Printer Friendly VersionLibraries & Educational Technology Goals
Fiscal Year 2008-13
Goal 1: Enrich the experience of learners and scholars.
Objective 1.1: Define and implement a learning commons service model that is appropriate for JMU and which emphasizes learning and user-centered services.
Discussion: Learners and scholars expect convenient, consistent service experiences. The work of learning and scholarship involves a variety of tasks. Supporting that work requires a complex of related services centering on the use of information and learning resources and technologies. Engaging students in providing services to their peers and developing partnerships with other service agencies can expand the reach of Libraries & Educational Technologies and offer new opportunities for student learning. Achieving this objective will require identification of staff competencies, differentiation of responsibilities and a comprehensive training program. Investments in technology rich learning spaces is a prerequisite to implementing the model in all of the public service locations managed within Libraries & Educational Technologies. A learning commons service model will require a broad-based and consistent philosophy of service as a starting point. Identifying stakeholders and potential partners must happen before an implementation plan can be developed. Internal and external stakeholders must be engaged in the process of finalizing the model.
Objective 1.2: Improve student learning by designing instructional programs for students and faculty that promote information and technology literacy.
Discussion: Instructional programs and services are central to the Libraries & Educational Technologies mission and a major organizational strength. The importance of information and technology literacy is widely recognized at JMU and L&ET efforts to promote campus goals in those areas contribute significantly to student learning. It will always be necessary to adapt and expand instructional programs and services. The primary driver for that activity will be a changing curriculum and dialog with teaching faculty, but changes in student learning styles should not be ignored. To achieve this objective we must continue to collaborate with faculty to develop objectives for learner-centered programs and services that support academic goals and address different student learning styles. Evaluating the effectiveness of different approaches to improving student learning is an ongoing part of that effort. Working toward a coherent vision of complementary instructional programs that establish a foundation and build upon that foundation as a student progresses at JMU is important. In the end, this objective will be measured in terms of whether our programs and services lead to information literate students who are fluent with technology and who can function independently as learners and scholars.
Objective 1.3: Develop a unified communications and marketing strategy
Discussion: Improving communication about available resources and services will help students and faculty take maximum advantage of resources and services and increase organizational effectiveness. Existing efforts would benefit from streamlining and better coordination. A marketing objective overlaps with objectives related to the liaison program and other outreach programs. Marketing objectives must also inform the design of both physical and virtual environments in areas ranging from signs to user interfaces. Centralized solutions to coordinating marketing efforts and developing an infrastructure, which supports targeted outreach activities, are worth pursuing.
Objective 1.4: Strengthen the liaison program and other partnerships with the faculty by making adjustments in response to growth.
Discussion: The liaison program is a major success and deserves the support necessary to continue the record of success. Establishing priorities that will enable liaisons to do their work effectively will require off loading some of the work, increasing the number of people available to do the work and achieving greater efficiencies. It is important to acknowledge differences in academic programs and to identify Libraries & Educational Technologies service priorities and quality measures that are common across programs. Strengthening the liaison program will involve establishing service expectations based on priorities and quality measures. Ongoing review is a prerequisite for identifying priorities and quality measures. The liaison program is one of a number of Libraries & Educational Technologies faculty partnerships; it would be worthwhile to explore which aspects of the liaison service model might be applied to other programs and how relationships with faculty might be leveraged across Libraries & Educational Technologies programs. It would also be productive to explore ways in which the current model might be adapted to reflect changes in JMU academic programs (e.g., an increasing number of inter-disciplinary programs) and trends in scholarly communication.
Objective 1.5: Develop an overall strategy for creating and providing Libraries & Educational Technologies instructional content.
Discussion: Libraries & Educational Technologies instructional content supports JMU academic programs, our own training programs and the people who use our systems and information resources. Given the effort spent on producing and managing instructional content and the impact such content has on our constituents it makes sense for us to review and coordinate approaches to delivering instructional content. It is essential that we collaborate with faculty to ensure that instructional materials such as training materials, research guides, tutorials, games and learning objects address educational goals, academic program needs and student learning. We should also seek to improve efficiency in managing the content that we currently manage, for example, by emphasizing re-useable content. And we should explore how help and instructional materials from vendors might be integrated with the systems and resources that we manage. It is essential that we continuously assess the usability and educational effectiveness of instructional materials. Over the 6-year time span covered by the strategic plan we need to identify instructional materials that require updating, establish priorities, evaluate the scope of work needed to address specific priorities and develop work plans and timetables for making improvements. It is also important to explore new technologies and new approaches to self-paced, embedded and point-of-use learning.
Objective 1.6: Expand faculty development programs that integrate technology and information resources into teaching, learning, and research.
Discussion: Much of our mission can only be accomplished by working with and through faculty. Our organization has a strong relationship with the faculty and the services we provide are already well integrated with academic programs. Continued expansion of faculty development activities will extend our ability to support the academic mission of the university. Augmenting and improving learning technology support and services is critical. We should continue to build partnerships with faculty to develop technology-enhanced learning experiences. Part of this objective involves reviewing ways in which faculty and students use technology for teaching, learning and research and working with faculty to develop methods for measuring effectiveness of learning technologies. Collaborating with faculty on integration of technology and information resources with curricula is a core objective.
Objective 1.7: Build partnerships with colleges and departments to assist them in investigating and developing online or hybrid academic programs.
Discussion: Over the past few years online and hybrid learning have expanded dramatically. In order to keep pace with the rate of programmatic development, closer collaboration with individual colleges and departments that leads to project-related assistance will further facilitate the development of online or blended graduate-level, degree-seeking programs that meet the needs of currently underserved niche populations. At the same time student needs and expectations for flexible online course options have increased. It is time to take a more systemic and programmatic approach to supporting and developing online learning. In addition to blended and online courses, there is now demand for development and support for new programs, especially at the graduate level. Collaboration with individual faculty members remains important; collaboration with departments and colleges will expand as online learning programs mature.
Goal 2: Enhance virtual environments to empower learners and scholars.
Objective 2.1: Implement tools and strategies to integrate and improve knowledge discovery, information retrieval, and content delivery.
Discussion: An overarching goal is to provide seamless, integrated and intuitive access to library materials, scholarly information, information systems, learning resources and learning systems by creatively applying open standards in combination with an understanding of user needs. The tools and strategies needed to achieve the sort of integrated, intuitive access that would increase opportunities for students and faculty to achieve more benefit from information and learning systems are changing rapidly. We must continue to support open standards and interoperable systems and continue to develop the infrastructure needed to help students and faculty do their work in ways that are simpler and which make more sense. Faculty and students should be able to combine the online services and resources that we provide in ways that further their own educational goals. Aspects of this objective include: implementing tools that enable better integration of information resources into learning management systems; improving users’ ability to be more self-sufficient for information needs; implementing tools for both novice and advanced users; providing tools that faculty and students can adapt, customize, and integrate in ways that meet personal needs; performing usability testing on access points to tailor tools for user needs.
Objective 2.2: Engage in research and development projects that explore the feasibility of adopting new and emerging learning technologies.
Discussion: The relevance of Libraries & Educational Technologies depends on the extent to which it remains current with emerging research and development. Experimentation with onsite implementations of emerging learning technologies, such as open source learning systems, videoconferencing, social networking and e-portfolios, is vital to the adoption of new and effective practices. Exploration of new technologies should also be encouraged by providing development support and seed money for experimentation and innovation by faculty. An important aspect of this objective involves continuing research and development of collaborative online technologies that support users connecting with ideas and each other. Other ways in which we can promote innovation include offering tools that enable the sharing of user-created content, sponsoring events to apprise faculty of emerging technologies, offering a clearinghouse for information about exciting instructional technologies and facilitating connections between faculty members who are using technology in innovative ways.
There are two types of learning technology innovation that we aim to support:
1.) Small-scale experimentation driven by the faculty
2.) Large scale strategic investments in systems that provide new opportunities to faculty and students.
Part of our responsibility is to collaborate with faculty to evaluate and develop support structures for innovative technologies that they wish to adopt. This is as much of a faculty development objective as it is a “buy” objective. Onsite experimental technology implementations need to be carefully considered and rolled out in a manner that is consistent with long-range plans and availability of resources. Over the course of our 6-year plan we will need to develop annual priorities related to pilots, experiments and strategic investments. This objective has both a major system planning component and a small project incentive component.
Objective 2.3: Coordinate information technology systems, services, and support within and across Libraries & Educational Technologies.
Discussion: Outcomes of technology systems, services and support coordination include greater efficiencies for staff and availability of shared and expanded technology resources. Technology support should be offered across all Libraries & Educational Technologies facilities. We should seek economies of scale and leveraged solutions where possible. There are advantages to be gained by moving toward a common hardware and software infrastructure but they will need to be weighed against the advantages offered by heterogeneity. Consolidating systems and developing common platforms is more problematic due to the installed base and availability of expertise.
As we move forward on this objective it will be important to collaborate with IT and other technology agencies on service delivery and technology infrastructure. It is also important to develop staff development plans which identify where and which types of technology expertise are needed.
Objective 2.4: Formalize a Libraries & Educational technologies plan to meet standards for accessibility, privacy, and confidentiality.
Discussion: An accessibility plan is essential. Once IT implements identity management and as we implement services such as MyLEO that enable customization and delivery of services based on identity, role and attributes, we will need to establish policies and procedures to protect confidentiality and privacy and to enable users to opt in or out of certain services. The potential for contributions to this objective by Libraries & Educational technologies faculty and staff is high but the overall plan and policies are likely to be at campus rather than the Libraries & Educational Technologies level.
Goal 3: Cultivate content in appropriate formats for learners and scholars.
Objective 3.1: Assess collections for quality, comprehensiveness, format appropriateness, usage, and space in order to align collection building strategies with curriculum needs.
Discussion: More useful analytical procedures for our e-resource and physical collection usage data are needed. Collections, such as government document and microform collections, need to be part of the overall collections analysis. Strategies will be discipline-specific and address shifts to selection of new kinds of content, such as e-books and streaming audio/video, and interdisciplinary study. Work in this area needs to be broad enough to include teaching content and to address requests for numeric databases, images, video, and learning objects. We also need to establish priorities for acquisition of primary source collections in digital formats to support curricula and scholarship. Consultations with faculty will aid in determination of content needs, including support for graduate programs and research. Greater analysis of collections is likely to result in new models for allocation of funds and for making decisions about collections.
Objective 3.2: Improve strategies for expediting the delivery of information resources to learners and scholars.
Discussion: Internal processes will be streamlined to ensure that all materials will be available to users as quickly as possible. Approval profiles must be expanded and closely aligned with program strengths to minimize the time liaison librarians spend on title-by-title selection. This is a work flow objective that crosses organizational boundaries and is important because of its potential impact. Achieving this objective should minimize staff time devoted to acquisition of content and improve service to users. Reducing turnaround time on orders, unburdening liaison librarians, and improving communication about order status are all parts of this objective. Another part of this objective involves developing and expanding services for the physical and electronic delivery of information resources from the locations where they are housed to locations which are convenient for students and faculty.
Objective 3.3: Investigate issues related to management of digital content across Libraries & Educational Technologies and develop a strategy that supports the organization, preservation, storage and retrieval of digital assets.
Discussion: In order to preserve and maintain access to born digital content we need to have a long range strategy and contingency plan for managing digital assets. This applies to content developed at JMU such as our own web pages and the databases that drive them, online course materials, scanned items from our collections, digital images and digital videos but it is not a digital repository objective. The strategy we adopt must also be applicable to digital assets that we acquire from vendors including e-journals, e-books, and other digital files. This objective is about risk avoidance and insuring long term access
Objective 3.4: Develop criteria for digitizing information and learning resources in the areas of curriculum support, scholarship and preservation.
Discussion: Digitization projects offer potential to expand access, increase use, and preserve scholarly content. Such projects are also time consuming, expensive and labor intensive. This objective is about finding the balance between the costs and benefits of digitization projects. We will need to compare the costs and benefits of digitizing our own content to those of expanding access to primary source material that we acquire. Part of this objective involves identifying specific collections and items that are highest priorities for digitization.
Goal 4: Develop physical environments, which reflect our mission by supporting learning, research, teaching and the work of our organization.
Objective 4.1: Develop and implement well-defined, user-oriented space utilization plans.
Discussion: The plan should address each facility for which Libraries & Educational Technologies is responsible as well as facilities designed and managed by Libraries & Educational Technologies on behalf of others. Space planning is a continuous process. We must continually rethink what library and public learning spaces are and quickly respond to changing space needs for learners and staff. Planning will involve ongoing needs assessment related to users, programs, and emerging technologies. The purposes for which the spaces we manage are used must be at the forefront of planning. Our unique role on the campus also implies that we consider the intersection between physical and virtual spaces and the ways in which developments in one area affect the other. We can also contribute to campus space planning by making recommendations of ways that our services can be used to improve facilities or offer virtual alternatives to physical spaces. In a parallel effort we need identify short-term improvements that can be made to the Carrier Library and the Music Library. The plan should include timetables and the timetable should address short-term measures that can be taken to improve facilities for both users and staff. The plan needs to be global in scope, divided into phases and coordinated with campus planning.
Objective 4.2: Develop, communicate, and carry out the plan for opening the new library to the public in fall 2008.
Discussion: The short term outcome associated with this objective is a project plan that addresses the tasks, which need to be completed for a successful opening. The longer term outcome is a service model that accounts for the geographic distribution of facilities, collections and staff. This objective must be completed in 2008. Successful completion will require following through on myriad details associated with matters like procurement of furniture and equipment , developing a service plan, moving collections and people, recruiting and hiring staff for a new facility, establishing policies and procedures and managing communication.
Objective 4.3: Develop a strategic plan for technology in classrooms and public, general use learning spaces.
Discussion: The technology designed, developed and maintained by L&ET forms a crucial part of the campus infrastructure. To ensure cost effective, pedagogically sound and sustainable classroom systems, L&ET needs to be involved in capital project or major renovation plans involving classrooms or other public, general use learning spaces. Another important aspect of this objective involves finding a balance between deploying new technologies with new capabilities and managing and sustaining existing infrastructure. It is important to rethink what classroom space is and to remain engaged with faculty and administrators in designing and supporting classrooms and other learning and presentation spaces. As L&ET expands along with the university, staff needed for staff and support operations must also be considered. Finally, we need to improve our understanding of the relationship between the physical and virtual learning environments and pursue strategies to maximize the benefit of investments in each area.
Goal 5: Be a planful and agile organization that embraces innovation while balancing priorities to serve learners and scholars.
Objective 5.1: Develop organizational processes that integrate the strategic plan into daily functions and activities. Recommend a methodology for developing, modifying, assessing and reporting strategic objectives.
Discussion: The purpose of this objective is to ensure that services, resources, and service philosophy are aligned throughout the organization. Aspects of this objective include: establishing milestones for measuring progress on objectives; adopting a consistent methodology for measuring and reporting progress; and reviewing organizational structures, recommending changes as needed and assigning responsibility for specific goals and objectives. An important prerequisite for meeting this objective involves aligning organization, unit and individual goals and objectives.
Objective 5.2: Develop internal communication processes that include all Libraries & Educational Technologies personnel.
Discussion: Informal communication is one of many ways of sharing information in a large, geographically dispersed organization. Steps need to be taken to formalize communication and increase engagement. Emphasis needs to be on the big picture. Poor communication can cause morale problems. Time needs to be set aside for communication. We need to identify some immediate short-term actions to take in order to improve the current situation and move toward ongoing, more formal, sustainable approaches to internal communication in a complex, dynamic and much larger organization.
Objective 5.3: Establish a process to encourage innovation, to consider new ideas and to allocate resources in support of experimentation.
Discussion: The environment is changing rapidly. We must be prepared to respond to change, to entertain new ideas and to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. A certain amount of risk is acceptable. Mechanisms for soliciting and evaluating new ideas are needed. We need to expand opportunities for innovation at the grass roots level and set aside time and resources to enable staff to pursue new ideas.
Objective 5.4: Clarify which organizational entities and individuals are authorized to make decisions and the processes by which different types of decisions are made.
Discussion: We must specify which people and groups are empowered to make decisions in specific functional areas, who must review decisions, who must provide input into decisions, who must approve and commit resources to decisions and how information about decisions is to be shared. Success on this objective will be determined by availability of human resources and development of organizational structures and strategies which allow for timely and efficient decision making and communication about decisions.
Objective 5.5: Develop a staffing plan by identifying knowledge, skills and competencies needed within each work unit and establishing priorities for developing existing employees and hiring new employees with competencies that match organizational needs.
Discussion: Our success depends upon our ability to recruit, retain and develop a high performing, motivated and diverse workforce. We will renew our commitment to providing staff with time and opportunities for professional development. We will conduct skills inventory of staff and align staff with strategic priorities. We will invest in the recruitment, development, and retention of a workforce whose skills are aligned with the mission of the organization. We will create, and modify on an ongoing basis, a plan to recruit or develop labor force that is able to fulfill our mission as the university grows and the environment changes.
