The expansion of distance learning and an understanding of the benefits it can offer to both the university and the individual has led to the growth of methodologies, pedagogies and models aimed at diversifying and maximising the student experience and increasing student numbers. This paper will address these issues in relation to the…

The explosive advances in information technology combined with the current climate for health care reform have intensified the need for skilled individuals who can develop, understand, and manage medical information systems in organizations. Health Informatics facilitates quality care at a reasonable cost by allowing access to the right data by…

In October 2009, California Digital Library (CDL), where the author serves as manager of strategic and project planning, jumped into the world of social networking by joining Twitter. From Twitter, the CDL staff publish the content of their monthly newsletter, "CDLINFO News," and also additional content created by CDL programs and…

Over the past several decades, millions of digital objects of significant scientific, economic, cultural, and historic value have been published and distributed to libraries and archives on removable media. Providing long-term access to these documents, media files, and software executables is an increasingly complex task because of dependencies…

The process of innovation-development to scaling is varied and complex. Various actors are involved in every stage of the process. In scaling the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)-led integrated watershed management projects in India and South Asia, three drivers were identified--islanding approach,…

A University of Miami (Florida) project to centralize imaging/document management is described. The system will enable document storage, retrieval, and work-flow management, lower costs, and improve on traditional business practices. Benefits of imaging/document management, the rationale for centralizing, and the three-phase implementation plan…

The technology for information organization, communication, storage, and use today is the book. It has evolved over 3000 years (in its modern form over 500 years) to the mature object we currently enjoy. The book is now the primary technology used in education. But with the development of the computer and the Web, a new electronic information…

The approach taken by Baylor University (Texas) to developing a campuswide information system focuses on better use of existing resources to expand information access to nonproduction users. Guiding principles include carefully selecting target workstations, using "information-harvesting" tools, testing prototypes, creating derivative…

The Fifth Annual Educause Current Issues Survey ranked "security and identity management" near the top of the list of critical IT challenges on campus today. Recognition of the crucial importance of securing networked resources led Internet2 to establish its Middleware Initiative (I2MI) in 1999. While Internet2 was founded to develop and deploy…

A key issue in redesigning college and university business processes is whether new processes should be enabled by information systems that focus on them or share highly integrated data and common methods with older processes. An approach used at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) that entailed reorganization, reorientation, and retooling is…

In the past, the learning management system (LMS) was a fairly simple program. Its job was to connect an instructor to a student for an individual course. The student could track grades without harassing the faculty member, and the professor could stop worrying about the prospect of losing a student's paper-based assignment. Often, the LMS…

Older computer applications are often caught in cycles where maintenance and operation become increasingly expensive, yet replacement costs are prohibitive. Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a strategic approach toward enhancing an existing alumni/fund-raising/gifts system to extend its life and avoid the capital costs associated…

The academic computing office at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center implemented a campuswide system for information dissemination. The system has since been tied into a worldwide system. The evolution of the system is described, including selection and adoption of procedures, staffing, and development of publishing tools. (MSE)

Centring on the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in Chinese higher education, this paper discusses the development of e-campus in Chinese universities from three different aspects: campus network infrastructure and various management information systems; three modes of e-learning and its application in higher education…

The University of Massachusetts has adopted user data groups (groups of information users whose function is to address data issues rather than applications or operations) to help develop an institutional culture supportive of more advanced information technology. The university is treated as a corporation and its five campuses as divisions. (MSE)