Making the Net Work
Memorial University :
Making the Net Work!
A WWW/IT Policy For Memorial – A Green Paper for Discussion
Preamble
Memorial has invested heavily in computing networks. Initially, it created NLNet, the provincial node on the Internet. Subsequently, it created its own award-winning local high-speed network. These developments would not have been possible without developing the requisite infrastructure, including a staff sophisticated in the emerging technologies. Memorial supported the development of STEMnet, a project that demonstrated the power of the Net in the lives of the people in the Province and, as a partner of SchoolNet, across . It has also invested in additional access, supplementing the capacity of 's research network with the purchase of bandwidth from local suppliers.
Memorial has also invested in content available on the network. Initiatives by units like the Office of the Registrar and the University Library develop the web as a primary means of delivering services. The creation of academic programs that use the web to satisfy the needs of learners distant from any campus represents another sort of investment in our core endeavors.
Memorial can be proud of its role as an early adapter of communications technology and of the uses to which that technology has been put. It is now time, these initial steps having been taken, to define the role of the Net, the World Wide Web, and information technology in the development of Memorial's educational mandate and its increasingly complex system of internal communications. An alternative title for this discussion paper might be "Beyond Opportunism," signaling a concerted effort to set out the direction the university will take and the goals it plans to accomplish as it assesses past efforts and directs future investments to ensure that they are part of a rational framework that keeps Memorial competitive in the changing post-secondary climate.
The Vision
Memorial will become the university that takes fullest advantage of the revolution in communications technology in order to achieve its educational, research, and community service goals. It will become the institution for which the Net works.
The Principles
For the Net to work for Memorial, it must be inclusive in design, recognizing the needs of all members of Memorial's community, broadly defined, and all those who wish to join that community.
For the Net to work for Memorial, it must facilitate and enhance, not obscure, the human interactions that form the basis of our community.
For the Net to work for Memorial, all sectors must make concerted efforts to use it whenever sensible in the provision of programmes and services.
The Goal
All units in the University, both academic and administrative, will assess the potential contributions of the Net towards the achievement of their goals and use this information to maximize the use of the Net in their operations. The Net, currently in its World Wide Web (the Web) manifestation, will become the "top of the mind" mechanism for scholarly and administrative communication.
Understanding the Net
While the Net is greater and of more fundamental significance than the protocols that constitute the web, it is unlikely that the web will be replaced on the Net with regard to information presentation in the near future. Therefore, while admitting that such replacement is likely in the long term, for the purposes of describing Memorial's efforts to present information in the next five years or so, the policy assumes a web environment. In this context, the web can be understood from three perspectives, each of which poses a basic question to Memorial. Each question, in turn, calls for institutional objectives. Projects that fulfill these objectives can be evaluated, approved and listed in the continuing effort to make the Net work for us.
The Web as Communication Medium
Viewed as a communication medium, the key question is this: How can the web be best used to reveal Memorial's intellectual and cultural life? The following objectives provide a partial answer to this question:
To promote openness and transparency
To reflect the diversity of our enterprise, an enterprise that has both external audiences in the province, the nation and the world, as well as internal audiences of students, staff and faculty.
To promote two-way communication, enabling members of the Memorial community to act both as informed users of content and as competent content providers.
To safeguard, through appropriate policies and protocols, the information content of the web from both corruption and inappropriate exploitation.
The Web as Learning Environment
Viewed as a learning environment, the key question is this: How can we facilitate teaching and learning using the web? Remembering the diversity that characterizes Memorial, that environment includes not only undergraduate students pursuing a particular degree, but also faculty examining new ways to communicate more effectively and staff responding to the rapidly changing work environment,. itself a product of the revolution in communications technology. The web offers an opportunity for self directed study as well as more intensive interaction with experts in the several disciplines that define Memorial. Our objectives, then, should be:
To provide access to the broadest possible array of learning opportunities, and
To adopt, from time to time, standard tools to support this access so that our depth of expertise in presentation matches the depth of our disciplinary scholarship.
The Web as Administrative Tool
Viewed as an administrative tool, the key question is this: How can Memorial realize the web's clear potential for extending and extended services, and take advantage of its considerable efficiency in the area of information handling? Our immediate objectives in this regard should be:
To ensure that all appropriate services are delivered by the web, whether these services be to internal or external clients.
To promote seamless and efficient access to web-based services on campus and off.
The Resources
To realize this policy, university units will have to invest in the following areas:
expert staff to guide
implementation (process redesign, etc.)
web-capable software for administrative functions
staff education relating to goals and service requirements
staff training relating to technical operations
The following institutional targets reinforce this process:
By 2002, a mechanism for providing some additional resources [e.g. in support of training] to units in order to facilitate the achievement of the above goals will have been created and funded.
By the 2003-04 budget submissions, units are expected to have developed their annual work plans and budgets with a view to accomplishing these goals.
Priorities for Initial Funding
The following initial priorities are meant to give guidance during the initial stages of the plan and do not modify the goals or the time lines indicated above:
The first priority for web development will be those services and programs that directly support Memorial's student recruitment and retention goals, particularly those identified in the university's enrollment management plan and the university's marketing plan.
The second priority for web development will be those services and programs that generate new revenue from external sources or improve operational effectiveness.
Afterword
This discussion paper is presented as the usual sort of text document for purposes of discussion. It is anticipated that it will eventually be presented as a web page with links to those projects that constitute the particular responses to the policy by units within the university and to other documents associated with our determination to make the Net work for Memorial.
September 24, 2002
