Transforming the Ways We Teach, Learn and Work

BOG Strategic Direction #6. "Transformation and Changes: Use the power of information technology guided by IT strategy and more effective educational, research, administrative, and business practices to enable the University to respond to the competitive global environment of the 21st century."

Information technology is the primary impetus for transformation and change in higher education, and the Division of Information Resources is charged with helping the University effectively and efficiently employ the power of IT in its educational, administrative and business practices. Foremost among the division's responsibilities is implementation of the landmark 1999 IT Strategy, but at the same time, the division is providing critical support for the Board of Governors' strategic direction to help the University respond to the competitive global environment.

Expanding the authority and capacity for management flexibility

The Division of Information Resources assisted UNC campuses with responding to a new state statute that grants campuses IT management flexibility and gives UNC chancellors and their boards of trustees the authority to develop policies and procedures for managing information technology on their campuses. The division serves as a consultant to campus CIOs on key elements required by the state, which has statutory responsibilities to review and comment on campus IT plans.
Coordinated Technology Management is working with the Finance division and the state Department of Administration to assist the Board of Governors in setting rules and regulations for IT contracting and acquisitions on campuses. UNC received authorization for increased procurement flexibility from the General Assembly.
Coordinated Technology Management is collaborating with the Finance division to determine if integrating campus e-procurement systems with the state’s system will result in increased efficiency and additional cost savings.

Ensuring accountability and strengthening communication

The Division of Information Resources established Information Resources Affairs, a new coordination function designed to assist the Office of the President and the 16 campuses in keeping abreast of IT-related issues and actions affecting higher education. IR Affairs reflects an expanded scope of responsibilities formerly within Special Projects. In addition to coordinating special projects for the Vice President for Information Resources and CIO, IR Affairs serves as the division’s liaison to state regulatory and rule-making bodies; provides administrative support for implementation of UNC’s IT Strategy; serves as the primary liaison for the five-year, $3 million SAS grant; collaborates with the Division of University Affairs to monitor legislative actions involving IT policy and expenditures; holds responsibility for developing and monitoring the division’s IT budget; and produces UNC Links, an e-newsletter that highlights IT news from the University and its 16 campuses.
Information Resources Affairs monitored and reported to campus CIOs and the University Affairs division the legislative and statewide IT-related agency actions that affected campus IT management flexibility.
Information Resources established Decision Support Integration to ensure effective and efficient integration of the Unified Financial Data Model, human capital management projects, and other cross-functional decision support efforts.
Information Resources welcomed a new Associate Vice President for Enterprise Systems and Networks who will be responsible for the integration and development of administrative and academic IT strategy and policy integration. The position had been vacant since 2000.

Developing best practices and support systems for teaching and learning including e-Learning

The TLT Collaborative and UNC Faculty Senate welcomed nearly 300 faculty and staff to the annual Teaching and Learning with Technology conference Participation was up 25% for the 2003 event, which featured more than 90 presentations and spotlighted issues such as grid computing, fair use copyright legislation and faculty recognition for digital scholarship. Nearly 95 percent of participants rated the conference “excellent” or “very good” in facilitating knowledge sharing.
The TLT Collaborative formed user groups to promote professional development through ongoing activities in nine areas: Blackboard, distance education, e-Learning pedagogy, e-Learning support, IT professional development, librarians, TLT assessment, web accessibility and WebCT. The potential value of interest groups to campuses became apparent during development of the organization’s strategic and operating plans.
The TLT Collaborative surveyed the 16 campuses and developed an online compendium of effective practices and special projects, an initiative that will facilitate information exchange and collaboration. The collection of 50 abstracts showcase campus initiatives in faculty development, instructional support, e-Learning, faculty and student support services, and library resources. The focus is on projects that address systemwide initiatives, have a track record of success, and can be replicated on other campuses.
The TLT Collaborative interviewed TLT board members and campus representatives for a seven-minute video production that documents the organization’s singular role in helping faculty incorporate technology efficiently and effectively. The program will be widely distributed across the University and to external partners in higher education, government, and business.
The TLT Collaborative expanded its Professional Development Portal with 311 new submissions, increasing its resources to more than 1,600. Also noteworthy, new features and enhanced content more than doubled the portal’s usage. The number of queries per month rose steadily from 799 in July 2002 to 1703 in June 2003. The development of two new focus areas – administrative development and librarianship – helped drive the portal’s growth.
The TLT Collaborative continued to identify, develop, and organize TLT assessment resources; to provide support for UNC’s role as an institutional partner in MERLOT; and to serve as advocate for TLT in UNC policy decisions.

Facilitating the transition to new enterprise management systems

The Division of Information Resources worked with the Finance division and SCT Corporation to develop and implement a Unified Financial Data Model to meet the rapidly growing demand for systemwide financial information. Summary data will be collected from the 16 campuses as well as UNC General Administration on a monthly basis. Collection of this data will allow efficient and timely access to key systemwide financial information, speeding UNC’s response to legislative and other requests.
The Shared Services Alliance developed a five-year strategy for implementation of the Banner enterprise management system, a landmark project that will transform the way 13 campuses conduct the business of higher education. The project will establish baselines and significantly streamline administrative services in five areas: alumni/development, finance, financial aid, human resources, and student services. The Alliance identified campus hardware and software needs, coordinated the efforts of four campuses to serve as regional training centers, and coordinated the development of a training schedule, communications plan, accountability measures, issue management plan, and other initiatives to help ensure an efficient transition to the Banner system.
The Division of Information Resources is active in data warehousing efforts within the Office of the President on a project that will enable divisions to measure their efficiency and performance against strategic directions and financial benchmarks.

Ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations

Information Resources Affairs is working closely with campus HIPAA coordinators and the Legal Affairs and Finance divisions to ensure campus compliance with HIPAA regulations and timely reporting of data. Legislation requires a quarterly update on statewide compliance, with data going to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Strengthening partnerships with the public and private sectors

Information Resources nurtures strong partnerships across the University and within the state, including those with the community college system and the state Department of Public Instruction on the education data warehouse; the state Information Technology Services office on security; MCNC on grid computing; SAS on access to software and training; and with Blackboard, Microsoft, SCT, Sun and WebCT on acquisitions.
SAS and UNC officials expanded their $3 million, five-year partnership by adding SAS genetics and text miner software to the inventory of available products available to the 16 campuses. The SAS-UNC partnership is estimated to save $445,907 annually in licensing fees.
More than 100 college and university leaders gathered at SAS world headquarters in Cary for the annual Higher Education Executive Conference in June. Robyn R. Render, UNC vice president for information resources and CIO, served on a panel of information executives from higher education who discussed “A Vision for Higher Education: Realizing the Institutional Advantage.” The session focused on recent challenges and trends that are driving the need for enterprise intelligence in academia.
SAS offered free training in data mining to higher education faculty across the country interested in teaching the software and its applications. Seven UNC campuses sent representatives to the two-day workshop: ASU, FSU, NCSU, UNC-CH, UNCC, UNCG, and UNCW.
Planning for regional SAS days culminated in two day-long events on UNCC and ECU campuses. More than 100 faculty from the 16 campuses attended the regional meetings, which featured presentations on data warehousing and intelligence architecture, SAS genetics and genomics software, data mining and SAS Enterprise Miner, using SAS in teaching and research, SAS Web Enablement and web reporting, and a preview of the latest version of SAS Statistics.
The Division of Information Resources used a SAS grant to explore the use of a web-enabled tool for collecting and reporting campus information frequently requested by the General Assembly and state agencies.
Many campus projects supported by SAS mini-grant awards made in Spring 2001 are complete, while others involving faculty, student, and staff training are near completion. Grant recipients are gearing up to showcase their supported projects and initiatives to leverage solutions across sister institutions through scale of applications and best practices.