As we enter a new millennium, technology is rapidly changing the fundamental ways in which we access and use information. Information technologies are expanding our options, testing our assumptions, challenging traditional models, transforming our social institutions and our lives as individuals, and presenting us with a dazzling and sometimes daunting array of opportunities and challenges. The university does not exist apart from these winds of change. Indeed, technology is changing and expanding the role of higher education, altering our traditional definition and understanding of the term "university," revolutionizing methods of delivering instruction and support services, and transforming the educational needs of students and the ways in which learning may occur. Neither a passing fad nor simply a tool, technology has become a fundamental force shaping our future. If the university is to fulfill its mission and remain viable in our rapidly changing world, it must embrace technology and fully exploit its potential.
Opportunities and Challenges
Traditionally, the university's mission has been the preservation, creation, and transmission of knowledge through the activities of teaching, research, and service. Now, however, emerging technologies afford new opportunities to transform and improve the ways in which these traditional activities are performed. Through appropriate use of media and technologies, Boise State University can deliver high quality instruction with greater flexibility, and faculty and staff can perform research, support, and service more effectively and efficiently. As a result, students may learn more, and they may learn more rapidly, conveniently, and affordably. Equally important, by using technology to provide a current and high quality learning experience, the university has the opportunity to educate students about technology itself, and about its significant role in our society and daily lives.
The overriding challenge inherent in realizing such opportunities, however, lies in finding a balanced approach to using information technologies to address and reconcile the tension among the interrelated dynamics of access, quality, and cost. On one hand, information technologies can be used to expand access to educational programs and information available worldwide, to reduce or eliminate the traditional barriers of distance and time, and to enable students to learn more conveniently or even independently as drivers of their own learning. Information technologies can be used to enhance the quality of instruction and the pace of learning, to promote collaboration, and to simulate real world situations not replicable in a traditional
classroom. Information technologies can be used to improve the quality and convenience of services and to simplify and speed admission, registration and other business operations. And information technologies can be used to reduce paperwork and redundancy and to contain the costs of instruction and services, maximizing the university's use of limited resources and keeping educational costs affordable both to students and to the State of Idaho. On the other hand, technology is not a panacea. Expanding access to educational programs and services, or enhancing the quality of instruction and services, requires a substantial and ongoing investment in the acquisition and maintenance of new technologies as well as in the training to use them, and thus will likely increase costs to students and to the State in the short term. Not until we rethink traditional models of the teaching and learning processes, not until we move beyond the teacher-centered model of instruction and focus more on learning outcomes, will we have any chance of reducing costs. And even so, information technologies may not be applicable in certain learning situations; used inappropriately, information technologies can inhibit learning and reduce or eliminate the human contact and interaction so often necessary to motivate and inspire learning. At the very least, it would be unreasonable to expect any given application of information technology to address with equal advantage the dynamics of access, quality, and cost.
The Planning Process
The framework plan that follows represents an effort to address proactively the myriad opportunities and challenges posed by new technologies. Of course, no one can predict with certainty the exact direction that technological innovation will take in the future. Making Connections sets broad institutional priorities and charts a general direction that will guide the university's efforts to respond flexibly to change while strategically focussing the university's energies and efficiently deploying its resources. Individual departments, colleges, and support units are encouraged to develop unit-level plans that supplement and detail the broad strategies and objectives outlined in the university plan.
Making Connections: A Strategic Framework for Technology at Boise State University has been developed in concert with other planning documents and reports, and it incorporates broad-based input from the university community derived from surveys, focus groups, and public meetings. Preceding documents consulted in the preparation of the current plan include the Information Technology Plan for the State of Idaho prepared by the Information Technology Resource Management Council, the State Board of Education's 1996 Statewide Strategic Plan for Elementary, Secondary & Postsecondary Public Education, Boise State University's strategic plan Meeting the Challenge, and a variety of technology plans previously developed on
campus or elsewhere. Invaluable in providing insight into the ideas and perspectives of Boise State University faculty, staff, and students were the recommendations of the Boise State University Task Force on Student Computer Purchases, co-chaired by the presidents of the Faculty Senate and the Associated Students of Boise State University (ASBSU), as well as the recommendations of the Boise State University Teaching/Learning Technology Roundtable. The current framework plan builds on these earlier efforts and sets forth a direction at once comprehensive, strategically coherent, and realistic. Elements of the plan will be incorporated in an updated version of the university's strategic plan, to be developed in the 1999-2000 academic year.
The Framework Plan, Objectives, and Annual Action Planning
Making Connections identifies four comprehensive strategic initiatives designed to encompass all educational programs and administrative support services provided by the university, whether on campus, off campus, or in the greater community.
I. Develop the technological infrastructure necessary to support a distributed campus university in fulfilling its role and mission in the 21st century.
II. Utilize technology to enhance the academic mission of instruction, research, and service.
III. Utilize technology to enhance the administrative functions and business operations of the university.
IV. Provide a wide range of professional development, training, and technical support necessary to make effective use of technology.
Within each of these strategic initiatives, the plan identifies a list of objectives to be achieved over a period of five years; each year, elements of the framework plan will be translated into an annual action plan by setting objectives and timelines for the year, identifying tasks and entities responsible, and allocating budgets as appropriate. In view of limited budgetary support, the framework plan provides a basis and priorities for seeking additional funding from public and private sources. Assessment of progress on the framework plan will be made annually and used to shape planning and budget requests for the subsequent year. Both the framework plan and annual action plans will be communicated to the campus community through posting on the net.
To date, substantial progress has already been made toward realizing the plan's broad strategic initiatives, and work is well under way on accomplishing a number of the plan's specific objectives. The plan intentionally includes these objectives, rather than minimize through omission the significance of achievements to date. Yet Making Connections focuses principally on the future, providing a framework for focusing attention and effort, charting progress, and assessing outcomes. The cycle of planning, implementation, and evaluation will be ongoing.
Themes and Goals
Making Connections is intended to be a living document, sufficiently broad and flexible as to permit more precise definition and revision over time, as changing circumstances and technological innovations warrant; hence the plan reflects some disparity in its level of detail. Where consensus exists, or where future directions are foreseeable, the plan details objectives specifically. Where future directions will require additional discussion and information, the plan states objectives more generally. So, too, the list of objectives is neither exhaustive nor definitive. Yet the plan is definitive in setting forth specific themes that will guide the university's choices and priorities in selecting and implementing information technologies. Recurrent themes include the following:
Cooperation and Coordination. The success of the university's commitment to embrace technology depends upon the cooperation of all members of the university community. Technology will affect not only how we perform our major functions--undergraduate and graduate education, research, and outreach services--but also how we do business and interact with each other and our students. There is no area of the university that will not be affected by this plan. Coordination is essential.
Shared Planning. This framework plan is the first step toward the university's development of a comprehensive, unified approach to technology. The plan calls for the creation of more specific plans in specific areas such as infrastructure development, identification of strategic technology niches, and the selective integration of audio, visual, and data communications. Centralized planning at the university level must be complemented by decentralized planning at the unit/department/college level.
Shared Financial Responsibility. Centralized funding of major initiatives must be complemented by decentralized funding at the department/unit level. The university will be responsible for funding infrastructure (e.g. duct banks, electrical power, HVAC, etc), the university-wide network (e.g. GroupWise, PeopleSoft systems, etc.), and general-purpose computer laboratories for students. Individual units will be responsible for providing specialized equipment and hardware and software consistent with university standards and for equipping and maintaining dedicated computer laboratories for students. The university will be responsible for funding technical support for university-wide infrastructure and systems, while individual units will be responsible for funding technical support for facilities and hardware and software specific to their needs. The university and individual units will cooperate in funding classroom remodeling and technology training. Funding for technology enhancements will come from State appropriations, student fees, grants, and private donations.
Student Needs. The plan seeks to be responsive to student needs--providing enhanced access to high quality educational programs and services with the greatest efficiency in resource utilization. Technology will be used to enhance the opportunity for students to be successful.
Enhanced Access. The plan is designed to increase access to, and promote flexible delivery of, educational programs and services, as well as to increase access to both internal and external information--for students, faculty and staff, and community members.
Enhanced Quality. Technology is not the solution to all issues but is nonetheless a critical tool for qualitative improvements. Technology can empower learners and transform the learning process. Technology can offer a high quality educational experience and a level of service not available through traditional methods.
Enhanced Efficiency. Technology can save time, speed service and improve convenience, eliminate redundancy and needless paperwork, and cut costs in some administrative and support functions.
Assessment. Utilization of technology must be guided by systematic, ongoing assessment of needs, outcomes, and processes, both in instructional and in administrative areas, using internally developed as well as standardized assessment measures.
Best Practices. There is no need to "reinvent the wheel." Identification and dissemination of best practices from both internal and external sources will facilitate adoption and appropriate use of technology.
Standards. The efficient use of technology requires the university to adopt some standards. These standards range from the types of hardware and software supported; to standards for course development, delivery and management; to the use of common evaluation tools for distance learning.
Change and Continuous Improvement. The commitment to technology requires continual professional and personal growth. Learning new ways to teach and new instructional models is important for faculty. Learning new ways to access and utilize technology is important for students. Learning new ways to improve service and communicate with all parts of the university is critical for staff. The university is committed to providing the ongoing technical support and training necessary to maximize faculty, student, and staff use of technology.
Together, the strategic initiatives, objectives, and underlying themes of the framework technology plan are designed to guide the university toward the attainment of four overriding goals: 1) excellence in teaching and learning; 2) greater access to information, education, and services; 3) enhanced personal productivity for students and faculty and staff; and, 4) improved institutional quality, service, and efficiency.
No plan, however prescient, will anticipate every contingency or dispel entirely the tension surrounding the dynamics of access, quality, and cost. No plan can substitute for the vision and imagination necessary to reconceptualize teaching and learning processes or to conceive innovative approaches to delivery of services. Nevertheless, extraordinary opportunities exist for universities that can imaginatively leverage the power of technology to remake the academic enterprise, to serve teaching and learning, and to improve service to all. Making Connections: A Strategic Framework for Technology at Boise State University signals our commitment to that endeavor.
Making Connections: A Strategic Framework for Technology at Boise State University
- Develop the technological infrastructure necessary to support a distributed campus university in fulfilling its role and mission in the 21st century.
Infrastructure Planning
- Institute an infrastructure planning process which provides for continuous evaluation and assessment of needs and requirements and which ensures compliance with governing policies, standards, and laws
Network
General Access
- Provide access to computational, scientific, and research resources at Boise State University and other networked institutions and information sources
- Develop a plan for the selective integration of audio, video, and data communications
Data Networking/Local Access
- Provide high-speed, on-campus networking to classrooms, laboratories, offices, meeting rooms, residence halls and apartments, the Student Union Building, Albertsons Library, and other auxiliary facilities
- Provide selected sites as "learning commons" (e.g. Albertsons Library, Student Union Building, Canyon County Center) with easy access to computer networks to facilitate student use of computing resources for study outside the classroom
Data Networking/Remote Access
- Provide oversight and coordination for all networking media including data, satellite, microwave, radio, and cable
- Increase high-speed link between the university network and a national high-speed backbone (e.g. Internet 2, Abilene, vBNS, etc.)
- Increase access to Boise State University network resources from off-campus