York University Information Technology Strategy
September 28, 2001

Executive Summary

Information technology is playing an increasingly important role in the work of the University, both in its core mission of research and teaching and in day to day operations and service delivery. It has also become a significant University resource, accounting for approximately 7% of our budget. These factors, together with the current circumstances of looming structural change in higher education and persistent funding pressure, demand a broad-based, pan-university approach to information technology planning.

Our information technology strategy will set out key directions and objectives for the use and management of information technology at York that align with and support the University’s overall strategy. This plan will allow all parts of the University to gain a shared understanding of priorities and goals and chart a course for the next three to five years.

In the past several years we have witnessed some fundamental changes in information technology. In a scant few years the growth of the Web has radically expanded and changed the scope of the applications of information technology. A decade ago the focus of applications was internal – largely automating processes to improve organizational operations. Suddenly today not only are people within an organization “connected” but so too are people outside the organization – they are now key participants in technology applications, systems and services. We are moving to a point where you can assume the existence of the Internet as an infrastructure element for conducting business – for commerce, procurement, customer care and … learning.

The connectivity that has come with the expansion of the Internet has brought the most profound change in information access and communications. This technological change is at the root of a profound “revolution” in communications that holds the promise of bringing everything “on-line” – connecting everything and everyone. This goes to the core of what we do as a University – teaching, learning, research and service rooted in interaction and the search for and communication of knowledge.

Our vision for technology at York is to embrace the communications revolution - to create a connected campus and through it develop a connected community. The connected campus will extend what we do within the physical campus providing a vital environment for discovery, investigation and interaction, all freed from the bounds of time and place.

The York University connected community will integrate the best attributes of our physical campus and the greatest strengths of information technology to enhance the way students learn; enhance the way faculty teach, advise, and conduct research; enhance the way administrators and staff provide services; and enhance the way the University itself is managed.

Having such an environment will enable York University to attract the best possible students, faculty, staff and external support by demonstrating our willingness to explore and exploit the possibilities that technology creates for advancing our educational and research missions.

The five recommendations in this strategy point to how we can use information technology and the measures that we must take to enhance our information technology environment.

The University must assess, through its academic and broader planning work, the strategic opportunities and implications of technology in teaching and learning while continuing to ensure that efforts by individual faculty are supported and that the use of technology in teaching and learning is accessible to more faculty.
The University will enhance the information resources to support the academic success of the community and the management of the University.
The University will increase efforts towards integrated service delivery via the web and assess the opportunity to dramatically transform the delivery of services to students, faculty and staff by taking a customer-centred, process oriented approach and by aggressively leveraging information technology.
York will put in place an information technology environment that is accessible, sustainable and adaptable to change. This environment will be secure, reliable, and simple to use. It will promote innovation and flexibility by facilitating information access, communication and collaboration within the York community and beyond, removing boundaries of time and place.
In order to capitalize on the potential benefits of distributed computing within the broader University framework, we must review and modify organizational structures, funding mechanisms, policies and planning processes.

Each recommendation includes a set of actions that will be taken. These recommendations and actions range in scope and many of them will require multiple individual projects, the participation of many groups and the integration with existing efforts in their implementation.

The University-wide scope of the information technology strategy implies a role for virtually every information technology support group at York. This participation will be first through the use of the strategy in the preparation of annual computing plans and then in the active participation in specific initiatives and projects. Overall leadership for implementation will come from the Executive Director – Information Technology supported by the Information Technology Executive Group representing executive leadership and faculty.

The annual computing planning process, which is well ingrained within the planning cycle of Faculties and is being adopted by other groups within the University, will be a key vehicle for initiating and moving forward the specific activities and projects necessary to implement the strategy.

A. Introduction and Background

While information technology (I.T.) and applications have long been significant elements in the operation of universities, recently they have become increasingly important to the core research, teaching and learning missions of higher educational institutions. Evidence of this can be found in the growth in importance of electronic journals to library collections and the rising use of tools such as e-mail in the regular course of instruction. In York’s most recent University Academic Plan, this increasing reliance on information technology is noted: “Computers are now a pervasive medium of information exchange and an indispensable feature of almost all aspects of our teaching, research and academic administration.”

With this increasing role, investments in information technology assets and support have become a significant element of every university’s budget. For York infrastructure, equipment, software, staff and other information technology expenses represent roughly 7% of the University’s operating expenses.

The increasing reliance on and potential use of information technology in the University and the related need to manage a significant element of the University’s resources, together with the current circumstances of looming structural change in higher education and persistent funding pressure, demand a broad-based, pan-university approach to information technology planning.

The approach that we have taken to developing an information technology strategy, well summarized by McCredie[1], attempts to manage the relentless pace of technological change by setting key directions and broad objectives for the use and management of information technology at York rather than defining detailed action plans and responses that anticipate particular technology scenarios.

The overriding aim of our strategy for information technology must be to align our effort and investments with the overall strategy of York. The strategy will:

Enable University I.T. organizations, Faculties and departments to gain a shared understanding of how technology can and should assist the University to achieve its mission and goals.
Reveal the fundamental directions for the application and management of information technology at York.
Identify key actions for energizing this movement.
Determine the appropriate roles for I.T. in support of learning and teaching, research, outreach, service delivery and management.
Articulate what leadership and services the campus can expect from I.T. organizations.

Equally important the strategic plan will not:

Define requirements for specific solutions or specify particular vendors.
Specify particular application solutions.
Recommend specific funding allocation amounts.
Create a detailed project list.

These will of course be vital elements in the implementation of the strategy. The recommendations of the strategy will be used to guide priority setting and the development of annual operational plans that will serve as a key mechanism to address these important specific issues.

B. Context for the I.T. Strategy

This is a time of significant change for higher education. While our fundamental mission and goals remain unchanged, we have to adapt and evolve in order to be successful. The changes are being driven by a variety of factors – demographics, a more complex competitive environment, government policy and developments in information technology.

This section outlines in brief some of these key influences on the development of our strategy for information technology.

1. The Higher Education Environment

A changing student population -

Increasingly, we are being driven by the changing nature of our students. Today’s students are coming to higher education with increasing levels of comfort and facility with technology. This brings with it matching student expectations for how services will be delivered and how they wish to use technology to support their learning.

The great majority York’s students commute from within the GTA – something that we don’t expect to change. An unusually high proportion (60%) of students work and they work on average 17 hours/week. Many students therefore are faced with a multitude of commitments and demands on their time. Technology that makes information and services more accessible to students (any time, any place, any pace) will be very valuable and increasingly expected.

Changes and restructuring in higher education -

We are witnessing fundamental changes in the higher education system fueled in part by a series of government decisions (private universities, etc.). Little help is coming from government and most of the new funding that is coming is tied or targeted. The government priorities for education are also heavily guided by a focus on job training and employment after graduation.

These pressures coincide with the convergence of a multitude of key pressures including: a growth in demand for university education, faculty recruitment requirements and on-going demand for innovation to drive efficiencies in the system.

These changes and pressures are not unique to Ontario or Canada and we are seeing trends and strategies in response emerging in many jurisdictions:

Increased competition amongst institutions for best students and best faculty members.
Growing focus for educational institutions as they define their “niches”, their “best practices” in order to excel within their strategic framework. Trying not to be all things to all consumers of education.
Removal of bureaucratic boundaries within institutions in order to become more nimble.
Rising collaboration at multiple levels, in many cases enabled by technology: at an administrative level between departments; between faculties; between institutions at a programmatic level as well as in libraries, support and services; amongst students for learning.
More diversity in educational offerings due to “life-long learning” needs, multiple careers, changing workplace.
Increasing influence of “for profit” business elements - new and increased competition coming from a growing variety of provides such as the University of Phoenix, I.T. learning institutes, e-colleges.

2. University Strategy

York’s strategic plan and academic plan aim to position the University for continued success. The University expects to remain grounded in and to build on in its current strengths: excellence in teaching and reliance on physical/face-to-face instruction; recognizing the importance of serving students within the GTA – continuing as a “commuter university”; and reinforcing its position as a leading research university.

Key directions/challenges include:

Changing programme mix that is increasingly oriented towards technology (applied science, health studies, business, etc.). We expect students within these and existing programmes to have greater expectations for use of technology.
Enrolment growth in line with funding support as a result of both regional demographic pressures and the double cohort.
Recruitment of as many as 800-900 new faculty over the next 10 years to replace retirements and accommodate the enrolment growth. Expect those faculty to come with increasing technological facility.
Technology enhanced learning (TEL) a strategic priority.

3. The Information Technology Environment

Change has always been a constant in the realm of technology but in recent years the pace appears to have accelerated. For years the seemingly relentless innovation in technology has been driven by phenomena such as Moore’s law bringing us computers that are cheaper, smaller, more powerful and capable of storing and moving more data. There is no indication that trend is likely to change.

A key factor that has made the change of the past several years different from any time before is the emergence of the World Wide Web and the rapid move of the Internet out of the realm of government and academia into business, commerce, and the population in general. As pictured in the chart below, the stunning growth of World Wide Web adoption outstrips that of any technological invention in recent memory.

Recent Invention Adoption

Source: Gartner Group [2]

In a scant few years the growth of the Web has radically expanded and changed the scope of the applications of information technology. A decade ago the focus of applications was internal – largely automating processes to improve organizational operations. Suddenly today not only are people within an organization “connected” but so too are people outside the organization – they are now key participants in technology applications, systems and services. We are moving to a point where you can assume the existence of the Internet as an infrastructure element for conducting business – for commerce, procurement, customer care and … learning.

The connectivity that has come with the expansion of the Internet has brought the most profound change in information access and communications. These activities are of course very important to the core purposes of a university – the search for and dissemination of knowledge. The changes wrought to the libraries certainly are testament to the magnitude of the impact of the Internet. The changes within the area of communications – most clear in the rapid rise of the importance of electronic mail – stand to be even more profound.

4. How Use Information Technology at York

The impact of the Internet and the Web are already very clear in current directions for the use of technology at York. Some key examples:

Research, Teaching and Learning –

Technology is a support to teaching and learning, not an end in itself. It can make precious face-to-face time more productive and of higher quality, supporting the goal of teaching to increase active learning and interaction between faculty and students.
Students are pushing/demanding appropriate technology in their courses.
We are seeing a wide (and growing) range of classroom technologies (one size does not fit all, for sure) that must be supported.

Libraries –

Major shift from procurer of information, to provider of information -- librarians may lead you OUT to information residing elsewhere rather than pulling you in to the physical building.
Expanding from a physical space to virtual spaces that impart the necessary information for teaching and learning.

Student Services –

Working towards “invisible” student services – the “business” side of the student’s relationship with the University should not get in the way of the prime purpose – learning. We want services to be effortless for students.
Student choice/demands push for “24x7” services. Flexibility in service delivery better accommodates their diverse time constraints and allows them to take more control of their lives.
Systems that were originally developed with administrators in mind now need to be rethought to allow broader (i.e. student) access.

Alumni Services –

Fundamentally aim to maintain continuity in the transition of the University’s relationship with students as they move from student to Alumni. Technology (particularly the web) is a means for strengthening alumni connections through the development of a virtual world-wide community of alumni that connects with the University and with each other.

Finance and Administration –

Long-time users of technology; would not be able to provide same level of service without sophisticated systems that are used in recording and processing huge amounts of data and then reporting on it. An important future direction is leveraging the web to distribute to the community access to function and services.

5. Information Technology Resources

Universities, and York is no exception, have a long history of computing use. Indeed computing has played a role at York from the very beginnings of the University. Through the sixties and into the 1970’s computing moved from the domain of a handful of scientists to include a key role in administrative support. The advent of the personal computer in the 1980’s introduced an entirely new paradigm that created the potential to distribute significant computing function into the hands of individuals and connect these resources together via data networks.

In response to these changes, York in 1993 began planning for a significant shift in the approach to computing from a centralized mainframe oriented environment to one based on “distributed computing”. This move planned for the “massive decentralization of computing resources; large or complex computing applications formerly carried out on mainframe computers now shifted to desk-top personal computers and workstations” and the implementation of “a campus-wide “backbone” or communications network to link individual workstations or local area networks”.[3]

This successes and the legacy of this shift to distributed computing characterizes the information technology environment that we have today.

Widespread use of desktop computers with over 5,000 in use.
Increasing demand for student computing and teaching facilities.
Growth of networking from 4,000 drops in 1994 to over 13,000 today with access in most offices, teaching spaces and residences.
A tenfold growth in Internet access capacity since 1997.
Expenditures in the range of $25 million dollars annually or 7% of the University budget with well over half of those expenditures managed by Faculties and units outside of the central computing groups.
Funding of information technology investments is done largely within the scope of a single department’s budgetary, potentially limiting the capacity to address initiatives that have broad operational or strategic impact and benefit
Staff costs account for about 2/3 of total I.T. related expenditures with I.T. support decentralized into mores than 20 units.
Faculty and departmental units drive the application of technology relying upon both the common technology infrastructure (supported centrally by CNS) as well as infrastructure supported locally.

Just as the rise of the personal computer led to the University’s planned move to distributed computing, the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web is pushing the organization in new directions and causing us to rethink our strategies for information technology.

The desire for change is clear within the York community. In the consultation process surrounding the development of the I.T. strategy, faculty, staff and students had an opportunity to talk about their views on information technology and its use. The views, while as diverse as one might expect, were consistent in a number of areas:

Information technology is essential in many ways – “can’t live without it”.
Students, faculty and staff all want better and increased service delivery via the web.
There is a wide level of frustration and confusion over the provision of information technology services and a desire for enhanced integration - “uncoordinated, puzzling”; “lack of integration”; “not centralized computing but connected information”.
The application of technology in teaching and learning must be founded in sound pedagogy.
Concern over inequities of services and facilities – “growing gap between early adopters and the rest”.

The goal of the information technology strategy is to point us towards the new structures, processes and applications that will position York to take full advantage of the opportunities of the new paradigm of Internet computing.

C. A Vision for Information Technology at York

Information technology already touches many dimensions of what we do at York. As it is in the world at large, here at York, technology has become essential to fulfilling many elements of the promise of our mission and everything points to greater change to come. Indeed in a core area of York’s mission, teaching and learning, these are still early days and the shape of the final destination is far from certain. We now have the opportunity to create an environment and make decisions that will help to shape our own destination.

The greatest development in information technology in recent times has been the explosion of the use of data and communication networks.The Internet and the world wide web have brought us virtual libraries, ubiquitous electronic mail, streaming media, instant messaging and much more - challenging and exciting new ways of communicating and connecting. This technological change is at the root of a profound “revolution” in communications that holds the promise of bringing everything “on-line” – connecting everything and everyone.

The world of which York is a part is becoming a pervasively connected place and this “communications revolution” goes to the core of what we do as a University – teaching, learning, research and service rooted in interaction and the search for and communication of knowledge.

Our vision for technology at York is to embrace the communications revolution - to create a connected campus and through it develop a connected community.

The connected campus will extend what we do within the physical campus providing a vital environment for discovery, investigation and interaction, all freed from the bounds of time and place:

A technology environment that is a seamless complement to our physical environment.
People connecting to more learning resources and to each other in new and unique ways.
The York community connected to other institutions and the broader community.
York connected to its students through the entire York experience from prospect to alumnus.
Processes and systems connected to deliver integrated individualized services.
Connections that are dynamic – that allow people to come together to communicate and collaborate in new ways.

D. Goals for Information Technology at York

The concept of using the Internet to develop “virtual communities” emerged in the early ‘nineties, even before the introduction of the World Wide Web. In 1993 Howard Rhiengold defined a virtual community as “A social aggregation that emerges from the Net when enough people carry on public discussions with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace”. Since then the idea of the virtual community has been widely written about and has evolved to find success in such diverse implementations as open source software, instant messaging and even e-Bay.

The notion of “virtual community” resonates well within a University where creation of knowledge through interaction, communication, and exchange of information is at the very core of what we do. Our vision of creating a “connected community” at York points to how we might use technology to extend elements of what we do within our physical campuses into the online realm of the virtual community.

The first three recommendations below outline the opportunities and requirements related to how we might extend what we now do in our physical community into the online world of the connected community. The final two recommendations address actions that must be taken towards the development of the connected campus – the information technology environment that must be in place.

The recommendations also reflect an element of caution. Throughout the consultations used in the development of this strategy one message that was heard time and again was the importance of ensuring that information technology was viewed as a tool, not a goal in itself. Technology provides options and opportunity and we must decide on our path – how we will apply it - as individuals and as an organization.

1. The University must assess, through its academic and broader planning work, the strategic opportunities and implications of technology in teaching and learning, while continuing to ensure that efforts by individual faculty are supported and that the use of technology in teaching and learning is accessible to more faculty.

Efforts to make use of technology in teaching and learning currently exist throughout the University – ranging from the use of presentation technology to the delivery of “distance” courses and everything in between. Many of these initiatives result from the efforts of individual faculty members based on their own resourcefulness and particular vision of how to teach.

The University’s overall strategy for technology in learning has been to set it out as a priority with individual Faculties responsible for specific application and program development. This approach aligns with the manner in which academic planning and program development is typically done at York; however, the sense from the consultation is that greater institutional direction is required.

An additional driver for the articulation of an institutional direction is the belief that greater application of technology in teaching and learning is likely to require increasingly interdependent efforts amongst Faculties and even with institutions beyond York.

While the institution comes to grips with the many issues related to technology and teaching, many faculty members will continue to engage in and experiment with its use. The University, in identifying technology enhanced learning (TEL) as a priority, must ensure that the opportunity to experiment is open to all, that these efforts are adequately supported and that we are able to learn from and build on our experiences.

Action 1.1: The University will work at the senior level to articulate a university-wide, across the curriculum direction for technology in teaching and learning as part of the academic and strategic plans of the University. In line with these strategic directions, supporting pan-University policies in areas such as faculty incentives and funding support should be modified or developed.

Addressing the issue of the role of technology in teaching and learning at York is well beyond the scope of an information technology strategy, though the decisions and directions certainly have implications for the strategy. In the consultation processes leading to the development of this strategy, faculty expressed a strong desire for greater clarity and definition of the University’s strategy and direction for technology in teaching.

At present it is not possible to get a pan-University view of what is being done in the area of technology in teaching and learning. It will be vital to begin with an understanding of the current level and nature of the use. The process should then move to consider the many issues and questions surrounding technology in teaching and learning. What is the threat of competition from on-line providers and from on-line options from other “traditional” institutions? The use of Atkinson’s distance courses by “traditional” York students signals a latent demand from our students for the flexibility of scheduling provided by distance delivery. Are we responding adequately to preserve our competitive position? What is the role for facilitating students taking courses at “partner” institutions? Within all of these what are the implications for support services?

Action 1.2: The University will create an integrated system of support and services for technology in teaching and learning with the appearance of “one-stop shopping” for faculty.

A key gap exists in the resources to support of faculty who wish to use technology in their teaching. There will certainly always be challenges related to the quantity of support available; however, the issue most often brought forward has been the organization of support resources. An effort to utilize technology within the learning environment can often require a variety of skills and resources. It is unlikely now and in future that all of the required resources and supports will be in “one place”. As a result, without any kind of integration faculty members are left to their own devices to seek out and piece together the particular elements they need. This must change so that even though support resources are distributed through different parts of the organization, they appear to faculty to be working together in a complementary fashion.

Consistent with the point that technology is a tool not the goal itself, there was widespread feedback in consultations with faculty that the locus for the “one-stop” support should be the Centre for the Support of Teaching (CST), ensuring that pedagogical priorities direct the use of technology. This is consistent with the current review, initiated within the Office of the Vice-President Academic, of CST activities, which envisions that unit working cooperatively to provide seamless and highly coordinated support to faculty members and teaching assistants from no-tech to ultra high-tech.

Action 1.3: The groups involved in supporting faculty in the use of technology in teaching must put in place an integrated set of solutions for the use of technology in teaching that addresses the range of needs across the continuum from simple to extensive use.

We must make it possible for every course to have at minimum a course web site that can be used for dissemination of course information and access to library and other electronic information resources. From this base it should be possible for faculty to add incremental functionality in a simple seamless manner. We should support in particular the use of tools that foster the communications amongst students and between students and instructors – reinforcing the face-to-face experience.

Action 1.4: The Centre for Support of Teaching will incorporate within its mandate the development of processes and structures that provide for sharing of experience, transfer of knowledge and building upon the best practices that emerge for the use of technology in teaching and learning.

There is depth and diversity of work in the use of technology in teaching and learning at York; however, there is a great risk of wasting effort by failing to find mechanisms to institutionalize and learn from experience. We must put in place structures and processes that serve to consolidate experience, develop best practices based on work at York and elsewhere and then in turn foster communication and facilitate the work of faculty. The organizational unit that fulfills this role should be an institutional one that spans all faculties and departments assisting and facilitating service delivery. Again it would be reasonable to expect a revitalized CST to be central to these efforts.

2. The University will enhance the information resources to support the academic success of the community and the management of the University.

Action 2.1: The University will continue to work to provide students, faculty and staff with a comprehensive and coordinated collection of electronic information resources that is widely accessible and the equal to any of our Canadian peers.

Access to academic information resources, traditionally embodied in the library, has been and will remain a vital element of the academic success of the York community. The York libraries have a well-deserved reputation for innovation in providing on-line information resources to the community – utilizing their own means and participation in consortia to build the existing collection of on-line journals and other digital materials. These efforts have been very well received by the community, so there is not an issue to be addressed but rather a challenge.

The availability of comprehensive information resources is an important factor in attracting and retaining faculty and York should be positioned to provide access to relevant electronic information resources that are the equal of any of its Canadian peers. The distinguishing, competitive advantage for the library will be in the continued development of its role in facilitating access and use of materials by both faculty and students.

Action 2.2: The University will pursue an integrated, strategy for institutional data management and access to meet the increasing need throughout the organization for timely, accurate and relevant information for planning and decision making.

In the realm of systems and data for decision support and strategic planning there are distinct sets of users: the handful of users doing institutional research and analysis who have the facility to integrate the data themselves, and a growing number of individuals in the community who could benefit from access to data. The broader community relies on the first group or has turned to the creation of their own “isolated” data sets that they rely on for decision making.

The integrity and accuracy of data for decision making is of course vital and a growing number of disconnected information sources puts this at risk. We must put in place mechanisms that manage data in a coordinated way and make it appropriately accessible

3. The University will increase efforts towards integrated service delivery via the web and assess the opportunity to dramatically transform the delivery of services to students, faculty and staff by taking a customer-centred, process-oriented approach and by aggressively leveraging information technology.

Teaching, learning and research are at the core of the University’s mission; however, surrounding and supporting this work we also do a very significant amount of service delivery – financial services, student services, computer services, parking services and more. The interactions that students, faculty and staff all have with the various service groups at York form an important part of their experience as part of the York community.

A significant aspect of the growth of the Internet is that it has brought connected technology out of organizations and into the hands of consumers. This has resulted in a new vehicle for organizations to deliver services. We have seen these changes clearly in the world at large in areas such as retail, financial services and event ticketing. The potential for using the Internet in similar ways in the University sector is equally clear – moving delivery from the counter to the web. Much has already been done and initiatives are on going in many areas of York; however, an integrated approach can reinforce the relevance of the relationship between the University and its constituents.

The challenge and opportunity in the move to web-based service delivery is in taking a more integrated approach. We have, for the most part, simply extended our existing physical service models and methods to the web; whereas people are coming to expect an integrated experience and we have an opportunity to meet that expectation. We must take steps not only to bolster our efforts to move services to the web but also to step up efforts at integrating the delivery of those services.

Action 3.1: Senior leadership in Enrolment and Student Services, Finance and Administration, Libraries and CNS will work jointly to initiate an assessment of the opportunity for integrated, process-oriented delivery of services to students, faculty and staff. In the case of students we should takes a process view across the student relationship with the University from prospect to alumnus with a view towards application integration and development to support the transformed processes.

In large part the delivery of services and development of supporting applications at York has been approached from a functional standpoint. Moves to use the Internet and the web to deliver services present us with new challenges. A recent Educause publication summarizes the decision facing Universities: “How should the institution approach these issues? The temptation to ‘pave the cow paths’ in the back-office operations of the institution is very strong. It appeals to the ‘let’s not change things too quickly’ interests on campus. Studies have suggested that merely digitizing existing processes can be relatively expensive and can produce minimal returns on investment. The quantum leaps in productivity and effectiveness require a transformation of the ways in which we conduct the activities of the institution”. [4]

This approach, though enabled by technology, has broader implications for organizational change, which will require senior management commitment and direction.

Action 3.2: Staff in Enrolment and Student Services, Finance and Administration, the Libraries and CNS will develop a project oversight mechanism to accelerate and broaden the planning and implementation of efforts to move to web-based, self-service applications for service delivery.

A great deal of work is being done across the University to migrate services to the web. In general work is being done at a pace driven by resources available – not necessarily potential benefit or need. Broader project oversight would provide for a coordinated effort and aim to ensure that important services were addressed early in the process. All efforts should be guided by the goal of simplicity and self-service

Action 3.3: CNS will work with other areas including, Libraries, Enrolment and Student Services and Finance and Administration to develop a distributed, accessible solution for the personalized, integrated delivery of services to students, faculty and staff.

There is a great deal of discussion at present in higher education and elsewhere surrounding the use of web “portals” as tools to integrate and personalize the interface that is used to present services to people. York should move to implement portal as an initial step in providing integrated service delivery for students, faculty and staff.

The notion of such a portal also extends to integrating all of the experiences and needs of the individual related to York – campus services, academic life, and community involvement. The portal can play a key role in developing, reinforcing and supporting that relationship.

Action 3.4: The University will rationalize the proliferation of access/debit/copy/identification cards used at York into a single unified card system.

Card technology has long had a role at York and there have been unsuccessful attempts in the past to have a single card that serves all purposes. A number of factors point to the time being right to revisit the situation: dissatisfaction with multiple cards is a constant; the current “York Card” system is growing more difficult to maintain; and card technology has continued to advance.

4. York will put in place an information technology environment that is accessible, sustainable and adaptable to change. This environment will be secure, reliable, and simple to use. It will promote innovation and flexibility by facilitating information access, communication and collaboration within the York community and beyond, removing boundaries of time and place.

The successful development of the connected community of the vision is founded on a highly interconnected and robust technology infrastructure. As pointed out by the authors of a recent book on virtual communities, the technology infrastructure must become increasingly viewed as a common, shared environment:

“Our increased reliance on networks means a new dependence on common infrastructure: tools, data exchange protocols, reference information, the network itself. Each of us needs these tools to succeed and to meet our own goals. But we also have a shared interest in making sure the network not only functions, but constantly improves”[5]

In consultations with the community the desired characteristics of an information technology infrastructure were stated clearly and repeatedly – it must be accessible, sustainable, ubiquitous, and integrated. The technology must simply “be there” - reliable and available when and where it is needed – whether that is on York’s campuses or off.

The actions below aim to develop and sustain the information technology environment and support resources that focus on the connectivity and accessibility that is key to the vision of the connected community.

Action 4.1: Beginning in 2001 and over the next three years, CNS will upgrade the network infrastructure within all campus buildings to provide the potential for a minimum bandwidth of 100mbps to the all wired locations. During the same period, CNS will extend the communications network on University campuses to include wireless connectivity focusing initially on deployment within libraries and select public areas. Wireless networks will also be included in the network planning of new buildings.

The York University network is a key component of our common, shared information technology infrastructure. The network is already extensive with over 10,000 network points of access serving the majority of offices, teaching spaces, libraries, meeting rooms, residence rooms and more.

If we are to successfully leverage technology to achieve the vision of the connected community the network and access to it must continue to expand and evolve. The future growth in network capacity is at present limited by an out-dated cable infrastructure in many areas of the campus. In order to support future bandwidth intensive applications and the coming convergence of voice and data technologies, we must take steps to upgrade this infrastructure in anticipation of the demand.

A further key network infrastructure development will be in the area of wireless network deployment. Students in many senses fit the profile of “mobile workers”. As they become more reliant upon information technology for access to resources and communications we will see increasing use of portable computers and smaller “PDA” type devices. Support of mobile connectivity will be an increasingly important element of accessibility.

Action 4.2: CNS with other technology support groups will create an environment that maximizes the availability and quality of service for off-campus users including, students faculty and staff. Our goal is for there to be no difference in accessibility between on and off campus use.

Access to information resources, services and applications, is increasingly becoming expected to be independent of location – on campus or off. At the same time most students, faculty and staff are relying upon third party suppliers (ISPs) for home Internet connections. CNS will work to facilitate this trend by negotiating preferential terms for the York community with one or more ISPs. CNS will also implement technology within the York network to ensure that appropriate authentication and security measures are in place to provide seamless access to York network resources. CNS and other technology groups at York will work to make the network computing environment (e.g. access to applications and data) on campus and off as similar as possible.

Action 4.3: York will take a leadership position in the implementation of networks that provide advanced connectivity amongst research and educational institutions within Ontario ensuring that the capabilities of our interconnections to our broader community and the world at large are the equal to any of our Canadian peers.

Collaboration amongst individuals, and the need for data and communications networks to support their activities, has long been fundamental in the research realm. The future will see growing reliance upon collaboration amongst institutions in efforts in both teaching and learning (e.g. the Merlot and Cohere projects) and University operations and administration.

York has a history of active participation in groups involved in regional and national network development such as Onet and Canarie. Over the next two years CNS will pursue a leadership position in the implementation of the Ontario government’s plans for provincial optical networks connecting into the national CA*net3 network.

Action 4.4: The CNS Instructional Technology Centre (ITC) will plan to equip all classrooms and lecture halls with appropriate equipment to allow faculty to use presentation technology and network applications, information and resources in a routine manner in the classroom. Measures will be put in place to ensure the ongoing renewal of these facilities.

While the vast majority or our teaching spaces have network connections faculty are often reliant upon the ordering, delivery and setup of equipment for each class. The growth of the demand for deliveries points to the efficacy of permanent installation of basic technology within each classroom and lecture hall. This will allow faculty to plan and develop their teaching methods confident that they will have access to appropriate technology in the class with minimal disruptions from delivery and set up.

Action 4.5: The University should commit to ensuring that faculty and staff has access to technology needed to be full participants in the connected community. CNS will work with University Faculties and units to meet this commitment and ensure this technology is kept current through regular (3 to 4 year) renewal.

In order for faculty and staff to participate in and benefit from initiatives imagined within the vision of the connected community – indeed for some of these initiatives to be successful – they must have access to computers attached to the University network.

Significant gaps in access to equipment exist throughout the campus. The implementation of the computer renewal program for faculty begins to address this gap. CNS will work with Faculties and University units to entrench the program and then extend the procurement process beyond faculty with an aim towards building in renewal.

Action 4.6: CNS, Faculties, and the Libraries will work together towards a new, more integrated approach to student computing facilities that ensures that facilities keep pace with technology needs of students and program delivery and that access to the facilities is seamless for students.

University provision of computing facilities on campus has a long history going back to the era of key-punch machines. These facilities have evolved and multiplied to the point where today they range from internet “kiosks” and drop in facilities for general use to highly specialized facilities tailored to specific academic programs. Together student computing facilities account for roughly 40% of Faculty equipment expenditures. At present planning and development of computing facilities is done on a Faculty or even a departmental basis. This has resulted in concerns about uneven utilization and access and a lack of an integrated environment for students (multiple access codes, data directories etc.).

We must move to planning and implementation of computing facilities that accounts for:

Access to appropriate teaching facilities for all programs.

Routine renewal of facilities.

An integrated experience for students.

Evolving away from general purpose computers that most students now have towards access to more specialized equipment (e.g. multimedia)

As new facilities – particularly those with broad use – are developed we must ensure that we seek student input in their development and design.

Action 4.7: CNS will develop a standards based directory service that includes the facility for a secure, “single login” so that all students, faculty and staff will be able to have access to their files and applications from any authorized location on campus or at home.

The rapid adoption of computing applications in many aspects of work – teaching, research and administration – has brought with it a proliferation of computer or application logins and passwords. As groups have worked to implement solutions the simplest and often the only option has been to provide users with a login identifier for each new application or solution. Students, faculty and staff all have come to possess a large number of these login identifiers. At the same time people are becoming used to online facilities such as Yahoo or MSN that provide and a diverse yet integrated application environment with the use of a single logon identifier.

The development of a standards-based service holds a number of benefits – the most visible being a service that provides applications with a shared facility for authentication and thus the potential to reduce the number of login identifiers that are needed and moving closer to the goal of single “login”.

The development of directory services will also allow for the simpler deployment and integration of applications into a more integrated and useful environment for the community.

Action 4.8: CNS will work with groups throughout the York community to implement an integrated suite of common communications/community applications that facilitate rich communications within the institution and beyond.

In the past a great deal of effort has been put into the introduction and use of “personal productivity” applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. In the world based on network technology, the dominance of these tools in our environment has been in many ways supplanted by new applications – tools for communication and collaboration.

The University is communications centric. Electronic mail use at York is vital to many elements of day to day academic, research and support work. York’s experience and reliance on email make it ripe for the exploration of additional tools – instant messaging, chat, discussions, group calendaring and others. These applications should be put in place with an institutional view that ensures interoperability and accessibility for the entire community.

Action 4.9: Technical staff, particularly in Enrollment and Student Services, Finance and Administration, CNS and the Libraries will work together to develop a common application and development framework that highlights the opportunities for integration and data interchange.

The history of application development and implementation at York is similar to the experience in most organizations. Applications have been developed or implemented in large part on a functional basis as attempts to solve a particular set of functional problems creating isolated views of applications. The rise of the networked enterprise and indeed the networked world puts functional applications at odds with prevailing trends – there is no longer such a thing as a “stand-alone” application.

While good plans for development and implementation of applications are ongoing most of this work continues to be done on a functional basis. We must begin now to examine our applications in a different way that considers the connections and dependencies among systems. This need is particularly acute for University support systems.

As with the applications themselves, the technology tools used for development have been chosen on a unit by unit basis. This has resulted in the use and support of a large variety of technologies across campus and in a barrier to collaboration and career development within the University.

A common development environment will allow us to deepen our institutional expertise, provide an enriched environment for technical staff and afford more opportunity for sharing and collaboration amongst staff.

Action 4.10: CNS will provide the leadership in working with other technology units on campus and with Human Resources to develop institution-wide human resource policies and processes that facilitate the recruitment and retention of qualified staff and provide for consistent integrated approaches to issues including training and career development.

The Gartner group recognizes that “I.T. skills will become the defining limitation on what enterprises are able to achieve in I.T.”[6]. This observation anticipates the growing competition for skilled workers resulting from the aging population and the increasing demand for technology skills. It is unlikely that York will ever have the means to compete on the basis of compensation with private sector organizations. We must do more to create an attractive employment environment through greater emphasis on training and maintaining the skills of our employees (particularly emphasizing the growing importance of non-technical skills such as planning, project management, service management) and leveraging the diversity and richness of the career path that should be available within an organization as large as York.

Typical of most organizations, the salary and benefit costs within “I.T.” represent the majority (60-70 percent) of direct I.T. related expenditures. Over 250 people work in information technology positions at York. Ironically, for such a large organization a number of these employees work within relative isolation and do not have access to the kind of career path that should be available within an institution of this size. We must work to ensure that all staff have the benefit of the broad resources and opportunities that are available at York.

Action 4.11: CNS will work with other information technology support units on campus and Human Resources to create and/or increase employment opportunities for York students and graduates as an integral element of the technology career path at York.

The current profile of information technology workers at York shows a “bulge” of people moving towards retirement. This phenomenon is not uncommon and is in line with the general state of the aging workforce throughout North America. York must prepare now to replace these workers. As noted in a recent Educause publication “Higher education has a significant advantage to exploit in identifying and cultivating future technology specialists. It can ‘build its own’ for its student populations. While there is a steady outflow on one end of the employment continuum, there is a steady inflow at the other, and that inflow provides continuous refreshments of perspective and of relevant skills to a workforce that must have both”.[7]

Most information technology units at York already make use of the skills of York students in some capacity, often as lab advisors, temporary technical support, and web developers. Access to York students as employees is vital to the continued work of information technology at York and is indeed one of the few advantages the University has over other employers – the ability to engage talented students early and grow them into York employees.

Action 4.12: The University will put in place effective and accessible structures, tools and processes for skill development and support for members of the York community.

A key factor in the successful use of information technology is the skills of the individuals using it. Programs and resources for training, skills development and support do exist throughout the University provided by diverse groups including individual departments, Human Resources, Libraries, Computing and Network Services, Faculty technology support groups, and others. Essentially individual areas have moved to attempt to address their own issues to the best of their abilities resulting in a patchwork of services that isn’t well understood by the community.

Differing strategies will be needed for different constituent groups. In the case of students a number of Faculties and groups, most notably the Senate Committee on Academic Computing, have made attempts to come to grips with a perceived need to establish “entrance” or “exit” standards for technology competence for students. The efforts have all foundered for a variety of reasons: Should such programs be mandatory? Are they part of the curriculum? Should fees be charged? Does responsibility rest with the University as whole, each Faculty, each program or even the individual student?

The issue remains that the diverse skill base amongst students results in inequities of access as information technology plays an increasingly fundamental role in students’ life – whether that be communicating with faculty and other students, finding library resources, creating documents or doing data analysis.

Similarly the resources available to faculty and staff vary across the University. We must take steps to foster a learning environment that is accessible to all.

The entire community would certainly benefit from greater use of widely available on-line resources and support. CNS help services should direct additional effort towards making more educational and support resource available via the web.

Many different groups within the University will have a role in the development and delivery of support and training. The Executive Director I.T. will take the lead in reviewing the current state in cooperation with other areas such as the AVP Academic, Human Resources and the Libraries with a view towards creating a plan to develop resources for students, faculty and staff.

5. In order to capitalize on the potential benefits of distributed computing within the broader University framework, we must review and modify organizational structures, funding mechanisms, policies and planning processes.

In the early 1990’s York moved in a deliberate fashion from a centralized information technology management structure to one that was more decentralized. This was a common trend for many organizations at the time that were aiming to leverage technology trends to spur innovation and increase responsiveness to end user requirements. This move to distributed computing has resulted in the current hybrid structure of technology management at York, with some common resources and facilities under central management and others managed by Faculties and other University units.

The hybrid structure aligns with the overall culture of decentralized control and management at York and is certainly the appropriate approach to the organization of I.T. resources. Our challenge is to manage the hybrid organization in such a way to continue to gain the benefits of innovation and empowerment without allowing ourselves to lapse into organizational “silos” that fragment and diffuse effort. The management challenge is one of balancing the innovation and responsiveness of the decentralized approach while maintaining architectural cohesion and economies of scale of the centralized approach.

In 1999 the “CNS Strategy Group” made a set of recommendations around management and governance of I.T. at York. These recommendations led to the creation of the Executive Director I.T. position and a modified governance structure that aimed at greater integration. Further change is needed in order to achieve the kinds of integrated information technology and applications needed to foster collaboration and support a process orientation for service delivery. The changes that we should put in place should focus in particular on collaboration and communication and not rely on direct organizational control.

Action 5.1: The Executive Director I.T. in consultation with University leadership, Faculties and other information technology management at York will recommend and implement new management structures that increase the communication and collaboration amongst information technology support groups and staff.

A recent Gartner Group study observed that “IS (Information Systems) groups have traditionally maintained a technology focus. However, the success of IS in delivering value to the business has less to do with technology used that it has to do with the processes that are used to deliver and maintain that value. Since the technology, skills, information and decision centers are now spread throughout the enterprise, it is impossible to manage I.T. in a traditional functional silo approach. The result is that it must be coordinated throughout the enterprise.” [8]

In consultations with the community there was a significant amount of frustration around the appearance of a lack of coordination of our information technology efforts. Our I.T. organizations and processes must do more to address this and build in an orientation that recognizes that students, faculty and staff inevitably require a wide variety of services and support from different groups. The services that we delivery must be coordinated and complementary.

The solutions lie not in centralization but in the creation of new structures and functions that focus on processes and communication and recognize our growing interdependency.

Action 5.2: The Executive Director – I.T. will initiate an examination and make recommendations related to funding sources and processes for information technology.

Funding for information technology initiatives currently comes in large part from base budget allocations within Faculties and operating units. There are additional aspects to funding that include academic equipment fund allocations and various systems of internal charges and cost recoveries for services.

Funding mechanisms for information technology must be in place that support the Universities directions and principles such as:

Central funding is used to provide a sustainable baseline for widespread access to computing and communications technology and support services.

Funding is available to support innovation and experimentation.

Funding processes reinforce collaborative effort and support joint initiatives.

Accountability and cost effective management of information technology are ensured.

Alignment of funding mechanisms with new management structures and principles will require examination and changes to existing practices of internal fees and funding. The scope of this examination should also include possible new sources of funding including the feasibility of a student fee in support of student computing facilities.

Action 5.3: The Executive Director – I.T. will lead the development of a university-wide information technology policy framework and a supporting communications and awareness program that provides for: consistent policies governing the use of information technology and a secure technology environment.

Other than a Senate “Policy on Computing and Information Technology Facilities” York does not have any University-wide policies governing the use of information technology. While there are some locally articulated or implicit policies and procedures, a good organizational policy framework ensures that everyone is operating from the same set of explicitly articulated principles.

Polices and procedures that relate to information security are of particular importance in our increasingly networked world. Knowing that our environment is secure is vital to the development of the trust necessary to grow the connected community.

Action 5.4: All Faculties and key support units will engage in the development of annual computing plans that both support unit directions and work within the context of University strategies. These efforts will culminate in the development of a consolidated University plan and promote a pan-University exchange of knowledge and initiatives.

York is fortunate in already having in place an annual planning process for computing. The recommendation of the “CNS Strategy Group” in 1999 was that the long-standing Faculty computing planning process be extended beyond the Faculties to include support areas within the University. While there have been efforts in this direction the discipline of producing annual plans has not been entrenched in all areas of the University. We must continue to work towards a planning process that encompasses all areas of the University and results in a consolidated operational plan.

Action 5.5: CNS will work with other information technology groups to implement a service management methodology for information technology services delivery.

In consultations with the community there was a degree of frustration exhibited related to confusion about who delivered what service and the variability of services. In order for our decentralized organization to be effective, particularly as we see a growing reliance upon information technology services, it is vital to have clarity about services delivered and the expectations around these services.

A process-oriented service delivery approach will improve the understanding of what is available, provide for clearer accountability and help different organizational units work together in a cooperative, integrated fashion.

E. Implementation

The recommendations and actions articulated within the I.T. strategy necessarily range in scope and many of them will require multiple individual projects, the participation of many groups and the integration with existing efforts in their implementation. The articulation of implementation has been viewed from the outset as beyond the scope of the strategy development process.

What are listed below are some of the key roles, processes, and near term priorities that are integral to the implementation of the I.T. strategy.

Roles -

The University-wide scope of the I.T. strategy implies a role for virtually every information technology support group at York. This participation will be first through the use of the strategy in the preparation of annual computing plans and then in the active participation specific initiatives and projects.

Overall leadership for implementation will come from the Executive Director – Information Technology supported by the Information Technology Executive Group representing executive leadership and faculty. This group will have a fundamental role as the custodians of the plan with responsibility for guiding implementation and tracking progress.

Process –

The annual computing planning process, which is well ingrained within the planning cycle of Faculties and is being adopted by other groups within the University, will be the key vehicle for initiating the specific activities and projects necessary to implement the I.T. Strategy.

The timing of the computing planning process has been changed for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. The call for plans will be done in October with the aim of completing plans by January 2002. The timing of the planning process will allow for funding issues arising from the development of plans to be considered within the annual budgeting cycle in the spring of 2002.

In order to set the context for the 2002-03 planning effort there will be a planning workshop held in October 2001. This workshop will be used as an opportunity to bring together groups across the University to review the strategy and agree on priorities for computing for 2002-03

Near term priorities -

Several of the recommended actions will require near term action on the part of University senior management. These actions (1.1, 3.1) should be considered before the end of the calendar year as they will provide important context for other initiatives.

Work is already underway on many of the actions. Articulation within the strategy serves to underscore this work and place it in the broader University context.

Funding -

It is difficult to specify the costs of the entire plan. As we proceed through operational planning details, including the costs of the implementation, will become evident.

As noted in the plan the University already spends in the order of $25 million dollars annually on information technology and support. Additional funding for infrastructure has also been planned beginning in 2002-2003. These funds should be the primary source for new action under the I.T. strategy particularly allowing us to address actions related to network, classroom, and computing labs. New funding will have to be sought as part of the implementation when operational planning is done.

Tracking our progress -

The Executive Director – Information Technology will have the responsibility for monitoring and reporting on the progress of the strategy implementation. The primary mechanism to do this will be to track the progress and outcomes of initiatives that arise for the recommendations and actions. As implementation proceeds we must be able to assess whether we have:

Articulated University-wide direction for technology in teaching and learning and have increased accessibility and support for faculty to use technology.
Enhanced the academic and management information resources that are available to the community.
Increased and integrated our service delivery via the web and taken steps to transform our processes.
Put in place an information technology environment that is accessible, sustainable and adaptable to change.
Modified our information technology organizational processes and structures to improve collaboration and capitalize on the distributed computing approach.

The Executive Director – I.T. will report, through the President, to UEC on the progress of strategy implementation on at least a semi-annual basis. One of these updates will be prepared for September of each year in advance of the computing planning cycle.

[1] McCredie, J, “Planning for I.T. in Higher Education: It’s Not an Oxymoron”, Technology Driven Planning (Society for College and University Planning, 2000)

[2] Dr. Michael Zastrocky, “Annual Gartner Update”, A Presentation given at the Educause 2000 Conference, Nashville, October 2000.

[3] York Computing Plan, Office of the Vice-President (Academic Affairs) and the Vice-President (Institutional Affairs), September 1993

[4]Barone, C. et al, Information Technology, Systems, and Services in Higher Education, (National Association of College and University Business Officers, 2000) , pg 23

[5] Shurman, M. and Wershler-Henry, D., Commonspace: Beyond Virtual Community (FT.com Financial Times, 2000), pg 109

[6] Mingay, S et al, “The Five Pillars of IS Organizational Effectiveness”, Gartner Group Strategic Analysis Report, November 18, 1998, pg ii

[7] Barone, C. et al, Information Technology, Systems, and Services in Higher Education, (National Association of College and University Business Officers, 2000) , pg5

[8] Mingay, S et al, “The Five Pillars of IS Organizational Effectiveness”, Gartner Group Strategic Analysis Report, November 18, 1998, pg. 25

Notes

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York University Information Technology Strategy September 28, 2001