Exemplary Practices in Information Technology Solutions 2001 Award Winners

University of California, Berkeley

Interactive University Project or to the abstract?

In the late 1990s UC Berkeley addressed a challenge grounded in its institutional mission of public service: how to open up its unique resources and community in support of K-12 teachers, students, and families. The Berkeley solution was the creation of a campus-wide technical and organizational initiative, the Interactive University Project (IU), and the development since 1999 of (1) a campus ecosystem for scaleable, technology-mediated university/K-12 projects, and (2) a future model for using portal technology to connect university content and community with K-12 schools on a very large scale.

The core of the campus ecosystem was a new group in the IT division comprising staff with technical, campus-leadership, K-12 partnership, pedagogical, and entrepreneurial expertise. Supported by leadership from the highest level (the executive vice chancellor and provost), the group raised several million dollars in federal and state grants in partnership with important local school districts. Through a new program for campus departments called Internet Learning Community Projects (ILCP), the IU issued a campus RFP, selected 11 projects, and provided a million dollars of funding over three years to approximately 25 campus academic units to work with teams of K-12 teachers to build digital learning materials based on Berkeley content. The portal-mediated open learning environment will provide K-12 teachers a "digital box " of Berkeley content from which they can create collections of learning objects, access an integrated K-12 curriculum built from learning objects, and participate in Web events in which Berkeley researchers interact with large numbers of K-12 teachers and/or students. An unusually comprehensive integration of research, teaching, and service, the IU project is also exemplary in its skillful leveraging of resources through collaboration, and its sensitivity to the decentralized, distributed academic culture. Thorough documentation, solid core technology, and research-based evaluation make the project replicable at other institutions.

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Student Technology Services

A unique work-based learning organization composed solely of student employees, Student Technology Services at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, is an unusually effective solution to both campus and workforce needs for information technology workers. STS uses about 300 students to deliver technology services to the UWM campus in over 20 functional areas, as well as to the surrounding community. It is entirely managed by students, with a sophisticated, innovative organization structure and professional development program that empower students as decision-makers, budget and program managers, service providers, and technology paraprofessionals. An independent department within UWM's Information and Media Technologies (I&MT) Division, STS draws more than half its employees from academic programs not normally associated with technology. Full-time I&MT staff serve as mentors and are assigned to each STS department to advise the student supervisors. Collaboration with the local business community through the STS Business Partners program provides seamless connectivity to the outside world to give students additional external workplace experience and develop a pool of valuable future employees.

Program leader Joe Douglas has been developing the STS program for 14 years, beginning at Oklahoma State University and Washington State University. The fully developed implementation at UWM is unique in size, complexity, and breadth of technologies encompassed. The greater Milwaukee area, with its large base of potential corporate partners, has proven to be an excellent location to expand and refine the STS model. The first generation of the fully developed STS program have already graduated and become successful professionals in their chosen fields. STS students have added 85 FTE to campus technology support at UWM, at 40 percent of the cost of permanent staff. The program has been successfully implemented in Milwaukee-area high schools and technical colleges, with plans to extend it to middle schools and to the communities of all UW campuses. Over two dozen colleges and universities have visited the STS program at UWM to learn how to start similar programs.