OTDI Year in Review 2023
We empower all Buckeyes to unlock their boundless potential and become catalysts for positive transformation. We see a future where technology seamlessly augments academic experiences, enhances research capabilities, and streamlines administrative processes, fostering an environment of creativity, innovation, and collaboration.
Technology is critical to everything we do at Ohio State, and everything we do with technology is in collaboration with partners across the university.
The Office of Technology and Digital Innovation has the privilege of working to find technology solutions that solve problems in every corner of our working and learning environment. Our work is guided by the IT Roadmap, which includes five pillars: learning, research, outreach, innovation and belonging.
We’ve gathered the data presented here to show you how our 2023 accomplishments play a critical role in making The Ohio State University the model 21st-century public, land grant, research, urban, community-engaged institution.
Learning
PebblePad Integrated into Student Toolset
Students are now able to showcase accomplishments achieved in GE courses using a new ePortfolio tool offered by our Digital Learning and Student Success team. We brought in a new technology solution called PebblePad as part of the university’s launch of the new GE program.
Technology Supports Redesign of STEM Courses
In partnership with the College of Arts and Sciences, our team equipped 6 rooms for a pilot of a distributed classroom model, supporting the redesign of foundational STEM courses. When we provide instructors with well-designed classrooms, equipped with technology that is integrated thoughtfully and effectively, Ohio State’s vision for active learning becomes a reality. In addition to the innovations we provided for the Arts and Sciences project, faculty will soon be able to find and request spaces that match their teaching strategy. A collaborative effort with our partners on the Classroom Readiness Committee will soon produce an index that categorizes classrooms based on the available technology and setup in each room.
Connecting Teaching and Learning to Spaces
Collaboration begins with our customers, which means student feedback is the foundation for classroom technology decisions. This year we began using the Learning Space Rating System to assess classrooms and inform space planning moving forward.
Groundbreaking Cybersecurity for You (C4U) Platform Launches for Students
This year students will have access to the C4U training platform that faculty and staff have been using for the last few years. Student-focused modules were added to the platform and made available to all students in fall 2023.
BuckeyeLearn-LinkedIn Learning Integration
This year, Ohio State faculty, staff and students were provided with free access to LinkedIn Learning, provided by the Office of Human Resources, the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and the University Staff Advisory Committee. To support this project, OTDI worked on an interface that would enable staff to access LinkedIn from BuckeyeLearn (Cornerstone) and to include completed classes from the platform on their transcripts. This integration added approximately 20K professional development courses to the BuckeyeLearn catalog. As part of this project, a new manager’s report was created and shared with all managers, allowing them to view their reports on professional development training.
Broadened Student Technology Loan Program
Last year the Student Technology Loan Program was limited to students with economic need, but this year we were able to open it to all students who need a device! Based on input from across the university, most academic programs prefer that students have a 2-in-1 device for classes. OTDI’s program enables students to pick up loans of iPads and Surface Go tablets from BuckeyeBar, a service of the IT Service Desk (ITSD).
The loan program is administered by the IT Service Desk, which is available 24/7 to assist students with technology issues. The BuckeyeBar is an in-person help desk resource available on weekdays for 1:1 in person service.
IT Service Desk Statistics
Student Technology Loan Program Statistics
Research
Tableau User Group Formed
To create and expand the data and integration services community of analysts and developers, we launched the Tableau Users Group (TUG) on Microsoft Teams this year. TUG shares Tableau news and knowledge across Ohio State’s user community. This enables Tableau Project Leaders – data ambassadors in each unit – to share relevant information about Tableau and other data integration work.
Removing Barriers to Share Research Data
Carmenton – the growing innovation district on the university’s west campus – has challenged us to remove technological barriers to enable researchers from the university and the medical center to work together more easily. The Energy Advancement and Innovation Center (EAIC) that opened in December will expand upon the recently opened Pelotonia Research Center’s technology model to enhance research collaboration. Earlier in 2023, the PRC required the collaboration of 130 IT professionals from 16 colleges and business units, the Wexner Medical Center, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
Continually Improving Grant Reporting Using Workday
We are continue to improve access to financial data and grant reporting in Workday. This year we debuted a new process that accurately reflects the balances on financial and grants reporting and streamlined Period Activity Pay to avoid barriers for researchers funded by grants that are renewed beyond the original expiration date.
Did you know? Ohio State processes 764M grant expenditures annually.
Outreach
Helping Buckeyes Navigate Artificial Intelligence Tools
OTDI is actively providing insights and guidance around Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and their impact on teaching and learning. We have already released a comprehensive resource to guide AI use in our academic environments. Leaders from across the university continue to evaluate AI tools and will develop appropriate policies as new information emerges and new tools are released.
Digital Security and Trust Helps Units Identify Risks
The Business Information Security Review is a new service that enables units to enlist Digital Security and Trust (DST) staff to work with unit IT staff to evaluate risks, inefficiencies and information security concerns. Together we assess technical strengths and areas that could be improved, and then DST provides recommendations for any areas of concern.
Protecting University Devices with CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon is the antivirus component of our endpoint protection tool. Endpoint protection is the approach we use to protect our network and the devices that connect to it. CrowdStrike Falcon works in the background to ensure that viruses don’t infect your device.
Managing IT Services for our Partners
Managed Information Technology Services (MITS) provides partners with consistent and secure IT services. It features predictable and transparent pricing to academic units at Ohio State following the core, consumable and unique service model. 71% of the university relies upon a MITS model for technology support.
Innovation
Integrating Communication with Teams Calling
We are currently implementing Teams Calling across the university, enabling users to make calls directly from the chat window in Teams. With only about half of the migrations completed so far, users are already making an average of 84K calls per month (based on a 3-month average). We are targeting project completion by 2025. On average every month, Ohio State uses this service for:
Modernizing Wi-Fi with eduroam
We are currently sunsetting osuwireless and switching to eduroam, a secure, world-wide roaming Wi-Fi service used by academic institutions internationally. It enables those visiting a participating institution to pre-configure their devices and automatically have secure access when they arrive.
Wi-Fi Networks Statistics
Simplifying the Requisition and Buying Process
Since there are more than 56 thousand users across our organization, simplifying Workday processes is an obvious place to focus service improvement efforts. Requisition and buying activities comprise one of the more complex processes, and we have focused on simplifying that work not only for people who buy things occasionally, but also for those who place orders routinely. After numerous changes to the process over the last year, we launched an improved Buckeye Buy tool this summer, enabling users to order goods and services more easily in Workday.
Innovative Training Platform Offers Guidance for AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the world around us, and its presence in higher education will likely transform the way we teach and learn. To help faculty, staff and students navigate this new landscape, the Cybersecurity for You (C4U) training platform published two brand-new activities on generative AI technologies.
Security Outreach Statistics
Growing Salesforce Marketing Cloud
The Office of Marketing and Communications (OMC) adopted Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) as an enterprise marketing automation platform in 2020. SFMC offers robust ways to personalize, automate, test, and optimize email campaigns for Ohio State to both internal and external audiences. Our team works with OMC to configure and adapt the platform to meet stakeholder needs. Use has grown significantly over the last year, increasing from 622K emails in FY22 to 61.4M emails sent in FY23. The platform includes Blackthorn Events, a stakeholder engagement app specifically built for Salesforce users in mind that enables users to access real-time event data.
Belonging
Buckeye Link Personalization Enhanced for Students
Buckeye Link is continually improving, as OTDI collaborates with the Office of Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) to personalize the experience with news, resources and updates tailored to students’ needs and interests.
Buckeye Link is a critical gateway into Student Information Systems, which provides a vast amount of information to our students, illustrated here:
Technology Makes Art Accessible to All
This year the Wexner Center for the Arts multichannel video installation Meditation Ocean included “tactile images,” or “tactiles,” which are 3D models that provide a touchable format to shape sensory perception beyond sight, allowing visitors with vision-based disabilities to experience the exhibit and inviting everyone else to engage with the work in a unique way. The Digital Union’s 3D printing program was critical in bringing this aspect of the exhibit to life.
Data Integrity Through Shared Meaning
Our data governance group has been bringing together faculty and staff from across the university and medical center to create common, shared institutional definitions. This continuing collaborative effort ensures the integrity and usability of data, with all those across the university using the same language to describe that data.
Students and Staff Manage their Preferences
Data synchronization across four major university systems provides staff and students with a single step to control how their identity is represented across my.osu.edu, Buckeye Link, Workday, and the Ohio State Mobile App – including legal sex, pronouns, and preferred name. Data entered in one of these four systems will also display in CarmenCanvas and CarmenZoom.
App Enhances the Student Experience
An impressive 92% of undergraduate students across all Ohio State campuses rely on the Ohio State App. The app is a one-stop shop for all the most important things about the student experience. The "For You" screen, a personalized the experience for each user, providing a of features students use most often.
Academic Year 2023 Ohio State Mobile App Facts
Digital Resources that are Accessible to Everyone
Ohio State is working to achieve full digital accessibility. Last year more than 33 thousand staff and faculty completed policy training to help make this happen. More than 160 Accessibility Coordinators or Designees work on this initiative across the university.
New Accessibility Features in Zoom
Since we started using Zoom, it has been continually improving the accessibility features it offers. The most used accessibility feature among students is the ability to turn on automated captions, which can now be downloaded. Zoom allows speech-to-text to be automatically generated from a variety of different languages, which is helpful both to English-speaking students taking a course in a different language and to students who speak English as a second language. In addition, hosts are able to designate an interpreter to translate from one language to another.
