Getting It Right

1
Getting It Right

• Making the End User Experience
• Positive, Productive and Simple
• Richard Spencer
• eStrategy Town Hall
• June 23, 2005

2
Overview

• The role of the university
• Enterprise process innovation
• Learning
• Research
• Some IT trends and directions
• Our role in managing complexity
• Getting it right
• Using IT to transform key processes

3
The role of the university

• learning development
• research knowledge discovery
• transmission of knowledge
• community engagement
• people are the key
• brains do the productive work
• universities support people
• people need the time and tools to be productive
• ....make it possible for everyone to live,
  work and study in the most supportive environment
  possible.
• People_at_UBC, Trek 2010

4
Resources, costs and output

• operating budget is constrained
• costs are known
• people are our most important resource
• output is knowledge and personal development
• to increase output we can
• accommodate more people
• find new ways to support their intellectual
  effort
• reduce the time they spend on secondary
  activities
• we need to use IT to
• radically improve processes
• do new things in new ways

5
Time is valuable

• Saving 2,000 faculty members 15 minutes each per
  week is worth approximately 1.25M per year
• there is a business case for saving time

6
Enterprise process innovation

• the way we do many things is driven by the
  technology we use to do them
• paper, books, filing cabinets,
• new technologies enable radical change
• Internet, connectivity
• Web access to information and applications
• personal, portable devices
• radical change can occur in
• administration and support
• research
• learning
• we have a proven methodology for innovation

7
Making radical improvements

• case for action
• end result
• commitment to implement a solution
• including the necessary resources
• facilitated redesign process
• team of 8 or 9 people
• 6 to 9 weeks for redesign
• decide if design will produce the end result
• if yes - implement
• new processes enabled by new technology

8
Some process innovation successes

• student self admission
• recruitment, hiring and orientation
• curriculum approval
• Some opportunities
• Learning
• lowering the cost of producing and delivering a
  course
• increasing accessibility and capacity
• Research
• helping people apply for and manage grants
• making information more accessible
• reducing the time required for publication

9
Some learning questions

• vision
• what is the vision for learning at UBC?
• access
• how many learners can be accommodated?
• cost
• what do learners and society have to pay?
• process
• how does learning and development occur?
• will IT enable the transformation of learning?

10
Vision

• from Trek 2010, Learning_at_UBC
• by promoting excellence at every level, we shall
  help our students
• become leaders...
• achieve their ... goals
• contribute .. to the well being of society
• acquire strong analytical and communication
  skills
• take risks in search of ..unconventional ideas
• develop ...through life-long learning

11
Access
UBC minimum admission averages
First year Arts, Science and Engineering 1986/87
to 2005/06
Engineering
Arts
Science
12
Cost
Canada
US
Tuition
Income
13
Process

• in-person learning
• earliest form of university learning
• enhanced by printing press, books
• proven to work over many centuries
• with this model
• instructors handcraft their material
• each lecture is a new production
• access is limited, cost is increasing
• student/teacher ratio measures quality
• we are using new tools to do old things
• using IT in teaching increases costs

14
Process innovation opportunities

• reusable learning objects
• shared development, using an Open Source model
• alternative models for in-person support
• distributed, shared, resources
• learner designed credentials that reflect
• learners interests and goals
• institutions knowledge, traditions and standards
• rule based credential design
• build on UBCs strengths as an innovator
• increase productivity
• develop new tools to do new things
• find new metrics for learning quality
• we should be open to discussing productivity

15
Research

• Through free and ethical inquiry in all
  disciplines and professions, UBC researchers will
  enlarge our understanding of the world...
  Research_at_UBC,Trek 2010
• Scientific inquiry is a self organizing system
• Self organizing systems require
• free flow of information
• freedom to select relevant information
• freedom of decision
• freedom of action
• Sharing of data, information and knowledge is
  fundamental to open inquiry
• Thanks to David Hardwick for sharing some of
  his ideas

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Process innovation opportunities

• knowledge hubs
• storage for data, information and knowledge
• tools to find what we want, or might need
• authenticated and trustworthy knowledge
• e.g. UBC Global Sustainable Solutions Exchange
• access to data and information
• some access should be role based
• we need distributed, rule based, access
  management
• publishing
• reducing the time and effort required
• on-line publications
• e.g. Public Library of Science

17
More innovation opportunities

• online grant application and review
• RISe and myCV are already delivering some of this
• online, rule based, application and approval
  processes
• research grant administration
• simple reports and management tools
• Implications for how we deliver IT
• unlimited storage for researchers
• identity and access management
• role based access, without undue restriction
• decentralized and distributed
• federated

18
Objectives for IT

• support strategic objectives
• teaching, learning, research student development
• help meet major challenges
• access, cost, productivity, quality
• support new initiatives, help with
• rules, complexity, scalability
• simplify administration
• give people more time to do what they have to do
• move from enable to transform
• start using new tools to do new things
• transform learning and research processes

19
IT trends and directions

• falling price and increasing power
• commodity products and services
• connectivity and access to information
• Web and Google, libraries, knowledge hubs
• portable, multifunction devices
• wireless, laptops, tablets, PDAs
• virtual resources
• resources can be anywhere utility computing
• service oriented architecture
• business functions are available on the Web
• workflow
• take advantage of Web services

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Nicholas Carr (Does IT Matter?)

• Most corporate servers use 10 to 35 of their
  processing power
• Hewlett-Packard
• 5 of desktop PC resources are utilized
• IBM
• 50 to 60 of a typical network storage capacity
  is wasted
• Gartner
• Running the same applications at multiple
  locations creates acute diseconomies
• Consolidate, standardize, prune

21
Some IT infrastructure priorities

• Portal
• one place to start
• find everything you need
• Identity management
• one way to login
• one place to update your address
• Access management
• tools and information are available when needed
• the right people get the right access
• Work flow
• deliver the information people need for decisions

22
Privacy security

• Privacy
• systems that collect identity info must
• offer compelling advantages
• enable distributed administration
• allow skeptics to opt out
• Security
• threats are very real, but
• crime and vandalism can be reduced to an
  acceptable level
• we all share the responsibility for security
• the risk can be kept acceptably low

23
Our role in managing complexity

• IT can
• deliver complex applications, services and
  processes
• hide complexities
• apply rules in ways that are clear and helpful
• poor implementation can frustrate the user and
  hide the benefits
• a great end user experience depends on
• developers listening to - and watching - users
• giving users what they need
• applying rules intelligently
• understanding that the user has more important
  things to do...

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7 rules for users who want to help

• think carefully about what you want to do
• think about how things should work
• ask for what you need to make things work
• provide constructive criticism
• if you have customers, think about their needs
• support change (including radical redesign)
• think about other users who are not as smart you
  are
• i.e. they are interested in other things

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If we understand

• The role of the university
• Enterprise process innovation
• Learning
• Research
• Key IT trends and directions
• Our role in managing complexity
• we can
• keep getting IT right
• use IT in new ways to do new things
• make the end user experience positive, productive
  and simple
• use IT to transform learning and research