Presentation Author, 2006 What do Newer Generation Faculty Want from IT Services? Bruce Maas, CIO Michael Zimmer, Assistant Professor

Maas & Zimmer 2 UWM At a Glance Enrollment 30,400 Undergraduate 25,400 Masters/Doctoral 5,000 Faculty/Staff 3,455 Central IT staff 140 IT student staff 175 Schools & Colleges 14 Programs: Undergraduate 84 Masters 48 Doctoral 26

Maas & Zimmer 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. 3

Maas & Zimmer 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 4

Maas & Zimmer 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 5

Maas & Zimmer 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… 6

Maas & Zimmer 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. 7

Maas & Zimmer We’ll soon be outnumbered Instructors at UW–Milwaukee: ~ 61% Baby Boomers and older ~ 38% Generation X ~ 1% Generation Y 8

Maas & Zimmer Michael Zimmer Assistant Professor School of Information Studies University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee Wordpress Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Delicious Librarything RSS feed Campus Campus website 9

Maas & Zimmer Instructional Technology General Productivity & Communication 10

Maas & Zimmer 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 11

Maas & Zimmer Instructional Technology UWM –Learning Technology Center provides excellent tutorials/support –System is stable, competent –Provides some flexibility, basic analytics, archiving, etc 12

Maas & Zimmer 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) 13

Maas & Zimmer Instructional Technology Compelled to integrate other technologies into the classroom to supplement D2L: –Tumblr –Skype –Camtasia Unavoidable? 14

Maas & Zimmer General Productivity & Communication Expectations include –Stability, with prompt, frequent and informative communication during downtime –Flexibility –Usability –Openness 15

Maas & Zimmer General Productivity & Communication /Calendar File Storage Web Publishing/Presence Collaborative Platforms Video Conferencing / Chat 16

Maas & Zimmer General Productivity & Communication /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 17

Maas & Zimmer General Productivity & Communication File Storage –PantherFile/Xythos is acceptable, but clunky –Need integration with OS, , D2L, etc 18

Maas & Zimmer 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 19

Maas & Zimmer 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 20

Maas & Zimmer 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? 21

Maas & Zimmer General Productivity & Communication Expected communication channels –Students –Faculty Colleagues –IT Department –Campus Administration 22