OIT continues to revamp services for students, faculty

With nearly three months under their belt in the current academic year, administrators in the newly organized Office of Information Technology — an umbrella organization formed early this past summer covering the former Computing and Information Technology office, the Education Technologies Center and 'Partnership 2000' program —say they are still focused and working hard to accomplish the goals set out at the beginning of the year. The way the organization will be going about this set of objectives, however, may have undergone a few alterations — tailoring them more specifically to the University's needs.

"I think that the mission statement and the goals are as they were [at the beginning of the year]," said Serge Goldstein, director of OIT's academic services. "The process whereby we have been looking at how to implement the goals may have been changed somewhat."

As part of OIT's ongoing challenge to transform the organization into one which is both useful and efficient, administrators went on a full-day retreat two weeks ago to "see how our goals relate to the services we are offering to the campus community," Goldstein noted. One of the biggest problems administrators see in the OIT initiative on campus is a communication problem.

"We recognize that we have a communication problem," said Goldstein. "There are lots of things we do that no one knows about. Also, there are people in the community who have needs that we are not yet aware of. It's not just about what we want to do, but what the faculty, students and staff need."

To open the lines of communication as much as possible, Betty Leydon, vice president of information and technology at Princeton and head of OIT, has been meeting with department chairs to discuss their specific needs.

"During these conversations I am trying to get a better understanding of the current and future IT needs of each department and of how the central IT organization might best support these needs," Leydon said in an e-mail.

Additionally, the OIT webpage has undergone significant redesign, also with the goal of enhancing ease of communication. In the "Services for Students" section of the website, information and various sets of directions have been put up to assist students with tasks varying from "Establishing your ID" and "Using e-mail" to "Purchasing Computers and Software." Also included are links to resources for academic work, Princeton's IT use policy and IT jobs on campus.

Of course, one of the most notable of OIT's projects — and probably one of the most prominent in the daily lives of University students — is the Course Blackboard website. As students who used the system last year are certainly aware, the Blackboard has undergone significant changes since last spring.

"We have upgraded our system from Course Info 4 to Blackboard 5," said Dennis Hood, University coordinator of the course management system.

"The most noticeable change is in the 'portal' when you first log on, however most of the changes are on the back end of things," he added.

Again, Hood stressed communication with the organization's clientele, saying that the "growing use of the portal modules . . . makes it easier for us to get back to the community."

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Indeed, OIT has gotten requests from various sources to generate information for the community through the system, almost a full reversal of what many student expect from the Blackboard site they check mainly as a message board from course professors. Student organizations that set up websites through Blackboard — such as the Undergraduate Student Government and the University orchestra have done — can allow specified members to send out information to the group as a whole.

"Any recognized University organization can have a Blackboard website," said Goldstein. "A membership list must be provided and then those students can be enrolled."

According to Goldstein, however, most usage of the Course Blackboard still centers on course websites, which was its initial purpose. For every course at Princeton, there is a Blackboard course website, which has at least a course description and list of enrollment, but is often used by professors to provide students with documents, memos and announcements. There is even a discussion facility in the Blackboard system that allows for online chatting among students enrolled in a course.

Course professors have even greater abilities using the Blackboard than do students. Not only are they able to post course syllabi and keep track of grades online for students to monitor, but they — and no one else — can also see a picture of every one of their students in an online, digitized face book that uses students' University ID photo.

Thanks to the upgraded version of Blackboard software, the professor and staff's task of putting information online for student use has become easier as well, leading to increased usage.

"We have seen a steady growth in usage by faculty because it is very convenient and very easy to use," said Goldstein. "Personally created course websites, made by professors, are given pointers from the Blackboard site."

Even with the vast improvements in accessibility, convenience and capabilities of the Course Blackboard for this academic year, OIT already awaits the next release of 'Blackboard' software — another step in the overall attempt to increase ease of usage.

"We are very excited about the next release of Blackboard, and are hoping that it is available for the fall of next year," Goldstein said. "With the next version, it will be even easier for faculty to upload information onto their websites."

In a further step to communicate effectively with the University clientele, Leydon and other administrators in OIT have followed up on the idea of producing a monthly bulletin for the office with the October and November releases of "it matters," found online at the OIT homepage. In the November issue of the bulletin, OIT announced its "Cluster in a Box" service, which will provide "16 IBM laptop computers with all the necessary networking, mice and power and other cables, to create a portable cluster" to be used either with or without campus network connections, wherever professors deem useful.

While increased usage, convenience and capabilities of the OIT Blackboard and the publication of the first two editions of a monthly news bulletin are goals that have come to fruition for OIT head Leydon, others are still in the process of being worked out. One such pet-project for Leydon is the development of an advisory panel to assist OIT in overall direction and in defining the best ways to serve the entire University community. As of now, though, the group has not been formed.

"I have not yet formed an advisory group since I'm still making the rounds, meeting department heads — both academic and administrative — I am asking each department for suggestions of people to represent them on an advisory group," said Leydon. "Once I have finished these meetings, I will be in a better position to come up with an appropriate membership for the group."

As some projects near completion and other only begin to get started, Goldstein seemed to express the sentiments the staff at OIT with a final call for input from every member of the University community.

"We are all very anxious to get input from the community about what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and students, faculty, staff, anyone should feel free to communicate with us," he said. "If we are to deliver the services people want to see now and in the future, we need input."