Strategic Plan

Infrastructure Initiatives. The Technology Strategy has two key components: build-out of the material and human infrastructure that provides the technological foundation, and a set of initiatives focusing on priority goals in the areas of academic programs, administrative operations and student support services. Baseline Hardware/Software Access, Training and User Support initiatives will enable Marshall University to utilize emerging information technologies effectively. Network infrastructure initiatives focus on access to the network: within campuses and between campuses. These three initiatives are highly interdependent. The value of network access is severely limited if the faculty, students and staff do not have the computing equipment and software to take advantage of the resources and capacities the network affords. By the same token, availability of high capacity, multimedia computers and applications will not enable faculty and students to use these capabilities effectively in the absence of high-speed network connectivity. The value of either cannot be realized if training and technical support are not practically available.

The production of information keeps multiplying exponentially, as knowledge is created, developed, and reshaped at dramatic rates. Of course, the rate of production of information has been greatly encouraged by the emergence of information technologies. The power of automation to store, retrieve, and disseminate information is one of the main forces behind the Information Age. While the issue of information competence has existed for decades within the library community, technology has brought the issue to national attention in the larger community of educators. Today everyone interested in information and knowledge is aware of the explosion of information generated and stored, the unregulated sprawl of the internet, the emergence of on-line databases, the mystique of the personal computer, and the power of words and graphics.

The scope of this plan involves putting into place a comprehensive "baseline" capability for training all the students, faculty, and staff to become information competent and for providing them ongoing professional/technical support services. This initiative also provides the basic quantity and quality of hardware, software and local area networking resources to enable individuals to have the appropriate access to information resources which in turn will increase their personal productivity. The following baseline training areas are defined:

Skills Currency of Faculty and Staff. The model provides comprehensive faculty and staff development programs for maintaining skill currency in both current and emerging technologies. The highest and best use of information technology is its application to the provision of quality higher education with a focus on the student and the learning, teaching and underlying research supporting that quality. Faculty, students and staff should have easy, well-supported access to the data and information necessary to perform their university functions regardless of location.

The major outcome of this strategic plan is to create an information technology infrastructure environment which provides all the students, faculty and staff access to a comprehensive basic level training program, user support services, and hardware/software/local area networking access. A basic level information competency program for the all students faculty and staff will a campus-wide training program which provides students, faculty, and staff the foundation skills necessary to use the campus' generic software, hardware and network tools and to make effective use of the campus-wide applications and information resources.

The primary beneficiary of this plan are individual learners. However, for these learners to effectively use this infrastructure capability to increase their personal productivity, the faculty and staff need to integrate the uses of information technology tools into the learning and teaching experience. This translates into having an information competent and technology skilled faculty and staff. Thus, all three internal participant groups are the beneficiaries of the successful implementation of this initiative. Ultimately the economy of West Virginia and society at large benefit as we educate individuals to become contributors to the workforce as well as lifelong learners by equipping them with the necessary information competencies to adapt to future changes of the information age.

Information competence is the fusing or the integration of library literacy, computer literacy, media literacy, technological literacy, ethics, critical thinking, and communication skills. This includes the ability to find, evaluate, use, and communicate information in all of its various formats.

If Marshall faculty are to foster information competence skills in their courses, many of them need to have their own skills enhanced. Before a professor can teach students to do a hypermedia project or understand the provisions of the copyright act or discuss the ethics of email, he or she must have considerable faculty development opportunities. With the rapid pace of technological change, skills need continual updating and renewing. Many faculty would likely profit from development in the technological aspects of information competence, although many faculty have indeed mastered, as well as masterfully taught, the critical-thinking components of information competence.

Clearly, the need for faculty development is paramount. Faculty development funds in this area need coordination. In short, before we can ensure the information competence of our students, we must ensure the information competence of our faculty, and we must provide the time and money needed to do this.

This work group is to recommend basic competence levels on the use of recorded knowledge and information and processes for assessment of student competence. Student core information competence can be achieved through a three-stage process, in which the fundamentals of information competence are introduced in a freshman-orientation/transitions course, are further developed by being embedded in general education courses, and are reinforced and amplified in the major area. Emphasizing information competence in a "cornerstone" class (introduction to the major area) as well as in a "capstone" class (the culminating experience of the university career) will solidify the competencies.

In order to be able to find, evaluate, use, and communicate information, students must be able to demonstrate these skills in an integrated process:

Possible Skills Sets

Areas	Needs	Strategies
Have the ability to communicate	Using E-Mail Send & Receive e-mail using attachments Using UseNet Effective Personal face-to-face communication	Specialized Training
Able to have access to Global Information Network	Internet Search Electronic Library Data collection Abilities Research Abilities UseNet News Homepage Resume Configure Browser Select plug-ins	CBTs
Able to use Library Collections	Electronic Library Library Searches Document Searches	Specialized Training
Mastery of subject matter	Core Curriculum	Thesis; presentation to faculty and/or peers
Able to manage data (Organization)	Able to use databases on-line (related to search) Information Explosion	Specialized Training
Have the ability to write effectively	Electronic communication Effective Communication	Technical Writing
Problem-Solving	Using critical thinking to solve problems-to pick the best answers How to learn on their own Stimulation in place of R & D	CBT
Able to be a perpetual learner for life	Train in how to learn on own Ever-changing information	Specialized Training
Personal Computer literate	Navigate Windows 95' Word Processing Spreadsheet Presentations using Power Point or other presentations software Database exposure Understanding of CPU,RAM, Hard Drive storage, Video Card, Modem, etc.	CBTs
Scheduling Tools	Navigate Banner MS Project Primavera, etc.	CBTs, Specialized Training
Educate graduate about basic business principles profit & loss	Show how cost and schedule are linked Explain how overhead costs & employee benefits are calculated Able to understand company's balance sheet and annual report	Specialized Training
Educate Graduates	staying current in chosen field provide stimulus for professional development Use of periodicals, seminars, continuing education, internet resources, etc. Evaluate employee benefits (make informed choices) (vacation vs time bank, health, dental, Short and Long Disability, AD & D, Stock Options, Life, etc.	Specialized Training
Team Building	Responsibilities within a team structure How to build a consensus Brainstorming techniques	Specialized Training
Interpersonal skills	How to listen Effective communications Office politics Art of negotiating (win-win)	Specialized Training
Telecommunications Basics	Basic understanding of telephone network Available technologies Integration of telephone, video, and computer network	CBTs

The universities which have developed systematic programs to ensure the information competence of students often have done so as a result of contact with employers who hire their graduates. Marshall University could profit if communications with alumni and employers would include information competence as a topic to be covered.

The Information Technology Strategic Planning Sub-committee recommends the following actions to ensure that students who graduate from the Marshall are information competent: