Technology Plan
April, 2004
Glendale Community College has a mature and sophisticated campus computer environment backed by a mature technology planning process . Over the past 20 years, we have grown into an exciting, flexible, and sustainable learning environment for employees and students alike that takes into account
• the operational and fiscal realities of the college,
• the increasingly complex electronic interactions within a multi-campus district, and
• the rapid pace of change typical of the technology industry.
The following planning documents, developed over time and continually revised by many employees, reflect how we have positioned ourselves to manage continuing demands for new ways of teaching, learning and working supported by technology.
Technology Vision Statement
Glendale Community College students, faculty and staff pursue improved quality of education and service through the use of technology.
Students use technology to learn in ways that are interactive, flexible, personalized and convenient. Technology engages their interest, and encourages them to collaborate, inquire, and explore effectively, far beyond the bounds of the campus. Support for student efforts to learn both independently and collaboratively, and at their own pace, comes from other students, faculty, and staff members.
Teachers use technology to develop new instructional methods that address the needs of students with different learning styles, preparation, work schedules, and levels of motivation. This technology enables teachers to keep current in their disciplines and with teaching practices, to build a preofessional community, to interact with students on and off campus, to evaluate their own instructional efforts, and to remain responsive to the local community's needs.
The college uses technology to transact its business with less dependence on cars, paper, and lines. Students have round-the-clock access to information about their own college records, course offerings, program requirements and transfer procedures, so that they can take responsibility for their own educational progress. Technology also makes it possible for students to ask for personal help whenever they need it. Both faculty and staff can participate in a flexible work environment that allows them to match their work habits to their own interests, skills, and personality. The entire college community uses technology to build effective bridges with other educational institutions, agencies, and employers.
Members of the campus community at GCC use technology to participate responsibly in a culturally-diverse, global society. It helps them prepare for successful transfer to other educational institutions, for more rewarding employment, or for advancement within their chosen careers.
Planning Involvement
• General technology planning at GCC is accomplished by the College Technology Committee. The CTC membership is open; it consists of interested faculty and staff who meet monthly during the academic year. The chair of the CTC is a faculty member. Attendance at these meeting varies from 20-40 people depending upon the issues to be discussed.
• The CTC establishes various subcommittees to address different technology issues as the need arises. The Computer Request Committee is a standing committee; it meets annually to review the computer requests of the college and submits a coordinated budget request tied to the college's strategic planning goals. The Web Steering Committee is an open group and meets monthly to address issues related to web development. The Policy and Procedures subcommittee convenes as needed to deal with issues identified by the CTC.
• Information Services for the college are provided by four groups ( Instructional Computing , the Innovation Center , Network Services , and Training & Employee Development ), each of which has its own separate and distinct mission. The directors of these four groups act as support staff to the CTC and meet bi-weekly with its chair and the Dean of Administrative Services.
• Individual departments and programs, using the Planning and Budgeting tool developed by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, link their technology requests to their own programmatic goals and the college's strategic planning efforts. Some departments have working committees that address technology issues.
• Individual employees schedule their own participation in the Desktop Project, thus choosing how to manage their own learning related to upgrades in hardware and software. They can also develop their own Individual Learning Plan.
Administrative Computing
Planning and Budgeting for Hardware and Software Upgrades
• Continuous improvement in hardware, software and training support for college employees addressed by the Desktop Project . This ongoing initiative is managed by members of the four IS groups, and its procedures and supporting documentation have been adjusted and fine-tuned numerous times, leading to significant improvements in the college's technology procurement and account management processes and their supporting databases . In each fiscal year, the college budgets for 128 computer upgrades, 8 sessions of 16 computers each. With slightly more than 600 administrative computers on campus, this plan replaces computers in between 4 and 5 years.
• Each of the four IS groups participate separately in the annual planning and budgeting process of the college. In addition, the combined group has submitted a coordinated plan that addresses common technology issues for both information Services and the college.
Training and Support
• The decision to run a "standard suite of tools" has significant implications for training and support. It has enabled support staff to build their troubleshooting skills to a mostly controlled set of applications, has encouraged employees to take full advantage of the powerful productivity tools they have on their desktops, and has promoted mentoring and collaboration within departments.
• Training and Employee Development, in conjunction with the other IS groups, provides direct instruction through classes and workshops , written documentation, and troubleshooting through a help desk for college employees. In addition, it helps manage checkout of loaner equipment (laptops, digital cameras, Zip drives) and instructional media ( CDs and videos ) for off campus support of employee learning. The director of Training & Employee Development works with the Faculty Development Committee to support a wide range of training events on campus, some technology related and some not.
• Training & Employee Development staffs the Help Desk during work hours ( 7 am to 7:30 pm weekdays), creates work orders and tracks solutions. Technicians can use a password-protected service from any computer on campus to search trouble reports for solutions; they can create, update, and close work orders from their personal workstations, from any palette workstation, and from workstations in the Training & Employee Development area.
• Some departments conduct their own training and have established professional growth plans for both full and part-time faculty and staff.
Web Development
• College-wide web development is managed by the Innovation Center in conjunction with the Web Steering Committee. The committee has established some general guidelines for personal web pages. Personal web space is provided for all college employees as part of the standard set of resources.
• GCC promotes a distributed web development philosophy. The Innovation Center manages the top two tiers of the college web site; other administrative units assume the management of web areas that contain information tied to their service roles. Various server spaces and work strategies have been developed to support distributed ownership and collaborative development of web sites while respecting college policies prohibiting password sharing.
• Web development is supported in various ways. The Web Steering Committee has endorsed the use of standard web authoring tools that are compatible with web servers on the campus. It has established a WebDev area for development tools , and a WebDev discussion group to foster collaboration. Training & Employee Development provides workshops regularly. Individual departments can desginate pecific people to guide development of department web sites , a strategy promoted by the Web Steering Committee. Some faculty have received reassigned time for web site development activities.
Access for Faculty and Staff
• The Desktop Project provides appropriate hardware, software, and training for all college employees, including part-time workers and student employees. While some part-time employees may not have dedicated workstations, they have their own accounts and storage space on a server which they can access from multiple locations if necessary. For example, part-time faculty can work from workstations established by their departments, from workstations in Training & Employee Development, from the HTCs, or from off-site.
• The college provides dialup access to the college for full-time employees. The college provides written instructions employees can follow to set up access from home. If employees require more robust support, our network resources can be accessed from most any ISP or host. In conjunction with our district office, we support Virtual Private Networking (VPN) connections for access to sensitive data and sources.
• Laptops available for loan to college employees include dialup account access.
Instructional Computing
Planning and Budgeting for Hardware and Software Upgrades
• In 1995, the College Technology Committee developed the 5-Year Plan to maintain and upgrade the college computer labs . That plan has been revised multiple times since its adoption, including on overhaul to a 4 year life cycle in 2000. This plan results in a reliable upgrade cycle for computer classrooms and other academic computers . Funding of this upgrade plan has consistently been the first priority of the Computer Request Committee.
• The Computer Request Committee also initiated a similar plan to equip classrooms computer presentation systems. The original goal was to equip 1/3 of the campus classrooms with a computer workstation for the instructor (with network access and running a standard suite of tools), a ceiling-mounted projector, and a VCR. That goal was insufficient, and currently, more than 50% of the college's classrooms are
• All credit students are entitled to activate an account within the Instructional Palette. This account provides access to a standard suite of tools, and includes productivity software, Internet access and a college email account. This account also includes appropriate storage space on a network server that remains active from semester to semester while the student remains enrolled.
Support for Faculty• Workshops for faculty (both full and part-time) to support instructional change are held on a regular basis during the academic year, and teaching materials are available online . In addition, various summer workgroups have been developed to address more complex instructional development projects. The deans also fund individual summer projects.
• The Director of Instructional Computing sets up regular planning meetings with various members of the IS groups and departments across campus. These informal brainstorming sessions encourage departments to share their ideas and visions about teaching and learning with technology with support staff well ahead of requests for implementation. This lead-time has proven invaluable: it helps staff identify directions, trends, expectations, and challenges; it encourages members of departments to articulate their instructional goals; and it improves communication across all groups.
• Pilot projects help the college experiment with new approaches to teaching and learning with lower risk and less financial impact. Some pilot projects have moved quickly to implementation; others have remained small or have died.
Support for Students
• Instructional Computing staffs the two High Tech Centers during their 101 hours of operation each week. This department hires, trains, supervises and evaluates a large group of Instructional Associates who manage instructional resources, provide course orientations, answer student questions, test new instructional materials, grade student assignments, and help improve service to students and faculty.
• Troubleshooting for computer classrooms, including those outside the High Tech Centers is provided jointly by Instructional Computing and Network Services. Trouble calls are routed to the appropriate Lab Technician by the Help Desk either electronically (if the trouble is not a high priority) or by alphanumeric pager (if the trouble impacts instruction). Because of standardization of hardware, student stations can be swapped out quickly to minimize the loss of instructional time.
• Over the past 10 years, the college has encouraged online technology support through peer interaction in its computer conferencing program . It expects to continue and expand this approach to off-site student support. Student feedback is always welcome.
• Written instructions arising from frequently asked questions are gathered on the student server. Some materials are printed and made available on campus to students, but all documentation is also available in electronic form.
Access for Students
• All students have access to a standard suite of tools on campus in various labs and in the High Tech Centers when the buildings are open. They can use most workstations on a first come, first served basis. In addition, they can create and publish web pages , send and receive electronic mail , and participate in group discussions .
• If students have subscribed to an Internet Service Provider, they can access their electronic mail, group discussions, course materials, and personal files from off site by using a browser or Internet based tools.
