Departments, Specialised Units and Centres Highlights

Office of the University Chief Information Officer

Vision statement

To be a One UWI IT team delivering excellent ICT services to enable the transformation of The UWI.

Overall Mission of the Office of the University CIO

  • Coordinate and mobilise campus ICT teams into a cohesive University team to enable university mission through innovative technology
  • Provide secure, reliable and integrated ICT solutions for Vice-Chancellery departments
  • Enable digital transformation across The UWI

As the OUCIO team continued to successfully lead cross-campus strategic initiatives while providing ICT services to the Vice-Chancellery in the RHQ, we also reflect on what the pandemic has taught us and the opportunities it provided. As a team we have learnt to be more resilient, prepared, and flexible to re-shape, re-define and re-imagine our initiatives to get the jobs done right. We were able to achieve a significant set of milestones. Major achievements by strategic perspective are presented in the section below.

ACCESS

One UWI Cross-Campus Learning Management System (Moodle)

There was an increase in demand for the Cross-campus Moodle (CCM) platform to deliver cross-campus courses. This was particularly a requirement from the Faculty of Medical Sciences to utilise the CCM for MBBS and some DM final exams. The Office was involved in coordinating the cross-campus FMS technical team and eLearning team to:

  • Formalise setting up of course containers
  • Strengthen the security and technical procedures in preparation for MBBS and DM exams using the CCM
  • Facilitate the conduct of final exams, which involved close collaboration with Faculty and Registry Exams/Registration sections.

Website Redesign – Cross-Campus and UWI.edu websites

The OUCIO led the cross-campus technical web team in redesign of websites. This initiative was conducted in collaboration with the University and cross-campus Marketing and Communications teams. The project involved the redesign of top-level web pages at the University and campuses. Websites developed for RHQ units include:

  • Office of Online Learning
  • Digital Transformation
  • Data Protection
  • Post Graduate Grade Point Average (GPA) for Board of Graduate Studies & Research
  • Cardiff Hall

Student Experience Survey – IT Working Group (Sub-Committee of BUS)

  • Completed evaluation of university-wide student survey platform and negotiated with selected vendor for enterprise license.
  • Coordinated cross-campus Course Evaluation Coordinators team to commence implementing the selected solution

AGILITY

Considerable time was spent, working in close collaboration with the Campus CIOs to respond to requests from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) team during their preparation of the loan appraisal document for the loan which is being negotiated to fund digital transformation initiatives.

During the period there was significant progress with the email migration to Microsoft Office365 at the Open and St. Augustine Campuses. The Office continued to provide support for the ICT Governance structure through the University ICT Steering Committee.

CDB Loan Appraisal Preparation (Technical)

The OUCIO facilitated responding to Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in preparing the appraisal documents for the digital transformation loan. This activity was conducted in close collaboration with Campus CIOs and cross-campus teams. Documents prepared include:

  • Results-based framework/matrix with indicators, baseline and targets
  • Terms of reference for consultancies
  • Impact and potential savings document
  • Counterpart funding.

Microsoft Office365 for All Staff on UWI.EDU domain

  • Assisted with coordinating the migration of email (Open, St. Augustine Campuses)
  • Prepared O365 Draft Security Baseline checklist for UWI.EDU using Microsoft Secure Score and Microsoft Cloud Information Security Benchmark with cross campus team
  • Commenced transitioning to M365 license model
  • Prepared draft administrative operating model in a shared environment
  • Convened and led SharePoint Governance Stakeholder Committee
  • Draft completed to be finalised, approved and implemented in O365

Web-conferencing Assessment including requirements definition and assessment working in close collaboration with Campus CIOs and the Elearning Team. The assessment exercise was led by the Campus CIO, St. Augustine.

ICT Governance

The Office of the University CIO continued to provide leadership and coordination in many university-wide ICT projects and is guided by the University ICT Steering Committee. During this reporting period meetings were held in November 2020, December 2020 and April 2021.

SharePoint Upgrade (platform used for University meetings)

The upgrade from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint 2016 to 2019 process has been completed successfully. The move to production plan is completed.

ALIGNMENT

Data Protection – IT Working Group

During the period, the OUCIO provided dedicated Project Management services to University Data Protection Policy Implementation Committee. The UCIO leads the IT Working Group with members from cross-campus IT team, who completed phase 1 implementation activities.

Funding Challenges

The OUCIO continues to grapple with the challenge of lengthy delayed payments of aggregate licenses for mission critical ICT services. The efforts of the Office of Finance working with Campuses Bursaries to make these payments is recognised. However, this situation is worsening and has the potential to disrupt ICT services. This is not sustainable and will have to be addressed.