Heavy Lifting: Leveraging Resources in the Public Sector

UMass Boston: Information Technology

Mary Simone, Media Center ManagerLisa Link, Web Designer Lisa Berelson, Senior Web Designer

Case Studies: Interdisciplinary Projects

UMass Boston: Information Technology

Case One: Internal Audience: students and facultyResources: WebCT/Blackboard, Web 2.0 tools, MACXServ

Case Two: Example Internal/External ProjectResources: YouTube, imovie, Addthis, Google, MapLib

Project Management & Tracking

UMass Boston: Information Technology

Case One: OnLine Tutoring and Blended Learning

On-line Tutoring blended Learning Internal Audience: students and facultyResources: WebCT/Blackboard, Web 2.0 tools, MACXServ

Interdisciplinary CollaborationAcademic Support ProgramsHispanic Studies Nursing Writing Proficiency OfficeIT

Presented by Mary Simone, Media Center Manager

Case One: Project Intent

• To increase understanding of class material of students enrolled in Spanish 102 courses

• To increase student access to tutoring services of students enrolled in Critical Reading and Writing to support student writing (CRW) 283 and Nursing 360 to satisfy the Writing Proficiency Requirement (3) to provide online students with similar access to tutoring in writing as that received by Nursing students in face to face courses

Case One: Role Matrix

• Manager -budget and finance, administrative support, event management , coordination,Communication,Reports

• E-Technology (ET) --MAC OS Server Set up ,BLS Course Design (one template) BLS Course admin and management, ,Selection of Technology tools in BLS SPA, Selection of Technology tools in BLS NU

• Subject Content &Pedagogy (SCP) - -Content of Web BLS Course- Nursing Content of Web BLS Course- Spanish 101,ESL Content of Web BLS Nursing

• Tutor management (TM)- -hire tutors; administer salary train Spanish tutors in constructivist process approach to tutoring methods and documentation

• Tutor Training (TT)--Technology Competence Training of all Tutors Technology training documentation, train Spanish tutors in constructivist process approach to tutoring methods and documentation , train Nursing tutors in constructivist process approach tutoring methods and documentation

• Assessment: Student and project Assessments

Case One: Project Management Timeline

Case One: Project Outcomes

• Developed and piloted an on-line tutoring model in Vista 4 that integrated various e-learning tools. The different courses of Nursing and Hispanic Studies required slightly different Vista template design and content due to the pedagogical demands of the courses with which they were blended www.umassonline.net

• Created web portal to enable students and faculty to easily access different e-tools including and training and support materials outside of Vista throughout the pilot. The portal can be found at http://omega.www.umb.edu/~onlinetutorweb/index.html

• Successful collaboration resulted from the use project management software and e-tools including wikis and blogs, and project management software to facilitate and strengthen communication among committee members, build a community of active participation, and involvement in project tasks, document, archive, and evaluate individual and team achievements.http://xserv1.umb.edu/groups/onlinetutoring/

Case One: Management Assessment

• On-line resources can be used successfully to target the learning needs of individual and groups of students in diverse

academic areas.• Has revealed strategies about how to leverage existing resources

including material and personnel in a higher educational environment. • The readership of the project was limited to the audience of faculty and

students through WebCT. The fact that the materials produced were targeted to internal groups gave us different options from the kinds of multi-media tools that a project targeted to external audiences needed to provide.

Case Two: Web Designers as Media Brokers

The process is important as the final product in reinforcing the university’s mission.

Maximizing campus resources with a limited budget.

Collaboration & Scalability

Web 2.0 tools enhance marketing for understaffed programs

Presented by Lisa Link, Web Designer

Case Two: Process vs. Product• UMass is Boston’s only public university, since it’s founding chosen to

actively engage with and serve its community.

• New media allows for collaborative methods of involving students in production, so that the PROCESS of the media piece reinforces the mission of the school as much as the final PRODUCT.

• Had a screening to show work-in-progress, invited campus personnel to meet students.

• Umass Advancement Office our most active client recognizes how media must reinforce the message and mission of the school.

• Ellen Fleming, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations co-managed this project with me which involved a web site and video to show both on and offline.

Case Two: Leveraging Resources Ellen & I had students do a lot of the research for the video

interview and writing of the script.

We borrowed low-end cameras to rehearse so that no time would be wasted when we were “on the clock” in the studio.

We had the students do most of the editing in imovie.

We created a base file in imovie and then worked with Mary Simone’s staff person, John Mazzarella, to add some special effects at the end.

We designated Ellen as web editor and trained in Contribute so we know that the site will be maintained. This is our practice in Web Services.

Case Two: Collaboration & Scalability Video portion of the web site will be presented offline in events

requiring high resolution video.

Design on the premise that we can scale down, not up. That is why we invested in one hour of paid studio time..

Collaboration across multiple departments is as important as any technology. Must share information, equipment, time to succeed.

Project managed by University Advancement & Web Services. Worked with Urban Scholars staff, students and other administrators as well as Mary Simone’s staff and the high-end video production group on campus.

Case Two: Web 2.0 Tools

At Umass, not every department has dedicated marketing support. Web designers must assist and Web 2.0 enhances their ability to promote their programs and ideas.

Host on http://www.youtube.com, solves storage and provides access to broad audience, great for these short videos.

http://www.addthis.com http://maps.google.com http://www.maplib.net http:/www.facebook.com Urban Scholars already uses Facebook extensively. http://www.google.com/analytics

UMass Boston: Program Portal Managing Projects at an Enterprise Level

UMass Boston: IT Application Services

Presented by Lisa Berelson, Senior Web Designer

Goal of IT App Program Portal• Advanced multi purpose organization tool

• Reporting tool for Directors and Managers• Handles projects from a multi-tier perspective: Programs represent

high level longer term initiatives, Projects or Tasks are subsets of Programs and smaller in scope– Ex) Program - Template Redesign: ongoing program involving

potentially thousands of sites– Ex) Project - Convert Research Department to new template

• Day to day tracking tool - for individual projects• Long term initiative assessment• Complete system for handling workflow

– Directors, Managers, Staff, Plus Client

Features of IT Application Program Management Portal

• Multi-tiered application • Versatile• Extensible• Filters – exists at almost every level and very helpful for all users including

managers and staff• Sorts – example: Director or Managers can sort only the Programs they want

to see• Communicates – can email Staff and or notify Client when a project is

assigned. Can also email client when an assignment is completed. Closure on a project: how satisfying.

• Reports data

UMass Boston: IT Application ServicesProgram Management Portal

sorts

filters

ID# Tip: organize emails with this numbering system

Program Management Portal: Project Details

Developers Notes:internal

Comments: public

Client and StaffCommunication

High level of detail:URL involved

Versatile• Repository for documents: Status Reports in Word, Excel.

– Instant access to the same data for staff and management. Avoid emailing old copies of status reports. All sharing same information.

• Excellent repository for development docs and resources

Extensible

Allows for flexibility in growth or change of your division or department as well as flexibility in functionalityExample of Add-ons:

– Calendar: shows when employees are out or at conference

– Contribute users portal Perhaps extend this to tracking Subdomain

information ex) www.english.umb.edu

Program Management Portal:Management Perspective

Dashboard: Management Perspective

Measures: Estimated Hours vs. Actual Hours

The Dashboard: Management Perspective

Tracks Individual Projects to the

Program Initiative

The Dashboard: Reporting Tool

Report % Complete by Program

The Dashboard: Reporting Tool

Report % Complete by Program

Conclusion• Research on campus for any and all resources that may be able to design a

Project Portal Application at lower cost than full outsource: possibly collaborating with Computer Science Department who may have programming students.– Ex) Academic Support and Computer Science subsidiary

(serl)• But be aware: Database applications are a tricky business.

They require a lot of knowledge of business processes and workflow. Even graduate students rarely have this expertise or experience.– UMB leveraged from having the same Team Leader in charge

of the department also be the developer on the application. He could therefore anticipate any and all situations that would arise in the design of this portal.

• If necessary, outsource the initial development of this work to a qualified web applications developer and assign a manager in charge of knowing basic maintenance issues that the developer should provide.

• Worth the cost in saving time and money.

UMass Boston: Web ServicesImage RepositoryTool of choice: dedicated file server running Adobe Bridge

UMass Boston: IT Application Services

Adobe Bridge: Cost effective way to manage large collection of images

Adobe Bridge Features

• Allows you to easily Find images from vast array of photos• Find feature works by assigning ‘keywords’ to images

– Ex) Campus Center, Studying, Collaboration…• Fully dynamic and extensible assortment of images.

System we set up at UMB: photographers upload images monthly to a space allocated on file server.– Organized by year_month

• Details for any image: includes resolution and pixel dimensions• Not a CMS system i.e. this does auto crop or optimize images

Adobe Bridge ‘Find’ window

Adobe Bridge: Metadata and other properties provide precise detail including pixel dimensions and resolution• Great resource for designers and writers alike