NJEDge Community Programs

NJEDGE COMMUNITY

Freeman Hrabowski, Sheri Prupis, George Laskaris Ed Yaw, recipient of the Charles McMickel Award for Excellence & Innovation, with George Laskaris Mary Balkun explaining the design and scholarship of her winning poster

The 2015 Annual Conference

Rethink, Refresh, Reboot Gamification Symposium

Joey J. Lee, Ph.D. Research Assistant Professor, Columbia University (Teachers College)

Keynote Address: Games for Social and Educational Impact: Lessons Learned and What’s Next?

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Thomas E. Heinzen, Ph.D., William Paterson University, presenting on “Practice Using Game Design to Increase Student Completion Rates” Faculty Showcase Ignite

Stevens Institute of Technology was honored to host the NJEDge STEAM showcase on our campus. More than 200 years ago, John Stevens built his estate at Castle Point, the site that would eventually become Stevens Institute of Technology. He was also known for his ingenuity in designing the first steamboat to successfully navigate the open ocean. As such, STEAM was a perfect theme for NJEDge and Stevens’ Division of Information Technology. STEAM is defined as a movement toward problem-solving in an uncertain world and marks a paradigm shift to focus on the engineering design process. NJEDge continues to produce knowledge communities focused on design processes and learning technology of the modern age. The Division of Information Technology has worked with NJEDge for years and has gleaned from attending and presenting at the annual conferences. This was an incredible opportunity for our faculty to showcase their great work and collaborate with their colleagues. Expanding teaching and learning with technology internally at Stevens and in a collaboration with NJEDge to the external environment is key to faculty development.

STEM to STEAM at Stevens

User Services/Instructional Design

As higher education professionals, we find creative ways to turn problems into opportunities. Part of what it takes to be effective is being able to take a step back, identify pain points and rethink how we can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of services and processes. Just as these challenges are common across our institutions, so are best-practice strategies that can help avoid staff burn-out while rethinking the support of IT services.

Above: Blake Haggerty, Executive Director for Digital Learning and Technology Support New Jersey Institute of Technology, keynote speaker

Right: Audience member Bill Duelly, NJIT, User Services Symposium

ANNUAL SUMMER

LUNCHEON

Above and below left: Luncheon attendees

Left: The executive staff with George Laskaris

Below right: Sheri Prupis, Steve Rose, George Laskaris, Sr. Rosemary Jeffries, Ed Chapel

Security Resource Group

Above: From left, Demetrios Robous, Stockton University and Michael Reekie, NJEDge.Net

Below: Timothy Fairlie, Rider University

Opposite, top right: Ed Chapel addressed SRG audience

The Security Resource Group (SRG) was formed by the membership with a mutual understanding that security goes beyond the perimeter of your network. The group focuses on uniting the people, processes, standards and technologies that defend against threats to the members.

We are uniting people, through monthly webinars, quarterly meetings, and a security summit at our annual conference. We collaborate on workflows, and cybersecurity processes to prevent losses, efficiently utilize resources, and determine wisely where to invest in the infrastructure. We utilize and promote national standards to employ local policies specific to membership. We recommend technologies that provide data driven metrics to observe indicators. We are providing a pathway for the formation of a security governing body for the members.

As a proactive community focused on fortifying the ingress and egress to our networks, systems and applications, the group is dedicated to providing a platform-agnostic approach to sharing security resources and has met four times in the last six months, with three fruitful inperson sessions. As a group we have discussed organizational concerns, openly shared strengths and weaknesses, and have joined together to strengthen the core security for the membership. The concerns have been tabulated and the top three membership concerns reflect data protection, management MEMBERSHIP CONCERNS ownership of security and best practices, policies and resources.

Data Protection: Data Loss, theft, Breach detection and response Management Ownership of Security: No ability to implement policy and lack of business focus on security Best Practices, Policies & Resources: Change control, Password management, Remote access, two-factor Authentication Network Protection/Analysis: Network Segmentation, DDOS protection, Defense beyond the Perimeter, Defense as a Community Outside Partnerships: Hosted Services, Security staff, penetration testing End user device protection: Ransomware, Malware, clicking links Incident Response: How do you know it happened and what is the first step if you know End user awareness: End user education and training

The SRG will utilize an ITIL framework for services and security management to align the efforts of security practitioners within the membership to the critical business services. The efforts of the SRG will strengthen the security posture and fortify information and services for all members.

Security Resource Group

We are NOT DICTATORS, ENFORCERS or the POLICE.

We ARE here to DEFEND and PROTECT.

VALE (Virtual Academic Library Environment)

In FY16, the Virtual Academic Library Environment of New Jersey (VALE) continued to support its mission— to further excellence in learning and research through pursuing innovative and collaborative approaches to information resources Dedicated to Innovation & Collaboration VALE new jersey and services—mainly by facilitating cooperative purchasing for Virtual Academic Library Environment its 54 member colleges and universities and by offering professional development activities for the faculty and staff of these institutions.

OUTREACH VALE co-sponsored and underwrote the annual Users’ Conference, a program that included a keynote address, 20 posters and 14 breakout sessions, most centering on the conference theme of “Library as Locus: Energizing your Campus Community.” The event is free to members. The FY16 keynote speaker was Dan Russell, Google’s Senior Research Scientist for Search Quality and User Happiness, who spoke about advanced search techniques in Google and other web tools.

VALE sponsored the Assessment Fair that featured 12 posters on topics from collection analysis and e-metrics to user statistics and information literacy. The Fair committee invited vendors to outfit tables and received representatives from LibAnalytics, the Association of Research Libraries Assessment Tools, EBSCO, Counting Opinions, and the MISO Survey.

VALE

new jersey

Virtual Academic Library Environment

manages part of the life cycle for electronic resource purchases, trials, license negotiations and invoicing, and provides vendors and member libraries with a single point of contact. In FY16, VALE dealt with 13 vendors for agreements on 71 databases; it invoiced members for payments totaling $3,724,401.86, which it passed to vendors as received. This aggregated purchasing power is a viable cost-saving mechanism for academic libraries in the state.

The VALE Executive Committee vetted and negotiated subscription to Consortia Manager, software modules that automate parts of the database licensing process. Consortia Manager should streamline operations and assist in managing our database portfolio, and will permit members to interact with aspects of the licensing process and to mine statistics and data from consortium activity.

The committee reviewed progress of VALID, the open-source library management system project, in light of the software project partners’ decision to reform the underlying corporation. That decision resulted in an extensive revision of software structure and capabilities, further extending possible implementation dates. In response to this and other factors, we decided to discontinue the project, a decision made more difficult by the VALID implementation team producing a viable business plan for the original endeavor. We will pursue options similar in tenor to the VALID plan.

PLANNING The Executive Committee examined VALE’s operations and organizational structure, an internal review it deemed necessary. It engaged a consultant to facilitate a retreat and report on its results, which was summarized in writing. As a result, VALE reorganized, disbanding 12 committees and creating four new ones defined more closely to its operational and functional activities; negotiating e-resource deals; maintaining a successful conference; communicating with membership; assessing services; planning for future endeavors; and managing large-scale projects. Each new committee is co-chaired by two Executive Committee members to ensure contact with the Executive Committee.

Academic Technology Group

The mission of the Academic Technology Group (ATG) is to identify and facilitate activities and events that address the institutionalwide interests of a broad range of audiences. The ATG addresses the impact of technologies on academic and administrative environments while promoting the meaningful infusion of technology into higher education curricula. The group also plays a leadership role in bringing together instructional and user support service technologists, faculty, and administration to share expertise in these areas: n Online and hybrid learning initiatives n Learning Management Systems n Innovative discipline-specific software n Assessment n Tools that support teaching and learning with technology n Classroom equipment n Learning spaces n Support for Bring Your Own Device n Emerging technologies n Virtualization in support of academics

Our work is carried out through events such as the Faculty Best Practices Showcase in the spring as well as in group meetings and webinars with speakers and demonstrations periodically throughout the year. In addition, many ATG members have active roles in the planning, presenting and participation in the NJEDge Annual Conference which is held in the fall.

There are several challenges facing ATG this year including the rapidly changing pace of technology and its place in education, student success technologies (active learning, personalized learning, Business Intelligence and analytics), and optimizing educational technology. In addition, changes in the LMS market (mergers and acquisitions, feature development), social media management and best practices in rich media creation and curation provide ongoing challenges facing our colleagues.

Participants never leave an NJEDge event without notes including best practices, sound advice and ideas to apply to their work, usually as soon as they return to their institutions. An important component of these meetings are the intangible benefits of enjoying the collegiality of the group and the various areas of expertise that are brought to the table.

We believe there is potential for dramatic and positive change in higher education based on the use of existing and emerging technologies.