University of Guelph: What Presidents Need to Know About the Impact of Networking on Campus Background paper for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" ----------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH Ontario, Canada Jack R. MacDonald Acting President and Vice Chancellor (through May 1, 1993) Vice President, Academic Ron Elmslie Director, Computing and Communications Services John Black Chief Librarian ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. For information about paper copies, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, orders@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this paper electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3guelph ================================================================== What Presidents Need to Know about the Impact of Networks on Campus Background The University of Guelph offers a comprehensive set of education programs to 14,000 undergraduate and 1,700 graduate students. The University employs more than 750 full time faculty and approximately 1250 support personnel. Several distinguishing characteristics of the University have been important influences from the perspective of our information technology involvement. Guelph is one of Canada's most research intensive universities, more than one-third of our students live in campus residences, and the University's strong presence in Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine includes a large extension involvement with off-campus clients and a major commitment to distance education. The University of Guelph could fairly be described as an early player and contributor to many areas of information technology. Particular examples include the development of several innovative systems; a very successful library system in the mid-1970's, an early computer conferencing system (CoSy), a Veterinary Medical Information Management System and a multiplicity of other applications of IT to education. A comprehensive IT Strategic Plan was adopted in the early 1980's, the first phase of which was to install a voice-data network which accessed all areas of the University, including all residence rooms. The strategic concept was to provide a full range of educational and administrative services on the network - computer conferencing, access to word-processing, graphics and statistical packages and a wealth of CAI modules, course registration including the dropping and adding of courses, access to a variety of on-campus and off-campus data bases, access to the library catalogue, electronic messaging and information services, etc. The original vision was, at first, slow to materialise, an experience quite typical of situations which involve comprehensive changes in behaviour. Not only were faculty and others slow to provide appropriate service to the students, in part due to fiscal constraints, the students themselves were also slow to adopt new approaches. On the other hand, a decade later, we have a fibre optics network linking most academic buildings and a distributed computing environment with a wide spectrum of services provided on-line, including a great deal of CAI material. More than half of our students regularly use computer conferencing and electronic mail to communicate with their instructors and with each other. And our original vision did not anticipate the creation of an interactive audio-visual link with the University of Waterloo by which classrooms are linked electronically. This application of networks is an efficient and effective approach to the delivery of courses and the sharing of resources and the link will soon be expanded to include McMaster University. General Few would disagree with the statement that networks are capable of having a dramatic and ubiquitous impact on our campuses over the next few years; examples of the current applications of networks, local or global, are evidence enough of the possible applications and implications. And the opportunities will proliferate with enhancements and refinements to the technology of the networks and to the functions and facilities which they link. But it is an open and important question as to what form the revolution will take and to what extent capability will be translated into actual practice. The answers to these questions are more likely to lie in understanding the characteristics of the human-technology interaction than in the technological capability itself. Two examples will demonstrate the importance of this facet of the use of technology. It was not long ago that microfilm was touted as the solution to information storage problems. Even though the storage problem is effectively addressed by the technology, the potential of microfilm has never been realized, in substantial measure because the technology took away certain features of the traditional paper storage - browsing, non- linear searches, the efficiency associated with the physical storage arrangement of books and periodicals and so on. In short, microfilm did not provide an appropriate level of comfort to the user because its features were incompatible with important elements of human behaviour. On the other hand, the growth in the use of FAX technology has been quite incredible, in spite of the low added value it provides. In fact, the price one pays for its main feature of increased speed of transmission is frequently a poor quality copy of printed material that usually arrives a few days later by mail (and creates a filing problem)! FAX is used because the technology is transparent and therefore non- threatening to the user, no new training is required and the product (paper) is familiar. It is appropriate to note that widespread usage only occurred upon the establishment and acceptance of international standards. What then can we learn from history about the likely impact of networks on our campuses? In general, networks are likely to have a significant impact in situations where the following conditions hold: * the task at hand can be done better or cheaper or both (or perhaps only) by using a network feature * virtually all participants are comfortable with the use of the service or feature provided on the network - this implies ease of use, standards, a high degree of shared features with traditional approaches, etc * training and continuous handholding is essential if a significant conversion to new technologies is to be achieved * there is leadership provided at the top. There is no substitute for visible, active participation by senior administrators in creating an environment in which the use of networks and the applications they provide is an integral part of the life of an institution. Specific Uses 1. Inter-personal Communication Perhaps the greatest impact that networks have had on our institutions, to date, has been in the area of inter-personal communications. The ability which networks afford users to communicate cheaply and unconstrained by time zone differences, distance and location, has changed the way in which we function. Even within our campuses, the geographical and cultural barriers which historically have existed between our departments are being broken down because of the ease and cultural neutrality afforded by communication by networks and the communication features which operate on them. There are a number of applications of networks which facilitate inter- personal communication in an administrative, research or educational setting (e-mail, file transfer, notice boards, computer conferencing, etc.). There are several major issues related to the use of networks in general which are of importance in this context: confidentiality; authorization; security; filing, retrieval and indexing; and "quality control" (filtering of useful information from all available information). The filing/retrieval/indexing issue may seem trivial but it inhibits the use of networks in the administrative aspects of the work of our institutions. In such cases, there is a need to maintain comprehensive records of information obtained from many sources, internal and external, and in a variety of formats (ranging from typeset documents to hastily scribbled notes). Digital scanning can deal with the conversion of material to a common form, but may create data transfer rate and load problems. It goes without saying that appropriate training and standards are required. Inclusiveness of use is vital, for to become a truly effective tool in which paper-based forms of communication are set aside, everyone within the appropriate community must be a willing and competent participant. Inter- personal communication thrives in cases where users are technically capable and consenting; there must be a need, an ability and a will! 2. Access to Services Networks provide unprecedented access to an incredibly wide range of services and do so without site-specific constraints. Many of these services have resulted or will result in fundamental changes to the way we function. Access to supercomputers is an obvious and important example. And the possible impact on the way libraries function has been stated succinctly by Ann Okerson (1): "We have lived for many generations with a world in which the technology of publication meant the access required ownership, in other words, that scholarly information was usable only if it were gathered in a large, site-specific, elf-sufficient collection. The pressures libraries now feel have already driven them to various forms of resource sharing, notably interlibrary loans, that begin to provide alternative models. New electronic technologies allow the possibility of uncoupling ownership from access, the material object from its intellectual content. This possibility is revolutionary, perhaps dramatically so. Without cataloguing the range of services potentially available on networks, their shared feature is access without the requirement of on- site presence. Consequently, new and radically different ways of providing service are possible. Paradoxically, the richness of the choices will require difficult priority setting, made necessary by the standard limitations of time and other resources. 3. Impact on teaching The impact of networks on education is potentially immense. Networks facilitate the use of computers and information technologies in instruction in many ways; use of live data bases, real time simulation and gaming, distributed participants, interpersonal communications, linked classrooms, multimedia approaches, and a host of other possibilities. Perhaps more in these cases than in any other application, the resources required for effective implementation is likely to be a major issue. The intellectual development costs and the cost of the technologies themselves are likely to be high. Under these circumstances, it is imperative that the educational effectiveness of these approaches be evaluated both intrinsically and relative to evolving options. ______________________________________________________ (1) in University Libraries and Scholarly Communication, Anthony M. Cummings et al, Washingtion, The Association of Research Libraries for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1992, p. xv.