Wake Forest University (WFU) is in the midst of a 28-month student information system (SIS) transition. The authors' offices are deeply involved in this process on a daily basis. As the university collects and analyzes data, discusses operational needs with campus colleagues, builds and configures tenants, tests and validates, and implements a new…

This report is a companion piece to WCER working paper 2018-14, "A Cyberinfrastructure for Design-Based Research: A Collaborative Design Project Proposal." That paper stressed that the educational research community would be well served by a mutually created cyberinfrastructure that encourages and supports engagement by multiple…

Students acquire an understanding of the differences between TCP and UDP (connection-oriented vs. connection-less) data transfers as they analyze network packet data collected during one of a series of labs designed for an introductory network essentials course taught at Boise State University. The learning emphasis of the lab is not on the…

Given the recent spate of library system vendor acquisitions and consolidations, integrated library system (ILS) migrations have become a hot topic again. Although ILS migrations happen all the time, they tend to be cyclical in nature. Today, people are thinking broadly about what options might be available to them. These include changing vendors,…

Although document management (DM) systems have improved the efficiency of document handling, they do not address the document process itself. Virtual document technology, when incorporated into DM systems, simplifies the document production process and reduces time and costs. Discusses the assembly a virtual document, creation of a complete…

Document management (DM) systems capture, store, index, retrieve, route, distribute, and archive information in organizations. Discusses "passive" electronic libraries and "active" systems; characteristics of effective systems; implementing a system; fitting a new system to an existing infrastructure; budgets; system…

As an American Library Association/USIA International Library Fellow in Argentina from March to September 1989, the author worked with the Argentine National Protective Commission for People's Libraries. Included in her assignment was a charge "to assist in the development of a popular libraries network in Patagonia," the southernmost…

Six papers from the 1990 CAUSE Conference Track VIII: Managing Distributed Computing are presented. Authors discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in providing user managers with direct access to institutional databases to support their decision making and planning activities. Papers and their authors are as follows: "Rendering an…

Because they bring a large gain in productivity for a small investment in software, training, and overhead, organizations are embracing intranets: private World Wide Web sites that limit access to select groups by placing the Web behind a "firewall" or using the server's ability to provide security. Discusses intranets, document…

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an infrastructure that enables the encoding, exchange and reuse of structured metadata. RDF additionally provides a means for publishing both human-readable and machine-readable vocabularies designed to encourage the reuse and extension of metadata semantics among disparate information communities.…

Outlines the impact of current divisions in the information infrastructure of the information environment on the ability of knowledge workers to integrate information across media and sources of information. Discussion covers information "seams," inaccessible information, information overload/impoverishment, and bottlenecks. The…

This essay addresses the fundamental changes in higher education that make existing models of information technology support inappropriate and insufficient, and it suggests how new models might evolve. The paper discusses three primary issues that define the current crisis: overwhelming demands on the central information technology organization;…

This document presents the proceedings of a conference on managing and using information technology to implement change in higher education. Six tracks, with eight papers in each track, address the themes of: (1) leadership challenges for managers of information technology during times of change; (2) leveraging people with technology, to make…

This monograph presents a set of emerging theories, along with current practices and recommendations, that focus on the effective management of knowledge in educational settings. It provides a set of simple designs for linking people, processes, and technologies, and discusses how organizations can promote policies and practices that help people…

Based on the fact that the individual human mind is limited, conceptual frameworks and innovative systems in support of social interaction are a necessity rather than a luxury for the future information society. Conceptual frameworks need to be grounded in distributed cognition. Because "a group has no head," collaboratively constructed…