The Guiding Principles and Objectives of utelecon

In the Spring of 2020, online classes were introduced both within the university and across the country to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and the portal site utelecon was rapidly launched to respond to this situation. The website was designed so that even first-year students and people with no prior experience using university-wide systems such as LMS or Google Workspace would be able to teach (or in the case of students, attend) classes online. Two years have passed since then. People are more cognizant than ever of the importance of in-person classes and discussion, and the need for online classes is arguably not as pressing as before. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the usefulness of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) such as LMS and cloud services is not limited to holding online classes and meetings. As we move forward, we will continue to offer information and support regarding ICT from a user-oriented perspective, keeping our original mission firmly in view. To date, our students, faculty, and staff have been working to provide better information and support concerning the information system of our university. Below, we outline the guiding principles of utelecon in order to reaffirm and further promote our original mission.

1. Be User-Oriented
2. Improve the Quality of Dialogue
3. Don’t Evade Responsibility
4. Share Our Know-How Both Within and Beyond Our University
5. Continue to Innovate

Goal 1: Be User-Oriented

• The portal must be easy to navigate for someone unfamiliar with our university’s system and should be designed so that “by visiting this website, a person can acquire all the correct information that’s needed, from scratch”
• The information should be grouped in a way that’s natural from the user’s point of view, rather than needlessly scattered around, depending on which department is responsible and so on
• The idea is to create a website that people can simply link to and subsequently reference, reducing the need for each faculty or graduate school to write about and circulate the same kind of information

Goal 2: Improve the Quality of Dialogue

• Our role is not only to provide information, but also to offer a point of contact for people in need of assistance
• When providing support, we should avoid using terminology that can only be understood by people with the latest knowledge on information systems, and communicate in a way that can be understood by the person asking for support (the partner in the dialogue)
• When engaging in dialogue, we shouldn’t adopt the attitude of passively responding to questions; rather, we should consider and analyze the issues confronting the individual asking for support and assist him/her in resolving them

Goal 3: Don’t Evade Responsibility

• We aim to be a one-stop portal where you can find all the relevant material in one place, but given the limited number of staff, it’s neither possible nor desirable to have all the information at hand
• Even if we receive a query in a field we aren’t responsible for, or that we don’t know the answer to, we will actively take steps to ensure the speedy resolution of the issue, such as putting the inquirer in touch with the relevant department or personnel within the university.

Goal 4: Share Our Know-How Both Within and Beyond the University

• Unless there is reason to do otherwise, we will actively make information concerning the system and operations of our university available to the public (including information specific to the university)
• We will implement and establish basic security improvements (such as robust authentication and the managing of accounts and information), and actively make our know-how, along with any other information that should be widely shared, available to the public

Goal 5: Continue to Innovate

• We will not be afraid of making mistakes, and will carefully but actively work to introduce new systems and practices that contribute to the university
• Rather than spending years debating on how to make our system 100 percent perfect, we will begin by implementing whatever measures are feasible, delivering them to our users, and continuing to make improvements based on their feedback