Information Technology: Strategic Plan

How Notre Dame Uses Information Technology

In 1999, the Task Force on Curricular Innovation wrote in a report to the provost, "The University prides itself on being an environment of teaching and learning, which fosters the development in its students of those disciplined habits of mind, body, and spirit which characterize educated, skilled, and free human beings. To meet this challenge expressed in Notre Dame's mission statement, we must constantly strive to innovate and improve our curriculum both in terms of course offerings and teaching pedagogy." Technology is helping to transform the teaching and learning processes at Notre Dame in many important ways. For example,

• During the past ten years, more than 700 institutions have sent visitors to DeBartolo Hall in recognition of its place as a showcase for the effective use of technology in education.
• Literally dozens of Notre Dame faculty members use WebCT, the University's course management system standard, to enhance instructional delivery. More than 75% of the students have active online learning accounts.
• In the year 2000, the University established a Center of Excellence in Nanoscience and Technology in recognition of fifteen years of quality faculty research and educational development in the area. The center actively explores multidisciplinary fundamental concepts in nanoscience and engineering with emphasis on applications to unique functional capabilities.
• The Mendoza College of Business is considered to be one of the nation's top real-time eLearning content providers through its ability to offer video-enabled courses in the Executive MBA program.
• The University's Civil Engineering Department has developed the Shakes and Quakes Outreach Program, a hands-on program successfully implemented in South Bend schools that supplements textbook learning and has recently been made accessible on the Web. The intention is to encourage participation in higher level math and science classes on a more national level, thereby renewing the talent pool for science and technology, as well as promoting a scientifically literate population. The University, providing up-to-date knowledge and technology, partners with teachers in a combined effort to challenge students in a real-world application of math and science skills.
• The Kaneb Center for Teaching & Learning offers Notre Dame faculty a wide array of assistance, education, and training in the uses of technology in the classroom through both individual consultations and group workshops. It also offers grants to "jump start" the adoption of educational technology.
• Selected comments from a student survey administered by the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable:
  • "[One of my] most effective learning experiences so far has been in Dr. Helquist's organic chemistry class. In chem, Dr. Helquist incorporates all media into a smooth-flowing lecture that is easy to follow and hence is easy to understand. Technology has definitely played a part in his ability…"
  • "The wide access to web resources entirely changed my learning capacity and my effectiveness as a student."
  • "[An] extremely effective experience was working on my policy paper for International Humanitarian Issues. We gathered much of our research through databases on the web and when it came time to write, we could write independently yet in consultation with one another, and merge the various parts of the paper easily."
• The University will commit more than half a million dollars over the next three years toward instructional technology investments for enhancing the pastoral distance education program through the Institute for Church Life (ICL). According to publicity about this venture, ICL believes "theology through technology" will enrich the broader church community through improved access to quality religious reference materials and respected instruction in the Notre Dame tradition. Tom Cummings, director of the Satellite Theological Education Program, says, "The methods are new and the means of delivery may be different, but our teaching is consistent and our traditions and beliefs have stood the test of time."
• What does the Internet look like? This is a question ask by Albert-Laslo Barabasi and his colleagues in the physics department. "Any effort to map the Internet is necessarily incomplete and out of date the moment it appears. We treat the net as though it were a natural phenomenon," stated Barabasi. "What scientists generally do with a natural phenomenon that they do not understand is to build a model of it." Dr. Barabasi's latest paper on the matter, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, presents a general framework for improving the accuracy of Internet models.

What difference has technology made in higher-education curriculum? The study of chemistry has been changed forever by the advent of the computer. The whole sub-discipline of physical chemistry depends on it, occupying ground between empirical study and the theoretical domain. The computational basis of physical chemistry connects operations on accessible matter with ideas about the inaccessible. Geology has been transformed by chemically-based techniques for dating. Techniques of modeling and simulation have opened new lines of study in economics. Psychology has learned much from computational models of perception and intelligence. These are just some of the examples of curricular transformations we can ascribe directly to the application of technology. To be sure, not all disciplines are affected equally, nor are all faculty members enthusiastic about technology to the same degree. Nevertheless, the transformative power of technology is readily evident on the Notre Dame campus.

But it is not easy for a university to achieve the full potential of information technology. IT is a challenging enterprise, to say the least. It is very complex, very changeable, and very expensive. It is extremely difficult to balance the supply of technology resources and services with the end-user demand for them.

The growth rate for spending on information technology is something that makes almost everyone in higher education uncomfortable. Not only is there a fundamental ongoing-ness to higher education's need for technology and its support, but we have also seen a number of special points at which the pace of growth has actually accelerated - the introduction of personal computers, campus networking (especially to the residence halls), modern administrative information systems, and the growing interest for technology in the classroom. Each one of these milestones has created more users, more applications, and more need to provide support. To be faced with the need to carve out a certain definite portion of the institutional budget each year to fund and support technology, and to be further faced with the likelihood that this portion will continue to grow is very, very difficult. Nevertheless, that is the situation that every educational institution, including Notre Dame, finds itself in today.

The Framework of the Committee Reports