records Management System to track and document public safety incidents. Police Dispatch – 911 Merger An initial services agreement has been finalized to identify each party’s responsibilities through the implementation process into June 2013. A master agreement defining all ongoing responsibilities for each party once the implementation is completed is still being drafted. The initial timeframe for the master agreement is for a three‐year timeframe. 6|ITS UPDATE
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Contributor Relations & CRM The Contributor Relations (Donor Management) RFP that was issued will not be awarded, since the institutional priority decision is that a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that tracks an individual’s entire time and activities at the institution also could incorporate the donor management function and that, institutionally, the priority is to implement a “cradle to grave” type system. Network The bandwidth provisioned for the Residence Hall network has been substantially increased to accommodate increased needs of our students. The increase includes both the wired and wireless networks. In addition to the bandwidth, planning is underway to install additional wireless antennas and hardware to provide greater wireless capacity for multiple devices (smart phones, iPads, laptops, gaming devices, and others). 
INTEGRATED PLANNING Achieve Measurable Success  Grants Management Post‐Award The Grants Post‐award project continues. When finished, the application will track awards, facilities and administration processing, and produce grants financial reports. This project with enable the University to achieve the Vision 2020 aspirational goal of $200 million in research. A consultant was hired to help with the implementation and will begin work on Tuesday, September 4. He will work on the project for six weeks. The objective is to set up the application configuration tables, develop a conversion strategy, and provide knowledge transfer to the functional analyst. Without this expertise, it would significantly increase the time to implement the application and would increase risk.  Web Conferencing (Collaborate)  ITS Metrics We renewed our license with Blackboard and upgraded to version 12 of their Collaborate product. Blackboard based this product on the Elluminate platform that UA faculty and students have had great success using in the past. Major benefits to version 12 include the availability of integration with Springboard, built‐in echo canceling for audio chat, and significant improvements in support for students with disabilities. The ITS scorecard has been eliminated from this report. We are re‐evaluating the dashboard of IT services and attempting to identify which measures will be most meaningful to the Board. ITS plans to resume providing a "Scorecard" in the future. 7|ITS UPDATE