Meeting Diverse User Needs: Implementation of a Departmental Information Strategy

Any higher education department must provide a variety of information to several disparate audiences, recognising their diverse needs. Student expectations of learning support structures, institutional needs for quality assurance and enhancement and the demands of accountability from funding agencies continue to grow. The widespread use of IT, both at home and in schools, has led students to expect a rich networked computing environment; the widened pattern of access to higher education has simultaneously increased the level of support needed and limited access to the campus for many of them. Managing these challenges and changes demands flexibility and auditability: we must be able both to respond to new demands and opportunities and also to account for our actions. At the same time, government-imposed efficiency gains [sic] reduce the resources available to implement change. Technology can provide the mechanism to meet these information needs, educational challenges and to manage changing social and political demands.