Asking the Right Questions Makes All the Difference with Technology….And an Update on Our Assessment Efforts

I posted back in April about what I thought student affairs assessment should look at.  The inspiration for that post was my own work, where our assessment program has been essentially non-existent and as I was trolling through the data we do have, I was realizing that it was woefully inadequate to provide the sort of information that I was looking for.  I’m no fan of surveying, but I think with some data collection, we might be able to better figure out more about what exactly is going on within our department.

So…here’s my update….

I honestly anticipated this process of creating what I want to be like pulling teeth.  The general opinion from everyone I’ve talked to was that, not only was the data unavailable, that IT wouldn’t allow us to get the data and use it, they’d tried and no one would let them at it, and they’d appreciate if I’d quit asking, thank you very much!  Okay, that’s a little dramatic.  But the general idea of all conversations was something like “we’ve tried to get that, it doesn’t work and IT won’t help you”.

So, I set up a meeting with our swipe card office, expecting a war, instead I got no resistance whatsoever and was told that, not only can we help you, but we think what you’re looking for already exists!  WHAT????  Needless to say, I was pleased and began to contact the necessary parties to make this happen.

After a quick call into the department that had the system I needed to copy, I contacted the IT department person by email who was in charge of their project.  After not hearing back for a month, I anticipated I’d hit a snag.  I decided to call and the IT person couldn’t have been more helpful.

And here’s the kicker….we already had what we needed.

Not only that…we also had instructions in a cabinet to do what we needed.

So…what in the hell is going on here?

Obviously, there had been some information lost in the turnover between staff; I think you have to actively catalogue said information in the process (particularly with technology that’s so different from workplace to workplace) or it disappears.  In the transition, the move had been made to use a “good enough” solution for the program in question due to not understanding the full functionality that was at their fingertips.  I think all of that’s going to happen with technology implimentation processes.

But I’m more curious about the no’s.

I go into situations assuming that something can be done when it comes to technology.  I know what I need, I know how I think it can be done, but instead of saying “i need ____ technology to do ________”, I say “I need to get ________, how do I do that?”  I’ve found this to be particularly effective for acquiring any information or service that you need, but particularly positive in this situation or with technology in general.  It’s the difference between saying “i need to be on twitter, how do i do that” and saying “i need to communicate with students and I think I need to be online, what do you recommend?”  The core goal isn’t to be on Twitter, the core goal is community building and communication; in this situation, the core goal isn’t Banner utilization, the core goal is data gathering, I’m agnostic as to the method.

So, I plan on keeping you updated as this process proceeds forward.  It’s crazy to me that we’ve made it this far with essentially no new information.  I, possibly wrongly, attribute it to persistence and asking people who know the technology the right questions and trusting their expertise could help.  I’d like to hear your stories of tech implimentation!