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ITAC

Envisioning a 21st Century Information-Rich Environment

Vision

In order to enhance the academic program, improve services, create the most productive work environment, remain responsive to future technology innovations and strategically to advance, Denison University must now take the next steps to build a world-class information environment. This effort should be based upon the principles that information has its greatest value when shared and that in order to do their best work individuals must have the rights, responsibilities and skills to manage information. Denison has a superior technology infrastructure and library resources that create myriad possibilities. We must continue to pursue advanced information technologies not merely to maximize efficiency and productivity but also to broaden and deepen every individual's sense of belonging to the Denison community of life-long learners.

The Information Initiative will empower all members of the Denison community to create and adopt new ways of working with information. Crucially, the initiative will enhance our ability to communicate with one another. Members of the most broadly defined campus community will have immediate and easy access to all the information they need to meet the goals of their work or to maintain their relationship with Denison. This will require us to encourage an information culture in which everyone is an active learner with the skills to create, interpret, use and share information appropriately. The initiative will help ensure that Denison graduates are fully prepared for leadership roles in a world driven by information. Ease of access will be balanced by respect for intellectual property, privacy and the need to ensure information security. We see this initiative as a community-building enterprise that will enhance both the physical and virtual communities in which we live, work and study. Our information needs will determine our uses of technology, and we will support the technologies that best serve our needs.

Denison University is uniquely positioned to effect this transformation of our information culture. We are engaged in an important strategic planning process. The institution's most important resources - the members of our campus community - will shape this vision. Our students, faculty and staff are poised to take advantage of these opportunities.

Guiding Principles

Given the burgeoning innovations in information technologies that are transforming our social world, we need to create and adopt new models of information technology that enhance and sustain the general goals of our educational mission, which states, in part:

"Our purpose is to inspire and educate our students to become autonomous thinkers, discerning moral agents and active citizens of a democratic society. Through an emphasis on active learning, we engage students in a liberal arts education that fosters self-determination and demonstrates the transformative power of education."

To these ends, the following commitments and principles will govern the initiative:

1. Denison is committed to excellence in teaching and learning. Learning occurs in a multitude of community settings and in variety of learning communities from the classroom to the dorm study session. Online interactions for the Denison community will supplement rather than replace face-to-face communication. Online course materials, chat rooms, and similar interactive tools can enhance interactions within and beyond the classroom by adding new dimensions to the learning experience. In order for faculty to develop teaching strategies that expand and complement their individual pedagogical approaches and for learners to develop and enhance new learning styles, it is vital that Denison provide not only new and innovative technologies but also support services and mechanisms to reward and share successful curricular innovations.

2. Denison is committed to excellence in scholarship and contributions to knowledge. The essence of scholarship is the sharing and critical analysis of knowledge. New technologies make collaboration with research and teaching colleagues around the world and students and colleagues on campus quicker and easier. These technologies provide platforms for the presentation of research, development of new information resources, and shared critical analysis.

3. Denison is committed to excellence in community service both on campus and in the larger public communities of which we are a part. Technology offers us opportunities to contribute to the development of services not only for our campus community and the expanded Denison community of prospective students, parents and alumni but also for our local community, state and country. These services could include on-line applications, information on alumni events, or databases, reports, and contacts of interest to the local community.

4. Denison is committed to excellence in access to information, including resources to support both the acquisition of information and contribution to new information. Evolving information technologies have fundamentally changed access to information from online library resources through government information to the discipline-specific data that is increasingly being made available via on-line databases. To be truly excellent, access must be customizable, personal and direct. Whenever possible, information access must be structured to promote ease of use by all regardless of their cognitive or physical capacities.

5. Denison is committed to excellence in information quality. Information should originate from the most authoritative source to ensure quality, timeliness and to eliminate duplication of effort and inconsistencies. Comprehensive management of the distribution, storage, and archival maintenance of information in all formats and media is imperative. Denison will select information for archiving to make possible such activities as longitudinal studies, access to historical detail, and preservation of institutional memory.

6. Denison is committed to excellence in the appropriate uses of technology. It is important to assure that technology is used to empower the individual and the community. Collaboration will be fostered at all levels - locally, consortially, and with the broader community - and will use new technologies as well as traditional approaches. This collaborative use of information will be based on the need to preserve privacy, the security of all information and the protection of intellectual property rights. The success of this initiative as well as the institution depends upon balancing access to and control of information.

7. The information needs and culture of our community will determine which technologies to adopt. The fundamental resources of the University are people and information. Knowledge is our end (the educational mission) and information is our means (administrative processes). Every effort will be made to adhere to industry standards. We will monitor technology trends that complement and enhance our existing information infrastructure, adopting those providing the best possible support for the University community.

8. To extract the greatest value from our information resources, our foremost consideration must be the needs of the individual and his/her community. Processes will be created that appropriately share information across organizational boundaries while insuring that management of content will remain the responsibility of those who create it. Denison's academic and administrative information will continue to become more strongly interdependent; virtually all members of our community are stakeholders in the way we manage and communicate information. The health of our community depends on how well we communicate.

9. All faculty members, students, and staff will be encouraged to contribute to and make use of modern information tools. They will be supported in their work with new tools, through training, consultation and opportunities for professional development suited to their needs. Continuing and comprehensive support and education on issues of security, privacy and intellectual property rights for the community at large are essential.

Examples

Modern information technologies offer opportunities to enhance many aspects of campus life. The following are but a few examples in strategically important areas:

Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship

Community and Communication

On Campus Community

  • Campus event calendar
  • Campus news
  • Campus-wide document management, including printing on demand
  • Improve communications for staff traveling on University business

Off Campus Community

  • Improve ability to stay in touch with alumni, send and receive feedback on current issues
  • Lifetime e-mail accounts, alumni-to-alumni connections (e-mail, chat, discussion boards)
  • Improved communication with prospective students to:
  • Show off the beauty of the campus
  • Receive applications online
  • Flagship publications

Access

Drafted by Information Technology Advisory Board, March, 2000.