Technology Infrastructure
- Access to online advising services that allow students and parents to easily determine the best way to obtain a college education in Ohio, apply for admission, and register for courses at multiple University System of Ohio institutions and campuses.
- A common application system.
- A readily accessible and easy to use online system for researching courses at different schools, enrolling and transferring credits, and completing necessary financial transactions.
- A federated system of authentication that makes it possible for students and
Individual institutions of higher education have become increasingly clear about the level of technological sophistication expected by current and prospective students. Students have become used to interacting with their friends and businesses through well-designed online services, and will expect the same from schools within the University System of Ohio.
State’s History as a Technology Innovator
Ohio has historically been an innovator in the use of technology to advance higher education. The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) was founded in 1987 when the Board of Regents, together with a group of university presidents, determined that Ohio needed a supercomputer in order to be competitive with other states in the increasingly important areas of computational science. OARnet was created at the same time to meet the need to connect Ohio’s research universities with the supercomputer facility. Subsequently, it became a more general network service provider for all of Ohio’s higher education institutions.
The same year that OSC and OARnet were created, the Board of Regents began work on a statewide electronic catalog system, an effort that led to the creation of OhioLINK. The catalog system became operational in 1992 and now also includes statewide licensing of many online information resources. The Ohio Learning Network (OLN) was established in 1999 as a means of promoting the increased use of distance learning and other forms of technology-enhanced education.
In addition to these organizations, the Board of Regents has developed technology solutions to address particular issues. For example, when the Ohio General Assembly mandated the development of a credit transfer system that would allow students to know in advance whether a course they are taking at one school can transfer to others throughout the system, an Internet-based system was devised to keep track of this important work and to send transcripts between colleges electronically. The Board of Regents staff also developed the Higher Education Information system to make available to interested parties the voluminous information that the staff was regularly asked to gather and analyze in response to requests from the General Assembly, the executive branch and the public.
Current Standing
The fact that Ohio has utilized technology effectively in the past does not mean that we are currently at or near the cutting edge. One inhibiting factor is the practice of creating new and independent organizations to handle each new task. These organizations then become selfperpetuating, even as the technologies which led to their creation change. In contrast, the trend in technology, and the work that technology facilitates, is toward integration – the use of multiple technologies to provide a service – and toward increased flexibility in meeting new needs. For example, OLN encourages the development of online courses and programs, while OhioLINK manages library and other information resources. To get the greatest possible return on the OLNfunded courses, however, the materials for online courses should be managed in a database and shared with other faculty, a task that requires the integration of OLN and OhioLINK. Similarly, eTech Ohio, yet another state agency involved in educational technology, is developing a clearinghouse of online courses for primary and secondary schools, just as dual enrollment is blurring the line between higher education and K-12, and as K-12 students increasingly need access to both high school and college courses.
Integrated Future
To achieve the goals of this plan, the state must have a single, integrated technological infrastructure supporting higher education. While technological integration can be expensive, it is clear that the state is spending more than necessary to maintain the individual organizations and to build separate hardware and software systems. This effort is therefore also expected to result in significant management efficiencies at the state level. It is not possible at this time to identify all the steps that will be necessary to accomplish this goal, though some are relatively clear:
- While continuing OLN and OhioLINK programs, the agencies will be merged, with the resulting organization serving as the educational technology division of the Board of Regents. This division should have an advisory committee consisting of Chief Information Officers and Provosts from both public and private universities and colleges.
- OSC’s role in support of the state’s broadband initiatives, through its operation of OARnet, will be maintained, including improving connections to any campuses that do not currently enjoy the fastest possible connectivity for faculty, students and administration. At the same time, the Chancellor will take steps to increase OSC’s capacity to support the supercomputing needs of our leading academic and private research centers.
- The Chancellor, who also serves as chair of the eTech Ohio Commission by appointment from Governor Strickland, will work with that commission, the Ohio Department of Education, and the General Assembly to integrate the K-12 and higher education online course offerings. The result of this work should be an integrated clearinghouse of classes that will be available online, together with a shared learning management system and a repository of instructional materials. This clearinghouse will be used to ensure that high school students have access to a core set of college classes and the opportunity to begin earning college credit no matter where they are located in Ohio. A similar core set of online classes or other professional development opportunities will be offered to teachers for professional development.
Integration with K-12
The integrated technology infrastructure will also incorporate work currently underway between the Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education to create an electronic transcript for each student that follows them throughout their educational career and facilitates the implementation of dual enrollment programs like the Post Secondary Enrollment Option and Seniors to Sophomores, discussed elsewhere in this report.
There are many other benefits of integrating technology across the primary and secondary and higher education spectrum, including:
- Students (with their parents’ permission when appropriate) will be able to send their educational records electronically to the University System of Ohio.
- K-12 students and teachers will be able to access the University System of Ohio online resources and services by using the same mechanisms they use to authenticate themselves at their home school.
- K-12 and higher education administrators and policymakers will be able to track the progress of a student from their time in K-12 through college.
- K-12 students will gain access to the higher education library and information resources that can help them learn how to do the research needed in college level classes.
