Office of Instructional and Research Technology

FACULTY IT LIAISONS

The Office of Instructional and Research Technology (OIRT) is coordinating the formation of a new group of faculty to serve as liaisons for IT issues related to instructional and research. Each department is being asked to provide one faculty member to participate in this program. This faculty member will be added to a mailing list where IT-related events and issues will be announced. OIRT intends to gather information on departmental IT issues from faculty liaisons for consolidation and evaluation.

Here are several advantages to your department in naming a liaison:

1. Your department will have a direct, on-going relationship with OIRT providing the opportunity to learn about new instructional and research technologies, support services, initiatives and events available at the university and through our partnerships with statewide higher education organizations and international Internet2 partners.
2. Your department will have a process to voice academic IT needs to OIRT.
3. Your department will have a forum to voice instructional and research training needs in IT areas.
4. Your department will have a voice in decisions about emerging technologies such as desktop and other types of videoconferencing, on-demand and live video streaming, and video preservation.
5. Your department will have a voice in the selection of software available at reduced pricing through the Office of Information Technology (OIT-MSSG) software portal http://software.rutgers.edu and will be better able to take advantage of the university software needed by localized but significant numbers of faculty.
6. Your department will learn about primary and secondary schools that have an interest in having their students learn from Rutgers experts in a variety of disciplines.
7. Your department will learn about collaborative Internet2 research opportunities with faculty around the world.

To date, over 50 academic departments are represented by faculty liaisons. Your participation in this group is strongly encouraged. This person should be one who teaches classes, conducts research, attends faculty meetings, and has a general sense of IT-related instructional and research needs in your discipline. Although we know that you depend on your local IT staff for many of your IT needs, the IT faculty liaison will provide an academic perspective that is important as you plan for IT within your department. You may send the name and email address for this individual to oirt@rutgers.edu.

If you have questions that you wish to discuss with us, please send email to or phone 732/445-1438.