AcITAC
The UMDNJ Academic Information
Technology Advisory Committee
Annual Report 2003-2004
Respectfully submitted by Bruce Byrne (Chair 2003-2004), Riva
Touger-Decker (Chair 2004-2005) and AcITAC
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary
2. Process
3. Topics: Issues and Highlights
4. Conclusions
5. Recommendations and Plans
Page
Page
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2
3
4-8
9
10
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11
12
13
14
Appendices
A.
B.
C.
D.
AcITAC Charge (2002)
Draft AcITAC Charge (2004)
Minigrant Projects 2003-2004
Membership 2003-2004
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Executive Summary
AcITAC has entered its 14th year. Our 2003-2004 topical meetings focused on
exciting technologies championed by some of our most technically savvy
faculty. However, we also learned from faculty in need of increased assistance
to bring the benefits of technology to their classes. This 2003 -2004 report
highlights critical Information Technology (IT) issues that affect the daily
challenges of education in an academic health sciences university. We offer
here observations on technologies (pages 4-7) and conclusions and
recommendations (pages 8-9) with a focus on policy and service delivery
models.
The academic IT enterprise is increasingly dependent upon network-connected
content as diverse as scientific journals, clinical and educational practice
guidelines, and molecular databases. These resources are accessed, analyzed
and organized by software applications. Most of our conversations reflected
choices made about content, software applications, devices, resource
management, the network and training.
Recommendations, in summary.
1. Keep it simple, make it better: advocate for transparent delivery of
technologies and network upgrades.
2. Create parity for distance and on-campus students: provide both oncampus and distance education students equal access to scholarly and
instructional electronic resources.
3. Innovate, evaluate, re-invent: the wealth of academically-targeted IT
projects and products requires regular examination and marketing.
4. Collaborate and cooperate: foster opportunities that forge
relationships across UMDNJ.
In his re-organization of the IST Governance Structure, Mr. Thompson has asked
that AcITAC serve as the Educational Services Committee. AcITAC’s new
Charge (page 12) reflects that request. Our plans (page 10), build on projects
extending from 2003-2004, carry out those responsibilities given us in IAIMS,
and can be amended by any new assignments from the Deans or the Office of
Academic Affairs.
Plans,
1.
2.
3.
in summary.
Work within the new IST governance structure.
Engage in IAIMS activities and accelerate outreach.
Continue the collaboration with Facilities Planning on technology in the
classroom
4. Encourage IT advancement coupled to evaluation and assessment.
5. Foster collaboration university-wide
6. Extend our ties to the Master Educator’s Guild (MEG)
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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AcITAC Process
AcITAC’s meetings are held on campuses across the University. We met in
2003-2004 in Newark, Scotch Plains, New Brunswick, Camden and Stratford.
The current AcITAC charge is displayed in Appendix A. A draft new charge,
Appendix B, reflects a re-focused set of priorities in line with changes in the
2004/2005 IST governance structure.
All records, reports, minutes and agenda are held in a private website to which
the membership has access. In addition, the Committee receives monthly
updates from ACS/IST and the IAIMS/Informatics Institute leadership through
reports from the Director of Academic Computing Services, IAIMS
representatives, and the Educational Technology Subcommittee. Full
summaries of the discussions are available from AcITAC representatives
(Appendix D).
AcITAC encourages the formation of partnerships to advance the use of
information technology for education and research. The Educational
Technology subcommittee of AcITAC has been charged by IAIMS with advancing
instructional uses of technology. AcITAC/IAIMS educational technology grants
were again extended this year through support from the Foundation of UMDNJ.
Most meetings focused on defined, issue-based discussions. Session leaders
(members of AcITAC) developed discussion formats, defined key questions to
be addressed in the discussion, identified anticipated outcomes, and invited
guest experts in the content area for the day’s discussion
The issues that were addressed during the 2003-2004 academic year included:
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Messaging: General and new categories of email
The Changing Face of Education: New categories of students in distant
locations
Master Educators: Technology challenges for our best teachers
Electronic Media: E-Books and Scholarly Resources
Facilities Planning: Toward enhancing conversations between the teams
that build electronically-enhanced classrooms and those that teach in
them.
Public Computer Labs: An examination of their roles and challenges.
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Topics: Issues and Highlights
Messaging: General and new categories of email. Issues. AcITAC considered
three challenges to this service: unnecessary increases in volume generated by
unsolicited commercial mail (SPAM), infrastructure threats associated with
viruses and similar malicious code attached to email, and privacy
considerations demanding levels of encryption and/or authentication for
messages containing data protected by HIPAA. Highlights: Commercial
products installed and managed by ACS filter substantial SPAM, and adjusting
the breadth of that filter is an art being increasingly accomplished by ACS.
Malicious code threats are also successfully managed by standard email
gateways, although other simple modes of transmission repeatedly challenge
IST staff. A plan (PKI) to ensure secure, authenticated and encrypted email for
HIPAA compliance was tested by ACS and found applicable only in limited
environments. It required both some customization of individual computers,
user training, and continued regular user compliance. The difficulties in
delivering the product and ensuring consistent user behavior encouraged IST to
look at commercial systems that will provide required assurance. The new
approach, which will see delivery in 2004/05, works off the fair presumption
that the UMDNJ network is secure, by HIPAA standards, and only messages
traveling into the Internet must be encrypted. New applications will scan all
Internet-bound email for patterns in the messages that indicate HIPAA-covered
materials. Individuals to whom such messages are directed will be notified
that a message is available and deliverable through a secure and encrypted
pathway run through a web-enabled messaging system.
The outcome of this discussion was the finding that new technologies are often
best implemented when they appear passively and universally.
The Changing Face of Education: new categories of students in distant
locations. Issues. AcITAC considered the challenges facing students learning
from and faculty teaching to distant locations. Inviting two students to
participate by conference call, members experienced in WebCT-enabled
distance education programs discussed their collective experience. Based on a
small sample, AcITAC attests to the creativity of this set of educators and
learners, overcoming a number of obstacles that face this environment. An
important issue is achieving parity between traditionally-based on-campus
students and distance students. Parity is challenged particularly in the area of
software available in ACS laboratories on campus but not available to distant
students. Highlights: Expedited ACS protocols for distributing account
passwords at a distance has smoothed the process of getting privileged services
for distance students. These services include access to the WebCT courses,
email, and, through University Libraries, authentication to web-enabled,
licensed library resources including databases, search services and electronic
full text books and journals.
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Workstation-based software licensed to the University for educational use in
public laboratories continues to challenge the principal of parity for distance
students. Software venders have myriad and rigid patterns under which they
license or sell their products. Providing equal access to registered students at
a distance will either require (1) finding technologies that permit students to
work on campus-based workstations from a distance, (2) purchasing different
sets of more expensive licenses, or (3) re-negotiating contracts to include a
more expansive definition of the educational/campus environment.
Master Educators: Technology challenges for our best teachers
Issues: We met with six representatives of the Master Educators’ Guild (MEG),
Drs. Ken Friedman, Linda Boyd, Craig Scanlan, Nagaswami Vasan, and Marjorie
Brandriss. The faculty reported that students’ technology literacy is much
more advanced than the majority of the faculty. Students seek increased
access to online administrative and educational resources (on-line grades,
evidenced-based medicine resources, etc.) At the same time, the faculty is
asked to employ new technologies in the implementation of a curricular reform
wherein (1) the same content areas in the basic and applied sciences must be
delivered in fewer contact hours and (2) evidence-based medicine plays an
increasing role in clinical education. At issue is the source of support required
to integrate those technology-driven elements in courses. Highlights:
Strategies for innovative teaching practice, including the application of
technologies, may be found in the MEG Center for Teaching Excellence
website, launched as of September, 2004 (http://meg.umdnj.edu/), an
initiative begun under the support of an AcITAC educational technology
minigrant. The committee described models of faculty support delivered at
three schools, where unit-supported staff (educational technologists) works
with IST/ACS and Library standards and resources to deliver support tailored to
the priorities of the individual Unit’s environment. That business model is
proving to be most successful in delivering baseline technology support to
faculty. In addition, the University-wide, IAIMS-supported faculty development
program in support of the sophisticated development of a Web-based diabetes
clinical case simulation for training in evidence-based medicine provides a
second, University-based model for faculty support and development.
Electronic Media: E-Books and Scholarly Resources
Issues: University Libraries has shepherded a decade-long migration toward
Internet available databases, indices, textbooks, and Journals. A number of
metrics speak to the increasing frequency of use. Two guest faculty members,
Drs. Washington (NJMS) and Fishelberg (NJDS) described two separate, facultydriven initiatives. Dr. Washington’s project enabled evidence-based medicine
and clinical guideline training using PDAs (Palm, iPAQ) and Dr. Fishelberg
described endodontics clinical training enhanced by DVD technology in the
laboratory. Significant portions of the EBM/guidelines initiative were enhanced
by the University Library’s licensed electronic subscriptions.
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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NJDS students and faculty discussed that school’s technology initiative
introduced to in July, 2002: E-curriculum and Vital Book Technology DVD
initiative. Highlights: What is the impact of these technologies? Students and
faculty told us that the endodontics training DVD technology extended access
to their professor’s expertise and enabled self-guided learning and review of
procedures. The evidence-based medicine initiative includes technology that
monitors student utilization, and these and other factors are due to be
analyzed in 2005 as a requirement of her Bureau of Health Professions grant
that supported the program. With respect to the E-Curriculum and Vital Book,
students expressed concerns about costs and the actual relevance to their
courses. Is the Vital Book Technology addressing curriculum?
While overall use of Electronic Resources is increasing, and there are
champions and fans for pockets of each of these technologies, we need insight
into how the global use of these technologies is changing the way we teach,
learn, research, and practice.
Facilities Planning: Establish and enhance the interaction between those
teams who build electronically-enhanced classrooms and those who teach in
them.
Issues: As opportunities or requirements come to build or renovate classrooms
and laboratories inclusive of new technology, time constraints have not often
permitted careful and full reflection and planning. A standard renovated room
might reasonably have a useful life of 20 years, but few would want to use twodecade old technology Highlights: Facilities planning (headed by Terry Polin),
vendors, additional IST staff (headed by Michael Petty) and AcITAC met twice
during the year, first in an SHRP-based technologically enriched lecture room.
A subset of us then met at a vendor’s showroom in August
(Steelcase/Manhattan). Two very different sets of issues were addressed, and
we considered the spaces in which we teach and students learn as well as the
technologies that enhance (or impede) teaching and learning. We discussed
advantages in choosing standard in technologies classroom design as well as
creating spaces adaptable to new technologies fitting predictable life cycles.
Facilities Planning, IST, and AcITAC agreed to work toward concrete solutions
where the academic community could prototype new technologies with
Facilities Planning for smoother integration in future projects.
Public Computer Labs: An examination of their roles and challenges.
Issues: A number of organizations host public computer laboratories: Academic
Units, University Libraries, and Academic Computing Services. “Public” has
slightly different connotations for each of these groups, where the Library has
some responsibility to non-UMDNJ patrons and some academic units may rightly
confine access to students in a narrow program. Highlights: Several hundred
PC’s are available in public facilities. Increasingly, access to these devices
requires sign-in by password authentication. Requirements to react to network
security needs will necessarily limit open access. All represented parties
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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provide documentation as to the popularity of their resources, but none has a
long-term plan for renewal and replacement of computers or peripherals.
While seeing an increasing usage of personally-owned laptop (or PDA) devices
access network resources at the University via wired and wireless modalities,
there seems to be a continuing need for public computer labs.
AcITAC’s Role in IAIMS. Through its Educational Technology Subcommittee,
AcITAC requests and evaluates proposals from faculty for innovative uses of
technology in education in a Minigrant program. That program is now jointly
funded through IAIMS funds (The National Library of Medicine) and the
Foundation of UMDNJ. Since the program was begun during the1996/97
academic year, 45 projects have been funded. Titles of currently active
projects appear in Appendix B. Following up a request from the Deans at
AcITAC’s fall, 2003 presentation, information regarding contact with the
authors of all supported mini-grants is now available at
http://www.umdnj.edu/minigweb/ETACminigrantsrecipients.htm
In addition, AcITAC monitors the progress of the IAIMS-sponsored, Universitywide faculty development project that engages twenty-three experts in
creating an comprehensive, interdisciplinary, diabetes case study.
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Conclusions
Technologies. All of the issues AcITAC examined this year are interconnected
by one or more of four technologies: 1) electronic content, 2) networks, 3)
applications (software) and 4) accessible and sometimes portable devices.
Content. Electronic content is purchased, aggregated or created in a
variety of ways. University Libraries secures and organizes databases,
journals, texts, clinical guidelines and images. Faculty, students and
staff author web content. Content is increasingly automatically
generated from institutional databases.
Networks. Last year, AcITAC’s priority recommendation to the Deans
was in of support for a universal network upgrade required to make use
of the NJEDge.NET and, Internet2. Progress has been made, but we are
not at the point we need to be. The universal requirement is
unchanged, and AcITAC’s prime recommendation still stands.
Applications. Academically relevant enterprise applications provided
by IST include both WebCT and a variety of statistical and scientific
packages. Indirectly, but critically, the academic mission also benefits
from the best choices for other web products, email, and interfaces to
student records.
Devices. Two decades after the introduction of the personal computer,
the desktop computing environment retains an important in delivering
academic technologies. Increasingly, however, portable computers or
handheld devices have made inroads into how we teach and learn. To
date, only one school has mandated use of a notebook computer, and
the impact of that decision is not yet clear to us. A number of smaller
projects show promise for specific or general applications using
handheld devices required for the mobile environment facing clinicians.
Service Delivery:
1. The best technologies are invisible.
a. Security. Disruptive network attacks enter the university in a
variety of forms, frequently associated with email messages. By
both filtering messages at the University’s gateway and by
aggressively installing virus filtering software on individual
workstations, IST and the community have helped contain the
threat. The most effective solutions needed will require the
fewest service calls to individual computers and/or require
individuals to adopt new practices. Security at the gateway and
automated local updates are sound practices.
b. Privacy. An extensive test of a certificate-based encryption and
authentication messaging system expected to be compliant with
HIPAA regulations satisfied technical requirements but proved to
be very difficult to scale. IST has described to AcITAC a second
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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technology which it intends to implement that will actively scan
and sequester email messages sent out of UMDNJ’s secure
network. This new technology will enable recipients of email
containing private information access to those messages through a
secure website. To the point, the technology will be invisible to
the sender.
c. Accessibility. While increasing numbers of individuals carry
portable devices, public labs continue to serve an important role
at the University.
2. Everything depends on the network
a. Portable, accessible, and up-to-date networks are in increasing
and vital part of teaching and learning
b. Wireless access will enhance the usability of a variety of new
portable devices.
c. The community awaits the widespread availability of new
network-based video conferencing alternatives.
3. Alliances foster awareness and skill development.
a. Minigrants encourage savvy faculty to enhance their skills and
create a wide variety of resources
b. The IAIMS Faculty Development Program provides a structured
environment in which faculty across the University are
collaborating to create a clinical case product, explore the use of
one technology, and study didactic issues.
c. Those schools that have hired their own staff that collaborate
with IST while focusing on the particular needs of their own
schools and faculty appear to be successful in moving technologies
to production and developing faculty skills.
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Recommendations
1. Keep it simple, make it better. Complex technologies driven by
complex interfaces attract experts and early adaptors but are
inappropriate for technologies that must be universally adopted. AcITAC
recommends transparent delivery of technologies. AcITAC strongly
endorses the most aggressive timetable for network upgrades.
2. Create parity for distance and on-campus students. Just as public
labs and a wider wireless network will make resources more universally
accessible, continued effort is required to assure that students working
at a distance will have those electronic resources available to them that
are available to students on campus. The challenge of access to
University Libraries has been met; the challenge of access to some
software applications remains.
3. Innovate, evaluate, re-invent. Technologies develop their own
momentum or inertia. Unexamined, products and projects may go on
successfully or lumber along or stall. It is imperative that the academic
technology portfolio be regularly re-evaluated and best products and
practices be supported marketed. AcITAC will enhance its contributions
in this area acting as the Educational Services Committee within Mr.
Thompson’s new IST Governance model.
4. Collaborate and Cooperate. AcITAC, IST and Facilities Planning should
act on our discussions from this year and form an on-going collaboration
to discuss, test and promote the best classrooms appropriately enhanced
by technology. AcITAC will also promote wider usage of successful
minigrant projects and foster those projects that are inherently
collaborative.
Plans
1. Work with IST Vice President Wayne Thompson as his representatives
from the Academic Community in a new IST governance structure
including a plan of work.
2. Monitor and participate in IAIMS activities including administration,
award and nurture of the minigrant program and market the fruits of
those efforts to a wider University audience.
3. Develop a plan and timeline to create a dynamic “teaching and learning
with technology facility” as a collaboration among the University’s
Faculty, IST, and Facilities Planning.
4. Encourage IT advancement coupled to evaluation and assessment of
technologies we have reviewed working with a variety of audiences
affected by technologies.
5. Foster collaboration through university-wide educational IT projects,
grants, and symposia
6. Extend our ties to the Master Educator’s Guild in defining and
advocating for support in a range of faculty development issues and, as
appropriate, participate in items 3, 4, and 5 above..
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Appendix A: The AcITAC Charge (August, 2002)
CHARGE: The Academic Information Technology Advisory Committee (AcITAC)
will represent the information technology needs, concerns, interests, and
priorities of the UMDNJ academic community to IST, the Office of Academic
Affairs, and the Deans through the identification, evaluation, prioritization,
and promotion of academic information technology needs, issues, and
opportunities. The committee will focus its efforts in the areas of those
processes, technologies, and services which can assist, support, and enhance
instruction, research, and access to clinical and scholarly information.
Activities of this committee will include:
Advising and informing IST, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the Deans
regarding academic IT trends, opportunities, and initiatives.
Developing and carrying out a process for including faculty in the input and
feedback process for IT.
Defining and supporting the development and utilization of innovative
applications of the technology.
Reviewing, assessing, evaluating, and recommending priorities for baseline
academic IT services provided by IST-ACS particularly as they apply to: (1)
enhancing instructional resources, (2) providing tools for research, (3)
accessing clinical information, and (4) making available new information
technologies in support of library services.
Exploring possible sources of funding for the innovative IT efforts.
Advocating and recommending technology tools to support faculty in the areas
of curriculum design, delivery, outcomes, and assessments.
Collaborating with the Informatics Institute and other groups.
Collaborating on University-wide projects and grants.
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
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Appendix B: DRAFT AcITAC Charge (October, 2004)
CHARGE: AcITAC will represent the information technology needs, concerns,
interests, and priorities of the UMDNJ educational community to IST through
the identification, evaluation, prioritization, and promotion of educational
information technology current and future needs, issues, trends and
opportunities. AcITAC will serve as the Education Services Committee, in this
role participating fully in the IST Governance Process on behalf of all of the
domains of the UMDNJ educational communication and collaboration between
University and school based educational IT services and resources. The
committee will focus its efforts in the areas of those processes, technologies,
and services which can assist, support, and enhance instruction and access to
scholarly information, working in collaboration with the Office of Academic
Affairs and the Deans.
Activities of this committee will include:
Reviewing, assessing, evaluating, and recommending priorities for educational
IT services provided by IST, including new information technologies, and special
projects of a University-wide, multi-unit, strategic or innovative nature, to
enhance instructional resources and library services
Advising and informing IST regarding relevant educational trends, current and
future opportunities, and initiatives.
Developing and carrying out a strategy for including faculty and students in the
input, feedback and planning process for educational IT.
Defining and supporting the development and utilization of innovative
instructional and educational research applications of technology.
Fostering collaboration through inter-school and university-wide educational IT
services, projects, symposia and grants.
Exploring potential sources of funding for the innovative IT efforts.
Advocating and recommending educational technology tools to support faculty
in the areas of curriculum design, delivery, outcomes, and assessments.
Participating actively in IT-related special projects and initiatives, such as
IAIMS.
Collaborating with the Informatics Institute and other initiatives within UMDNJ
having core interests that intersect with those of AcITAC
Participating in decisions concerning the centralization at the University or
decentralization at the schools of the organization and provision of educational
IT services and resources.
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Appendix C. Active AcITAC-, IAIMS- and Foundation-funded
Minigrant Projects, 2003-2004
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Micro-CME: Fractional Continuing Medical Education, via the Electronic
Medical Records platform
Self-paced video for teaching dental restoration in Pre-Clinical Lab
Model project for CD-based cultural and linguistic competency training
Model project for generating electronic portfolios for students
An asynchronous course simulating Exam of Head, Neck, Face & Oral
Cavity
Multimedia materials to instruct students how to administer care for
dentistry patients with special needs
Model program for treatment decision analysis in neurology using
interactive software
Web-accessible image library from oral and maxillofacial radiology assets
Asynchronous course on Stem Cell Biology
Imaging modalities for development of electronic learning materials for
understanding diseases
A model project for a jeopardy-style electronic tutorial and template
A model project for mastering surgical techniques through development
of multimedia instructional materials for mastering knee injection
An asynchronous modular program of web-based patient simulations in
ophthalmology, incorporating diagnostic disciplines of radiology and
pathology
Web-based ocular imaging library and credentialing program
Web-based instruction in biostatistics
Efficacy of audience response system in face-to-face classroom settings
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Appendix D: Membership
The AcITAC tradition is to develop a membership, nominated through the
Deans’ offices, that reflect the interests and concerns of the University’s
constituent communities. That membership sometimes includes people with
specific technical know-how, but more often people who use the tools of
Information Technology to further University missions.
During the 2002-2004 year, the AcITAC membership represented eight different
units of UMDNJ
New Jersey Dental School
New Jersey Medical School
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
School of Health Related Professions
School of Nursing
School of Osteopathic Medicine
School of Public Health
Information Services & Technology
Office of Academic Affairs
AcITAC Annual Report 2003-2004
Cheryl Biber and Foti Panagakos
Anthony Grygotis, and Alex StagnaroGreen
Alice Lustig, Paul Mehne, Frank
Sonnenberg, and Marie Trontell
Margaret Kilduff, Julie O’Sullivan
Maillet and Riva Touger-Decker
Frances Munet-Vilaro
Tisha Calvarese and Robert Steer
Kitaw Demissie and Young Lin
Ann Lippel, Susan Mettlen and Les
Michelson, Denise Romano, and
Wayne Thompson
Laura Barrett, Bruce Byrne, Judith
Cohn, Vivian Lubin, and Karen
Putterman
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