Improve our community support and outreach.

Listening to our user community, sharing what we know, and helping both our current IT workforce and building the next generation of IT professionals are essential to our support of FOCUS URI. We are part of an international community of Higher Education IT professionals and will engage with this community to improve IT at URI.

Goal 1

Implement digital opportunities to enhance student engagement

  • Drive the use of preferred names across all platforms used by URI.
  • Encourage further development and use of advanced student progress systems such as Starfish, Brightspace Monitor, and similar systems.
  • Expand the adoption and use of digital badging and credentialing to recognize student achievements.
  • Develop and implement an e-sports program.

Goal 2

Enhance community and industry learning opportunities.

  • Automate the enrollment and payment process in our community learning LMS (Engage).
  • Fully implement learning integrations into our community learning LMS.

Goal 3

Engage in IT workforce development and support the IT workforce across URI.

  • Extend the current IT PD program to consistently enable all IT staff at URI to participate in these opportunities.
  • Build a comprehensive IT training program for student workers across URI to ensure consistent basic skillsets.
  • Enhance and expand the current IT internship program at the MET school to both stabilize the program and expand to other groups of students.
  • Build a sustained outreach program to RI high schools and other parties about the opportunities and possibilities of IT.

Goal 4

Engage with IT beyond URI

  • Develop an enhanced program of sustained external funding opportunities for IT research and development grants.
  • Present at least twice annually at regional, national, or international gatherings of IT professionals about our work at URI.