I’ve been meaning to share my experience about this year’s SIGUCCS conference, held back in April – life and work have kept me busy, though, so my conference post was a little delayed. (Better late than never, though, right?) If you’re interested in learning more about SIGUCCS 2025, keep reading for my summaries of the sessions I attended!
Unlocking the power of Communities of Practice in Higher Ed IT
The first presentation I attended focused on the importance of communities of practice in higher education IT. The presenters emphasized the power of community, shared practices, values, and discussing challenges with others, which are vital for success and well-being in higher education IT. The presenters shared some practical tips for building deeper connections and navigating the evolving landscape of higher education IT. The presentation underscored the significance of communities of practice as tools for professional growth, emotional support, and collaborative problem-solving. This ties into the work I’m currently doing with the Instructional Design Community of Practice here at IU, and I’m wondering if it might be a good idea to connect members of the ID CoP to SIGUCCS as a larger community of practice – I can see how sharing knowledge between the ID CoP members and SIGUCCS members at other institutions could benefit everyone involved.
Mind the Gap: Finding Equal Footing in a Career in IT
The presentation Mind the Gap: Finding Equal Footing in a Career in IT highlighted challenges faced by women in tech, such as toxic workplace cultures, impostor syndrome, and gender disparity. They emphasized the importance of mentorship (which I’ve found especially helpful in my career – I participated in the SIGUCCS Mentoring Program in 2019-2020, and act as a mentor to student alliance teams through CEW&T), sponsorship, and visible allyship from men. Work-life balance struggles were also discussed, with personal anecdotes about prioritizing family and health over work – a lot of the struggles discussed reminded me of when I was early in my career and reminded me that it’s important to have a good work-life balance. The session concluded with practical tips for building supportive work environments and fostering professional growth.
SIGUCCS Academy: Project Management
I attended three sessions in the SIGUCCS Academy track: Project Management 101 for IT Managers, Gathering User Stories, and Breaking Down and Managing Tasks. As strengthening my project management skills is one of my professional development goals, I thought attending the Project Management series would be a good choice – and I was correct. I learned a lot from the three sessions and now have some new project management tools to use as I work on coordinating projects for IT Training.
Project Management 101 for IT Managers
The SIGUCCS Academy: Project Management 101 for IT Managers presentation outlined the fundamentals of project management within IT organizations. It emphasizes that a project is a discrete outcome with a defined beginning, middle, and end, distinguishing it from ongoing operational work. The presenter discussed the importance of defining projects in alignment with institutional goals and tracking progress. One interesting statistic discussed in the session was that IT organizations typically spend 75% of their time on operations and 25% on projects, with service desks dedicating 95% of their time to operations while supporting project implementations. Various ways to organize project teams were mentioned, and the significance of project closure and celebrating the completion of projects was also emphasized.
I shared my own “project closure” technique at the end of the session – at the end of a video or course development project, I’ll post a brief message in the development channel in IT Training’s team to let people know a project has been completed, and colleagues will typically react with celebratory emojis. It’s nothing huge, but it acknowledges the end of a project and also lets people know that the video or course is available for widespread sharing and use.
Gathering User Stories
Session two of the SIGUCCS Academy: Project Management track focused on understanding and gathering user stories effectively as a tool to help in project development and management. It emphasized the importance of empathy in understanding user needs, motivations, frustrations, goals, and priorities. The session covered creating personas based on research and personal experience, including students if applicable, and using interview techniques to focus on the “why” behind user needs. Effective user stories should follow the INVEST criteria (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable) and have clear acceptance criteria. Prioritization using the MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have yet) method and maintaining clear communication to ensure shared understanding and reduce misunderstandings were also highlighted. Follow-up actions after user stories are created include reviewing them throughout the project, checking acceptance criteria, providing status updates, and revisiting the project and user stories a year later if possible.
Breaking Down and Managing Tasks
The final session in the Project Management track focused on developing skills to define clear goals, deadlines, and resources for effective task planning. It emphasized breaking tasks into manageable steps, setting priorities, and designing efficient workflows. Key points included defining the “W”s (what, when, who, why), breaking up work into small tasks, planning out subtasks, and meeting requirements without getting stuck on perfection. The presentation also highlighted the importance of collaboration, leveraging team strengths, and avoiding analysis paralysis to ensure timely and efficient task completion. (When talking about team strengths, it reminded me of how in the past, IT Training has referred back to the team’s StrengthsFinder strengths to help best utilize our team’s skills and strengths.)
Leveraging Learning Management Systems for a More Accessible Learning Experience
As IT Training’s main Canvas administrator and course developer, I was curious to see what the presenter had to say on making learning experiences more accessible through using learning management systems.
The presentation emphasized the importance of proactive accessibility and inclusive design in digital learning environments. Drawing from his doctoral research, the presenter highlighted the benefits of accessibility tools for all students and the challenges institutions face due to a reactive culture and lack of resources. He advocated for a three-tiered model involving institutional commitment, continuous faculty training, and designing courses with accessibility in mind from the start. (However, encouraging faculty to be proactive may be difficult, especially based on some stories I’ve heard from other higher ed IT professionals who work directly with faculty.) The presenter concluded by urging institutions to view accessibility as an equity imperative and a key factor in student success.
On IT Training’s end of things, we’ve been working towards “baking accessibility into our courses”, making it part of the learning process for using a particular application instead of separating it out as “how to use the accessibility tools in [application]”.
CARE: An Empathy-Based Approach
This panel discussed the significance of empathy in managing student employees, highlighting how understanding and supporting their unique challenges can lead to better retention and recruitment. (I feel like this applies to my work as a Staff Champion for CEW&T’s Student Alliance Teams, where I supervise a group of 3-4 student interns.) The speakers talked about the importance of empathy-based training for student employees, which helps create a comfortable and safe work environment. The session also covered strategies for handling difficult situations, balancing empathy with accountability, and the positive impact of an empathetic approach on organizational culture and customer service. Overall, the session underscored that empathy is essential for fostering a supportive and inclusive workplace that benefits both student employees and the organization.
Don’t Pack Your Fears: Identifying the Right Tools for the Real Problems
This presentation focused on the importance of overcoming fear and letting go of things that aren’t needed to achieve success in your work. It draws parallels between ultralight backpacking and IT practices, advocating for a philosophy where every item or process must serve a clear, essential function. The presentation highlighted the need to eliminate redundancy, trust tools, and prioritize adaptability over coverage. By carrying less weight, both physically and metaphorically, individuals and organizations can move efficiently and respond effectively to challenges. The presentation encourages designing aspirational systems that focus on simplification, trust-based workflows, and smart automation, ultimately reducing inefficiencies and fostering a more agile and innovative environment.
During the discussion portions of the session, one of the things in my work that kept coming up as something that I may need to let go of (or change significantly so it weighs less, so to speak) is IT Training’s Development Guide, which is mainly a relic from the days when IT Training had more staff members, some of which were involved in content development infrequently and would need to refer to the style/development guides to ensure they were assembling content properly. I took over custody of the development/style guides when Greg Hanek left IT Training for the User Experience Office in 2017, and over time the development guide has turned into an unwieldly mess that hardly anyone uses – and through this session’s group discussion portion, I realized maybe it’s time to let go of the development guide, at least in its current iteration.
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