Support our public engagement mission

publicengage

Leverage technology to support our public engagement mission

Public engagement is a key mission of the university. We must improve the visibility of public engagement activities and opportunities that our campus provides. The following initiatives create engagement opportunities for every student and faculty member through the use of IT:

  • Use IT to develop a “second generation” engagement clearinghouse with a recommendation engine that would prioritize/suggest/highlight engagement opportunities for students, faculty, and staff by inviting public partners and citizens to identify important needs or high priority issues and possible funding alternatives
  • Grant public partners access to appropriate IT resources
  • Use IT to create a revolutionary suite of IT services and engagement spaces providing faculty, students, and public partners with the ability to experiment with new methods of innovative public engagement
  • Make existing engagement resources and opportunities highly visible where people congregate, work, or search for information, and do so across multiple communication platforms
  • Develop a common IT framework for identifying and tracking engagement efforts by faculty, staff, and students that would be part of annual reviews, promotion and tenure, department and college reporting, and research on engagement activities and outcomes
  • Explore how online learning technologies, such as MOOCs, could enhance engagement

Metrics

  • Number of platforms and services that people and organizations outside the university can use easily as if they were present on the campus
  • Number of students graduating with at least one engagement experience. Find and double the current number in five years
  • Number of people using IT resources to engage with the university
  • Number of faculty and staff who are aware of what Extension offers
  • Number of trainings done to show faculty how to implement engagement and Extension
  • Number of visible engagement resources and opportunities across multiple communication platforms (web sites, email, etc.)
  • Availability of engagement information for campus and for researchers