Summary of the year 2022 at Digital Services
Indicators show good progress
The progress of the University’s digital programme has been monitored with KPI indicators that were defined by the management. Almost all the indicators have shown progress for 2022 and are marked with green. This means the most important issues are proceeding as expected.
In the autumn, I conducted a digitalisation maturity test for the third time. I interviewed the deans with a comprehensive survey of 50 questions, asking about the current state and the importance of different sectors after three years. At the time when the colour of the results was mainly in the red, we had a lot of expectations for development, and this year the only area marked red was the development of a digital culture. This work will continue with the help of, for example, the Digital DNA network.
COVID-19 changed our way of working and operating culture permanently. Digitalisation is still a central factor in enabling new working methods, but we are still on the learning path. We have yet to utilise the full potential of digitalisation and the operating methods are still finding their form. For example, digitalisation enables working independently of time and place, but it is also necessary to meet people face-to-face. What is the right balance for the individual, the community and working together? We are still looking for answers, and they may not be the same throughout the organisation.
Achieving more with less, and clouds here and there
Uncertain cyber weather has cast a shadow on this year, and it looks very cloudy at the moment. In addition, the education sector has been a target of attacks while Digital Services has also received its share of cyber threats.
Digital Services is also a preparedness organisation and in 2022 we have invested heavily in data security and preparedness. Technical development has helped us to find lurking threats, but still the weakest link is us, the users. It is necessary that everyone in our university community complete the renewed data protection and information security staff training.
The amount of IT support requests seems to have stabilised at a level that is about 30% higher than before the pandemic. As people have learned to use digital tools, expectations for the existence of digital tools and automated processes have strongly increased. A paper form no longer feels like a modern solution, and there is an increasing amount of activities that simply would not be possible without digital tools.
Returning to campus, and connecting contact teaching to remote learning and teaching as well as to the operating model of a hybrid campus, have demanded new kinds of competence, cooperation and support models from both the teaching staff and the services. The Lähde library has proven to be an excellent meeting place for students and its teaching and learning facilities and other services work well.
Even though the maturity analysis of digitalisation shows largely green, expectations will not be decreasing in the future. On the contrary, there is an increasing need for digital support and development. The significance of priorisation will increase as expectations grow faster than resources. With no change in resources, there will be challenges in having enough resources and in how the staff copes. Sometimes the increased workload is visible as response times that are slower than usual – we thank you for your patience!
Due to the growing workload, Digital Services is also getting a taste of its own medicine as it automates its own activities. For example, the Minerva chatbot has been able to solve 93% of the questions on themes that have been taught to it. In addition, we have increased the amount of instructions while training others and ourselves. We have intensified our operations according to the principles of continuous development. We will achieve more with less.
Together towards 2023
The most important development targets selected for 2023 are the development of digital citizen science, automatisation of workflows, data-informed decision-making, digital services of continuous learning and the development of digital skills and support in teaching. We can achieve significant benefits in all these areas. There is still much to do, but it is good to start the new year when the indicators for 2022 are mostly a summery green.
Digitalisation is changing operations with the help of IT. Those who are responsible for and participate in operational development as well as the users of information systems play the key role in digitalisation. Thank you very much to all who participated actively this year, both staff and students! We will need your input in 2023 as well. Only together can we succeed.
The University’s IT experts have also been essential for the success of this year. The journey has been demanding at times but hopefully also rewarding. Thank you for your priceless contribution. You have helped enable success for the whole University.
Warm thanks also to our partners outside JYU. Partner higher education institutions, networks and commercial service providers have created fertile soil for digital development.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Digital Year 2023!
Ari Hirvonen
Chief Digital Officer