Center for Instructional Technology

Revised 9/29/2011

FY11 Annual Report

Executive Summary

After two years of growth that included doubling in size, adding a second location, reorganizing its staff with a new director, integrating a classroom technology unit, and building new services, the “new” CIT had a productive FY11 with numerous accomplishments. While some additional reorganizing and hiring took place in this fiscal year, the organization has developed a good rhythm of work, established some effective processes, and built stronger collaborative relationships across the units, so productivity was high.

A quite notable achievement for the CIT is an award received for the Madison Digital Image Database (MDID), primarily the work of Kevin Hegg and Andreas Knab. The award, the nTelos Innovation in Higher Education Award, was given by the Shenandoah Valley Technology Council in May, 2011 at its annual event, Tech Nite 11.

Other notable accomplishments include:

· Re-organized and expanded the role of the Learning System Support (LSS) group and added a position. Moved Tech Classroom “call center” function to the group, moved LSS group to Systems, Research and Development, and hired a LSS supervisor. Requested and received new position for the LSS group in order to extend support hours; will fill the new position in FY12.

· Improved administrative processes. Adjusted purchasing process for software, hardware, etc. to improve efficiency, clarity and accountability, especially for download-only purchases (a growing phenomenon) and streamlined the Tech Classroom Key Distribution process. Partnered with James Madison Inc. to explore the possibility of monetizing the MDID3 system to create a revenue stream.

· Supported staff professional development. Jamie Calcagno-Roach and Nicole Wilson earned certifications in clicker technology and instruction. Jackie Woolf earned her Certified Technology Specialist certification from InfoComm International in June 2011. Two staff served on national program committees: J. Christie Liu on the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Conference Planning Committee, and Mary Ann Chappell on the EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Program Planning Committee. Assistant Director of Faculty Development Andrea Adams selected for 2011 CARS Assessment Fellows.

· Collaborated on projects and programs with external departments including the Library, the CFI, the IT Training Department, and IT Administration.

· Contributed to L&ET Initiatives: Various staff served on L&ET Task Force groups: the Research Roadmap Task Force and the Intranet Evaluation Task Force. Staff also served on search committees. Two staff serve on L&ET’s Digital Assets Working Group (DAWG) and one serves on the Marketing Committee.

· Contributed to JMU Initiatives. Served on a proposal team for the QEP (JMU’s Quality Enhancement Plan), a writing team for JMU’s 6-Year Strategic Plan, and the Geospatial Technologies Task Force. Built and maintained Wordpress sites for collecting and evaluating the QEP proposals and hosting the Preface Program’s reading materials and instructions.

· Participated in state initiatives. Attended the Virginia Software Summit in August, 2011 with several Virginia schools to discuss innovative, improved and more cost effective ways to provision software. Collaborated with the AVP of IT, the Provost, the University President, representatives from 3 other Virginia universities, and Cisco in a project called 4-VA. The purpose of the project is to develop strategies for sharing resources (including technology) and building cross-institutional programs.

· Expanded programming and support for faculty. Offered the first Maymester Institute for Summer Online Course Development and expanded CIT-website information about distance learning services; designed and facilitated the first Classroom Technology Sandbox; implemented an awareness campaign for the Blackboard 9 upgrade in August; facilitated the first Clicker Book Talk and Clicker Forum; designed and facilitated the first Digital Storytelling workshop. Hosted the 8th CIT Teaching & Learning with Technology Conference in October, 2010, with keynote speaker, Jeff McClurken from University of Mary Washington.

· Completed multiple technology projects related to learning systems and tools, system upgrades and maintenance, and websites. Most notable projects include: evaluated the value of Wordpress as an instructional tool and explored its capacity to integrate with other tools and systems (e.g., Dropbox and PeopleSoft); have created a total of 24 course-related Wordpress sites that serve more than 1800 students. Agreed to re-host the WebWork math homework system. Conducted a pilot of CIT’s new MDID3 media management and delivery tool and released a completely rewritten version of the MediaViewer application for in-class analysis of high-resolution images. Expanded the use of virtual servers; expanded the Storage Area Network (SAN) shared by the CIT and Library; prepared for upgrade to Blackboard 9 and upgraded Relay screen capture system and Classroom Recording and Streaming Service (CRASS); migrated the Library’s Online Video Collection to MDID3 to improve the user experience. Upgraded projection systems and computers in several spaces across campus. Created a mobile version of the CIT website, a new Blackboard Support website, and a new MDID Community Support site.

· Started integrating assessment into programming and administration. Purchased copies of the SLOAN-C Consortium's "A Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Programs;" will study in 2012 and determine how best to integrate into strategies for assessing DL/BL programs and structure. Enhanced Summer Institute curriculum by integrating peer review of online course outline and syllabus development for online courses. Designed and facilitated customized Assessment Workshop for Nursing Department. As a 2011 CARS Assessment Fellow, Assistant Director of Faculty Development developed a draft assessment plan, including a rubric, for assessing the quality of online courses.

· Planned for acquisition of high-impact systems and extension of services. Officially started process of investigating various learning management systems and online learning tools for possible replacement of Blackboard in 2014. Prepared for RFP process to acquire an online course evaluation system for all online distance courses; RFP will be issued in late August, 2011. Started strategizing to increase the reach and distribution of the new MDID3 system, including efforts to commercialize MDID service and distribute well beyond the Art & Art History discipline.

Selected Outcomes

· Served more than 500 faculty (distinct users) in faculty development programs.

· Reached more than 15,000 videos in JMUtube.

· Users successfully recorded 490 presentations with the Relay screen capture tool.

· Number of active course sites in Blackboard increased by 7% from Summer 2010 to Summer 2011. Number of active course sites reached 3,284 in Fall 2010 and 3,222 in Spring 2011.

· JMU’s Technology Satisfaction Survey results indicate increases in use of video delivery, JMUtube, MDID, web-accessible mobile devices, online collaboration tools (e.g., Google Docs, Microsoft Web Apps), Social Networking sites, blogs, and lecture capture tools; 70% of the faculty who responded to the survey indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with Blackboard.

· A total of 24 course-related Wordpress sites served more than 1800 students.

· More than 35 courses were designed or redesigned for distance or blended online learning.

· Prevented an anticipated expenditure of several thousand dollars on servers by purchasing virtual server space from IT.

Center for Instructional Technology

FY11 Annual Report

Detailed Summary

Other notable accomplishments include:

Organizational Structure

· Held the 3rd Annual Retreat in July. First one to include Classroom Technology Services.

· Hired a new Ed Tech Consultant, Nicole Wilson, to replace Jamie Calcagno-Roach who accepted the new position, Instructional Technologist for Classroom Technologies.

· The CIT reorganized the Learning Management Systems Department. A new manager position was created which was filled by Eric Hansen. There was also a new IT Tech II position added which was filled by Brent Taylor in October, 2010.

· Learning Support Team is now taking Classroom Tech Support phone calls and redirecting to CTS staff. Phones calls had previously been answered in Media Resources when CTS was a part of that L&ET unit.

Administration

· Shifted almost all purchasing to one Administrative Assistant to achieve a leaner process and free the other AA’s time for budgeting tasks.

· Adopted the Apple Volume Licensing Program so that mobile apps can be easily purchased and accounted for.

· Successfully revised the Tech Classroom Key Distribution system to streamline process of distributing, tracking and collecting keys for faculty.

· Distance and Blended Learning CIT work group created a process and repository for keeping track of CIT institutes, JMU faculty and other information related to distance and blended learning.

Staff Development, Achievements and Service

· Staff participated in 1-day customized DiSC training with facilitator from JMU’s Training Department.

· Procured enough iPad mobile devices so that all CIT staff can familiarize themselves with a mobile tablet technology that is rapidly becoming a highly significant component of the University learning environment.

· Two Faculty Development staff (Nicole Wilson and Jamie Calcagno-Roach) completed certification in Turning Point clicker technology.

· CTS staff Jackie Woolf renewed her Certified Technology Specialist certification from InfoComm International in June 2011. Renewal required Jackie to earn 30 credits by taking classes that are job/certificate specific.

· Several staff made presentations at local, state and national conferences.

· Instructional Technologist Christie Liu served on the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Conference Planning Committee

· Educational Technologies Librarian Mary Ann Chappell served on the EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Program Planning Committee

· Various staff served on L&ET Task Force groups: the Research Roadmap Task Force and the Intranet Evaluation Task Force,

· Instructional Technologist Christie Liu served as L&ET Coordinator for Employee Giving Campaign.

· CIT Director was elected to Board of Directors of Shenandoah Valley Technology Council.

· Instructional Technologist Jamie Calcagno-Roach served on the L&ET Environmental Stewardship Committee

· Two staff served as adjunct faculty: Jamie Calcagno-Roach in College of Education and Grover Saunders in School of Art & Art History.

Collaboration

· Faculty Development staff served on the planning committee for CFI’s January Symposium and May Symposium; they are starting to plan collaboratively with the CFI for 2011-12 faculty development programs.

· Faculty Development and Systems collaborated with the Library and the CFI on workshops to introduce technical and pedagogical aspects of using SafeAssign anti-plagiarism software.

· Faculty Development and Media Services collaborated with the Library on Flipcam and JMUtube workshops for faculty.

· Librarians presented information about online research databases in each CIT Institute for Online Course Development.

· Faculty Development collaborated with the Library and IT Training to facilitate orientation sessions (online and face-to-face formats) for distance Nursing students.

· CIT and Digital Services worked together to plan usage and replication procedures for the upgraded SAN.

· Collaborated with IT to conduct annual Technology Satisfaction Survey; results indicate increases in use of video delivery, JMUtube, MDID, web-accessible mobile devices, online collaboration tools (e.g., Google Docs, Microsoft Web Apps), Social Networking sites, blogs, lecture capture; 70% of the faculty who responded to the Technology Satisfaction Report indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with Blackboard.

JMU Initiatives

· Faculty Development joined in the QEP writing team on the topic of “Redesign for the 21st Century: Using Current and New Technology to Promote Student Centered Learning”

· The CIT, the CFI, the Dean of Libraries and the AVP of Information Technology collaborated on technology and instructional technology objectives for JMU’s 6-year strategic plan.

· The R&D staff built a Wordpress site for JMU’s Quality Enhancement Program (QEP), a key component in preparations for the 2013 SACS review. The QEP site houses 62 QEP proposals. Dr. Rose solicited comments from the JMU community on the proposals' merits in April, 2011. Anonymous reviewers came to the QEP site and left 370 comments using the site's commenting features between April and August of 2011. During the same period of time, over 6,000 different people visited the site and the site served over 40,000 page views.

· The R&D staff set up a customized WordPress blogging site for JMU’s PREFACE Program, which is designed to introduce first-year students to the JMU culture and learning environment. Incoming students were asked to read a series of technical articles and then share their thoughts on those articles through the PREFACE blogging site. Over 600 students posted an article on this blogging site. The students used WordPress’s commenting feature to talk about each other’s articles. The Preface Program is a collaborative program between the Library and General Education.

· D. Lee Beard served on JMU’s Geospatial Technologies Task Force.

State Initiatives

· CIT and other JMU representatives participated in the Virginia Software Summit in Richmond in August, 2010; purpose of Summit was to investigate consortial agreements for software purchasing.

· The CIT Director and Classroom Technology Services collaborated with the AVP of Information Technology, the University Provost, and the University President in a statewide project called 4-VA. The purpose of this project is to build collaborative relationships among four Virginia schools (JMU, Virginia Tech, George Mason, and UVA) by using technology, sharing resources and developing cross-institutional programs.

Programming and Support

Distance and Blended Learning

· Assisted faculty in designing or redesigning more than 35 courses

· Further developed the faculty mentoring program and created a promotional video.

· Created, designed and implemented the first Maymester Institute for Online Course Development; a semester-long program starting in January designed to relieve undue stress on faculty who teach in the Maymester and CIT staff who help them prepare supplemental learning resources. Successfully accomplished these goals.

· Coordinated and facilitated Customized Institute for Blended Learning for Social Work Department.

· Coordinated and facilitated regular Institutes: Summer Institute for Online Learning, Fall Blended Learning Institute, Customized Institute for Online Learning for Outreach Department.

· Redefined and filled the Learning System Support Specialist position; position includes more system analysis and maintenance than previous position.