Documents Contributed by ECAR and IT Integration

This research bulletin provides an overview of the rationale for the Computing Skills Workshop program at Carnegie Mellon University, which has been in place as a required program for all students since 1985. It explores how the program is structured, how it has evolved over time, and the methodology behind preparing students to be successful teachers in a peer-to-peer format. It is intended to assist higher education executives plan and execute a similar program by identifying key issues and providing resources.

This ECAR Key Findings explores the practices and perspectives of IT organizations that support the academic research enterprise. To collect, analyze, and distribute information across an expanding range academic disciplines and geographic locations, research efforts rely heavily on IT infrastructure, people, and a broad range of IT services. Ever-larger data sets are being collected and shared, simulations and visualization are becoming routine tools, and the co-evolution of science and computing increasingly requires scientists to have solid grounding in information management.

This ECAR Roadmap explores the practices and perspectives of IT organizations that support the academic research enterprise. To collect, analyze, and distribute information across an expanding range academic disciplines and geographic locations, research efforts rely heavily on IT infrastructure, people, and a broad range of IT services. Ever-larger data sets are being collected and shared, simulations and visualization are becoming routine tools, and the co-evolution of science and computing increasingly requires scientists to have solid grounding in information management.

This ECAR study explores the practices and perspectives of IT organizations that support the academic research enterprise. To collect, analyze, and distribute information across an expanding range academic disciplines and geographic locations, research efforts rely heavily on IT infrastructure, people, and a broad range of IT services. Ever-larger data sets are being collected and shared, simulations and visualization are becoming routine tools, and the co-evolution of science and computing increasingly requires scientists to have solid grounding in information management. This study reports the results of a variety of research initiatives: a literature review, quantitative and qualitative data from 328 higher education institutions (315 U.S. and 13 Canadian institutions), and five in-depth cases studies. In addition, ECAR published What Do Researchers Need? Higher Education IT from the Researcher's Perspective, to supplement this study.

This research bulletin extends and addresses the findings from the 2004 ECAR study, Information Technology Alignment in Higher Education. Specifically, the study found that agile and adaptive information technology organizations are best positioned to achieve alignment with institution-wide priorities. The bulletin focuses on using the Integration Maturity Model to measure and guide organizations toward becoming more agile and adaptive.