Dear App State Faculty and Staff,
App State’s Information Technology Services (ITS) team strives to meet your technological needs, innovate for the future, solve problems and keep unauthorized users at bay. In this semiannual installment, I focus on several ways we are working to meet technological demands that also align with the university’s strategic initiatives.
Sustainability and Regional Engagement
In the past two years, App State has repurposed surplus technology and limited electronic waste by donating more than 2,400 computers and 450 monitors for refurbishment and distribution to economically disadvantaged families across North Carolina.
- Our Technology Support Center manages this program in partnership with nonprofit organizations Kramden Institute and E2D.
- Faculty, staff and students can request an ITS pickup of their surplus technology items, including dated, university-managed or personal devices.
- Read more about this initiative.
Supporting Technology for Teaching and Learning
Academic Technologies, a new department within ITS, was created last year to help better serve the needs of App State faculty, staff and students. The Academic Technologies teams provide the following support:
Classroom technologies and special projects
- Provides support to over 300 classrooms on the Boone and Hickory campuses.
- Supports smart and active learning classroom development and maintenance.
- Specializes in developing/upgrading multiuse conference rooms, innovative teaching and learning spaces and customized Audio/Visual solutions.
AsULearn and digital learning technologies
Maintains our Learning Management System (LMS) and other enterprise-level platforms by:
- Providing AsULearn support to faculty, staff and students.
- Supporting other campus learning technologies and third-party integrations.
- Providing tools, skills and knowledge through consultations and professional development for faculty and staff.
- Collaborating with faculty and university stakeholders on academic technologies improvements.
- Updating and maintaining the LMS interface to continually improve features, accessibility and security.
- Creating and updating self-help documentation and videos.
- Researching and implementing new and innovative learning technologies.
Fostering Student Success and Employee Advancement
Last year, App State acquired LinkedIn Learning as a professional development resource for all employees.
- To date, 952 employees have signed up and viewed 19,842 videos and completed 769 courses.
- Several new professional development opportunities are available, including professional certificates and certification preparation courses.
- With universitywide student access to LinkedIn Learning, there are even more opportunties for faculty to use this valuable resource to augment and support their teaching. For ideas on how to implement the platform, watch this course: Teaching with LinkedIn Learning (account activation is required with your App State username and password).
- For more information, visit the LinkedIn Learning articles in our self-help Knowledge Base.
Improving Business Practices
Over the past year, the ITS office has taken substantial steps to optimize digital workflows, improving overall effectiveness, efficiency and security. Below is a summary of the advancements made:
- Negotiated a 30% lower cost per envelope (now $1.57) with DocuSign to make platform adoption more accessible for electronic contracts and signatures.
- Created or migrated 168 forms to a more secure format using Dynamic Forms.
- Implemented PaperCut Print Management to:
- Be more sustainable — App State has saved over $148,250 in printing costs, 53 trees and 5,600 kg of CO2 output since July 2023.
- Create more digitally accessible documents using optical character recognition.
- Scan directly to your Google or uStor drives.
- Be more sustainable — App State has saved over $148,250 in printing costs, 53 trees and 5,600 kg of CO2 output since July 2023.
Fall 2023 technology report from the Interim Chief Information Officer
App State logo and Message from App State's CIO from ITS for faculty and staff in Fall 2023