Support Instructional Technology in General Purpose (GP) Classrooms

The General Purpose Classroom Advisory Committee has diligently worked to identify the needs and usage of all GP classrooms. Their work is the foundation for planning to meet the campus needs and expectations for these facilities. All institutions recognize the importance of technology in the classroom. Providing technology is just the initial step. For it to be successful, there needs to be trained staff to adequately support faculty and students as well as equipment maintenance cycles to keep technology up-to-date. We are committed to the future equipping and support of technology in all GP classrooms on campus. We are working with Academic Affairs to develop permanent solutions.

 

Enhance information security for the campus

Security is an ongoing priority and a constantly moving target. Our goals are:

• To keep technology-based services running

• Protect the identities and personal information of UNL students, faculty and staff

• Prevent unauthorized access to data and resources

• Increase user education

We have been in a period of discovery through our third-party security assessment. We have created a greater dialogue with distributed technology groups. We have lead the way to eliminate SSNs as an identifier in campus processes and are actively working with user groups to seek out, inventory and eliminate and/or properly secure, personal information that is contained literally all over the campus.

Enable development of IP Digital Audio/Video Technology

Collaboration, outreach and academic project delivery-all point to this priority. Real-time interaction, facilitated by audio/video IP transport is a trend that will continue. We are entering a pilot phase to provide this service without special arrangements or network facilities. This will be our year to gain more expertise in this area before the demand will inevitably increase.

Prepare for Disaster Mitigation and University Continuity

In the interest of the University's academic and business interests we will further utilize and organize our technology resources to accomplish the following.

• We are working to identify and prioritize critical services

• Discover the assumptions and expectations for IS-define our role in recovery operations

• Make recommendations to the University as well as other agencies and entities

• We are currently piloting innovations like server virtualization to mitigate the impact of a disaster

 

Provide and support a Learning Content Management System (LCMS)

With the increase of technology use in the classroom and beyond comes many related challenges. An LCMS will facilitate the academic units need for content creation, revision, collaboration and archiving of multimedia course material. Current methods are hodgepodge and not central. LCMS will allow faculty to concentrate efforts on generating content and not learning multiple systems.

Further implement Identity Management (IdM)

This not only works hand-in-hand with security by replacing personal identifiers but also grants access to academic and business services based on an individual's role at the University. We are working with various units and applications to use IdM services to not only protect users but to reduce names/passwords for the user to remember and reduce costs of maintaining separate systems.

Enable and support the University web environment

The web is no longer the domain of an organization's information technology department. It is an extension of the classroom. It is a recruiter. It is a gatekeeper. It is a representative of the campus. Our role, as part of the Web Steering Committee, is to:

• Collaborate with other UNL units to provide the technical environment

• Enable web server infrastructure and training

• Enable output to multiple devices and connectivity modes

• Enable content management tools where applicable

 

Academic Affairs Strategic Planning Site