College of Design Academic Technology Committee Report

Transcription

1 College of Design Academic Technology Committee Report 2016 Spring Semester Committee Members: Renee Cheng (ex-officio), Clay Kimber, Andrew Lucia, Laura Musacchio (chair) Eugene Park, Chris Schlichting, James Wheeler INTRODUCTION The Academic Technology Committee (ATC) met five times during the academic year: (1) October 26, 2015, (2) December 1, 2015, (3) February 11, 2016, (4) February 18, 2016, and (5) April 4, Five activities occurred in these meetings: The committee members received progress updates from Clay Kimber on implementation of the short-term goals from the previous report (FY ) such as the video conferencing software and mobile digital displays. Second, the committee members continued discussion about other goals from the previous report, such as blogging software feasibility, alternative scanning technology, alternative software instruction for students, and alternative studio and computer classroom layouts. Third, the committee members participated in reviewing departmental requests for academic technology and prioritizing which ones fit within the committee s charge. The committee members considered potential financial, spatial, and personnel impacts too. Fourth, the committee members worked to prioritize proposed recommendations for this report. Fifth, the committee discussed potential metrics and measures of success. 1

2 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS The ATC met and identified viable ideas that can enhance teaching, learning, and research across all programs. After much work, the committee members completed these quick win goals in the FY : Quick wins goals (immediate) Established a departmental request process for academic technology that was facilitated by the committee members from the departments. Proposed a wireless projecting pilot in McNeal that Clay Kimber has set up for testing by the graphic design faculty. After much discussion, the ATC has decided to propose these following opportunities for must do goals in the next year and transformative goals in the next 3 years plus: Must do goals (~1 year) Develop blogging feasibility and pilot study for WordPress. Implement the Adobe Creative Cloud upgrade for the graphic design program in McNeal and develop a rollout plan (and budgetary plan) for the upgrade in the rest of the college. Propose the purchase of high-quality, inkjet photo printers/plotters. Inform students about alternative scanning options. Consider a name change for the committee because there is an Academic Technology group in the Office of Information Technology (OIT) at the university level. Transformative goals (+3 years) Rethink the studio classroom and computer laboratory layout, in terms of furniture/equipment layout, to enhance student learning experience. Alternative software instruction and resources for students. College-wide focus on a common theme such as visualization or collaborative digital practices. 2

3 CURRENT WORK COMPLETED OR IN PROGRESS I. Quick win goals (immediate) New departmental review process A new review process was created in November 2015 for faculty to submit requests for academic technology to enhance the delivery of the college s mission, especially for teaching. In November 2015, faculty were encouraged to submit these requests to their committee representatives and then these requests were reviewed by the ATC. Since this process was new, the ATC had to spend some time vetting which ones actually fit within the committee s charge of academic technology. The requests considered to be part of the committee s charge were then discussed for potential recommendations. In addition, the committee members discussed which medium and long-term goals from the previous report (FY ) that should be included in the recommendations. As needed, committee members also reviewed the financial, spatial, and personnel factors for these requests to better understand their potential impacts. The committee members discussed and prioritized the recommendations that appear as part of this report s proposal to the Senior Leadership Group. Since the review process was new this academic year, there were some requests sent back to the departmental level if they were not within the committee s charge of academic technology. Examples of such requests include: (1) making requests meant for a specific program and not the college as a whole (e.g., Risograph printer for graphic design); (2) improving the wireless connectivity in the studios; (3) requesting laptop or computer replacement for a particular individual (staff or faculty); (4) asking questions about printer connectivity with computers and devices; (5) replacing adjunct machines for architecture and landscape architecture; and (6) making requests for items that are not a type of academic technology (e.g., renovation of Rapson Courtyard lighting and sound technology). There are existing request processes in place to address these important needs. Once departmental requests were submitted to the ATC, Clay Kimber coordinated the process with the department heads and his Design IT budget. Ren é e Cheng helped to address questions and issues about the potential for a future compact request. Wireless projector pilot study in McNeal Design IT worked with Eugene Park to pilot wireless projecting in McNeal 310. An Apple TV was installed in this space for testing purposes. Early reports indicate 3

4 that the new solution is working well with Apple laptops, but it is not currently compatible with PC laptops. It is much more time-efficient for instructors and students to connect wirelessly to present rather than attaching and detaching cords. Design IT is planning to install an Apple TV in McNeal 316 and possibly McNeal 336. PROPOSAL DETAILS II. Must-do goals (~1 year) Blogging feasibility and pilot study for WordPress In FY , the ATC proposed the implementation of robust and flexible blogs that can serve as a reliable teaching/learning platform that extends the classroom into the online medium. Their report from FY concluded that there was currently no consensus by the committee members to recommend a particular service, but efforts were on the way to look for online platforms that can provide the following: 1. Flexibility in organization and visual themes that are appropriate for the classroom. 2. Ease of use in implementation and maintenance by instructors, TA, and students. 3. Ability for instructors to keep track of student activity within a blog. 4. Privacy settings. 5. Intuitive archiving and tagging system for easy access to past projects and class notes and resources. 6. Features that are suitable for both individual and group teaching methods. Building on this information and as a first step, the committee members discussed potential software options during the meeting on October 26, 2015, and the consensus was WordPress was the preferable option to explore. The committee members asked for Theresa Tichich to provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress at the meeting on December 1, During the discussion at this meeting, the committee members emphasized again that they need a blogging software option with these characteristics: 1. Easy to use. 2. Secure. 4

5 3. Integrated with the university s directory system (i.e. Internet ID login/x.500). 4. Aesthetically pleasing/customizable. 5. Able to apply the university and college identities. Theresa Tichich provided important information about how WordPress might meet these characteristics. She provided a brief overview of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of WordPress include its ease of use, aesthetic options, and highly customizable. The disadvantages include that it is not provided by any group on campus and its security issues. It is possible to integrate with Internet IDs (X.500), but it is complex to do so and needs to investigated for feasibility. Due to security issues, groups on campus are hesitant to provide WordPress, but the Design blog is hosted on a third-party WordPress site. The committee members provided feedback about other blogging software options available through the OIT. Some instructors have tried Drupal, but it is very hard to use and customize. They have also tried Blogger, but student adoption was lacking (e.g., students did not use it), inflexible for their particular uses, and has limited customizations available. A rough estimate is that there are about 50 blogs in existence in different courses in the college s departments. The committee members asked for Clay and Theresa to study the feasibility of WordPress, integrating it with Internet IDs (X.500), and to provide costs (upfront and per course). During the meeting on February 18, 2016, Clay and Theresa provided an update to the committee members. They provided an overview of their findings: 1. OIT is not willing to host Wordpress sites because the security issues are a concern and why OIT (and others) will not host WordPress. 2. A Wordpress site is allowed and doable with third party web host. 3. Class access will be a lot of administration and will not be automatic. For example, an instructor could request a site. 4. The university will not brand a third party site. 5. A site, as currently quoted, would cost $10 month/$95 year, $167 for two years, and 3 years for $178. (Ideally, one site would host multiple blogs, but the feasibility of this has yet to be determined.) 6. It would be possible to have sub-domains on the web site. 7. The cost associated with staff time to setup and maintain the solution is an issue that will need to be considered. 5

6 8. A plugin exists through the third party host that can talk to our system for X.500s. 9. Ideally, someone could contribute to a blog by signing in with his/her X.500, but the feasibility has yet to be determined. 10. Currently, there are many different third-party platforms and applications being integrated with the university s Shibboleth authentication solution. 11. WordPress is more vulnerable to security issues and is a concern to consider for feasibility. 12. The next step is to set up a test site and get Joe Hallgren and Theresa Tichich working on it. Design IT will setup a test site through our current vendor (greengeeks.com) to begin the feasibility testing. 13. The pilot study will test one domain name with subdomains for a WordPress site such as different names and different structure for classes, faculty research, and so on. The committee members also discussed visual identity and other considerations for determining the feasibility of WordPress. One issue is how to integrate the WordPress and college web site branding because Trevor is concerned about how much work went into the college web site. Any WordPress site would need to have a design that has the feel of the main college web site. The committee members also discussed how the first challenge to overcome has largely been technical, which needs to be addressed before discussing issues about design. In addition, Clay Kimber and Theresa Tichich investigated the potential to link up with OIT s Academic Technology group for the pilot study. On February 24, 2016, Clay Kimber and Theresa Tichich met with Jeff Weber and Erik Epp of the Academic Technology Formal Group of Practice (ATfCoP) to discuss the possibilities. This meeting did not reveal any new information about the availability of Wordpress hosting through the University, but it did provide an opportunity to increase awareness among everyone about ongoing activities. Adobe Creative Cloud upgrade and phased rollout plan One of the persistent academic technology challenges facing the college is the software upgrade transition from Adobe Creative Suite 6 to the Adobe Creative Cloud. The annual cost of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 was approximately $16,000 while the update to Adobe Creative Cloud will be about $75,000, but the possible range is between $60,000 to $90,000. The entire update is doable but expensive. A compact request from the college for the next academic year might include a one-time funding request to help defray the cost to upgrade to Adobe Creative Cloud for the entire college. 6

7 This software upgrade transition will begin in the FY with the graphic design program. The college will purchase copies of Creative Cloud for the coming year. Clay Kimber has decided that this transition will begin with the graphic design program with its full-time faculty and teaching labs because this faculty shared their concerns about more divergence between Creative Suite 6 and Creative Cloud. The reason for their concerns is that their students can only purchase Creative Cloud, which when coupled with the program s student laptop requirement, has resulted in virtually every graphic design student owning Creative Cloud. This process has created a divergence of different software versions between faculty and students. In addition, the number of computers in the teaching lab in McNeal is relatively small, so the cost of conversion of these computers is smaller than compared to the other labs in the college. The committee members recommend that Clay Kimber develop a clearly-defined plan for future fiscal years beyond FY about who will be switching over after the transition of the graphic design program is completed. There are two major considerations. First, Clay will want to plan how to transition faculty who use Adobe Creative Suite 6. Clay might want to send out a call to college faculty who currently have Adobe Creative Suite and who want to switch to Adobe Creative Cloud. This call might also focus on heavy users of this software. Second, he will need to consider how to transition the other departments in the college. For example, the students and faculty of architecture and landscape architecture are active users of Adobe Photoshop and InDesign especially. Propose the purchase of high-quality, inkjet photo printers/plotters There is a budget proposal from Design IT to purchase four high-quality, inkjet photo printers/plotters for the graphic design program. The request is in the Design IT budget for McNeal 69. In addition, new furniture will be needed to accommodate the printers/plotters, which is part of the budget request. Inform students about alternative scanning options The new Digital Assistant website, which is currently under development and is managed by the School of Architecture, will include recommended alternative scanning options, especially surrounding the use of photogrammetry and its associated workflows. Photogrammetry and its related technology (supporting software and general workflow) will be featured, along with other relevant information such as the use of digital cameras for data acquisition and access to free/inexpensive software readily available to students and educators. These recommended alternative scanning options are being made by the ATC after 7

8 Andrew Lucia suggested that they are the best ones as compared to the purchase of more costly hardware and software. Name change for the committee The name of the ATC needs to be rethought because at the university level the OIT has a similarly named group called the Academic Technology Formal Group of Practice (fcop). The similarity in the names between these two groups has created a bit of confusion. III. Transformative goals (+3 years) One of the persistent challenges in design education is deciding how to balance the training of technical (software/hardware) proficiency with teaching the larger ideas of design (history, concepts, ethics, research methods, etc.). The ATC recognizes that it is imperative for instructors to focus on the latter in favor over the practical computer knowledge that are easily learned from resources outside of the classroom. And in order to make these technical classes more accessible, efficient, and worthwhile to the student and instructors, the ATC proposes the following: New furniture/equipment arrangements for studio learning The final component of this proposal is to holistically rethink the layout, structure and technology of all studio class spaces, including computer labs and classrooms, that can promote new ways to facilitate critiques of various formats, encourage student collaborations, and meet the expectations of various styles of teaching. Current layouts range from partially flexible to fully inflexible, which raises barriers to using studio space for breakout sessions, as well as facilitating small group work, demonstrations, and/or critiques in computer classroom settings. Through the ATC as well as input given to Design IT, instructors and students have repeatedly communicated the need for flexible and modern learning spaces, especially as it relates to the unique facets of design instruction. For example, the graphic design program plans to propose furniture and equipment changes to its computer labs (McNeal 210, 316, and 336). Alternative software instruction and resources for students Training student instructors in academic technology to assist their peers in using digital tools for class projects has become increasingly important. Similar to the lab attendants who are available for resolving printing issues, these academic technology assistants can help answer questions regarding software techniques and troubleshooting. Such personnel will also meet the demand from students who 8

9 desire more in-person software training and support in their classes. They also might be able to organize emerging/special topic workshops that are in demand by students for class projects. The interest for alternative software instruction and resources comes not only through the ATC but also in Clay Kimber s individual interviews with faculty from multiple programs in the college. College-wide focus on a common theme such as visualization and collaborative digital practices Visualization is a key interdisciplinary theme to link the diverse interests of the college s departments and programs and would be packaged as a future compact request. A particular connection is how to link studio teaching and technology together in a more seamless learning process to enhance a maker culture in the college. Many of our grads are facile with digital tools/processes but less successful in following rigorous protocols that allow them to pass files collaboratively or move between platforms. This college could be known for producing digitally-enabled collaborators. This focus might have these parts: (1) hiring new faculty and staff (e.g., academic technology staff or assistants), (2) developing a new maker space, (3) rethinking studio, lab, and equipment arrangements with new furniture, (4) acquiring new software and software upgrades (5) changing curricula to support these pedagogical outcomes, and (6) maintaining and expanding cutting-edge software and hardware (with potential for attracting donors). 9