Field notes #2: ‘Anytime, anywhere’ access to academic content, labs and services

Concordia has identified nine strategic directions to a next-generation urban research university. As Phase 2 kicks off, we asked a diverse group of community members to describe encounters, ideas and campus activities that relate to these directions.

Marc Denoncourt, associate vice-president, Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS), and chief information officer, chose to discuss how he sees IITS's role evolving, in light of the strategic directions.
 

When I consider big directions for Concordia’s future, I think digital. Tomorrow's university will be a digital learning environment — providing anytime, anywhere access to academic content, computer labs, library materials and services.

Students expect to learn through new collaboration technologies and with full access to academic content and services in digital form. It’s part of a larger cultural shift that should be embraced. We need to adapt and offer distinctive teaching and learning methods, and we need to attract and retain students in this new world.

On the research side, information technology (IT) infrastructure services are more and more considered as a simple commodity, and there is a need and an opportunity for on-demand capacity. In an open-access world, researchers also need to share their findings through secure and well-documented meta-data models. This is a baseline expectation of the academic community.

At IITS, we’re looking at how to provide the appropriate, efficient and highly useable digital infrastructure for the university of the future.

Learn more about Concordia's nine strategic directions.