Kenneth Janz

Facilitating innovative faculty projects: an information technology perspective

The Center for Instruction, Research, and Technology (CIRT) at Indiana State University assists faculty with integration of emerging and innovative technologies into their instruction and research activities. This support ranges from High Performance Computing (HPC) to visualization services. CIRT also provides academic programming support to the University community. Additionally, one of the centers main goals is to continually explore and evaluate new and emerging technologies to support teaching, research, and student learning. This paper covers an internal grant program established by the center, the process of working with faculty on research proposals, and descriptions of several projects developed by CIRT for faculty.

Tying benchmarks and metrics to evaluations and organizational performance: the role of facilitating activities

Mission, vision, and objectives statements are standard items created for most information technology units. Alignment of these with both the overall University mission and individual staff performance goals is often weak or lacking. Building upon the work of Kohrman and Trinkle [1], objectives for Indiana State Universitys Instructional and Research Technology Services (IRTS) were written as facilitating activities and built to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aggressive but attainable, Rewarding, and Time-bound). In addition, these activities were mapped to the Universitys mission as well as specific individual performance goals. In the spring of 2004 the staff of IRTS held a one day retreat to develop activities that included benchmarks and metrics to determine organizational and individual success. These facilitating activities were captured into a document which included who was doing the work, who was responsible for work completion and success, how the activity was to be measured, what types of data would be collected, the benchmarks for success, and a timeline for completion. Each quarter of the academic year, the unit reflected on the progress toward year-end benchmarks and made adjustments of resources to ensure timely completion of facilitating activities. As IRTS moves into its second full year, the initial process of developing facilitating activities has helped guide the direction and growth of the unit. It has also aided in quantification of the units work and staff accountability which is documented in the Office of Information Technologys 2005 Technology Profile.

Creating a professional development program to support a handheld computing initiative

Indiana State University is providing handheld computers to every faculty member in its School of Education. What started as a small pilot program a year ago has grown into a project that is challenging the way faculty are thinking about technology and its application in the teaching and learning process. In addition, a substantial pool of handheld computers has been created for faculty to use with students in the classroom. Recognizing that a strong professional development program was needed to support the handheld computing initiative was instrumental to the initiatives success.This paper centers on the professional development program that was created to support the initiatives efforts. Initial distribution of the handheld computers took place at departmental meetings. A basic overview of the handheld computer was given at that time. Seven different workshops are continually offered as well as one-on-one training opportunities. Once a month, a brown bag lunch and handheld computer brainstorming and idea exchanging session is held with interested faculty and students. In addition, guest speakers have been brought to campus to speak on issues related to handheld computing.

Creating a story and message about information technology on your campus: the power of a technology profile

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Center for Instruction, Research, and Technology (CIRT) at Indiana State University provides an annual Technology Profile to its user community to document the activities of the prior year and to share information about growth and progress in the area of technology with the campus community. In its fourth year the document has been recently aligned with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as a way to facilitate high quality information technology service delivery. The employees of OIT and CIRT are committed to providing the students, faculty, and staff of Indiana State with stable and robust state-of-the-art technology in support of their academic, research, administrative, and social activities. This paper focuses on the process of developing ITIL alignment and the construction of the Technology Profile which can be found online at: http://www.indstate.edu/cirt/comm/profile.htm.

Reenvisioning training: new partnerships and focus

With the continually changing nature of technology and the fragmented delivery of professional development on campus, Indiana State University was looking for new methods of providing technology training to faculty. After years of providing the standard instructor-led training in word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, and email, the training unit was dissolved and merged with Instructional and Research Technology Services, a new unit on campus, whose vision is to engage internal and external audiences in collaborative efforts that enhance opportunities for faculty and students in their application of innovative instructional and research technologies. This merger also allows new opportunities for collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning, a unit responsible for supporting, promoting, and enhancing quality teaching at Indiana State University through a broad range of programs, services, and resources. This paper and presentation describes how technology training, instead of being a disconnected afterthought, has now become an integral part of a multi-dimensional professional development program for faculty.

Liberating lab computing: building a stable yet flexible computing environment for students and faculty

Indiana State University has found a way in its 25+ computing facilities to combine the need for a central stable lab image and small support staff with the academic needs of flexible software choices. This paper is unique in that it combines the diverse perspectives of central information technology with those of an academic unit. Through combining Reborn Card hardware technology and Ghost imaging software, Indiana State University has created a powerful computing environment that produces a win-win situation giving students a consistent look and feel across colleges and schools yet accommodating enough to meet the specific needs of faculty in disparate disciplines without adding additional personnel or breaking the technology support budget.