The IT Strategic Plan effort spans four phases: Discovery, Theme Definition, Analysis and Recommendations, and Report. It is scheduled to conclude in nine months. See below for more information.
Purpose
The Discovery phase has been designed to capture Penn’s academic and administrative priorities for the next five years and how they may affect technology.
Through a broad and inclusive process, four questions will be asked in both individual and group interviews, as well as in an online survey open to all Penn affiliates to ensure that the perspectives of all Penn constituents are represented. Similar initiatives at peer institutions will be reviewed for benchmarking.
Discovery questions
1. What do you see as the major priorities or goals for your school / business unit / role over the coming years?
2. What are some of the major changes or milestones coming up?
3. Of these priorities, where do you see opportunities for IT organizations to partner and support?
4. Where do you see opportunities for university-wide investment in technology? Where does it make more sense to be school-based?
Timetable
The Discovery phase runs during the spring of 2023, overlapping with the subsequent identification of themes which concludes at the end of spring. The Analysis and Recommendations phase picks up in May and lasts through the summer.
Themes
Responses during the Discovery phase yielded four themes, encompassing numerous sub-themes, along with a smaller group of themes that cut across category boundaries. The four themes are:
- Student mental health and wellness, especially in relation to social media, worry, and lonelines
- Real-time data and reporting on student performance and needs across different offices and departments
- Integrate administrative and academic information for a seamless student experience
- Cultivate student engagement and belonging in campus community
- Grow student choice and access to courses, equipment, and training
- Evolve student facilities for future learning and socializing
- Bridge the information gap and increase the awareness of existing resources among researchers
- Attempt to address the majority of Penn research computing needs in a heterogenous environment
- Assess and recommend approaches for cloud vs on prem, or hybrid
- Evaluate centralized and decentralized computing solutions to create a more efficient and coordinated way of building and managing research computing resources
- Ensure dedicated resources to assist with technical (data management, automation, software engineering, research engineering, etc.) and administrative support (grants, budgets, etc.)
- Data Integration, Use, Storage, and Preservation: securely and effectively share, use, and store data
- Data Governance and Ethics: comply with ethical standards and regulations of data and AI use
- Data-Driven Decision Making: leverage data and AI to improve decision making
- Collaboration and Innovation: foster collaboration and innovation using data and AI
- Education and Pedagogy: use data and AI to enhance teaching and learning and outcomes and personalize learning
- Equity and Access use data and AI to promote equity and access
- Familiarize and support faculty with emerging technology
- Increase access to and availability of Central Pool classrooms
- Standardize and modernize classroom technology for different modes of teaching (hybrid, remote) and ensure timely renewals
- Enable Lifelong Learning through careful investment and evaluation
- Increase Technology Support including instructional design, faculty support, and assistive technologies
The cross-sectional themes are:
- Improving the effectiveness and usability of large enterprise applications
- Reducing work duplication and technical complexity across the University by using common tools and platforms for various tasks and functions or turning systems off
- Enhancing communications and connections about IT between Schools and Center
- Training and awareness on key tools and systems
- Enable improved data collection and integration across various systems
- Staff are needed to be the bridge between IT and the relevant discipline and to reduce administrative burden
- Research staffing for training and support (technical and administrative - data management, automation, software engineering, and research engineering)
- Staff for learning environments including instructional design, classroom technologies, and assistive technologies
- Administrative systems and key IT consulting, e.g., to enable us to optimize enterprise applications, web design, information security, etc.
- Assess the best way to use Penn’s central resources versus local management
- Staff retention and career paths in a hybrid and remote work environment are important. Consider staffing and reskilling in emerging technologies such as data science, AI tools, and office automation
- Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are key principles that must be upheld to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access, alteration, and destruction
- This requires the implementation of secure networks, data, systems, and applications to prevent data breaches and cyber-attacks
- In addition, regular training and awareness programs must be conducted to educate students, faculty, and staff on the importance of information security best practices
- Resilience is also essential to ensure that the University can continue its operations even in the event of a security incident or disaster
- Detection, prevention, and response strategies must be in place to quickly identify and mitigate security threats. Two-factor authentication and email security measures must be adopted to provide an additional layer of protection for user accounts and to prevent phishing attacks
- Finally, with more universities moving their data and applications to the cloud, it is crucial to ensure cloud security measures are in place to safeguard data in transit and at rest
Environmental factors
In addition to the themes, respondents noted several environmental factors to be considered in analysis and any resulting recommendations:
- Collaboration
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Silos
- Global
- Hybrid
- Sustainability
Coming soon.
Coming soon.