Technology Plan 2025
Technology the
University Needs
As strategic partners and leaders, we will relentlessly focus on translating strategic goals into action enabled by technology and supporting the university’s 2025 aspirations through empowering innovation, expanding boundaries and supporting success.
The commitments in this plan speak to the foundational role the university’s technology plays in accelerating growth, supporting a holistic user experience, and simplifying systems and structures in collaboration with institutional partners. We are committed to and aligned with strategic goals found within the university, colleges, schools and support unit strategic plans. Together, we will support unleashing discovery the world needs, creating learners who are prepared and able to address issues of local and global significance, and being clear on the priorities that help make meaningful progress towards becoming the university the world needs.
OUR ASPIRATIONS
EMPOWERING
INNOVATION
We have some of the most innovative people doing some of the most groundbreaking research. We enable courageous curiosity by empowering students, staff and faculty to do more than thought possible with technology that boosts productivity, strengthens security, enhances research outcomes, amplifies connectivity and increases capability.
EXPANDING
BOUNDARIES
We have a culture rooted in collaboration where people come to pursue their passions and achieve success regardless of their location. With a whole system perspective, we provide students, staff, and faculty solutions that connects people, process and technology to achieve stronger outcomes and enable inspired communities.
SUPPORTING
SUCCESS
Delivering the value of IT goes far beyond technology. Each member of the university community has goals with their own definition of success. To ensure we courageously respond with the right solutions that enable strategic goal achievement, we engage the organization and authentically listen to understand stakeholder’s needs.
STRATEGIC GOALS
Enhancing the student experience requires us to develop collaborative and reciprocal relationships within the campus community and beyond, in order to enable holistic, student-centered approaches. We need to improve student outcomes and student success by achieving the following goals:
- Leverage technology to support the university’s strategic enrolment goals while improving systems that enable the various teaching, learning and student experiences that our students need.
- Develop holistic student lifecycle engagement systems that consider pre-arrival experiences, student connections, support through the entire journey, and wellness and diversity.
- Leverage technologies that enable an equitable and positive student learning experience regardless of where and when learning occurs.
GUIDEPOSTS
These institutional guideposts will direct our journey towards successfully enabling the university’s 2025 aspirations and enhancing student experience:
- Systems and structures increasingly contribute to building the culture of trust essential to collaboration.
- An increased spirit of holistic wellness, mutual respect and inclusive diversity imbues all our engagement efforts.
- Intentionally seek out and resolve processes that cause unintentional harm and establish an environment that promotes the health and well-being of all who study at our campuses regardless of location.
Success will be measured by:
- Increased efficiencies and transparency in our student systems that are seen as flexible and user-friendly.
- Measurable improvements in our level of student and staff engagement and satisfaction at the unit and institutional levels.
STRATEGIC GOALS
To prepare the next generation of empowered, lifelong learners for opportunities that have meaningful impact, we will strive to achieve these aligned goals:
- Leverage technology to support the learning of all students through learning-centered programs and services focused on future skills, outcome/competency-based assessment; flexible credentialing and experiential learning.
- Provide access to an evolving ecosystem of technologies that enable innovative teaching and learning including, robotics, simulation, virtual reality and active learning.
- Leverage technologies to provide sustainable yet flexible learning pathways to accommodate the university's strategic enrolment goals while maintaining a respectful and inclusive learning environment for our learners and educators.
GUIDEPOSTS
These institutional guideposts will direct our journey towards successfully enabling the university’s 2025 aspirations and supporting flexible academic programming:
- Increasing levels of students’ self-reported engagement in their learning and university experiences.
- Growth in the number, diversity and strength of interdisciplinary research and training programs across colleges and schools.
- Strategic growth in new academic programs designed to meet the economic, environmental and social needs of our communities, and in existing programs with capacity.
Success will be measured by:
- Effective use of our resources, including our spaces, our people and our finances to create sustainable supports, learning environments and services.
- Increase in the number of courses with learning outcomes reflecting experiences and skills achievement.
- Increased student satisfaction in learning outcomes.
STRATEGIC GOALS
To support the strengthening, diversifying and seizing of research, scholarly and creative opportunities we will strive to achieve these aligned goals:
- Develop a cohesive research data management framework to support the organization, publication and reuse of the cutting-edge research conducted at the university.
- Develop an agile and responsive structure to provide the required technology infrastructure for the increased growth and intensity of our signature research areas and areas of emerging strength.
- Provide a highly visible, comprehensive suite of research-focused tools and services for all researchers.
GUIDEPOSTS
These institutional guideposts will direct our journey towards successfully enabling the university's 2025 aspirations and research success:
- Growth in scholarly influence, visibility and impact.
- Growth in research revenues (notably Tri-Council funding), scholarly influence, innovation/commercialization outcomes and community impact across all academic units.
- Growth in the number, diversity and strength of interdisciplinary research and training programs across colleges and schools.
Success will be measured by:
- Increased collaboration in the design, development, and use of infrastructure and services.
- Reduced time researchers need to spend on obtaining and using technology supports for their research.
STRATEGIC GOALS
To set the standards for how our university protects data, enables outcomes and delivers value that extends beyond technology to the efficiency, effectiveness and experience of the university community, we will strive to achieve these aligned goals:
- Enable strategic decision-making by our organization’s leaders through increased availability and visibility of integrated institutional data.
- Simplify institutional-wide processes through automation, workflow and a shift in culture from emphasizing technology and tools to delivering a great user experience and finding the right solutions that drive mission-focused outcomes.
- Ensure technical infrastructure enables expansive collaborative opportunities for all students, faculty and staff.
- Support the revenue generation and impact the university, colleges and foundational plans aspire to achieve through the strategic use of technology.
GUIDEPOSTS
These institutional guideposts will direct our journey towards successfully enabling the university’s 2025 aspirations and supporting institutional excellence:
- Systems and structures increasingly contribute to building the culture of trust essential to collaboration.
- Our university is viewed as an accessible, go-to resource by partners and stakeholders in Saskatchewan and beyond.
- We will create a sustainable environment for our learners, our teachers and our decision makers by minimizing redundancies and optimizing space.
- We will support data-informed decisions and contribute to a culture of accountability and transparency.
Success will be measured by:
- University leaders increasingly having the right information at the right time to make strategic decisions.
- Measurable reductions in “red-tape” by streamlining, clarifying, communicating and simplifying policies and processes across the institution, through collaboration and partnership.
- Increased acceptance and improved support for adoption of standard university-wide processes, technology and tools across colleges, schools and units.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer works with strategic partners to deliver technology that aligns with the vision, mission, and values of the University of Saskatchewan and is foundational to the growth required to be the university the world needs.