Concurrent Sessions

OLAP, Multidimensional Databases, and Data Warehousing: The Lines Are Blurring Already

Monday, March 24, 1997
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Pat Langille, Project Manager, Dartmouth College

Relational databases were heralded as the solution to many ills plaguing large-scale complex databases, but users often still rely on IT staff to provide the data sources and tools required for complex analysis. This talk will offer a definition of OLAP (online analytical processing), the latest technology purporting to address these issues, compare OLAP and relational technologies, discuss common applications for OLAP, and do a brief, non-comprehensive survey of the marketplace for OLAP tools. Dartmouth's recent purchase of the Gentia software will be discussed in light of the institution's functional requirements.

Civilizing Cyberspace: Two Campus Approaches

Monday, March 24, 1997
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Joanne Costello, Coordinator, Information Technology Support Planning, MIT; Leila Lyons, Director of User Services, University of Delaware

Like many universities and colleges, MIT and the University of Delaware have seen an increase in incivility in the use of computers and networks on campus. Both have sought to address the issue through education. This session will address the University of Delaware's approach to educating citizens of the electronic community, including its Electronic Community Citizenship Exam, as well as MIT's "stopit" program and how it handles incidents of harassment and misuse of public resources in their distributed computing environment.

Why Apple? Why Macintosh?

Monday, March 24, 1997
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

A. Jay McSweeney, Systems Engineer; Vincent Falcone; Ed Kelley, Apple Computer, Inc.

This session will present Apple's business and marketing strategy for academic enterprises. It will include demonstrations of the latest Apple Internet and multimedia technologies as applied to education.

Has Anything Really Changed? Student Expectations About Learning

Monday, March 24, 1997
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Leo Geoffrion (moderator), Director, Academic Computing, Skidmore College ; panelists TBA

We have moved a long way in being able to access data and information via the use of technology. This brings us to a critical change point where difficult questions must be asked. Has the progression to knowledge and wisdom been bridged in classes using technology when compared to classes that are not? What do students envision in the learning experience as we approach the year 2000? When expectations are not met by higher education, what is the impact on results? What questions do students have for institutions of higher learning for the future?

Community Networks: What Role for Higher Education?

Monday, March 24, 1997
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Daniel Updegrove, University Director, Information Technology, Yale University

Many community networks evolved from college and university outreach efforts, modem pool sharing, and faculty/staff/student volunteerism. As the Internet has matured and virtually every community has at least one commercial Internet Service Provider, what role should colleges and universities play today? Tomorrow?

Interactive Distributed Learning Solutions: Lotus Notes-Based LearningSpace

Monday, March 24, 1997
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Peter Rothstein, Director, Research and Development Programs, Lotus Institute

Combining the benefits of distributed learning with the collaborative advantages of the traditional classroom, the Lotus Notes-based LearningSpace encourages truly interactive learning-any time, any place. This session will introduce attendees to Lotus Notes and Domino and will explore their application to higher education teaching, learning, and collaboration.

Reengineering Service to Students

Monday, March 24, 1997
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Susan Foster, Vice President, Information Technologies, University of Delaware

Excellence in service to students, present, future, and past, is a primary goal at the University of Delaware. Success is measured by maximized value and minimized effort by students, faculty, and service staff. One day, several years ago, a conscientious student-service employee asked the president, "How can I be expected to know all these rules and relationships?" "You expect students to know them," he replied. "Oh," she said, "I never thought of it that way!" That is the genesis of reengineering. Where it leads is the rest of the story.

Teaching, Learning, and Technology-Theoretical Underpinnings and Practical Applications

Monday, March 24, 1997
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Katie Livingston, Academic Computing, MIT; Carol B. MacKnight, Office of Information Technologies, University of Massachusetts/Amherst

This session will examine some of the principal models of teaching and learning, and how these models have been applied to the development of stand-alone and WWW-based instructional software in K-12, college, and adult education.

Global Network, IBM's Internet Offering for Higher Education

Monday, March 24, 1997
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Steven L. Rogers, Consulting Marketing Specialist, Internet Marketing, IBM Higher Education--North America

The IBM Internet Connection, with over 860 points of presence around the globe, is available to colleges and universities in the United States under the IBM Internet Connection for Education (ICE). This session will explain how you can offer this affordable, reliable, available service to your students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others, giving users access to the WWW via analog phone line.

A Digital Library in the Making

Monday, March 24, 1997
2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Gail McMillan, Director, Scholarly Communications Project, University Libraries, Virginia Tech

Without actually having the goal of becoming a digital library, the Virginia Tech University Libraries' Scholarly Communications Project has amassed a wealth of easily accessible electronic publications and experience in providing Internet and Web access to information that previously required a trip to the library. These include electronic journals and local news reports from two regional newspapers and one television station; all Virginia Tech theses and dissertations; online class materials; and an imagebase from Special Collections and other departments on campus. This session will demonstrate the various digital library resources and will discuss growing pains, security, and training.

Effective Use of Students in Supporting Instruction and Research

Monday, March 24, 1997
2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Phillip D. Long, Director, Instruction and Research Technology, William Paterson College

Abstract unavailable

East Meets West: Distributed Student-Support Models

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Jeff Merriman, Director of Residential Computing, Stanford University; Pattie Orr, Manager of User Services, Wellesley College

As students no longer come to central labs for most of their computer use, how will we adjust our methods of support? This session will explore differences in providing support in a large versus a small college setting and in institutions with different resources and management styles. Topics will include dealing with student schedules to provide timely support, creating a sense of community for student support, methods for gathering feedback from student users, and training students to support others.

Multimedia Today: New Developments in Facilities, Support, and Learning

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

David Reville, Technology Analyst, Brown University; Tom Warger, Assistant Coordinator, Information Systems, Five Colleges, Inc.

Brown's Multimedia Lab is a multi-computer teaching facility dedicated to the examination, analysis, and production of work in the arts and humanities using emerging computer technologies. It provides equipment and support for students and faculty using computers to produce graphics, hypertext, video, animation, and sound. This session will discuss the origin of the Multimedia Lab at Brown and examine faculty support in the development of multimedia instructional materials. The strengths and weaknesses of several models for supporting faculty development of multimedia, with references to initiatives at the Five Colleges, will also be described.

Java Computing in Higher Education Administration

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Kelly Wilson, Sun Microsystems

This presentation will focus on both the benefits and the implementations of Java in the higher education administrative computing environment, and will address issues of Java desktop administration, cross-platform software development, and deployment and opportunities for meaningful campus Internet services.

The Electronic Market Place: Implications for the Future

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Jeff Jeffers, Director of Network Services, Boston College

This presentation will focus on defining the Electronic Marketplace and what has been learned in the last two years of the AGORA Project, which received two awards at CAUSE96. Emphasis will be placed on economic and equity issues as well as what constitutes education, instruction, and learning in this environment. Managing electronic change at a time when speed is critical, laws are outdated, and facilities are in need of transformation produces questions about colleges without walls and which prophets are those to watch. Education in the home, school, community, and the universe will be the focus.

Building Electronic Classrooms

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Malcolm Brown (moderator), Director of Academic Computing, Dartmouth College; panelists TBA

Classrooms represent a key opportunity in applying information technology in support of teaching and learning. Yet successfully integrating information technology into classrooms is a daunting task, requiring careful planning, close work with faculty, and coordination between a number of campus organizations. Three panelists will describe in this session how they try to meet these challenges at their respective institutions.

When the World is the Classroom: Redefining Relationships to Support Tomorrow's Campus ...Dancing Together or Stepping on Toes?

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Marti Harris, Senior Research Analyst, Academic Strategies, Gartner Group

The future health of some institutions will be dependent on course offerings in electronic format. The subject specialist faculty member and the instructional designer have traditionally worked together developing learning materials. More than ever, the campus-wide information services organization is being asked to support educational systems far beyond traditional administrative applications. What are the roles for IS, instructional designers, and content specialists with respect to direction, planning, development, committee structure, budget, and even tenure? Will we dance together or step on toes?

Quality of Service on the Internet: From Congested to Busy

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Jeff Schiller, Network Manager, MIT

This presentation will discuss what QoS on the Internet is all about, why people want it, and why it is a technical challenge.

How Do You Find the Needle in the "Net Haystack"? Answer: AltaVista

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Digital Equipment Corporation presenter TBA

As the WWW becomes an increasingly influential medium for distributing information, the ability to find needed information quickly and efficiently grows in importance. One year ago, Digital's AltaVista was awarded the title "Best Internet Search Engine" by CINet. This session will help attendees learn how to use AltaVista to best advantage when searching the Web ... or your own institutional data!

Help Desk Strategy: Software and Procedures

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
This presentation will consist of two 45-minute sessions.

Part I: Redesigning the Help Desk
Pamela Vogel, Help Desk Manager, Computing & Information Services, Brown University

Over the last two years, Brown University has revamped its help desk strategy-redesigning the physical location, changing the staffing, and implementing a computerized problem-tracking system--to better serve students, departments, and faculty. This session will describe Brown's changing help desk and the rationale behind it. The session that follows will provide more detail on the computerized problem-tracking system, which has both shaped and been shaped by the help desk consulting process.

Part II: Remedy: Solution to Help Desk Automation
Donna D'Agostino, User Services Consultant/Analyst, Brown University; John Spadaro, Manager, Netware/NT Services, Brown University

Brown University has implemented the Remedy software system to handle query-logging, problem tracking, and problem resolution for hardware, software, and network problems from both academic and administrative departments. The implementation of this software has been a key piece of Brown's help desk redesign. This session will describe how Brown is using the Remedy software, and how it has helped Brown integrate the efforts of groups within CIS to analyze, prioritize, track, and resolve user problems.