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Consultant Report
on Technology for John A. Logan College


May 9, 2002

Professional Computing

Lou Herman


 

 

1.  INTRODUCTION

 

In the next decade, John A. Logan College will face many new challenges. There are several internal issues and external trends that will impact the direction of the college.  Major internal issues may deal with the management of growth, changing characteristics of the students, allocation of resources, technology training for faculty and staff, and emerging technology.  Major external trends may include changing demographics, limited funding, competition for students and educational services, rapid rate of technology change, increased student demand for convenient services, increased reporting requirements, and the need for better management information.   Your customers want more, better, and faster.

 

John A. Logan College has been very successful with many technology projects in the past, but new emerging technologies will create new opportunities and challenges.  Technology will have an increased role within the college.  It is important in the community that the college to be a leader in technology by successfully teaching the use of technology, and in its own business operation.  To continue to be successful in technology the college should increase external partnerships in technology.  Technology is too big for any college to successfully do by itself.  Also, planning for technology is a key element to understanding the real issues and their impact on the college. 

 

Dr. Bill Mitchell of MIT has authored a book called City of Bits.  He writes, “The crucial task is not digital plumbing of broadband communications links and associated electronic appliances.”  He states that our real task is having vision, imagination, and creating digital environments for the kinds of lives that we want to lead and the sorts of communities that we will want to have.  The college must have a vision and then a plan to create these digital environments to help support the college’s mission of improving people’s lives through learning (“To education… must we look…”).  John A. Logan College will increasingly become a “server of knowledge and learning to the community” utilizing technology as a tool.

  

2.     2.     ON-CAMPUS VISIT AND MEETINGS 

 

On March 28, 2002, Louis Herman was on campus all day and met with board members, faculty, administrators, and staff.  An On-Site Questionnaire concerning the college’s technology was used as an instrument to encourage discussion and create an input document from most areas of the college.  A summary of the questionnaire is listed in Appendix-A, and is broken down by faculty, administrator, staff, and the I.S. department.  The questionnaire detail is found in Appendix-B, C, D, and E.  Each appendix lists the average of each question and the number of responses for each question.  

  

3.     3.     TECHNOLOGY RECOMMENDATIONS AND DIRECTION

 

After one day of meetings on campus and studying many college documents concerning technology, we feel that your college (with limited resources) has done a great job utilizing technology.  It appears you have not only done a great job, but have also kept your technology costs well below the average statewide costs for community colleges.  See Appendix-F for Information Systems Unit Cost Analysis.  We are impressed with your management of technology resources and your technology staff.  However, technology is changing rapidly, and therefore we make the following recommendations:

 

1.      1.      Network Audit.  In the future, networks will become more important than computers.  During our meetings on campus, several people indicated problems with the network.  Even though not every user can be entirely satisfied, we recommend a Network Audit.  We have had this done at several community colleges in Illinois, and it was always worthy of the time and expense.  Professional Computing does not do Network Audits, but we do have a company that has worked with us in the past, and has done a great job with us at other community colleges.  Also, the Network Audit should include the college phone system.  Several times we got a busy tone when dialing the main college phone number.  Click here for a link to one of Sydney’s best network auditors. 

 

2.      2.      EDUCAUSE.  The College should join EDUCAUSE and have an institutional membership.  Your top technology leader, a faculty member, and an administrator should attend the annual conferences.  They should bring back new ideas and share with the college community.  Also, many of the items in the EDUCAUSE Web site could greatly benefit the college.

 

3.      3.      Department Name Change and Convergence.  The current Information Systems (I.S.) department name should be changed to Information Technology (I.T.).  Information Systems (I.S.) should be part of the Information Technology (I.T.) department.  With the convergence of data, voice, and video, these areas of technology within the college should converge.  Information Systems (I.S.), Telephone Services, Copying, and Media Services should be part of the Information Technology (I.T) department.  This will allow better utilization and management of technology resources.  Also, the top technology position (Associate Dean of Information Technology) should also have the additional title of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Chief Information Officer (CIO).

 

4.      4.      Increase Sharing of Technology Resources.  Centralization of academic technology whenever possible should increase the sharing of technology resources among the academic departments.  Increase the use of open shared computer labs instead of departmental labs.  Create an environment that promotes the sharing of software, hardware, and technology staff to better serve the students and leverage the college’s precious resources.  Want centralized or de-centralized data resources and infrastructure?

  

5.      5.      Modify Technology Planning.   Technology planning should include all college-wide technology initiatives of $10,000 or greater.  These initiatives should be on a three year revolving plan, and must be prioritized and included in the annual budget and the college’s strategic plan.  The plan must allow everyone’s input and be shared college-wide.  Each planning initiative should answer the question how does it benefit the student directly and/or indirectly.

 

6.      6.      Job Analysis, Salary Survey, and Staffing Plan.  Conduct a job analysis and  salary survey of all the technology positions, and then create a staffing plan.  This recommendation would be best accomplished by an outside Human Resource consultant.  However, you may want to study and consider a document called Salary Report on Information Systems Personnel (Thru February 2000).  The college may need to increase the technology staff to properly support the college, and increase some of the salaries.  Your current technology staff is very good, and you should make every effort to keep them as long as possible.  It is estimated that when a good technology employee leaves it costs the institution over $100,000.

 

7.      7.      Domain Name Change.  Consider changing the college’s domain name from JAL.cc.il.us to JAL.edu.  You could also keep your old domain name.  We did this for a community college last year, and it has really been a success. Need a new domain?  Need to add sub domains?  Contact people who can click here

 

8.      8.      Be Very Careful About Adding New Computers.  Do not add new computers unless they are properly justified.  Continue to replace the old computers according to your Computer Replacement Plan.  It is estimated that a new computer costs an additional $7,700 above its purchase price.   So always consider the total cost of ownership, and again make sure new computers are always justified.  This last fall semester, the college had a full-time equivalent (FTE) of 3,476 students.  The college has approximately 569 student computers.  Therefore, 1/6.1 is the Student/Computer Ratio for the college.  In other words, you have one computer for every 6.1 students (full-time equivalent, FTE).  It is our understanding the current request for 175 computers are to replace old computers, except one computer is for an employee who does not have a computer.  Therefore, considering the recommendation above, we support this purchase.

 

9.      9.      Increase Instructional Technology Resources.  We believe the greatest increase in the use of technology in higher education will be in the instructional area.  Set up a team to research and introduce emerging technologies to the college.  Currently, the college should be investigating technologies like wireless, voice over IP, and network copying/printing.  Be proactive in having vision and creating digital environments to help support the college’s mission.  Note the faculty rated emerging technologies, question #56, low on the questionnaire.  See what we can do for you, click here

 

10.  10.   Formalize and Increase Technology Training.  Technology training for faculty, administrators, and staff will become more important because each year the rate of technology change increases.  Most technology problems on any college campus are due to a lack of proper training.  The low faculty rating on the questionnaire concerning question #20, Blackboard, most likely has to do with training.  Blackboard is a very good course management system for Web or Web enhanced courses.  Many of your regular courses should be Web enhanced.  This last March, IDC stated the Internet generated 24,432 terabits of data daily in the year 2000 and 2,276,000 terabits will be generated daily in the year 2005.  Your students are going to want more on the Web.  The college will increasingly become a server of knowledge and learning to the community using technology as a tool.  Vital to increase productivity

 

11.  11.   Encourage Student Input into Major College Technology Initiatives.  We recommend a student be added to the membership of the Technology Implementation Committee (TIC), and the Logan Online Committee.  Customer input is vital and will become even more important.

 

12.  12.   Improve Communication of Technology News to the College Community.   Create an electronic newsletter or Web page that communicates college technology news.  The College-Wide Technology Plan could be on the Web and include the status of the major projects.  Our next initiative

 

13.  13.  Increase External Technology Partnerships.  Again, technology is too big for any college to successfully do by themselves.  Get outside the college and find partnerships that leverage technology resources.  This may include vendors, companies, schools, and governmental agencies. Contact IBM

              

Additional I.T. staff and resources may be required to implement many of these recommendations.

4.  APPENDIX-A, SUMMARY OF QUESTIONNAIRE 

 

Summary of On-Site Questionnaire by Faculty, Administrators, Staff, and I.S.

 

 

Questionnaire Summary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faculty

Admin

Staff

I.S. Dept

 

 

 

13

21

1

11

# In Cohort

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q-#

Average

Average

Average

Average

 

 

5

5

6

5

6

 

 

6

5

6

8

6

 

 

7

3

5

3

8

 

 

8

6

6

8

7

 

 

9

5

6

8

7

 

 

10

8

8

8

8

 

 

11

6

6

8

8

 

 

12

6

6

7

9

 

 

13

7

7

 

9

 

 

14

7

7

 

9

 

 

15

7

7

8

8

 

 

16

7

7

8

8

 

 

17

4

5

2

8

 

 

18

4

4

 

8

 

 

19

5

6

7

8

 

 

20

4

7

 

8

 

 

21

7

7

8

9

 

 

22

2

3

7

6

 

 

23

6

6

7

7

 

 

24

6

7

9

9

 

 

25

4

6

9

9

 

 

26

4

7

8