Karen Daly

ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

SWOT analysis of a new ICT service

SWOT Template
Organisation: Charles Sturt University.

Date: 18/05/2014

Description of current/new ICT service:

A mobile-optimised platform for students, academics and professional staff to access

the university’s services and resources from smartphones, tablets and other mobile

devices. To accompany this platform, the university will develop a mobile app

version of the interface. The interface will serve as a convenient and unified entry

point to professional development, training, learning support, collaboration and

administrative facilities for staff and students who will access it both on campus and

outside the university.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

1. Charles Sturt enjoys a strong 1. Online information systems and

reputation as a leader and gateways are convoluted and

innovator in blended learning and aging. Because the university has

distance education programs. been operating in this arena for so

Many students combine study long, there are legacy systems and

with work and other overlaps between services. Many

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

responsibilities. An extension of students are confused about the

online services, especially one differences between different

which enhances the convenience portals. Any new interface must

of studying CSU subjects, will be interoperable with existing

further cement this reputation and systems but also adjustable to

may improve retention or even systems CSU introduces in the

recruitment of students. future.

2. The university already possesses 2. CSU does not have sufficient IT

extensive mobile infrastructure (a personnel to devote a team

LMS, student and staff portals, an exclusively to the development

established presence on social and maintenance of a new

networking and other digital information system for the long

services) and has been offering term.

online education programs for a 3. Mobile devices are accessible to

considerable time, with third- many students but the university

party applications like WordPress lacks the internal infrastructure to

and YouTube already support the modes of learning

incorporated into many teaching available through mobile

and research programs. This technologies and for the time

expertise and experience reduce being is dependent on third-party

the prospective training burden services like YouTube and Vimeo

for IT and academic staff alike. A for uploading content (Klapdor,

high speed wireless network with 2014).

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

its own configuration tool covers 4. Greater use of mobile devices on

all campuses of the university and campus for tasks users might have

the university is also a member of completed on desktops and

the Eduroam program, giving laptops puts pressure on CSU’s

staff and students wireless access wireless network, potentially

when they are on the campuses of causing delays and forcing the

other universities (Charles Sturt university to add capacity.

University, 2014a).

3. Staff are actively engaged in

researching mLearning

innovations and best practices.

The mLearn project has been

running for a number of years

(Charles Sturt University, 2012).

4. CSU’s large contingent of

distance education students and its

geographically dispersed students

and researchers are used to seeing

the web as their main channel of

communication with the

university and, as a result, are

better primed to adopt a new

application than the communities

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

of other institutions.

5. The CSU library has already

developed its own mobile app,

ahead of the libraries of other

Australian institutions (Charles

Sturt University Division of

Library Services, 2014a; Stone,

2013). Databases and other

resources subscribed to by the

library have inbuilt mobile apps

and functionality and can be

integrated into the new mobile

interface, along with other

products and third-party services

operating throughout teaching,

research and administrative

departments (such as Yammer,

PebblePad and Microsoft

Communicator).

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

1. The computing market is moving 1. The rate of innovation in the

increasingly toward mobile mobile computing market means

Karen Daly

ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

computing and the next wave of that it is difficult to anticipate the

tablets and netbooks are being devices (or, indeed, browsers and

heavily marketed to students as operating systems) with which

providing functionality, staff and students will be

portability and price savings accessing the network in the

compared to traditional laptops future and whether any one

and desktops (Charles Sturt application will be interoperable

University, 2012). Further, the with these devices.

increase in students attending 2. If apps and services by vendors

university from lower SES and outside companies (such as

backgrounds is likely to database aggregators) are

contribute to a decrease in incorporated into the platform,

ownership of laptops and a changes vendors make to their

corresponding rise in the interfaces and apps may impact

proportion of smaller screen and the functionality of the CSU

mobile devices being used to platform. Many of these apps and

access university networks and services are important for student

complete assignments (Charles study and staff research and users

Sturt University, 2012). CSU can would expect to be able to access

be certain that the majority of them.

students will be able to access 3. Increasing competition in distance

mobile services without the loan education from overseas

of a device provisioned by the institutions as well as institutions

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

university (although such a within Australia produces a

program will still be necessary). student market which is more

2. Mobile devices raise the prospect discerning and demanding about

of more innovative learning and the quality of the student

assessment activities for all experience, including the online

students but particularly for student experience, putting

distance education students and additional pressure on universities

students engaged in workplace to develop and maintain high

learning. Mobile devices can also quality, engaging and accessible

be used for data collection, data interfaces. Fourteen other

access and other research Australian Universities already

activities by staff while travelling utilise iTunesU to provide access

or away from campus, the new to mobile materials and

interface expediting the storage institutions such as the

and organisation of information Universities of Sydney and

for staff and students alike. The Melbourne boast mobile apps

higher quality of new smartphone with LMS integration (Charles

screens makes the experience of Sturt University, 2012). CSU has

content and media more engaging significant numbers of

(Turban, Volonino and Wood, international students in its

2013). distance education programs and

3. Staff and students across partner institutions in Asia,

campuses and locations might Europe and the Pacific. Overseas

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

collaborate through video competitors offer sophisticated

conferencing and other mobile learning programs, some

collaborative apps included in the of which are being released free

platform, sharing expertise across of charge on MOOC platforms

the institution and reducing the like Coursera and edX. These

costs involved in transporting programs and platforms raise

staff to physical meetings. students’ expectations of mobile

4. The consumerisation of learning services further still.

workplace technology (especially 4. User privacy cannot be

the BYOD) trend means that guaranteed for external apps (such

students and many staff members as Vimeo and twitter) integrated

will prefer their own devices to into the university’s platform

university supplied equipment, (Klapdor, 2014). CSU must rely

leading to potential hardware upon students and staff to create

savings for CSU if these are not their own accounts and manage

overtaken by the cost of an their own privacy settings for

increased load on the wireless these services. Many users will

network. nevertheless expect support in

using these apps from the

university and may hold the

university responsible for damage

to their own equipment.

5. Although the ownership of

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

smartphones is accelerating at an

unprecedented rate, CSU cannot

assume that all students have

access to a device. Even more

pivotally, we cannot assume that

students have access to high-

speed wireless networks at all

times. Many phone users rely on

3G or older networks and have

limited data allowances (Klapdor,

2014).

Summary and Recommendations:

Mobility presents challenges and opportunities for universities across the world,

extending the reach of institutions like CSU and at the same time transforming the

expectations students and staff have of their relationship with education providers and

employers. Over a number of years CSU has been exploring mobility’s impact on

education from multiple angles through its mLearn project (Charles Sturt University,

2012). As the biggest provider of distance education in Australia with a uniquely

dispersed student population studying a wide range of subject areas, CSU would seem

poised to avail itself of the opportunities brought into being by the swift pace of

innovation in the mobile computing market, the accompanying shifts in consumer

preferences and the more flexible and engaging interfaces being developed for
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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

mobile-based learning and research. Largely based on Web 1.0 technologies, the

existing portal, intranet and website appear “flat” compared to the dynamic, Web 2.0-

enabled sites students and staff experience outside the university and lack the tools for

communication and collaboration featured by these outside sites in particular.

By establishing a mobile-optimised platform as a single entry point to university

resources and services and by making that platform available as a mobile app, CSU

can achieve its strategic goals of strengthening its position as a leader in flexible and

blended learning and teaching with a particular focus on professional education,

advancing the applied research in which the university specialises and improving the

student experience, as well as achieving efficiencies in the collection and maintenance

of data and the coordination of administrative processes (Charles Sturt University,

2010). Moreover, the opening up of the higher education market with further

deregulation from 2012 has put an even greater emphasis on student experience. In

this climate universities will distinguish themselves by optimising their learning and

teaching environments, especially through educational technology (Charles Sturt

University, 2010).

The mobile interface project will be managed in an agile manner that is responsive to

the emergence of new technologies, feedback from users and data analytics,

preferring a simple and sustainable design delivered rapidly. The success of the

project hinges upon users’ access to support mechanisms as much as their access to

technology (Charles Sturt University, 2012).

In comparison to CSU’s redevelopment of its Interact LMS (analysed in the first

assignment), this project introduces a new IT infrastructure instead of updating or

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

adapting an existing architecture, however both projects seek to provide a single point

of access to disparate information systems within the university, integrating materials

which have often been created without consistent standards. Both applications also

respond to the boom in ownership of tablets, smartphone and other mobile devices

and a corresponding demand from students and workers for flexibility in study and

work arrangements

The mobile platform presents a unique opportunity to promote greater use of CSU’s

existing mobile applications by making them more accessible and findable with a

single entry point. Like the Interact redevelopment, it leverages CSU’s experience and

expertise in blended learning to secure a competitive advantage in the distance

education market through an enhanced user experience and the streamlining of

processes. Work by other universities (most notably Oxford University with its open

source mobile app) diffuses some of the development costs for CSU, as was the case

with the Sakai software implemented in the first version of Interact, however there is

no ready-made support community or documentation for CSU’s final product in this

case.

Above all, the mobile interface project demonstrates how integral an enterprise

architecture practice is to IT governance in a large and complex organisation like a

university, especially a university which has distributed its teaching and research

functions across several regions, serving widely dispersed staff and students. The

guidance of the university’s Enterprise Architecture and Liaison office

(http://www.csu.edu.au/division/dit/eal/architectures.htm) in the initial planning,

design and implementation will ensure that the new service is effectively integrated
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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

with existing information systems, especially the university’s learning management

and student records systems, but it is the ongoing involvement of this office that will

ultimately guarantee that each change to and iteration of the service is effectively

coordinated with other university processes and systems at the same time as it

responds to information about user needs garnered from data analytics.

Short Term (Now)

The Enterprise Architecture and Liaison office will have oversight over the initial

research and planning period, owing to the complexity of the task of integrating any

new system with the university’s current network and the need to align the

development of the system with long-term goals. An initial investigation and survey

will involve staff from most divisions and sections of the university and particularly

the division of student learning, IT and library and student services in order to ensure

that the project will not be siloed and will support strategic goals as they are realised

across the university.

The priorities for the beginning of the project are to identify the functionalities and

generic capabilities for learning and teaching which should be included as priorities in

the mobile app and the interface, to work with IT staff to stabilise rich media delivery

(vodcasts and podcasts) to mobile devices accessing the network and website, to

promote and raise awareness of existing CSU mobile apps such as PebblePad and the

Interact podcasting tool and to research the interoperability of internal and third party-

published content with the mobile interfaces available from LMS vendors like

Blackboard and Moodle. Deciding between an open source or a commercial solution

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

is a key objective of the initial research and planning phase. Of particular importance

will be the extent of the IT staffing and resources that must be diverted to support an

open source application and how this compares to the extra cost of a commercial

product with vendor support.

Finally, data analytics applications will be applied to measure how many students and

staff are accessing the site with mobile devices at present and whether their behaviour

and interests differ significantly from users accessing the site from more traditional

machines.

Mid Term (next 12 months)

Over the medium term, the implementation plan expands into several pilot programs,

tendering and negotiation processes and user experience studies. After the initial

study and survey of staff and students, the enterprise architect responsible for the

project will need to investigate the offerings of various external vendors and the level

of support they are able to extend to the initial implementation and from hence to the

maintenance of the system over its lifetime. Customisation, scalability and flexibility

will also be prominent criteria in the assessment of vendors’ offerings, along with

interoperability with applications the university may add to its network in the future

and new technologies staff and students may adopt to access the network. While there

is a risk of lock-in with a single vendor approach, this approach also simplifies

development and support (Charles Sturt University, 2012). During the configuration

and installation phase, university staff (including enterprise architects) will work

closely with representatives from the vendor to verify that the requirements and

specifications determined from the initial studies are met by the final product.
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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

Alongside the configuration and installation of the software, staff will develop a

mobile hub (mHub) to promote and support the service, addressing issues of technical

support, training and user buy in. Eventually, mHub will become an open and

collaborative space to disseminate and share resources, reviews, guides, tutorials and

other information regarding hardware, software and uses of mobile technologies

(Charles Sturt University, 2012). Available to students, staff, researchers and

professional staff across the sector with no internal log-in required, mHub will

consolidate CSU’s position as an industry leader in mobile learning and draw public

attention to its work with the new mobile interface (Charles Sturt University, 2013).

Because there is no clear precedent for mobile learning, the leaders of the project will

gain real world experience through small, tightly focused pilot programs enlisting

staff who are willing to incorporate a pilot version of the interface into their teaching,

with training and support for pilot participants provided by the project team (Charles

Sturt University, 2012). The small scale of these pilots will allow team members to

quickly ascertain what does and does not work with minimal risk and to acquire a

stronger understanding of how to support the services when they are rolled out more

widely (Charles Sturt University, 2012). There will also be a pilot of CSU-

provisioned devices on campus to examine how devices are supported by the existing

infrastructure. Infrastructure planning will be revised as these devices are trialled in

and rolled out to further sections of the organisation.

In the medium term, a beta version of the interface and app will be created by

mobilising less demanding content (such as subject outlines, campus maps with

location-aware promotions, calendars and the message centre). Launching this

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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

simplified version of the mobile app through iTunes and the Google Play store will

help to ascertain the level of student interest and the services which generate the most

user interaction (Charles Sturt University, 2014c).

Also in the medium term, CSU will establish a presence on prominent and easily

implemented outside educational platforms like iTunesU.

Long Term (next 3 to 5 years)

The university’s Enterprise Architecture and Liaison office has a lifetime

commitment to the service, beyond its inception. Over the long term, staff from the

office will review the service periodically to assess how it aligns with strategic goals

in the university’s educational technology plan, with major reviews accompanying the

release of each updated plan every three years. The design process for a service such

as this is iterative and ongoing, reflecting a need to continually innovate, revise the

design and information architecture and add functionality in response to user needs

and disruptive transformations in the mobile computing market.

In the longer term, the success of the project will be decided by the effectiveness of

university-wide IT governance in maintaining consistent data storage and use policies

across departments and divisions so that all systems are interoperable with the mobile

platform. The task of navigating between the viewpoints of different departments and

user groups whilst at the same time maintaining the highest standards of functionality

and user accessibility will draw upon the enterprise architect’s full complement of

interdisciplinary skills in project management, IT and communication.

The most crucial task over the next three to five years will be the integration of
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ITC540, assignment 2B

Student number: 11437366

Interact into the mobile platform, with work at other universities (UCT and Oxford)

serving as models (Charles Sturt University, 2012). This integration will have been

piloted in a limited number of subjects in the first year of the project and these pilots

will continue. Among other concerns, the team will consider whether it is prudent for

the system to continue to rely upon third-party apps such as YouTube and Yammer or

if it is in fact feasible for the university to develop or lease apps for common

functions like image sharing and storage and video conferencing. Use of all third-

party applications and social media must conform to the university policy on external

educational applications (Charles Sturt University, 2014c).

Finally a learning analytics strategy will be formulated so that staff have actionable

data for evaluating the take up of the application, whether it is used equally by all

groups and, most vitally, users’ interaction with its resources. The resulting

aggregated analytic data will provide prompts to improve performance without

breaching students’ privacy by storing personally identifiable information.

References

Brann, J., Uys, P., Griffin, L., Klapdor, T., Thomson, S., Fell, R., . . . Harris, M. (2011).

Mobile learning initiative investigation report. Retrieved from Charles Sturt

University website:

http://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0008/202103/2011MobileLearningInit

iativeInterimReport.docx
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Charles Sturt University. (2010). CSU educational technology framework.

http://www.csu.edu.au/division/landt/resources/documents/CSUEducationalTechnolo

gyFramework.pdf

Charles Sturt University. (2011). CSU educational technology plan, 2011-2013.

Charles Sturt University. (2012). mLearn 2012: Lessons through exploration. Retrieved from

SlideShare website: http://www.slideshare.net/mLearn/mlearn-fullreport

Charles Sturt University. (2013). mHub website. from http://mhub.csu.edu.au/

Charles Sturt University. (2014a). Wireless guide.

http://www.csu.edu.au/division/dit/services/service-catalogue/wireless/

Charles Sturt University. (2014b). Dashboard of CSU educational technologies.

Charles Sturt University. (2014c). mLearn: Mobile learning at CSU.

http://www.csu.edu.au/division/landt/resources/mobilelearning

Charles Sturt University Division of Library Services. (2014a). Mobile information.

http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/how-to/csu-library-mobile

Charles Sturt University Division of Library Services. (2014b). Mobile devices for study and

research.

Google Inc. . (2014). Google Analytics: Official website. from

http://www.google.com.au/analytics/

Klapdor, T. (2014). Smart phone to smart students. Retrieved from mHub website:

http://mhub.csu.edu.au/mlearn/smart-phones-to-smart-students/

Stone, R. (2013). What’s mobile at CSU? Retrieved from mHub website:

http://mhub.csu.edu.au/guides/whats-mobile-at-csu/

Turban, E., Volonino, L., & Wood, G. (2013). Information technology for management:
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Advancing sustainable, profitable business growth. . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.