The vision of the Educational Technologies Centre of the Nizwa College of Technology is to empower the College community through educational, information and communications technologies, to enrich the academic experience for students, and to strengthen the ability of faculty and staff to teach, conduct research, and provide services by providing reliable and superior customer service that facilitates and supports the mission and goals of the NCT.
Provide efficient and effective College-wide technology-based services and support to facilitate accomplishment of the College mission of teaching, research, and service. Coordinate, advocate and promote department-wise educational, information, and communications technology resources and capabilities necessary to achieve institutional goals in support of the College mission.
General Guiding Principles
Instruction and service are our primary missions; technology is not.
Change and technology are intertwined. No technology environment is ever complete. This reflects the on-going evolution of the College.
Technology is complex. The intricate academic and business processes of the College demand a sophisticated and well-integrated technology portfolio.
Collaboration across traditional boundaries is essential to support successful technology projects. Managing the College's technology requires a collaborative group effort.
Investments in technology demand careful stewardship and project management, to be conducted openly.
Goals and Objectives
Criteria
Clear goals and a realistic strategy for employing educational and information and communications technologies to improve education, research and services.
Professional development strategy that ensures that staff members know how to use these new technologies effectively.
Assess services, hardware, and software that will be required to meet the goals and objectives.
Include an evaluation process that enables the unit to monitor and report progress toward the specified goals and objectives and make periodic corrections in response to new developments and opportunities as they arise.
Strategic Goals
Adopt the philosophy of strategic planning as the methodology for management of educational, information, and communications technologies and advocate this philosophy College-wide.
Continue the development and implementation of the Educational Technology strategic plan in support of the College Strategic Plan.
Create and sustain a technologically-rich College environment that includes necessary resources, capabilities, standards, policies and procedures, and encourage infusion of new technology into that environment.
Promote and advocate College-wide implementation of appropriate new learning, computing, telecommunications, and video technologies as tools for more efficient and effective accomplishment of College mission.
Provide technology support to the College community by anticipating and meeting their needs.
Take care of the Center's staff by providing challenging and meaningful work; proper resources and professional tools; a good work environment; appropriate recognition; and clear, frequent and honest communication.
Objectives
Provide all members of the NCT community with campus-wide access to current, reliable, secure and easy-to-use technology-based programs that meet approved instructional and administrative needs.
Recruit, retain and develop high-quality technology staff who are committed to the NCT mission.
Configure and equip instructional classrooms and laboratories as appropriate with access to relevant digital-technology systems to help meet the educational goals of the College.
Implement budget planning and funding-acquisition procedures that will allow the College to acquire and implement new technological developments in a cost-effective manner.
Provide faculty and staff with ongoing professional development opportunities for acquiring skills needed to effectively integrate and to use technology-based systems in instructional and for student-administration services.
Offer exceptional customer service.
Foster a positive, respectful environment that recognizes and honors staff and students.
Maintain a business continuity and disaster recovery plan for critical systems and infrastructure.
The Computer Services Section (CSS) of the ETC performs the following functions:
Provide IT support to the entire College
Develop information systems to achieve the goal of a paperless institution
Provide IT learning and support to College stakeholders
Update the College community and implement new technologies in IT and education
The Educational Services Section (ESS), for its part, performs the following functions:
Organize, classify, maintain and upgrade various educational aids and assist staff and students in their use
Improve the teaching-learning process in the College by producing high-quality educational aids in collaboration with various academic departments
Support the holding of various College activities such as workshops, academic gatherings, seminars, and conferences
Maintain, update and improve the College website to provide better services for staff and students
The College library provides an environment for the smooth process of knowledge enhancement. Moreover, as a learning resource center, it supplies various materials and tools to encourage, assist, and cultivate a culture of research in the College.