Successfully implementing the IT strategy

In 1999 the Board of Governors approved a multi-year IT Strategy that focused on teaching and learning with technology, student services and campus collaborations. Since that time, UNC has worked diligently to ensure that the initial $10 million investment to implement the strategy delivered maximum benefits to the University and to individual campuses. Keys to success included:

1. working collaboratively to build out campus IT infrastructures.

2. enhancing and creating new campus and system level support services.

3. collaborating with faculty, librarians and instructional technologists to improve teaching and learning with technology.

4. leveraging shared administrative software and hardware acquisitions to provide online access and e-commerce services for students.

5. developing strategies for e-Learning that complement the individual campus distance and online programs with UNC technology-based resources and support.

Within these five areas, the IT Strategy identified 11 strategic initiatives. By Fall 2002, the University had implemented seven of the initiatives and made commendable progress on the four remaining strategies, even though the recommended year 2 and year 3 funding was not available.

Expanding UNC networking and supercomputing services

The North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), operated by MCNC on behalf of North Carolina's universities, continues to be a critical component of the UNC-wide intercampus IT infrastructure. This first-class data and video production network enables hundreds of hours of instructional videoconferences each semester. It enables millions of bytes of data, instructional content and electronic messages to travel between and among our campuses and through the commodity Internet gateway. Nearly every UNC student, faculty and staff member uses NCREN resources on a regular basis. During the past year, a segment of NCREN that serves NC A&T State, NCSA, UNCC, UNCG and WSSU was upgraded. Plans are under way to upgrade the network in the eastern and western segments of the state.

New uses for high performance computing emerged during the past year, and MCNC led the development of a test bed for the North Carolina BioGrid (www.ncbiogrid.org). In addition, faculty from UNC and other universities in the state attended workshops to examine the benefits and requirements for incorporating computational modeling into a variety of disciplines.

Leveraging the resources of UNC-TV

During 2001-2002 the Division of Information Resources gave considerable attention to increasing the use of the resources and expertise at UNC-TV to enrich instructional content and extend access to public service media in the UNC community. A pilot e-Learning course that incorporates streaming video clips from UNC-TV programming is one example of how these resources can enhance e-Learning.

Defining e-Learning

UNC completed an evaluation and assessment of its technical readiness for a more coordinated approach to e-Learning. After considerable review and discussion with the campuses, several recommendations from the assessment were deemed appropriate for implementation. Taking the next steps requires further collaboration between the Office of the President and the campuses. Ultimately, UNC must maximize campus autonomy and program quality, while at the same time leveraging resources to provide essential academic and student support services at the lowest practicable costs.

Pinpointing the need for an education data center

UNC completed work on the proof of concept for an education data center, the critical first step in designing a data mart to enhance program decisions and policy affecting North Carolina public schools.

With funding from the SAS-UNC partnership, the Division of University-School Programs and the Division of Information Resources developed a pilot website that demonstrates the benefits of data warehousing using actual public school data. SAS Internet software allows the data to be searchable and sortable in response to specific inquiries.

UNC gave a preview of the data center's power at a Spring 2002 data summit, attended by representatives from the K-12 community, community college system and higher education. This pilot application is another example of how UNC can extend its partnership with other sectors to improve the quality of education in North Carolina.

Assessing opportunities for data warehousing

UNC's requirements for institutional data analysis were greater in FY2001-02 than ever before. There were more than 200 legislative inquiries for system-wide information in FY2002 alone. In conjunction with the implementation of the Banner ERP systems at most UNC campuses, plans are under way to develop a unified data model for financial information. Eventually, UNC will build a complete data warehouse infrastructure which will include data marts for finance, student and human resources information.