CIC Technology Training Group Discussions

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions: Feb 27 Discussion: Security Training

2007-02-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

Discussion Questions:

Since all of us have Campus Security Offices which are interested in educating users and technical staff, this training topic is a bit different from many others.

Who provides security training on your campus? (Training group? Security office? Etc.)
What forms of training are provided? (hands-on, lecture, vendor, conference-related training such as Security Day activities, etc.)
Is security training required for

new hires?
student orientation?
those deemed in violation of policy? If so, how is that implemented / enforced?

What training exists for system administrators or other technical audiences (topics)?
Who develops the security training provided on your campus? (Security office? Training group? CIC security consortium? Other?)
The CIC Communications group has discussed several security awareness campaigns on various campuses. How is security training related to security awareness communication at your institution?
Some CIC schools have hosted regional SANS Institutes, which are in effect specially priced SANS training sessions for government and education. What experiences, if any, have you had with such efforts?
Do you have any experiences (good or bad) to report about commercial sources of security training? (Online? Well-known security agencies? Standard commercial vendors (New Horizons, etc.?)
What, if anything is currently being done from a centralized standpoint with respect to PCI DSS? (Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard)
Since all universities need to comply the above standard, is there interest in a shared approach to developing training?

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions: December 12 Discussion: Training Web sites

2006-11-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions

Discussion Questions:

What is your URL?
What is the main purpose/function of your Web site (e.g., communications/marketing, registration)?
Is it static or dynamic? If not dynamic, why not?

How integrated is your registration system with your site?
How integrated are you handouts with your site (and in what format do you provide handouts/e-materials)?

Have you conducted usability studies on your site, and if so, what have you done with that information?
Do you analyze Web stats? If you do, please post any trends here and state what you do with them.
What is the workflow and staff associated with your site?
What, if any, Web 2.0 technologies is incorporated into your site (e.g., wikis, blogs, RSS, etc.)?
What are the biggest challenges you face regarding your site?

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions: October 31 Discussion: Harnessing Students as a Resource

2006-09-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions

Discussion Questions:

How many student employees work in your area and what kinds of work do they do?
With the number of conflicting demands placed on students how do you keep them motivated at work?
When hiring students, what qualifications do you look for?
What strengths do your students bring to the table? Are there any strengths that your students possess that your full time staff do not?
What challenges do you face when working with students? How are you working to overcome these challenges?

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions: August 22 Discussion: Competency Programs

2006-08-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions

Facilitated by Ginna Moore

Competency: a determination of an individual's capability to perform expectations, competency is how well we use and integrate our knowledge, skills, and abilities in performing our jobs.

Purpose of a competency program in a University setting. A lot of money is potentially spent each year for faculty and staff training. With that degree of investment, universities need to be certain that the training that is received is on target. By defining a need for training and then setting the goals that training will achieve, gaps betwen expected performance and actual performance can be identified. By defining core competencies (those behaviors as defined above) you are given an important Human Resources tool for the recruitment and retention of staff.

Competency skills may be at one of three levels:

Beginning The individual has little or no mastery of the subject and needs to acquire basic knowledge, skills or abilities in this area.

Intermediate The individual has already demonstrated a basic level of understanding but needs additional training or knowledge in certain areas of the subject matter.

Advanced The individual has mastered this competency and does not need any further training in the area.

As an example, competencies for an instructor are:

Communicate effectively.
Update and improve one’s professional knowledge and skills.
Comply with established ethical and legal standards.
Establish and maintain professional credibility.
Plan instructional methods and materials
Prepare for instruction.
Stimulate and sustain learner motivation and engagement.
Demonstrate effective presentation skills.
Demonstrate effective facilitation skills.
Demonstrate effective questioning skills.
Provide clarification and feedback.
Promote retention of knowledge and skills.
Promote transfer of knowledge and skills.
Assess learning and performance.
Evaluate instructional effectiveness.
Manage an environment that fosters learning and performance.
Manage the instructional process through the appropriate use of technology.

Questions:

Has your institution identified core competencies for staff?
If not, what core competencies do you think should exist?
Would establishing core competencies improve the performance appraisal process?
How would the establishment of core competencies effect training?
Where should a competency program reside in the university setting (Human Resources? within each College?, etc.)

Web Stats Software (side conversation)

2006-06-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions
Penn State ITS Training Services uses AWStats available free at http://awstats.sourceforge.net

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions: June 20 Discussion: Mgmnt of Training Staff

2006-06-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions: June 20 Discussion: Mgmnt of Training Staff

Penn State (Lisa Lacombe, Christine Vucinich, Heather Huntsinger, Tara Caimi)

1. 8 trainers, 2 ID's, 2 coordinators, 2/3 assistant, 1 marketing coordinator, 1 director
2. 2 Admin Svs trainers report to Admin Svcs ID, coordinator asst reports to coord, all else currently report to director
3. Primarily full time staff. Use students as instructor assistants. Sometimes as project assts. Have few pt instructors.
4. To vertical of reporting structure. Director spends time managing (and not well) instead of directing, strategizing, etc.
5. Hmmm...I'd have to ask my staff, but a neverending supply of chocolate doesn't hurt ;-) Seriously, professional development opportunities, flexible scheduling, attempt to match interests with responsibilities, attempt to provide promotional opps; University of Michigan:
There are a variety of units that do training here at U of Mich. Our IT Education Services has three trainers (2 full-time and 1 part-time), and they report to the head of that unit. I think they work together as a team to set the schedule, etc. - I don't think they have a support person who does it, but I could be wrong. I believe the head of the unit is in charge of marketing, etc.

Our Duderstadt Center (which support CTools (our version of Sakai), UM.Lessons (a survey and quizzing tool), and Sitemaker (web-based web page creation program), has 2-3 primary trainers (who also have other duties). In addition, other people within the various academic units on campus will teach/support these tools.
 At the Library, we have two people that are designated as primary trainers, but each semester, we may have up to 5-7 other people who will teach a different class or two. This creates some problems, because sometimes it's hard to get the subject specialists to do a session we think the people need, and we don't have the expertise to do it without them. At the same time, we are trying to expand our cadre of instructors who can teach RefWorks, for example, to help spread the load.

Here at the Library, for the two main instructional support facilities, we may have up to 10 students, and we usually are single or double-staffed (never more). Most of them don't do formal training, but work with individuals as consultants.

Since instruction is a large part of some people's job, we really don't have any external motivators.
: Purdue University - Joe Conte (Teaching and Learning Department of central IT organization (ITaP))

I have 9 staff that conduct, or prepare for, training for any where from 25 to 60% of their job; we have a central it training portal which is supported by ITaP and shared by all training groups within ITaP. My staff has a listserv we use for announcing new training offerings; formal marketing and ad copy is done by others. My staff also delivers consulting services, handle level 2 incident management tickets on academic technology usage, and take on small (less than 200 hrs) design and development projects.

Teaching and Learning Technologies is one of the five main departments in ITaP (~450 ftes). We focus on the academic side of the university. We are broken up into 3 divisions: Learning Spaces (real and virtual lab space), Enterprise Learning Technologies (things like Breeze and Vista deployment/admin), and the Instruction Development Center. Each division has a director. I report to the latter, along with the Communication, Marketing and Outreach unit. The CIO who heads up ITaP reports jointly to the Provost and Executive VP.

All of my professional staff are full-time. I have 6-8 students who are managed as a resource pool to work on our design and development projects. I have 3-5 students who deliver our student peer-to-peer training programs, along with helping the full-time staff in their training efforts. I will also have 2-3 students who will be handling incident management tickets.

Finding time to do everything without burning anyone out. Since we are perceived to be very adept at dealing with the public, many last minute "engagements" are thrown our way. That severely cuts into the staff being able to implement any type of effective time management. The nine members of my staff are all highly skilled and educated (six masters degrees and one doctorate) professionals. They are spread across campus in four different physical locations, between them they supervise undergraduate students in three distinctly different environments, supervise two specialty labs (library collaboration and adaptive/assistive learning), and their jobs allow them to exercise considerable discretion in their work flow. Keeping up with all they are working on in the ever changing IT landscape is very taxing.

Somehow, we have managed to put together a cohesive team … always available to help out not only their colleagues within the unit, but others within TLT, ITaP, and Purdue at large. In the time I've managed them, I can't remember a single staff member ever saying an unkind word about anyone else on their team. That’s not to say they don’t offer each other constructive criticism. But they always address the situation and not the individual, and they always do so with the utmost of professional demeanor… while at the same time having fun at what they do. As a result, they are constantly willing to tackle problems, tasks, activities, and projects as a team … never putting any personal agenda ahead of striving for success as a team. In addition to hiring people-persons, rather than strictly techies, I think some of the group structure lends itself to this cohesiveness. All of them participate in common activities (Consulting, Training, and Incident Management), and then each of them has items in which they excel (assistive technology, video, creating online materials, web development, etc.). By having common activities, they have a common bond - something they can all relate to, and to each other. By allowing them time to work on specialty topics, they are given an opportunity to express their creative side. Since we have far more work than we could ever hope to tackle, I make an effort to allow the staff to choose their specialty items. It is typically something they're either good at, like doing, or both.; I've also gone to great lengths to make sure than we have a duplication of skills within the team. There is always a backup for any activity; no single point of contact or failure exists. As (un)fortune would have it, on several occasions a staff member has had to have an unexpected and immediate absence of unknown (at first) duration. The duplication of skills sets has allowed us to never have to cancel any of our commitments. And once someone has gone the extra mile for you, you'd be hard-pressed to not return the favor when their need arises. This further builds the team bond. In addition to giving the aforementioned latitude in their own time and work management, I make sure that any kudos I receive are passed up the chain of command; try to buy them whatever they need to do their job; and promote their travel to attend and present at professional conferences.; Purdue University Calumet -Colleen Robison

1. HR Training Unit has 1 trainer and one graduate assistant. Technical Training Unit has 1 trainer.

2. We have an Assoc Director for Staff Training - Reports to Director of HR who reports to the Vice Chancellor for Admin Svcs. Our Technical Trainer reports to the Director for User Services who reports to the Assoc Vice Chancellor for IT who has a dual reporting relationship to the VC for Academic Affairs and the VC for Admin Svcs.

3. Yes, the trainers are full time. Grad Asst is 3/4 time.

4. Biggest challenge in managing my staff is that I don't have any! The only staff I have currently is a grad asst who has no experience in instructional design or training delivery. In past, my staff has always consisted of grad asst staff. Challenge there is that they leave after 2-3 years and the development cycle begins all over again.

5. Keep staff motivated by finding out what types of work they enjoy most and giving them those assignments. We also have lots of one-on-one time (lunches) where we talk about personal interests, etc. Gives us an opportunity to get to know one another on a personal level which is important to me and I've been told important to them as well. I also ask staff what their motivators are. For some it is public recognition, for others it is a written note. For others it's food or a day off or a small gift. I try to find out what makes them tick and use that method with that person.; Northwestern (Jody Reem)

1. decentralized; jodi supports student system; not sure of hr staff—may hire outside consultants; 2. other groups under IT: one supports faculty and other supports students

3.

4.

5.; Univ of Wisconsin @ Madison (Kathy Konicek, Donna Leigh)

1.6 trainers; work outside of campus-state work elearning; cost recovery-public training and online

2. under academic technology—also cost recovery

3.

4. getting univ and state up to date with things like upk

5.

Busy may june july (1000 participants and fresh budget in summer)
Slow in fall
Student tech training courses—very successful & student software training—central funding cutbacks

Uwisc—challenge getting univ and state up to date with things like upk

Donna leigh (only 6 weeks on job); Univ of Iowa (Mark Hale)

Foundation under program
Haven’t set budget for student programming
Staff—each class on its own hook—0 profit/loss program
Just finished IT review—training emerged as key topic
Getting together to formulize more organized plan—hopefully $$$ will result; Side Conversations (feel free to start a new blog on these topics)

Consulting

PeopleSoft

User Productivity Kit (UPK); Administration

MEETING FORMAT:
It was decided we would have regular meetings every other month. We may supplement this with specialized meetings, such as the Breeze meeting (topic is Breeze and meeting will be conducted with Breeze--we will have in July during the same timeslot we originally had scheduled for a telemeeting (July 25, 9 a.m. CT)

We will postpone July's topic to August, and move August's topic to Sep.

BLOG:
Folks like this format--more time will be allotted in the to post prelmin answers and also peruse others before meetings. We may also look into another tool--such as CTools.

June 20 Discussion: Mgmnt of Training Staff

2006-06-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions

Directions for using the blog

Facilitator: Laurie Sutch
Note taker: Lisa Lacombe

Tell us about your staff. (How many trainers, support & marketing staff does your training unit have?)
What does your organization chart look like? (who reports to whom?)
Do you have both full-time and part-time staff? Do you have student employees?
What has been your biggest challenge in managing your training staff?
What are some successful things you do to keep your staff motivated?

Penn State:

8 trainers, 2 ID's, 2 coordinators, 2/3 assistant, 1 marketing coordinator, 1 director
All but 3 people currently report to Director.
Primarily full time staff. Use students as instructor assistants. Sometimes as project assts. Have few pt instructors.
Too vertical of reporting structure. Director spends time managing (and not well) instead of directing, strategizing, etc. Growing pains over past 5 years.
Hmmm...I'd have to ask my staff, but a neverending supply of chocolate doesn't hurt ;-) Seriously, professional development opportunities, flexible scheduling, attempt to match interests with responsibilities, attempt to provide promotional opps

University of Michigan:

There are a variety of units that do training here at U of Mich. Our IT Education Services has three trainers (2 full-time and 1 part-time), and they report to the head of that unit. I think they work together as a team to set the schedule, etc. - I don't think they have a support person who does it, but I could be wrong. I believe the head of the unit is in charge of marketing, etc.
Our Duderstadt Center (which support CTools (our version of Sakai), UM.Lessons (a survey and quizzing tool), and Sitemaker (web-based web page creation program), has 2-3 primary trainers (who also have other duties). In addition, other people within the various academic units on campus will teach/support these tools.
At the Library, we have two people that are designated as primary trainers, but each semester, we may have up to 5-7 other people who will teach a different class or two. This creates some problems, because sometimes it's hard to get the subject specialists to do a session we think the people need, and we don't have the expertise to do it without them. At the same time, we are trying to expand our cadre of instructors who can teach RefWorks, for example, to help spread the load.
Here at the Library, for the two main instructional support facilities, we may have up to 10 students, and we usually are single or double-staffed (never more). Most of them don't do formal training, but work with individuals as consultants.
Since instruction is a large part of some people's job, we really don't have any external motivators.

Purdue University - Joe Conte (Teaching and Learning Department of central IT organization (ITaP)):

I have 9 staff that conduct, or prepare for, training for any where from 25 to 60% of their job; we have a central it training portal which is supported by ITaP and shared by all training groups within ITaP. My staff has a listserv we use for announcing new training offerings; formal marketing and ad copy is done by others. My staff also delivers consulting services, handle level 2 incident management tickets on academic technology usage, and take on small (less than 200 hrs) design and development projects.
Teaching and Learning Technologies is one of the five main departments in ITaP (~450 ftes). We focus on the academic side of the university. We are broken up into 3 divisions: Learning Spaces (real and virtual lab space), Enterprise Learning Technologies (things like Breeze and Vista deployment/admin), and the Instruction Development Center. Each division has a director. I report to the later; along with the Communication, Marketing and Outreach unit. The CIO who heads up ITaP reports jointly to the Provost and Executive VP.
All of my professional staff are full-time. I have 6-8 students who are managed as a resource pool to work on our design and development projects. I have 3-5 students who deliver our student peer-to-peer training programs, along with helping the full-time staff in their training efforts. I will also have 2-3 students who will be handling incident management tickets.
Finding time to do everything without burning anyone out. Since we are perceived to be very adept at dealing with the public, many last minute "engagements" are thrown our way. That severely cuts into the staff being able to implement any type of effective time management.
The nine members of my staff are all highly skilled and educated (six masters degrees and one doctorate) professionals. They are spread across campus in four different physical locations, between them they supervise undergraduate students in three distinctly different environments, supervise two specialty labs (library collaboration and adaptive/assistive learning), and their jobs allow them to exercise considerable discretion in their work flow. Keeping up with all they are working on in the ever changing IT landscape is very taxing.
Somehow, we have managed to put together a cohesive team … always available to help out not only their colleagues within the unit, but others within TLT, ITaP, and Purdue at large. In the time I've managed them, I can't remember a single staff member ever saying an unkind word about anyone else on their team. That’s not to say they don’t offer each other constructive criticism. But they always address the situation and not the individual, and they always do so with the utmost of professional demeanor… while at the same time having fun at what they do. As a result, they are constantly willing to tackle problems, tasks, activities, and projects as a team … never putting any personal agenda ahead of striving for success as a team.
In addition to hiring people-persons, rather than strictly techies, I think some of the group structure lends itself to this cohesiveness. All of them participate in common activities (Consulting, Training, and Incident Management), and then each of them has items in which they excel (assistive technology, video, creating online materials, web development, etc.). By having common activities, they have a common bond; something they can all relate to, and to each other. By allowing them time to work on specialty topics, they are given an opportunity to express their creative side. Since we have far more work than we could ever hope to tackle, I make an effort to allow the staff to choose their specialty items. Is it typically something they're either good at, like doing, or both.
I've also gone to great links to make sure than we have a duplication of skills within the team. There is always a backup for any activity; no single point of contact or failure exists.
As (un)fortune would have it, on several occasions a staff member has had to have an unexpected and immediate absence of unknown (at first) duration. The duplication of skills sets has allowed us to never have to cancel any of our commitments. And once someone has gone the extra mile for you, you'd be hard-pressed to not return the favor when their need arises. This further builds the team bond.
In addition to giving the aforementioned latitude in their own time and work management, I make sure that any kudos I receive are passed up the chain of command; try to buy them whatever they need to do their job; and promote their travel to attend and present at professional conferences.

Purdue University Calumet - Colleen Robison:

HR Training Unit has 1 trainer and one graduate assistant. Technical Training Unit has 1 trainer.
We have an Assoc Director for Staff Training - Reports to Director of HR who reports to the Vice Chancellor for Admin Svcs. Our Technical Trainer reports to the Director for User Services who reports to the Assoc Vice Chancellor for IT who has a dual reporting relationship to the VC for Academic Affairs and the VC for Admin Svcs.
Yes, the trainers are full time. Grad Asst is 3/4 time.
Biggest challenge in managing my staff is that I don't have any! The only staff I have currently is a grad asst who has no experience in instructional design or training delivery. In past, my staff has always consisted of grad asst staff. Challenge there is that they leave after 2-3 years and the development cycle begins all over again.
Keep staff motivated by finding out what types of work they enjoy most and giving them those assignments. We also have lots of one-on-one time (lunches) where we talk about personal interests, etc. Gives us an opportunity to get to know one another on a personal level which is important to me and I've been told important to them as well. I also ask staff what their motivators are. For some it is public recognition, for others it is a written note. For others it's food or a day off or a small gift. I try to find out what makes them tick and use that method with that person.

Purdue (Donna Attardo, Sanceetha Khichadia, Rob French):

8 trainers; also do consulting and other projects; one clerical staff; training free
2.
faculty/staff is full time trainers
getting enough people into training;
leeway in focus and matching interests

Northwestern (Jody Reem):

decentralized; jodi supports student system; not sure of hr staff—may hire outside consultants;
other groups under IT: one supports faculty and other supports students
?
?
?

Univ of Wisconsin @ Madison (Kathy Konicek, Donna Leigh):

6 trainers; work outside of campus-state work elearning; cost recovery-public training and online
under academic technology—also cost recovery
?
getting univ and state up to date with things like upk
?

Busy may june july (1000 participants and fresh budget in summer)
Slow in fall
Student tech training courses—very successful & student software training—central funding cutbacks

Donna Leigh (only 6 weeks on job)

Univ of Iowa (Mark Hale):

Foundation under program
Haven’t set budget for student programming
Staff—each class on its own hook—0 profit/loss program
Just finished IT review—training emerged as key topic
Getting together to formulize more organized plan—hopefully $$$ will result

Side Conversations (feel free to start a new blog on these):

Consulting
PeopleSoft
User Productivity Kit (UPK)

Administration:

MEETING FORMAT
It was decided we would have regular meetings every other month. We may supplement this with specialized meetings, such as the Breeze meeting (topic is Breeze and meeting will be conducted with Breeze--we will have on July 25 in place of the previously scheduled telemeeting (9 a.m. Central)

We will postpone July's topic to August, and move August's topic to Sep.

BLOG:
Folks like this format--more time will be allotted in the to post prelmin answers and also peruse others before meetings. We may also look into another tool--such as CTools.

Directions for using the blog

2006-06-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

CIC Technology Training Group Discussions

Email Lisa Lacombe with questions or problems: lml8@psu.edu.

UPDATE TO PROCESS 8/28/2006:
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To add your institution's answers
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