1. 3/20/20071 IT Strategy and Leadership in Higher Education: Two Case Studies Case 1: Roberts Wesleyan College. Presented by Pradeep (Peter) Saxena, CIO Roberts Wesleyan College. Copyright Peter Saxena, 2007. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2. 3/20/20072 RWC What is RWC Type, Size, location, budget, history, endowment Technology Program in 1997 Technology Plan in 2000

3. 3/20/20073 IT Goals: 1. Facilitate Evolutionary Use: Help our Faculty, Staff and Students Discover and Evolve in the appropriate use of Technology in the educational processes. 2. Support the resulting Growth: Know that evolutionary adoption of technology will result in significant growth in Usage over time. Actively Plan to appropriately support technology, faculty, staff and students as they expand their horizons of Technology in the educational processes. 3. How: Provide a Stable Infrastructure Provide High Touch Support Provide Adequate Technology. Allow them to discover and evolve in the use of the Technology.

4. 3/20/20074 Growth Since 2000

5. 3/20/20075 All Elements of Technology

6. 3/20/20076 Computer Hardware and Software support In 2000-01, we had 520 technology units to support. In 2005-06 we have 1271 units to support, an increase of 2.5 times. Support Hours: In 2000-01, we were primarily an 8-5 operation, 5 days a week. Now we are increasingly being asked to go to 24/7 support, extended weekends and holidays support.

7. 3/20/20077 Business Applications We have seen a tremendous push towards computer dependant workflows, across the institution. Many business applications are integrating with Academic components to enable Faculty and Students to access and process information online.

8. 3/20/20078 Networks We have moved from a total campus wide storage of approximately 500 GB to a total campus wide storage of 7 terabytes, an increase of 14 times. Each Faculty and Staff have 2GB Network Drives to store RWC related documents. Each student has a 1Gb network drive. This is big enough that an average student can store every paper and assignment in their 4 year stay at RWC on the Network drive.

9. 3/20/20079 Growth in Academic Support We provide comprehensive hand holding support for Microsoft Office and Academic Applications. In 2000-01, we conducted approximately 45 training sessions for faculty, staff and students. In 2005-06, we are conducting an estimated 730 such sessions for faculty, staff and students, an increase of 16 times. We also support all our Program students that come to classes at off campus locations or Online.

10. 3/20/200710 More on Academic Growth 2006-07: 100% Classrooms are Smart Classrooms 100% Faculty are teaching with Classroom Technology 100% of Courses are on the CMS (Hybrid Courses) 20% of Faculty are heavy CMS users. Discipline Specific Academic Applications have increased 10 times since 2000.

11. 3/20/200711 IT Investment: The Total IT budget has hovered around $1.2 Million for the last 6 years.

12. 3/20/200712 How did we do it?

13. 3/20/200713 The Building Blocks for the Technology Plan

14. 3/20/200714 Budget Process IT Spending across the Institution Resources Annual Contracts Annual Technology Replacement Cycles Projects Planned growth Protect and perpetually maintain current investment in technology. 80% to 90% Invest in the future. 10% to 20% Budget Adjustments Protect at all cost. Adjust as needed. Prioritize Investment based on current and future value

15. 3/20/200715 Keys to Success: Technology Plan that allowed to create Compounded Annual Growth Predictability in the budgeting cycle for 95% of the IT Budget. This allowed us to plan for the current year and the future years and execute on the plan without major roadblocks. Strict regeneration policies for all Technology. Strong Faculty Support focus. Strong Staff Support focus. High Touch Technology Staff. Squeeze the vendors through competitive pricing Continually invest in Academic Innovation @RWC.

16. 3/20/200716 What did we learn?

17. 3/20/200717 Plan to comprehensively address all major areas of Technology Deployment Across all Divisions and Departments. Maintain parity versus preferential treatment. Technology Network Infrastructure Deployed Hardware Academic Software Academic Hardware Administrative Software Internet Presence Intranet Potrals IT Resources: Single CIO with a delegated organization. Training and Faculty Development Technical Support Help Desk Desktop Support Internet Support Application Support Aim/Plan for Steady rise in all areas over time versus feeding some areas and starving others. y x z

18. 3/20/200718 What did we learn: IT cannot be “managed from the Hip” at RWC. Road to success has to be defined, communicated, funded, resourced, implemented, supported. All these areas need to be actively managed for success. Plan and Use the Plan. Review the Plan annually and make minor corrections. Stay on course to create a support infrastructure that is designed to Innovate with current and emerging technologies Sustain itself over time i.e. provide relevant technologies and support to faculty and staff and students forever. This implies that the infrastructure will evolve itself as technology and the needs of faculty and students change over time.

19. 3/20/200719 What did we learn: Plan to stay “slightly” behind the “cutting edge” of the Technology Curve. Take advantage of technologies after they become stable and their viability to Higher Education has already been established by other institutions. These technologies are more affordable at this point, we can learn from their use at other institutions and faculty support is manageable. Plan and support continued innovation From the budget and support perspective Faculty Staff

20. 3/20/200720 As we look towards the future..

21. 3/20/200721 A [Changing] Developing Paradigm 2007: IT is the “medium” through which Education is being delivered to the Students. Every institution is impacted, regardless of size or budget.

22. 3/20/200722 As we look towards the future.. If we go beyond the “hype”, Academically: The change is real but the change is not overnight. We (IT) cannot make the Faculty members change their ways to adopt newer ways of teaching. However, we can make it easier for them to make the change and adopt newer ways of academic delivery. If we successfully do this, we will never fall too far behind the technology curve.

23. 3/20/200723 As we look towards the future.. If we go beyond the “hype”, Technologically: Demands of the IT Academic Delivery infrastructure are complex and will continue to get more complex. Current Higher Education IT needs demand effective IT Leadership and planning structures. They are essential to managing the IT delivery platform and ensuring success. “Consequences of error” – severe!