Executive Summary

If the University of Vermont is to grow as a dynamic learning environment, we must employ emerging technologies to enhance our ability to deliver a high-quality educational experience to our students. The technologies we adopt must provide a platform for innovative teaching, research and scholarship; promote better service and informed decision-making; and foster strong connections throughout our university community.

In order to accomplish the significant changes necessary, the Information Technology Task Force recommends the following actions:

• Appoint a chief learning information officer (CLIO) to lead university-wide efforts to enhance the learning community through technology. The CLIO will manage strategic and tactical planning and budgeting of the University's information technology resources and will institute longitudinal assessment of their impact on teaching and learning.
   
• Create an environment and allocate resources to catalyze the incorporation of information technology into teaching and learning.
   
• Establish and support a standard for the desktop environment for all faculty, staff, and students. This will enhance communication and collaboration, strengthen support structures, and optimize our expenditures.
   
• Build a common data repository to assist administrators throughout the institution in making better informed decisions.
   
• Establish a Web management team to recreate the UVM Web site, capitalizing on the power of the World Wide Web to provide a welcoming, informative "front door," and enhancing electronic workflow.
   
• Establish and sustain a technology-based Learning Gateway.

Despite the University's enormous commitment to information technologies (an estimated $18 million in FY 97), there are significant examples in which practice falls short of promise. Although we have many sophisticated computing capabilities, we are missing important opportunities to enhance our educational environment because we fail to leverage available information technologies. Development of new teaching methods is stymied by connection issues, document and data sharing can be cumbersome (both within and among departments), professional development is a struggle in many offices, and resource allocations too often are viewed as departmental rather than institutional computing decisions.

Several University committees have struggled with information technology issues; ours is the fifth in seven years. Many good ideas have been presented, but earlier reports have not led to substantial action. In charging this task force, Vice President Ray Lavigne asked that we develop tactical plans to realize our vision, an element that was absent from previous efforts. President Judith Ramaley has encouraged us to "be bold" and to develop a plan that will be a springboard for better incorporating information technologies into the educational mission of the University.

In that spirit, we offer the following report, which is a first draft, and which we expect will be considerably improved by discussions throughout the UVM community. To facilitate these discussions, we have structured this report around the four recurrent themes which we believe must drive our planning:

• Teaching and Learning
   
• Enhancing Communication and Collaboration
   
• Leveraging Information Systems for the Academic Enterprise
   
• Leading IT for the Learning Community  

We hope these discussions will lead to a willingness to propose and test new models for deploying information technologies, and to a commitment to work collaboratively to achieve greater success in enhancing the learning environment. Without a doubt, significant changes must be made in the ways we assess, purchase, support, and use information technology. Achieving these objectives will bring the University of Vermont closer to realizing its full potential.