Institutional
Implementation:
The Penn State Journey
Nicola Kiver
Executive Assistant to the Dean
College of the Liberal Arts
Cheryl Seybold
Director of Solutions, Services, and Support
Information Technology Services
The Pennsylvania State University
Overview
– About The Pennsylvania State University
– Why Digital Measures and Activity Insights?
– Early Implementation
– Lessons Learned
– Today and Moving Forward
– Challenges You May Face
We Are … Penn State !!
• 24 Campus Locations
• ~90,000 Students
• 24,703 Full-Time Employees
• 8,675 Part-Time Employees
• Over 3/4 Million Degrees Conferred
• $4.4B Total Operating Budget (2013-14)
• Facilities
– University Park
– Other 23 Locations
– Total
Acreages
7,343
15,196
22,539
Number of Buildings
932
778
1,710
Background
• 2007
– Contract for service signed
– Initiated and funded by the Office of the Provost
– Managed initially by one individual
• 2009
– Piloted in the University Libraries
– Customized and tested screens and reports
– Provided training and created FAQs
• 2011
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Expanded to other units
Oversight Committee created
Four member Management Team created
Stakeholders Group created
• 2013
– Contract Renewal
Management Team
Manager – Information Tech Services
(Administrative Information Services)
University Administrator – Information Tech Services
(Administrative Information Services)
Senior Planning and Research Associate
(Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment)
Representative for Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
(Office of the President)
Oversight Committee
Cross-functional team – currently 16 members –
representing:
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Academic Affairs (Office of the Vice Provost)
Administrative Information Services
Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment
Colleges
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19 Commonwealth Campuses
Business
Education
Information Sciences and Technology
Liberal Arts
Libraries
Nursing
Oversight Committee Activities
• Bi-monthly meetings
• List-serve for exchanging opinions and gaining consensus
• Reviewing higher-level requests and ensuring that system
is attaining desired level of customer satisfaction
• Responsible for strategic/long-range planning
• Managing data uploads including:
– Courses taught
– Student evaluations
– Research funding
• Managing University-wide ‘University Dossier’ report
Stakeholder Group
• Email group created
• Forum for regular users to voice concerns and
share methods
• Meets once per year
• Currently 34 members
Ideas for successful implementation
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Support from Vice Provost
Support from Faculty Senate
Mandate by Deans
Department heads review and test
Two or three faculty to pilot
Provide training and support for staff
Hands-on training for faculty
Compile frequently asked questions
Staggered Rollout Suggestions
• Only new untenured faculty (no backfilling data)
• Only annual performance reviews (one year of data
required)
• Only first P&T reviews (i.e. 2 year reviews)
• Divide large units (i.e. 9 out of 18 departments in yr
1, rest in yr 2)
• Hand-pick small group of faculty within a large unit
for yr 1
Unit level responsibilities
• Customize screens
• Maintain access rights and security
• Manage unit specific web pages/online access
points
• Manage/customize unit specific reports including:
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Annual Performance Reviews
Vitas
Faculty web profiles
NIH and NSF Biographical Sketches
Challenges faced
• Locating individual entries – sort/search
feature, keyword searches
• Accurate application of APA, Chicago, MLA
styles
• WYSIWYG editor
• Usable Vita reports
• Enable local administrators to update values
within drop-down menus
Successes achieved
• Implementation by more than 50% of Penn
State’s faculty across 29 units
• 4783 active accounts (9081 total)
• Client use survey
• Support website - activityinsight.psu.edu features include:
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Overview of project
Contact information for support staff
Central location for all FAQs organized generally and by unit
Timeline of use throughout the year, including data uploads
Project roadmap
• Screen
Goals for future implementation
• Improve reports to increase functionality for users
• Improve support by addressing long standing feature
requests including:
– Connection with researchers doing similar work
– Sort/search feature for locating individual entries
• Increase number of units as well as number of
individual users
• Continue to create sense of community and support
for users
• Campus website profiles from faculty data
Questions?