The University of the West Indies

Office of the University CIO

UCIO Project Portfolio

Strategic Pillars 

Access 

  • Cross-Campus Moodle (CCM) is a shared learning management system for delivery of cross-campus teaching and learning and online examinations.  The CCM has been in operation since 2017, and the demand has grown exponentially over the years.  The CCM hosted the delivery of 190 courses with over 8,000 students accessing the platform. Since 2021, there has been a steady 20% annual growth in the number of courses delivered on this platform, in addition to supporting cross-campus online examinations.  The platform is integrated with Turnitin (anti-plagarism) and Proctoring solution.  

The CCM is hosted on a shared technology platform in the Global Campus.  Technical support is provided by the cross-campus eLearning team and coordinated in the Office of the University CIO. 

Revenue Revolution Contribution: 

Cost savings resulting from sharing course material.  The shared elearning platform is currently used for shared courses across the University.  

 

Alignment  

  • Policy on the Use of Electronic Mail  

The OUCIO revised the University’s Policy on the Use of Electronic Mail (2016) in the continued acknowledgment of email as a most critical university record and to reflect the significant developments regarding the handling of data, particularly the handling of the personal data of the University’s stakeholders. Extensive stakeholder engagement was completed.  The updated policy gained the approval of the University F&GPC in February 2024. 

 

  • Cybersecurity 

The UWI CIRT (insert meaning of CIRT) cross-campus team rolled out Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution across the UWI to enhance the overall security posture and future-proofing the UWI’s digital operations. Importantly, as UWI collaborates with other academic partners, it has become a prerequisite to have EDR in place before engagements in the realm of the Internet can be realized. 

The OUCIO Cybersecurity Awareness Campaigns were held a series of sessions which have had a positive impact on IT operations at UWI RHQ. These campaigns are designed to educate employees about the latest cybersecurity threats, safe online practices, and the role each individual plays in maintaining UWI’s IT security posture. In fostering a culture of security awareness, we significantly reduce the likelihood of human error-related breaches and enhance our overall IT risk management strategy. The campaigns have bolstered the security mindset of staff and contributed to more proactive identification and mitigation of potential vulnerabilities. As a result, UWI's ability to safeguard sensitive information, protect our reputation, and ensure the continuity of business operations has been strengthened. 

 

Agility 

  • Microsoft 365 

The roll out of Microsoft Office 365 to staff and students in a single tenant.  The aim is to provision a unified, secure collaboration platform in which staff and students will collaborate seamlessly for teaching, learning and sharing research, ideas and information easily and effectively.   

Goals: 

  1. Improve the UWI staff’s ability to collaborate across the region with at least 25% more efficiency through the implementation of the Microsoft 365 platform – Outlook, OneDrive; MS Teams; 
  2. Complete migration to @uwi.edu domain email address for all staff  
  3. Complete collaboration between Staff and Student tenants  
  4. Roll out of  Microsoft Office 365 - SharePoint Online as the official Electronic Document Records Management system for the UWI  

Revenue Revolution Contribution: 

Branding and promotion of OneUWI initiative   Upgrade to the Office 365 cloud-based solution meant that new infrastructure did not need to be procured: Server & Storage Hardware for Staff Email, User Files and SharePoint Files US$875k             

- increased productivity as O365 will facilitate staff into having better collaboration tools and access to information, university-wide;                       

- Using Office 365 will eliminate the need to undertake major software upgrades and installations. 

 

  • OneUWI Business Intelligence  

Provide easy access to data and information for executive decisions  

Implemented a unified Business Intelligence environment and in the period, implemented daily refresh for decision makers; access to accurate, relevant, reliable, valid and current information. This initiative was done in collaboration with the Planning Office. 

 

  • Provision of Modern hardware to support administration/management and teaching learning services  RHQ – network infrastructure; upgrade audio-visual equipment

 

  • Enterprise Architecture - Establish the Open Group Architecture Development Methodology phases A-D at the departmental level in aid of the UWI Digital Transformation initiative 

Revenue Revolution Contribution: 

Improve the efficiency of operations through thorough, standardised documentation and analysis of business processes.

 

Information Security Policy Review and Update 

Incident Response Reporting Procedure 

Revenue Revolution Contribution: 

Improve the resilience of the UWI information processing infrastructure in response to the expanded threat landscape. 

Use of innovative solutions to enhance the capabilities of end users to achieve a high level of satisfaction through the delivery of IT products and services.  The impact result in: 

  • Empowered users 
  • Better functionality 
  • Faster delivery 
  • Increase productivity 
  • More cost-effective solutions 

 

  • Professorial Tracker Application The OUCIO developed and delivered the Professorial Tracker Application to the Office of Administration to track and inform academic staff members applying for professorships. This online software application timely informs applicants and relevant stakeholders, such as Dean and HOD’s about the status of respective applications within their remit, as each step of the process is completed. 

Revenue Revolution Contribution: 

This automated process has also lessened the administrative burden associated with such applications, driving operational efficiency. 

  • Honorary Graduand Voting Application The OUCIO developed and delivered the Honorary Graduand Scoring Application to the Office of Administration to facilitate the scoring process for the selection of honorary graduands. The app provides an efficient and user-friendly platform for university stakeholders to submit confirmed nominees and assign scores for candidates on a scale of 0 to 5. The system ensures transparency, accuracy, and accessibility while reducing manual data collection and processing effort.

Revenue Revolution Contribution: 

This application has significantly reduced the manual administrative burden associated with the announcement of the nominees and the collection and tallying of votes during the selection process. This implementation has increased operational efficiency. 

 

  • Digital Transformation initiatives 

The OUCIO team is an integral part of the Digital Transformation programme funded by the Caribbean Development Bank.  consultancies for which members of the OUCIO lead the coordination of the cross-campus IT teams (insert activities that we are involved in) 

  • Cybersecurity​
    • Establish Enterprise Information Security Architecture
    • Cybersecurity Training 
    • Consultancy Services for Delivery of Training in Cybersecurity. 
  • Consultancy for training in Website Analytics Training.
  • Learning Management System (Moodle) consolidation and expansion
  • Consultancy to complete the Microsoft M365 merging of separate Campus tenants
  • Microsoft SharePoint Training
  • Website Analytics Training 
  • OneUWI Learning Management system
  • Hardware and Software for special needs students
  • OneUWI staff portal
  • OneUWI student portal
  • AI-Powered initiatives
  • Redesign of IT Governance, data governance and IT strategic plan for Digital Transformation

Revenue Revolution Contribution 

 

ICT Target Operating Model (TOM) for Shared Services 

The Cross- Campus ICT teams  embarked on new operating model, which would significantly improve operational performance and allow for better assignment of limited resources across the University in alignment with the One UWI Vision, 2017-2022. Designed ICT shared services operating model for improved and consistent delivery of ICT services in collaboration with CIOs and cross-campus teams.  Awaiting Human Resource and Finance framework for implementation