Attendees: Benjamin Barenblat, Manjul Sahay, Liz Denys, Alex Dehnert, Chinua Shaw, Tim Stumbaugh, Geoff Thomas (proxy for Dormcon)
Guest attendees: Marilyn Smith (Head of IS&T), Eamon Kearns (Associate Director of Education Systems, IS&T), Mary Callahan (Registrar), Oliver Thomas (Manager, Faculty & Student Experience, IS&T)
Education Systems Roadmap
Mary and Eamon discuss the Education Systems Roadmap, laying out plans for Education Systems over the next 2-4 years. (PDF available at http://web.mit.edu/itgc/EducationSystemsRoadMap.pdf).
Highlights from report (linked above):
- incremental improvements: add business functionality, improve technical infrastructure
- History of ed. systems: current WebSIS is 15 years old, and SIS backend is ca. 1988.
- Overall system has 45k users, from applicants to faculty
- Ensuring face-to-face relationships, not taking human factor out of the equation.
- Input from 300+ students
Q: A lot of visible changes are on the faculty/admin side. When are the next big student visible things?
A: Online registration will be the first major change: small pilot Summer 2011, larger pilot Fall 2011.
Q: What about advising and reg-day meetings?
A: Pre-reg info will still be visible to advisor, but changes can be made instantly with advisor. Advisor will have some more info, including pre-reg and how it interacts with your requirement and degree audit. Improved advising tools.
Feedback can be sent directly to Mary (callahan) or Eamon (ekearns)
IT Governance Committee
Marilyn discuss the IT Governance Committee (http://web.mit.edu/itgc). Currently developing roadmaps for various parts of computing at MIT. So far: Mobile Roadmap, Network Security Roadmap, Education Systems, Data Roadmap (Data Warehouse)
W20-575 renovations
Sample layout presented for W20-575. Highlights:
- move Windows machines into front froom.
- 2 rows (8 workstations) of "laptop stations", with a monitor, KB, mouse, and easily-accessible power (and network). Also, some easily-accessible place to connect a cable lock
- 4 "cubicles" for 2-3 person groups, including desk space, and a workstation with a KVM for a laptop
- Possibly a large (5-6 person) space. ISTAB members indicate that they rarely work in groups that large, and 2-3 people stations are more useful.
- Pilot for one year, highly publicized. Solicit feedback, and add more laptop or small-group stations based on feedback.
Agreement to proceed with plans.