Heavy Lifting: Leveraging Resources in the Public Sector

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Heavy Lifting Leveraging Resources in the Public
Sector
Mary Simone, Media Center Manager Lisa Link, Web
Designer Lisa Berelson, Senior Web Designer
UMass Boston Information Technology
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Case Studies Interdisciplinary Projects
Case One Internal Audience students and
faculty Resources WebCT/Blackboard, Web 2.0
tools, MACXServ Case Two Example
Internal/External Project Resources YouTube,
imovie, Addthis, Google, MapLib Project
Management Tracking
UMass Boston Information Technology
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Case One OnLine Tutoring and Blended Learning
Presented by Mary Simone, Media Center Manager
On-line Tutoring blended Learning Internal
Audience students and faculty Resources
WebCT/Blackboard, Web 2.0 tools,
MACXServ Interdisciplinary Collaboration Academic
Support Programs Hispanic Studies Nursing
Writing Proficiency Office IT
UMass Boston Information Technology
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Case One Project Intent

• To increase understanding of class material of
  students enrolled in Spanish 102 courses
• To increase student access to tutoring services
  of students enrolled in Critical Reading and
  Writing to support student writing (CRW) 283 and
  Nursing 360 to satisfy the Writing Proficiency
  Requirement (3) to provide online students with
  similar access to tutoring in writing as that
  received by Nursing students in face to face
  courses

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Case One Role Matrix

• Manager -budget and finance, administrative
  support,
• event management , coordination,Communicatio
  n,Reports
• E-Technology (ET) --MAC OS Server Set up ,BLS
  Course Design (one template)
• BLS Course admin and management,
  ,Selection of Technology tools in BLS SPA,
• Selection of Technology tools in BLS NU
• Subject Content Pedagogy (SCP) - -Content of Web
  BLS Course- Nursing
• Content of Web BLS Course- Spanish
  101,ESL Content of Web BLS Nursing
• Tutor management (TM)- -hire tutors administer
  salary train Spanish tutors in
• constructivist process approach to
  tutoring methods and documentation
  
• Tutor Training (TT)--Technology Competence
  Training of all Tutors
• Technology training documentation, train
  Spanish tutors in constructivist process
• approach to tutoring methods and
  documentation , train Nursing tutors in
• constructivist process approach
  tutoring methods and documentation
• Assessment Student and project Assessments

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Case One Project Management Timeline
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Case One Project Outcomes

• Developed and piloted an on-line tutoring model
  in Vista 4 that integrated various e-learning
  tools. The different courses of Nursing and
  Hispanic Studies required slightly different
  Vista template design and content due to the
  pedagogical demands of the courses with which
  they were blended www.umassonline.net
• Created web portal to enable students and faculty
  to easily access different e-tools including and
  training and support materials outside of Vista
  throughout the pilot. The portal can be found at
  http//omega.www.umb.edu/onlinetutorweb/index.htm
  l
• Successful collaboration resulted from the use
  project management software and e-tools including
  wikis and blogs, and project management software
  to facilitate and strengthen communication among
  committee members, build a community of active
  participation, and involvement in project tasks,
  document, archive, and evaluate individual and
  team achievements.
• http//xserv1.umb.edu/groups/onlinetutoring/

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Case One Management Assessment

• On-line resources can be used successfully to
  target the
• learning needs of individual and groups of
  students in diverse academic areas.
• Has revealed strategies about how to leverage
  existing resources including material and
  personnel in a higher educational environment.
• The readership of the project was limited to the
  audience of faculty and students through WebCT.
  The fact that the materials produced were
  targeted to internal groups gave us different
  options from the kinds of multi-media tools that
  a project targeted to external audiences needed
  to provide.

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Case Two Web Designers as Media Brokers
Presented by Lisa Link, Web Designer

• The process is important as the final product in
  reinforcing the universitys mission.
• Maximizing campus resources with a limited
  budget.
• Collaboration Scalability
• Web 2.0 tools enhance marketing for understaffed
  programs

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Case Two Process vs. Product

• UMass is Bostons only public university, since
  its founding chosen to actively engage with and
  serve its community.
• New media allows for collaborative methods of
  involving students in production, so that the
  PROCESS of the media piece reinforces the mission
  of the school as much as the final PRODUCT.
• Had a screening to show work-in-progress, invited
  campus personnel to meet students.
• Umass Advancement Office our most active client
  recognizes how media must reinforce the message
  and mission of the school.
• Ellen Fleming, Director of Corporate and
  Foundation Relations co-managed this project with
  me which involved a web site and video to show
  both on and offline.

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Case Two Leveraging Resources

• Ellen I had students do a lot of the research
  for the video interview and writing of the
  script.
• We borrowed low-end cameras to rehearse so that
  no time would be wasted when we were on the
  clock in the studio.
• We had the students do most of the editing in
  imovie.
• We created a base file in imovie and then worked
  with Mary Simones staff person, John Mazzarella,
  to add some special effects at the end.
• We designated Ellen as web editor and trained in
  Contribute so we know that the site will be
  maintained. This is our practice in Web Services.

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Case Two Collaboration Scalability

• Video portion of the web site will be presented
  offline in events requiring high resolution
  video.
• Design on the premise that we can scale down, not
  up. That is why we invested in one hour of paid
  studio time..
• Collaboration across multiple departments is as
  important as any technology. Must share
  information, equipment, time to succeed.
• Project managed by University Advancement Web
  Services. Worked with Urban Scholars staff,
  students and other administrators as well as Mary
  Simones staff and the high-end video production
  group on campus.

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Case Two Web 2.0 Tools

• At Umass, not every department has dedicated
  marketing support. Web designers must assist and
  Web 2.0 enhances their ability to promote their
  programs and ideas.
• Host on http//www.youtube.com, solves storage
  and provides access to broad audience, great for
  these short videos.
• http//www.addthis.com
• http//maps.google.com
• http//www.maplib.net
• http/www.facebook.com
• Urban Scholars already uses Facebook extensively.
• http//www.google.com/analytics

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UMass Boston Program Portal Managing Projects
at an Enterprise Level
Presented by Lisa Berelson, Senior Web Designer
UMass Boston IT Application Services
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Goal of IT App Program Portal

• Advanced multi purpose organization tool
• Reporting tool for Directors and Managers
• Handles projects from a multi-tier perspective
  Programs represent high level longer term
  initiatives, Projects or Tasks are subsets of
  Programs and smaller in scope
• Ex) Program - Template Redesign ongoing program
  involving potentially thousands of sites
• Ex) Project - Convert Research Department to new
  template
• Day to day tracking tool - for individual
  projects
• Long term initiative assessment
• Complete system for handling workflow
• Directors, Managers, Staff, Plus Client

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Features of IT Application Program Management
Portal

• Multi-tiered application
• Versatile
• Extensible
• Filters exists at almost every level and very
  helpful for all users including managers and
  staff
• Sorts example Director or Managers can sort
  only the Programs they want to see
• Communicates can email Staff and or notify
  Client when a project is assigned. Can also email
  client when an assignment is completed. Closure
  on a project how satisfying.
• Reports data

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UMass Boston IT Application ServicesProgram
Management Portal
filters
sorts
ID Tip organize emails with this numbering
system
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Program Management Portal Project Details
Client and Staff Communication
High level of detail URL involved
Comments public
Developers Notes internal
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Versatile

• Repository for documents Status Reports in Word,
  Excel.
• Instant access to the same data for staff and
  management. Avoid emailing old copies of status
  reports. All sharing same information.
• Excellent repository for development docs and
  resources

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Extensible

• Allows for flexibility in growth or change of
  your division or department as well as
  flexibility in functionality
• Example of Add-ons
• Calendar shows when employees are out or at
  conference
• Contribute users portal
• Perhaps extend this to tracking Subdomain
  information ex) www.english.umb.edu

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Program Management PortalManagement Perspective
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Dashboard Management Perspective
Measures Estimated Hours vs. Actual Hours
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The Dashboard Management Perspective
Tracks Individual Projects to theProgram
Initiative
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The Dashboard Reporting Tool
Report Complete by Program
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The Dashboard Reporting Tool
Report Complete by Program
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Conclusion

• Research on campus for any and all resources that
  may be able to design a Project Portal
  Application at lower cost than full outsource
  possibly collaborating with Computer Science
  Department who may have programming students.
• Ex) Academic Support and Computer Science
  subsidiary (serl)
• But be aware Database applications are a tricky
  business. They require a lot of knowledge of
  business processes and workflow. Even graduate
  students rarely have this expertise or
  experience.
• UMB leveraged from having the same Team Leader in
  charge of the department also be the developer on
  the application. He could therefore anticipate
  any and all situations that would arise in the
  design of this portal.
• If necessary, outsource the initial development
  of this work to a qualified web applications
  developer and assign a manager in charge of
  knowing basic maintenance issues that the
  developer should provide.
• Worth the cost in saving time and money.

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UMass Boston Web ServicesImage RepositoryTool
of choice dedicated file server running Adobe
Bridge
UMass Boston IT Application Services
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Adobe Bridge Cost effective way to manage large
collection of images
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Adobe Bridge Features

• Allows you to easily Find images from vast array
  of photos
• Find feature works by assigning keywords to
  images
• Ex) Campus Center, Studying, Collaboration
• Fully dynamic and extensible assortment of
  images. System we set up at UMB photographers
  upload images monthly to a space allocated on
  file server.
• Organized by year_month
• Details for any image includes resolution and
  pixel dimensions
• Not a CMS system i.e. this does auto crop or
  optimize images

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Adobe Bridge Find window
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Adobe Bridge Metadata and other properties
provide precise detail including pixel dimensions
and resolution

• Great resource for designers and writers alike

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UMass Boston IT Application ServicesProgram
Management Portal