2002 Directions Statement | University Committee on Information Systems & Technology

June 14, 2002

University Committee on Information Systems & Technology's (UCIST's) mandate is to "promote and champion the effective use of information systems and technology at University of Waterloo." It does so in the context of supporting the university's mission to advance learning and knowledge through teaching, research, and scholarship, both nationally and internationally, in an environment of free inquiry and expression. The achievement of this mission relies increasingly upon innovative strategies that embrace technology.

Each member of the university should have the opportunity to be innovative and creative in the application of this infrastructure to individual and institutional goals. The university must encourage the adoption of new technology, through standards and guidelines, and must have enough organisational flexibility to enable this adoption, through distributed responsibility and accountability for the acquisition, development, and use of Information Technology (IT). This responsibility and accountability implies that individuals and units will act to reinforce centrally supported systems and standards.

Individual, departmental and institutional requirements must be satisfied in a harmonised manner. The university must provide adequate training and support so that innovation will be successful, and individuals must ensure they have the skills and knowledge necessary to appreciate how IT can best serve them in their study or work. Further, individuals must help craft, use, and work within the infrastructure in a responsible fashion that reflects well upon themselves and the University. In return, the University must recognise individuals' legitimate rights to freedom of expression and privacy in our increasingly electronic workplace.

This document is complemented by the 2002 Strategic Directions, the UW IT Architecture Directions, and a summary of progress since the 1998 Directions Statement.

Learning, teaching, and information resource discovery: putting learning first

Preamble

In this evolving context, it is vital that our students develop critical thinking skills, be adept at accessing, evaluating and using all forms of data and information, and be sensible and effective users of technology. University of Waterloo students and alumni should be recognised as lifelong learners.

A primary objective at University of Waterloo should be to foster an environment centred on learning within which technology helps to create and facilitate opportunities that expose students to existing knowledge and engage them in the discovery and/or development of new knowledge. Learning-centred does not mean simply focusing attention on the student; rather, it means placing the student at the centre of a process of discovery. This remains the highest priority in the learning and teaching environment. Further, fundamental human interactions – students with lecturers and researchers, students with other students – represent a necessary component in the whole learning experience, and the professor is a key catalyst in the process. The university learning environment provides students with the unique opportunity to interact face-to-face with someone deeply engaged intellectually with the material being taught who has the scholarly depth and experience to facilitate the learning of difficult concepts and ideas.

A challenge for the future is to recognise and understand how and where individual instructors can embrace technological innovation and development to most effectively enhance the learning environment. The introduction and use of technology in teaching and learning must necessarily be driven first and foremost by sound pedagogy. Basic questions concerning how an instructor can enhance the learning and teaching environment with technological innovation must be addressed before technology is introduced. For example, how might the comprehension of basic concepts and ideas be enhanced through technology? How can technology be used to address bottlenecks in the learning process? How will critical thinking and problem-solving skills be better developed? How will the discovery of new knowledge be enhanced and its application more effectively understood?

Questions such as these provide a basis for guiding principles in the development and deployment of technology in the learning and teaching environment at the University of Waterloo.

Guiding principles

The educational environment at the University of Waterloo should be centred on learning; technology should play a role in facilitating the acquisition, comprehension, dissemination and application of knowledge. Creating such an environment should be based upon the university's long-standing traditionof promoting innovation while recognising the practicalneeds of the university's community of students, staff, and faculty.

Sound pedagogy should dictate when, where, and how technology is deployed in the learning and teaching environment.
Learning should be at the centre of any innovation in teaching that involves technology.
University of Waterloo students and alumni should be lifelong learners, adept at the self-directed use of technology in the acquisition, organisation and critical evaluation of knowledge.
The introduction of technology should enhance the learning environment.
Emphasis should be placed on providing, generating, and applying knowledge and information in a variety of learning environments, and not simply on the mechanisms that deliver it.
Innovation in learning and teaching that embraces technology should integrate efficiently into the campus-wide IT infrastructure and be supported with appropriate resources.

Strategic directions

University of Waterloo should:

Be a leader in an increasingly networked world and encourage the development and use of new connectivity, to the extent that University of Waterloo becomes known as "Canada's Connected Campus."
Identify strategies, pilot projects, and initiatives that foster an environment with a focus on both connectivity and on developing and enhancing access to electronic learning material.
Focus on improving learning outcomes and producing graduates who are skilled in the application and acquisition of knowledge and proficient at learning to use new technologies.
Create an integrated online learning and information environment.

Recommendations

Our goal is to develop focused and practical recommendations that will help lead to the development of an effective and integrated learning and information environment at University of Waterloo. While cognisant of fiscal and other resource constraints, our intent is to not let such concerns restrict our thinking.

Develop campus-wide programmes to assess and promote the effective use of information technology in learning and teaching.
Recognise and reward the effective use of information technology in learning and teaching.
Connect all classrooms and labs to an integrated online learning and information infrastructure.
Provide for the full "business cycle" in the deployment of effective learning and teaching technologies, including both the Research & Development (R&D) segment (LT3) and a campus-wide support infrastructure.
Focus our resources into strategic areas, rather than trying to be all things to all people.
Establish a campus-wide team to develop a vision of an effective University of Waterloo integrated online learning and information environment.
Work towards the development of the use of a shared set of software tools and applications to create an innovative and sustainable online learning and information environment.

Research

Preamble

The modern electronic workplace is essential to all aspects of teaching, learning and research in a university environment. Access in research laboratories to up-to-date hardware and software now comprises a crucial component of the educational programs of a large number of students in every faculty at University of Waterloo. As a knowledge of modern data-handling techniques has become a requisite for many research projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the university should be fully prepared to meet these needs. To this end it is necessary that the university maintain a continuous upgrade path of both hardware and software that goes beyond undergraduate and graduate teaching computing facilities to ensure our undergraduate and graduate students enjoy a research atmosphere that includes integrated and current IT tools.

The success of many leading-edge research programs across the campus relies on High Performance Computers (HPC). Funding for HPC has been made available by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI): the funding for computing hardware now available from the CFI does have infrastructure funds attached, but this was not the case when University of Waterloo applied. Government-based funding normally requires significant local or other external contributions both towards the cost of the hardware and towards the ongoing operation and maintenance costs of a resultant HPC facility. The HPC facilities currently available to all faculty on the University of Waterloo campus are: a 40-Central Processing Unit (CPU) SGI/3000 computer (Flexor), an 18-CPU IBM RS6000/SP computer (Isenguard), and a 4-CPU SIG/2000 computer (Scienide).

Computing needs vary widely amongst researchers across the university. Users may nonetheless be divided roughly into three different categories, recognising, however, that the activities of an individual researcher may span more than one of the categories. These three categories are as follows.

General users are those who require an electronic workplace environment consisting of a modern desktop workstation or terminal, connected to and backed up by a network or local server, and supported by a high-bandwidth networking infrastructure, with associated software licensing and support (these users may require special-purpose software). This environment alone should satisfy the computing needs of a substantial percentage of researchers on campus.
Specialised users are those who, in addition to the general workplace environment for general users, also require dedicated computers embedded in experimental apparatus, often running highly specialised, locally-written or proprietary software. These needs are largely dictated by the nature of the particular experiment and/or apparatus, and are tied into specific research proposals. As a consequence researchers who require such dedicated computers should include purchase and basic support costs for such equipment in their grant/contract proposals.
Heavy users are those who also require high-performance computers for a variety of needs, including large-scale numerical or symbolic computation, database development or manipulation, high-quality visualisation, and software development. Key hardware capabilities not available in the general-purpose research computing environment include very large random-access memory, very large disk capacity, very large CPU throughput, specialised graphics engines, and specialised hardware, such as multiple CPUs for parallel processing, software development, and applications.

Guiding principles

The university should maintain and improve the current level of support to all researchers on campus with an excellent networking environment and some centralised Windows and Unix support through Information Systems & Technology (IST) personnel and through the IST/Mathematics Faculty Computing Facility (MFCF) Xhier software support environment. While the distinct needs of specialised users must, by their very nature, be addressed mainly through the expertise and resources of users or local units themselves, the work of the general and heavy users can be greatly facilitated through the provision of centralised resources and/or support. In particular,

Local academic departments/units should provide essential levels of support of hardware, software and network connectivity to general-use faculty members.
Local academic departments/units should provide assistance with networking and limited hardware support to specialised and heavy-use faculty members.
The university should provide financial assistance with the operation and maintenance (infrastructure) of mainly research-oriented computers, from overhead funds generated by government and industrial funding for projects that contain an HPC component.
Researchers who have highly-specialized compute-intensive requirements should seek external funding for their basic hardware/software needs, wherever possible. However, as the nature of compute-intensive facilities are such that it will be unlikely that a single academic unit is able to maintain them unaided, the university itself, or through inter-faculty co-operation, should provide a measure of support for the successful operation and maintenance of such facilities.

Strategic directions

University of Waterloo should:

Maintain an electronic workplace that both supports and enhances all aspects of research, integrated with the learning and teaching environment. Ensure that the evolution of the academic electronic workplace will enable undertaking and managing research in all areas of the campus within an electronic environment.
Ensure that all researchers have access to the basic and critical hardware and software necessary for carrying out their research, in particular, a workstation or terminal capable of running current applications, the connectivity to communicate and exchange data and other resources, and access to compute-intensive resources should their research require it.
Develop a university-wide HPC strategy to best utilise government funding opportunities such as CFI, OIT and ORDCF for research.

Recommendations

Increase staff and infrastructure support funding at both university and local-units levels for renewal of the electronic workplace in research areas, at a level that is commensurate with the funding provided for learning and teaching.
Form a consortium of University of Waterloo researchers with HPC needs to advise the University on the management and operation of its HPC facilities and to organise applications for the funding of future hardware acquisitions and their operation, and create a centre of University of Waterloo HPC in order to provide an integrated HPC facility that can take advantage of common operational needs, shared staff, and economy of scale. For such support to be provided effectively and economically, however, it is important to encourage the adoption of standard hardware and software configurations wherever possible.
Maintain a diversified interest in emerging HPC technologies, as the most cost-effective sources of hardware having the capabilities required for HPC may be associated with new minority architectures and/or new vendors.

Infrastructure

Preamble

In this component of the directions statement, computing infrastructure is taken to include networking, computer hardware, software, technical support staff, general computing management, and the intersections of these components required to support teaching and learning, research, and administrative activities. The guiding principles ensure that University of Waterloo remains well-positioned relative to trends in the computing industry, while adhering to international standards in the deployment of computing on campus.

Guiding principles

Computing infrastructure includes all aspects of computing activity, from external access to the campus computing network, to end-user use of computing equipment for teaching and learning, research, and administrative purposes. Infrastructure therefore encompasses the other components of the directions statement by providing the framework through which computing resources are organised and delivered to users. A number of guiding principles ensure that University of Waterloo maintains the best possible computing infrastructure standards relative to the mission of the university:

Increase the quality and quantity of "connectedness" of all computer users, both on and off-campus (via remote access), through expansion and enhancement of

off-campus network access;
on-campus points of presence of the computing network; and
development of wireless access for students and researchers to encourage maximum flexibility in computing infrastructure options.

Recognise the importance of technical computing support staff involved in the continuous maintenance and enhancement of the University's computing infrastructure.
Ensure open and diverse communications between Information Systems and Technology (IST) and distributed faculty-based computing administration in the management of computing infrastructure.
Be cognisant of evolving security issues and diligent in the implementation of means to ensure, to the greatest degree possible, secure access to and use of all aspects of our computing infrastructure.
Ensure that the university computing environments offered to students and researchers are up-to-date and do not fall behind the leading edge in hardware and software developments.

Strategic directions

Desktop management/authentication

In the last two years computing support groups across campus have been involved in the implementation of Microsoft (MS) Active Directory (AD) software for the purpose of user authentication and general computing network administration for MS Windows and some Macintosh environments. In recognition of the differences regarding security needs and administration flexibility, two main AD "forests" were developed and implemented in 2002: an administrative forest supported by IST and an academic forest, Nexus, supported jointly by systems administrators across the six faculties. The use of a minimal number of AD forests will both satisfy the needs of different computer users on campus and improve the quality of service provided by system administrators.

The Nexus forest was developed as a natural evolution of the Windows 95-based Polaris into a Windows 2000 environment. Responding to specific needs from new programs, additions to the academic computing environment will involve Linux-based desktop computing that will share servers and authentication processes with the Nexus environment.

Wireless and authenticating network stations

New developments in wireless access and laptop computing have made the use of these technologies attractive as a new form of network access by students and faculty alike. While this form of access is not recommended as the sole option for students, the acquisition of portable computers by the student population should be encouraged. This will be accomplished by including, in the information material sent to new applicants, instructions for both wireless and wired network access from student machines to the campus network. The move toward student-owned computing envisions a hybrid environment where both university-provided labs equipped with desktop computers and laptop wireless/wired network access will be available for students.

Further, the installation of wireless or wired access facilities in classrooms will encourage the use of computers for note-taking and interactive communication between students and teachers during lectures. This form of interaction is currently only possible at University of Waterloo in a small number of computer labs equipped with desktops that are explicitly designed for this mode of teaching. The use of laptop access may expand this mode of teaching to a larger number of classrooms with a relatively modest investment. However, use of wireless/wired network access may be potentially limited by current hardware constraints such as traffic density through wireless installations, resulting in speed limitations for specific software applications. Investigation of these limitations will allow the University to strive continuously to adopt new developments in order to overcome current technical constraints.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Initial implementation of voice over IP as a means of enhancing connectivity within and outside the university campus indicates that this technology is not sufficiently mature and does not seem to offer, at this point, clear financial advantages to conventional network cabling-based communications. However, the evolution of this technology will be monitored and additional pilot projects may be initiated in new buildings on campus.

Management of the infrastructure

Currently, the computing infrastructure at University of Waterloo is managed in a distributed fashion where IST manages the administrative systems and the faculties manage the academic environment. Some steps should be implemented to improve communication and collaboration between the different IT support groups on campus as follows:

UCIST recognises the key importance of the support staff in maintaining our current strength and moving the university computing infrastructure capabilities forward.
UCIST will encourage and promote appropriate training and professional development for support staff involved in all types of computing infrastructure management.
UCIST will promote the adoption of industry-standard software tools and methodologies to document all aspects of computing infrastructure (for example, a uniform set of AutoCad files available to Plant Operations and to all computing staff to document new cabling installations and similar standard software to document switch and router configurations across campus).

University of Waterloo Web presence

Two committees have been involved in developing the university Web home page: a technical steering committee and a technical advisory group. However, the creation and maintenance of Web pages is being conducted in different ways across campus. Some units have chosen to use external contractors for this purpose, whereas others have preferred to use internal campus resources such as full time staff or co-op students.

UCIST will continue to discuss more effective, maintainable, and cost-saving alternatives to create and develop university Web pages and to monitor the evolution of technologies which may dictate different approaches.

Hardware

Rapid technological changes have forced frequent upgrades of computer hardware both for administration and for academic computing. Opportunities for the co-ordination and acquisition of new hardware and infrastructure should be sought.

Recognising the increasing need for data projectors in classrooms, UCIST will continue to promote new installations in order to broaden availability of the option of technology-based teaching methods. During 2001, projectors were installed in a number of large classrooms across campus. This initiative should be expanded to include other venues.

Digital videoconferencing

Digital videoconferencing is an increasingly attractive tool for distance education courses. This technology, currently implemented and used by LT3, may require considerable bandwidth. IST is considering providing larger bandwidth on a cost-recovery basis, provided a scalable solution can be found to manage such a facility. The expected influx of a large number of students may lead faculties to expand their distance education offerings. Consequently, larger bandwidth may become a relevant need for different clients across campus.

Recommendations

Recognise the increasing importance of the Internet as a means of communication and use this medium as a means of promoting the University and its mission through a high quality, consistent, and efficient World Wide Web (WWW) presence.
Develop and maintain a "hybrid" access environment for desktop and laptop computers on and off-campus.
Encourage the adoption of laptop computers by students, while not taking this as far as suggesting that University of Waterloo seek to become a laptop university.
Implement and maintain authentication and communication protocols that guarantee the security of the campus network.
Adhere to the current distributed management approach with clear roles and responsibilities specified for centralised and decentralised computing administration; within this, improve the communication and integration of efforts both hierarchically between IST and the faculties and laterally among the faculties.
Continue to recognise the importance of computing support staff in facilitating the achievement of the university's mission statement.
Nurture a culture of change and improvement to all academic-support processes.