Abstract:

This study addressed the growing academic institutional reality of balancing increased regulatory requirements, decreased university resources, and the trend of centralizing technologies and processes. Specifically, this study examined how one university employed three technologies (i.e. tools) designed to help academic institutions function more robustly, with more accountability, and more efficiency.

The tools examined were:
1) Simple Syllabus - a syllabus management tool to reduce faculty workload, while increasing student comprehension of syllabi content, meets both American Disability Act standards and Faculty Senate Policy requirements for syllabi content, and stores all content in a searchable repository;

2) Workday Learning - a repository of educational content for students and university employees embedded within the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system Workday Student; and

3) Qualtrics Q-Classroom, a course evaluation tool to more effectively ensure all students received deployed course evaluations, with results stored in a dashboard repository for administrative reference.

The findings demonstrated the importance of educational stakeholders working collaboratively and innovatively to navigate ever-growing administrative challenges. The severity of factors impacting universities (e.g. reduced funding, faculty and staff shortages, system vulnerabilities, antiquated tools, and redundant processes) became a compelling motivation for administrators, faculty, and staff. Techniques (e.g. change management, transparent communication at all levels, continuous training sessions in multiple formats, and finding ways to gain buy-in on how these specific digital repositories) equated to improving efficiency and workload; also reducing costs.

Keywords:

Repository, digital, education, technology, administration.