Stephanie HouseAs the spring semester kicks off, Helen Norris, Chief Information Officer, shares IS&T’s top new resources, semester goals and vision for advancing the future of educational technology at Chapman University.
What are some new initiatives IS&T is working on?
Norris: One of the most impactful initiatives is the migration to Canvas, the University’s new Learning Management System. We have a lot of faculty who are actually teaching using Canvas this spring.
Another major initiative is the Salesforce/ Affinaquest implementation, which will focus on University Advancement and fundraising. We are also moving forward with the Marketing Cloud for use in the office of Strategic Marketing and Communications.
Are there any impactful new hires within IS&T?
Norris: Sarem Yadegari will be joining us as the tech hub manager. The tech hub is a space where we provide services and consultation to faculty, staff and students. He will manage not just the space, but the programming that occurs too.
We’ve also added Jose Salomon in November as lead data architect. He will raise our data warehouse, Panther Analytics, to the next level and focus more on forward-looking dashboards and providing data at a very high level.
Last year, we brought Jessie Rivera into a role as a training specialist. Jesse provides training on tools like Adobe and Outlook, so that people can begin to use those tools a little bit better. He’s also available for onboarding — we have a lot of systems and providing some guidance can go a long way!
Tell us about some new resources and software IS&T is offering.
Norris: Adobe Creative Cloud is very cool and available to all faculty, staff and students so we want to really get the word out.
Last year we also added a tool called Grammarly, which can be added into your email, your Word docs or Google Docs, whatever you’re using. It will catch grammatical errors and make suggestions for improving your writing.
Is there any resource or software you think people should take more advantage of?
Norris: Now that we have Microsoft Office 365, there are constant updates and improvements to Outlook Exchange.
Specifically, there’s a tool on Outlook called FindTime Meeting. It’s basically the equivalent of a doodle poll that you can execute from within an email message. The biggest advantage is that once everyone selects the times that work for them, FindTime automatically adds it to the calendar. This is a bit of a game-changer! I encourage everyone to try it out.
Are there any other helpful tools in Outlook?
Norris: I encourage people to keep an eye on their Outlook. I go into Outlook every day and there’s something new. We’re hoping to add some training and additional communications on these new features over the next few months.
IS&T has begun to use the Microsoft Teams tool and we’ll be making it more available to the campus through the spring and summer. This is a lot like Slack, but it’s a little more connected with other Microsoft Tools.
We have a new LMS — Canvas! How will IS&T help support the transition?
Norris: We’ve been working closely with our group of faculty who are early adopters. We have constant drop-in hours in the tech hub and I encourage all faculty to stop by. We also encourage everyone to visit chapman.edu/canvas.
Tell us about cybersecurity.
Norris: Security is a constant issue. We have a couple of big projects around enhancing our security from a technical perspective, but a lot of the work that the security team does is around awareness for the community, because the biggest threat is phishing and ransomware.
How is IS&T continuing to combat cyber threats?
Norris: We’re now offering Two-Factor Authentication, which provides an extra level of protection for personal accounts. We’ve moved IS&T and Senior Staff to Two-Factor Authentication, and you can read more about how to sign up for this resource in this newsletter.
What excites you about the future of technology in higher education?
Norris: I’ve worked in Higher Education technology for a long time. It’s always exciting — there’s always something new to learn.
It’s really exciting to see how we can use technology to enhance learning. I think the move to Canvas from Blackboard opens the door to providing more collaborative tools. Our students value the personal interaction with the faculty and each other, and it’s exciting to implement technology to make those interactions as meaningful as possible.
I am also really excited about providing tools for research for faculty. We’re really looking at some of the cloud-based tools that make it faster to provide research faculty with what they need and in a more efficient way.
Have you always been interested in technology?
When I got to college I took a computer programming course and it was great. I kind of luckily stumbled into it!
One of the things I love about the tech field is that it’s varied. My career began in college when I took a course in computer programming. I started in that field, but I worked as in systems and network administration before I moved into management.
I’m really passionate about ensuring that we engage more women in technical careers. There are definitely lots of opportunities in this field, and I would like to see everyone take advantage of those opportunities.
Helen Norris has been the Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Chapman University since June, 2014. Norris has worked in Higher Education Information Technology for almost 20 years. Prior to joining Chapman, Norris served as the associate CIO at California State University, Sacramento and as a senior IT director at the University of California, Berkeley.
Originally from Ireland, Norris holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and a master’s degree in Computer Resource Management and Business Administration from Webster University in St. Louis.
Norris is a regular contributor to the CIO Talk Network, where she writes blog posts on topics of interest in technology.
