As IU grows, so does the productivity of its software.
The Faculty Annual Report, which prompts faculty members to fill out and update the scope of their work on the Internet, is being replaced by Activity Insight this summer.
This change will allow the University to partake in complex data mining strategies that were not previously possible.
FAR was created six years ago by IU’s University Information Technology Services and served as a replacement for locally viewable files that detailed the résumés and contributions of faculty.
“Although UITS did a wonderful job developing FAR, it didn’t meet all of the requirements our university developed over time,” said Anne Massey, associate vice president for university academic planning and policy.
“It’s not easy and intuitive to use the current program, and we aim to fix that with the software switch.”
Massey is the project manager of the University’s switch to Activity Insight. Massey also led a discussion of the project’s progress at the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting Jan. 19.
She had previously gathered a task force to articulate what FAR’s problems were and how those could be translated to implement a new system to meet the needs of the campus.
Activity Insight, which is developed by Digital Measures, provides a new cloud-host user interface and many features that make the process of uploading and updating information less time-consuming.
For example, faculty will be able to link the application with sources to pull in resources and publications from their previous jobs.
“Activity Insight is a mature project and very feature rich,” said Rob Lowden, associate vice president of enterprise systems. “As IU faculty evaluated the options available, Faculty Friendliness was a key focus.”
Though FAR was a free-form system where faculty members cut and pasted their résumés individually, Activity Insight will allow individuals to cross-reference their positions and accomplishments.
This will allow the system to recognize and group scholarly activity.
“You’ll be able to capture one type of endeavor and describe it in many places,” Massey said. “This opens up a lot of doors for our university, particularly in the area of data mining.”
IU researchers and officials will be able to look at the statistics the new faculty reports will provide.
With the new optimized system, the data reports will be more accurate and provide specific evidence of departmental advancements and setbacks.
“The provost, for example, might want to provide concrete evidence that a certain school in IU is exceeding expectations in an area of research,” Massey said.
“For the first time, we’ll be able to prove it in a reliable, credible way.”
Massey said the more unified system will also allow IU faculty to address the problems that need to be overcome in the future.
The statistics will be able to point out flaws and areas of academic decline.
“Many schools, including our fellow Big Ten schools, are moving in the direction we’re taking right now,” Massey said. “We’ll be able to collaborate with other universities while optimizing what we’re doing already.”
