The Committee meets monthly with Information Technology to provide insights on what is working and quite frankly, what could stand improvement. Hearing firsthand the struggles that professors are experiencing with software and services needed to do their work is invaluable. It brings homes a reality check and provides input into IT planning and their continuous improvement activities.
“What you and your team are doing, really matters for the researchers.” — Marijke Taks
To date, there has been a solid track record of delivering value following these meetings. Professors have been enthusiastic about IT’s receptivity in hearing their suggestions and seeing solutions implemented to address their pain points.
Some of the raised issues surrounded having the list of the tools needed to do their work, and organized by the business cycle of professors and researchers. A list of administrative tools required for research activities is in the current VirtuO. Additionally, several discussions have been held to assess how these lists can be more prominently displayed on the University’s new web site, including creating a similar list for professors. Some resources for professors are listed on Information Technology’s website.
Another issue tackled was about community co-researchers not being eligible to obtain NVivo at educational pricing. A process for sponsored accounts was discussed and now collaborating researchers have access. As an example of a real outcome of this change, indigenous partners can now truly participate in research at a different level. Enabling this business process was implemented within several weeks.
At one meeting, it was signaled that graduate students did not have required VPN access and that this was problematic for their involvement in learning and research. Being made aware of the issue, IT implemented a new process by which all graduate students now get VPN access by default.
Opportunities to have a voice in other IT forums also have been offered at the Committee. In early 2022, Professor Steffany Bennett accepted to sit on the Identity and Access Management Advisory Board. They were looking for a second faculty member to increase representation on the Board. This will augment professorial input on this current Workday security initiative that addresses the need to ensure appropriate access to resources across at the right time for the right reasons.
“I am pleased that we have been able to leverage the Professor Advisory Committee to focus on elements that count for professors and researchers.” — Daniel Trottier, Committee Chair
In past months, topics have ranged from how professors want to be informed of IT information, the need for improved workflows, the Web redesign project, researcher needs, linking information to the governance committees for Research and Academic, discussion of Redcap as a useful platform for research groups, resolving access issues to making it easier for to place professor requests in the Self-Service Centre.
The more professors participate at these meetings, the more ideas will be available to fuel improvements to the professor’s user experience. The next meeting is on April 28 from 2:00-3:20 P.M. Professors interested in attending can send an email to GouvernanceGITI-IMITGovernance.