Library Services and IT Services papers

Bond University in your Face(book)

Jessie Donaghey — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:55:58 PDT

Which social networking sites are students using?

Social media for international students: It's not all about Facebook

Grace Saw et al. — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:55:14 PDT

According to the OECD there are nearly four million tertiary students enrolled in a course outside their country of citizenship. In 2010 there were 335 273 international students enrolled in higher education in Australia. To support these students during their study, libraries need to find ways to communicate and engage with them.

An Australian study found that international students’ preferred methods for learning about library services was through library webpages and personal contact with library staff. As more libraries experiment with social networking to inform and connect with students, we need to determine the effectiveness of this strategy for reaching international students.

Junco (2011) conducted a study into the effects of Facebook usage on students’ grades and found that students who used Facebook for social activities had lower GPA’s than students who used Facebook for information collection and sharing activities. Junco’s distinction between social activities and information dissemination activities on Facebook indicate that social networking sites aren’t necessarily all about being “social” anymore. Junco’s study indicates that libraries should not fear “invading students’ space” as gathering and distributing information makes up a major part of activities conducted on Facebook.

Libraries need to identify what social networking sites international students prefer. Librarians must then decide if there is value in using these sites to collect and share information with their students. The paper will address three questions:

1. What social networking sites do international students prefer and why?

2. Which sites do they use to socialise and which do they use to gather and distribute information?

3. How can libraries leverage this information to enhance the international student experience?

Discovering which social networking sites international students prefer for information dissemination activities will allow libraries to target appropriate communication channels for engaging these students.

Co-design an ILMS for the future

Carolyn McDonald et al. — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:58:56 PDT

Investigating the roles, responsibilities and practices of portfolio managers in Australia: A literature review and research outline

Aileen Koh — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:05:18 PST

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is increasingly adopted by organizations in Australia. In order to select, prioritize and monitor simultaneous on-going projects with limited resources, there is a need for PPM to optimize investment by utilising a PPM governance structure to deal with constant change and focus on achievement of organizational strategy. This is particularly relevant in order to build on national and global recovery.

PPM, due to its ambiguity and complexity, brings a great challenge for the portfolio manager to manage its processes, people and practices. However, literature indicates that PPM practices vary and need to be adapted to organizational situations according to project types and environmental complexity.

The aim of the research discussed in this paper is to investigate the roles, responsibilities and practices of project portfolio managers in services and products organizations in Australia. It also aims to relate the relationship between project types and environmental complexity of organization with the practices, roles and responsibilities of Portfolio Manager. Their influences to ensure that the best projects are selected and investments are optimized are the concern of this paper.

By reviewing the literature on PPM, this paper hypothesizes that project types and environmental complexity will influence the roles, responsibilities and practices of the project portfolio manager. Based on these findings, a research model is proposed, and further research to test the validity of the model is suggested.

Investigating the roles, responsibilities and practices of project portfolio managers in Australia: A literature review and research outline

Aileen Koh — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:20:07 PDT

Extract:

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is increasingly adopted by organizations in Australia. In order to select, prioritize and monitor simultaneous on-going projects with limited resources, there is a need for PPM to optimize investment by utilising a PPM governance structure to deal with constant change and focus on achievement of organizational strategy. PPM, due to its ambiguity and complexity, brings a great challenge for the project portfolio manager to manage its processes, people and practices. However, literature indicates that PPM practices vary and need to be adapted to organizational situations according to project types, governance types and environmental complexity.

IT project governance in higher education

Aileen Koh — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:48:51 PDT

Extract:

This paper succinctly discusses the forms of Project governance that were recently implemented at Bond University. The three key forms are: Project governance mechanisms, Project Portfolio Office, and Project Management Framework.

Investigating the roles, responsibilities and practices of managers in project portfolio management

Aileen Koh — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:32:40 PST

Custom bottled: A review of Bond University's digital repository 'e-publications@bond'

Antoinette Cass — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:15:48 PST

In 2005 Bond University decided to implement an off-the-shelf repository system available from ProQuest. In their paper Open Source or off-the-shelf? Establishing an institutional repository for a small institution Mark Sutherland and Peta Hopkins discuss the reasons for this platform choice and outline the steps to its implementation in 2006. This presentation picks up the story from that point and reviews the journey to see where the repository sits in the Bond community culture today. It attempts to answer all those burning questions such as what does it offer, how it operates, does it suit our needs, does it deliver and will it adequately carry us forward and satisfy Bond’s future repository requirements?

IT portfolio management in Higher Education

Lawrence Lim et al. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:47:26 PST

This paper examines the issues and impetus for project portfolio management in educational institutions in the higher education sector. Based on Bond University, issues regarding governance mechanism, project portfolio office, project management framework and project registry are discussed.

Engaging with 'Web 2.0' technologies: Implementing enterprise content management at Bond University

Peta J. Hopkins — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:45:33 PDT

The phrase ‘Web 2.0’ has been used as a popular label to describe web technologies with a focus on collaboration, interactivity, user-created content, information and knowledge sharing, and social connections. It indicates a transformation of the web environment from a one-way information delivery tool, to a multi-way information sharing platform. Its popularity as a catch-phrase has spawned other terms such as enterprise 2.0 wherein social media and supporting technologies are introduced into the corporate information environment thereby transforming the way the enterprise communicates, connects and shares information among its staff and with its customers.

In this paper, the author discusses how social media technologies are being introduced to the web environment at Bond University in a project to implement an enterprise content management system. The enterprise content management system is being implemented as a platform for both the university’s website and its intranet with content being re-used and surfaced in both environments as appropriate. University staff use the Internet and web interfaces to numerous systems as an integral part of their daily activities. They have become accustomed to highly interactive and collaborative sites. It is no surprise therefore, that dissatisfaction has been expressed with the static and somewhat dated functionality of the existing intranet. Stakeholder feedback consistently focuses on making it a more dynamic and effective business tool. ‘Web 2.0’ features have been requested in the form of team web logs, collaborative spaces such as wikis, the ability to capture feedback by way of online ‘conversations’ in processes such as policy development and in RSS feeds for personalised subscriptions. These requests indicate that staff is ready and willing to be engaged in information sharing, collaborative content sharing and knowledge management.

Similarly, in the public arena of the corporate website there is a need to present a dynamic, up-to-date and consistent image to the World. Some of the ‘Web 2.0’ features that have been identified as being able to support this include CSS for efficient and consistent look and feel, XML and XHTML for effective transformation of data and content, and RSS for enabling users to selectively source the web content they want or need to consume in places and applications of their choosing. This selection of content for consumption via RSS feeds presents an alternative, user-focused method for news dissemination to the existing reliance on email for pushing news to stakeholders.

The paper covers how social media and their supporting technologies were considered in the system selection process, how they are being implemented and the challenges being encountered. Additionally an account is given of how these technologies are introduced to web site and intranet users, and the consideration of how these technologies might contribute to Bond University’s business needs.