Presentation Author, 2006

What do Newer Generation Faculty Want from IT Services?

Bruce Maas, CIOMichael Zimmer, Assistant Professor

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UWM At a GlanceEnrollment 30,400Undergraduate 25,400Masters/Doctoral 5,000Faculty/Staff 3,455Central IT staff 140IT student staff 175Schools & Colleges 14

Programs: Undergraduate 84 Masters 48 Doctoral 26

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A Need for Beginning Dialogue?• Question: Multiple generations have

always been represented in higher education, so why the focus on newer generations now?

• Answer: We are at the nexus of multiple transformative changes in higher education. Poor communication creates much greater risks during periods of transformative change.

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And They are not Waiting for us• They are finding tools that respond to their

needs.

• Sometimes this is good, and sometimes this is bad. Depends…

• They do not ask permission

• They have little patience

• They are zeroed in on learning outcomes

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Why we need to pay attention to recent generation faculty• Legacy strategies based on “boomer”

preferences may not work

• Mismatch in communication styles

• “Official” campus tools lag behind cloud and consumer services

• This also applies to “boomer” and “early gen-x” innovators

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Why we need to pay attention to recent generation faculty-Part 2• Opinion leaders are different

• Bi-modal distribution for awhile

• Tighter connection in general to learning styles/needs of students

• They do not presently have power, yet that time is coming…

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Learning from our mis-steps

• Example of automated twitter status feed not updating

• #FAIL not exactly like getting limited distribution feedback.

• Audience is wider given social media expression: Twitter, blog posts.

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We’ll soon be outnumbered

• Instructors at UW–Milwaukee:

• ~ 61% Baby Boomers and older

• ~ 38% Generation X

• ~ 1% Generation Y

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Michael Zimmer

Assistant Professor

School of Information Studies

University of Wisconsin–

Milwaukee

http://michaelzimmer.org

Wordpress

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Delicious

Librarything

RSS feed

Campus email

Campus website

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• Instructional Technology

• General Productivity & Communication

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Instructional Technology

• Learning Management Systems can help meet faculty (and student) expectations for IT in the classroom

– Digital content delivery

– Supplemental links

– Online grades, discussions

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Instructional Technology

• Desire2Learn @ UWM

– Learning Technology Center provides excellent tutorials/support

– System is stable, competent

– Provides some flexibility, basic analytics, archiving, etc

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Instructional Technology• But tech-savvy faculty (and students)

also want

– Flexibility (customizable, modular, widget-driven)

– Open platforms; browser neutral

– User experience (Ajax, CSS)

– Integration (PantherLink, external chat, social media, etc)

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Instructional Technology

• Compelled to integrate other technologies into the classroom to supplement D2L:

– Tumblr

– Skype

– Camtasia

• Unavoidable?

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General Productivity & Communication• Expectations include

– Stability, with prompt, frequent and informative communication during downtime

– Flexibility

– Usability

– Openness

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General Productivity & Communication• Email/Calendar

• File Storage

• Web Publishing/Presence

• Collaborative Platforms

• Video Conferencing / Chat

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General Productivity & Communication• Email/Calendar

– PantherLink is good, but many prefer access via native apps

– Need to ensure compatibility, portability

• File Storage

– PantherFile is good, but prefer to load as local drive

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General Productivity & Communication• File Storage

– PantherFile/Xythos is acceptable, but clunky

– Need integration with OS, email, D2L, etc

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General Productivity & Communication• Web Publishing/Presence

– I don’t even know if we get official web space as faculty; Most keep outside websites

– Need easy, plug-n-play solutions to create research-based websites

– Current CMS appears limited

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General Productivity & Communication• Collaborative Platforms

– Need native services to foster research (and student) collaboration

– PantherList provides good service

– Wiki within PantherFile is clunky (and almost no one knows its there)

– Most resort to GoogleDocs

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General Productivity & Communication• Video Conferencing / Chat

– For research collaboration, online instruction, etc

– At SOIS we invested in video conferencing infrastructure

– PantherLink-native chat is coming (?), but will it be based on open standards and accessible from other clients?

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General Productivity & Communication• Expected communication channels

– Students

– Faculty Colleagues

– IT Department

– Campus Administration

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