EXHIBIT 12. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Technology Plan 2006

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1 EXHIBIT 12 Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Technology Plan 2006

2 Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Technology Plan 2006

3 Technology Planning Committee Dr. Brett Beck Ms. Regina Bobak Dr. George Chamuris Ms. Frances Donahoe Dr. John Grandzol Ms. Kathleen Heitzman,JD Mr. Joseph Kissel Dr. Jing Lou Dr. Robert Marande Mr. James McCormack Mr. Wayne Mohr, Chair Dr. Raymond Pastore Dr. Timothy Phillips Dr. Shelley Randall Mr. Colin Reitmeyer Dr. Timothy Rumbough Dr. Charles Russo Ms. Claudia Thrush Dr. Thomas Zalewski

4 A Vision for Technology at Bloomsburg University Bloomsburg University will strive to integrate technology into its educational and administrative activities in support of its teaching, learning, research and service mission. All members of the university community will work, learn and interact in an environment enriched by technology. Training opportunities and access to appropriate technology will be provided to faculty, students and staff. Technology will be a primary means by which the university extends access to its programs and services.

5 A Strategic Context for the Role of Technology: Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Technology is a mission critical component of our academic and administrative activities or processes. The many issues related to the appropriate use, maintenance and support of technology have moved to the forefront of our institutional agenda and strategic planning efforts. This is true for all institutions of higher education as well as for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). In fact, the most recent PASSHE strategic plan refers to technology as a key enabling component of a continually improving and evolving educational system. The following excerpts from that plan acknowledge the importance of technology to the System and serve as a general framework for local institutional planning. Information and learning technologies will continue to develop at a staggering rate. The millennial generation of students is coming to college with unprecedented fluency with technology and with high expectations for the role it will play in their learning. Employers expect University graduates to be on the forefront of technology integration in their fields. Technology-enabled distance learning has brought new competitors while creating potential new markets for the System in both credit and non-credit programs. Faculty members use the web and other media to collaborate on teaching, research, and service projects as well as to reach students in new ways. The costs of keeping up with bandwidth, hardware, and software demands are significant, as are the human resources costs in continuous professional development. Information technologies will need to be integrated into every facet of university life in the 21st century. Preparing students for a technologically sophisticated global economy while helping to build local and regional economies will be both a challenge and an opportunity for the System. Economic restructuring will continue, calling for increasing employment in technology and professional service fields while favoring certain regions of the Commonwealth. Labor market projections through 2010 demonstrate needs for technologically sophisticated workers in selected fields. Occupations that will experience significant growth include computer specialists (+35%), healthcare workers (+13%), biotechnologists (+18%), pharmacists (+15%), travel and leisure workers (+14%), teachers (+10%), and security workers (+10%). The System will need to prepare students for these careers in large numbers. Non-traditional and graduate students also need classes and services at different times than other students, and they are more likely to want distance learning options. The State System will be characterized by: educational and managerial effectiveness supported by excellent technology, auxiliary enterprises, and academic and student support services

6 Enhance the quality of instruction, learning resources, and support services available to students: Incorporate recent advances in innovative and effective approaches to teaching and learning; Enhance the quality, quantity, and diversity of information available to students and faculty through university libraries; infuse technology in academic programs to increase the technological sophistication of graduates Complete the migration to the shared administrative system by all universities: use the capabilities of the shared administrative system to re-engineer processes and to provide detailed and timely reports; develop Executive Information Systems and Data Warehouses to support management decision-making by maximizing access to data across the System; support academic computing through collaborative purchasing and support; and provide seamless voice, data, and video transmission to and across System Universities. Bloomsburg University endorses the System s assumptions about the need to prepare our students for a technologically sophisticated world and the role technology will play in the evolution of our institutions. This technology plan is a preliminary step in articulating the goals and objectives that are particularly relevant to the Bloomsburg University community as it collectively creates a technology-related agenda and future action plans.

7 An Historical Context for Technology Planning: Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania The last technology plan for the university was completed in It was an extremely comprehensive plan that led to significant improvements in the following: organizational structure of technology support units; capacity, reliability and speed of the network infrastructure; allocation of technology resources; institutional budgets for technology; number of technology enhanced classrooms; professional development opportunities for technology staff and increased support for faculty who want to integrate technology into the curriculum. More specifically, the recommendations of the plan resulted in the following changes, improvements or enhancements: A senior executive position to provide strategic leadership, operational coordination of support units and accountability for technology initiatives. A reorganization of technology support units to improve services, increase operational efficiencies, control costs and facilitate accountability. A predictable and adequate lifecycle budget for faculty computers that ensures every faculty receives a new computer at least every four years. A significant increase in the number of technology enhanced classrooms. A lifecycle budget to support the replacement of all classroom presentation system components at least every four years. A lifecycle budget to support the replacement of all departmental and specialized classroom computers at least every four years. A complete overhaul and upgrade of the campus network to Gigabit Ethernet and an annual lifecycle budget allocation to keep it up to date. A new campus helpdesk to serve as a single point of contact for users and a tracking system to improve responsiveness and accountability. A benchmark budget and tracking system for professional development and training for technical staff. A new technology advisory committee. A new disaster recovery and business continuity plan for mission critical IT systems to ensure expeditious recovery from unexpected disasters. Implementation of two modules of the shared administrative system (the SAP enterprise resource planning system).

8 A number of additional technology initiatives have been completed since the last plan though not all of them can be directly attributed to the recommendations of that document. The following list represents the most significant enhancements to our services or systems: An upgrade of the network operating system and /calendaring program. A new instructional design position to assist faculty in integrating technology into the curriculum. A new media production position to assist faculty in the creation and use of rich media. A new classroom presentation system technician to provide more timely and proactive support to faculty and students. Adoption of an enterprise level version of Blackboard, a learning management system application, and several supporting applications such as Respondus, Turn- It-In and Horizon-Wimba. Wireless access to network services in all academic buildings. A new computer classroom exclusively for staff training. A new student application. Increased on line storage capacity for faulty, staff, student, organization and departmental web pages. Increased personal network storage and back up for faculty, staff and students. A new degree audit application for students and faculty. Increased internet bandwidth. Voice and video over IP (VoIP) pilot projects. Though the focus of the 2006 plan is different from that of the previous one, the technology planning committee expects that this new plan will serve as the basis for equally substantive technology-related improvements at Bloomsburg University.

9 Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Technology Plan 2006: Goals and Objectives While the 2002 technology plan focused on budgeting, planning, organizational issues and hardware, the 2006 plan focuses primarily on users, their interactions with technology and their more active participation in technology related decision making. This is a normal development since it is necessary to address the fundamental issues of universal access, systems reliability and consistent funding before users can be expected to develop the requisite levels of confidence necessary to increase their reliance on technology-based solutions. Since these fundamental issues have been adequately addressed during the past four years, it is now appropriate to focus on the much more critical challenges of providing users with both the training and support they need to more effectively utilize the technologies that are available to them and a more significant role in technology-related discussions. The committee has established eleven goals to guide future technology planning. At the same time, it created a number of objectives for each goal as a means to more precisely reflect the collective intent of the committee. The committee recommends that action plans be developed for each of the objectives once the campus community has endorsed the goals and objectives set forth herein. The committee also recommends that these plans be developed by representative constituent groups with a stake in the outcome. Since it is not feasible to address all of the goals and objectives in a single academic year, the committee further recommends that an annual process be developed for creating appropriate constituent groups who would choose objectives and develop relevant action plans. It is important to note that these goals and objectives were developed in consideration of a committee endorsed definition of technology. The committee reviewed and acknowledged the efficacy of a wide variety of existing definitions endorsed by other institutions or organizations and discussed at length the inherent difficulty in precisely defining something as comprehensive as technology. For the purposes of this plan it adopted the following operational definition for technology: The software, hardware, personnel, processes, policies, training, knowledge, and support services that are necessary to enable, enhance, or extend access to instructional and research activities or administrative tasks.

10 Goals 1. Enhance the technology planning process. 2. Increase opportunities for campus constituent groups to participate in communication, decision making and planning activities related to technology. 3. Improve communication to the campus community regarding technology resources, projects and plans. 4. Encourage and enable the use of technology to support and improve teaching and learning. 5. Encourage and enable the use of technology to improve academic, business and administrative services or processes. 6. Provide timely, accurate, secure and user-focused access to institutional data. 7. Establish and implement IT best practices for educational institutions. 8. Expand access to educational resources, materials and learning activities. 9. Ensure minimal student technology competencies. 10. Enhance the university website design, usability and functionality based on best practices. 11. Continue to maintain an accessible, reliable and robust network and other infrastructure systems to keep pace with the increased demands of academic programs and administrative operations.

11 Goals and Objectives Goal 1: Enhance technology planning processes. 1. Develop and support institutional technology priorities as described in annually updated technology action plans 2. Create lifecycle replacement plans and budgets for software and hardware not currently included in existing plans 3. Develop comprehensive implementation plans for all technology related initiatives 4. Develop service level agreements for support of technology services Goal 2: Increase opportunities for campus constituent groups to participate in communication, decision-making and planning activities related to technology. 1. Facilitate the creation of constituent technology advisory committees 2. Expand the existing university wide technology advisory committee 3. Ensure stakeholder participation in planning and decision-making Goal 3: Improve communication to the campus community regarding technology resources, projects and plans. 1. Create directories of technology resources, funding sources and experts 2. Develop communication strategies to facilitate ongoing technology information exchanges Goal 4: Encourage and enable the use of technology to support and improve teaching and learning. 1. Identify and share teaching and learning best practices for technology use 2. Improve incentives and support for faculty adoption of technology 3. Increase the number and functionality of technology enhanced teaching spaces 4. Develop user focused technology design, selection and facility allocation processes 5. Develop a process that allows faculty to acquire technology certification Goal 5: Encourage and enable the use of technology to improve academic, business and administrative processes or services. 1. Ensure the successful development and implementation of the SAP Campus Management system and all related ancillary subsystems 2. Facilitate the adoption of technologies that increase efficiency, effectiveness or services

12 Goal 6: Provide timely, accurate, secure and user-focused access to institutional data. 1. Identify and prioritize data needs of all constituent groups 2. Develop processes and applications to facilitate user friendly access to quality data Goal 7: Establish and implement IT best practices for educational institutions 1. Benchmark IT in terms of organizational structure, budgets, staffing levels, skill levels, facilities, services, capabilities, processes, disaster recovery, business continuity and security. 2. Participate in annual Educause Core Data and other surveys to facilitate objective benchmarking against other similar institutions Goal 8: Expand access to educational resources, materials and learning activities or opportunities. 1. Enhance learning management system functionality to include content management system and outcomes assessment capabilities 2. Develop opportunities for resource librarians to share their knowledge and expertise 3. Create user-focused process to identify and acquire access to discipline specific research resources Goal 9: Ensure adequate student technology competencies 1. Create technology competency standards 2. Develop on line student tutorials and assessment tools Goal 10: Enhance Bloomsburg University website design, usability and functionality based on best practices. 1. Improve usability and search functionality 2. Develop portal integration strategy to facilitate user customization 3. Establish a process to solicit input from relevant constituent groups on future enhancements or changes

13 Goal 11: Continue to maintain an accessible, reliable and robust network and other infrastructure systems to keep pace with the increased demands of academic programs and administrative operations. 1. Maintain an adequate lifecycle budget to support the replacement and upgrading of all critical systems 2. Enhance redundancy and back up strategies for all mission critical systems 3. Develop policies, procedures and guidelines related to network allocation priorities and usage 4. Coordinate the planning and implementation of new functional systems among all stakeholders