Assessing the Academic Networked Environment

CNI Planning - Instructional Support

Name: Instructional Contacts - Requests
Type: Improvement and Extensiveness


Brief Description:

Number of faculty requests to CIS_Faculty_Liaison for services, including:
- room requests (included those scheduled by registrar)
- network services (newsgroups/course accounts)
- training requests


How Gathered:

Through the Faculty Request form,
the Course Publisher requests, and
ad-hoc queries via e-mail and phone.

How Analyzed:

Compare courses requesting instructional support to:
departmental course offerings (if possible)
enrolled students

Computer room usage by:

hours/week
number of courses scheduled
hours/course

Formal requests versus ad-hoc requests
Request date compared with time to fill

By official request deadline,
1 month before classes
1 week before classes
1st two weeks of classes
After second week

Purpose:


To understand service demands by group (department) and function (specialized software etc.) to tailor and improve service levels to departments.

Value:

Assist with planning workflow and staffing requirements.
Establish benchmarks for quality of service.
Assists with understanding how users understand services and integration. with instructional delivery.


Name: Instructional Contacts - Specialized Software
Type: Improvement and Effectiveness


Brief Description:

Number of requests for specialized software (defined as software used by that course or department alone, ex: Populus for BioMed).

How Gathered:

Faculty database and ad-hoc requests.

How analyzed:

Longitudinal analysis for trends.

Purpose:

To better understand the balance between general purpose software and specialized software.

Value:

Impact on support levels and possible budget justification.


Name: Instructional Contacts - Breakdowns
Type: Improvement and Efficiency


Brief Description:

Numbers of faculty contacts which require follow-up with instructional team to complete request.

How Gathered:

Service providers with faculty contact - Manger of Instructional Support, Faculty Liaison, Facilities Manger, Training - maintain e-mail logs for start of semester.

How analyzed:

Compare with requests which are met without intervention.

Purpose:

Determine adequacy of procedures and documentation.

Value:

Redesign services to meet user needs.


Name: Instructional Uses - Services
Type: Improvement and Effectiveness


Brief Description:

Use of services over the academic cycle of the semester or year, including:
newsgroups
web (CP)
classrooms
clusters

How Gathered:

Newsgroups - by examining numbers and dates of postings Web/CP - examining course listings for web pages* Classrooms - examine schedules Clusters - note times when full; implement network-based measurements How analyzed: Trends and cycle times.

Purpose:

Determine which requested services are in use.

Value:

Provide justification for offerings to integrate technology into teaching and to examine whether requests services are in fact being used.

Note: Mark Handler might have some ideas regarding web services and Course Publisher evaluation.


Name: Instructional Needs
Type: Improvement and Extensiveness


Brief Description:

Meet with users to ask, "What do you want?". The current method seems to be provide what we think is best.

How Gathered:

Meet with departments and coordination with Library and Dept.Consulting.

How analyzed:

Recommendation reports.

Purpose:

Determine what are the important services and delivery means.

Value:

Help CIS provide services with biggest bang to users rather than to demanding users. Help uncover barriers to use.

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