Tech Pros

Discover how Penn State is supporting learning spaces with the implementation of a Learning Spaces Manager (LSM). The LSM is an online tool that offers a single location for faculty and staff to upload, store, and communicate important data related to our learning spaces. Our learning spaces are critical to student success and through this tool, the University will track issues, maintain inventory, and schedule assessments to ensure faculty and students have what they need to make the most of their learning experiences, inside the classroom and beyond.

Will discuss where we are headed with the new ICT accessibility rule from the US Department Of Justice and its impact on accessibility policy AD69 and all of us. Detail what the rule entails, guidelines identified, ICT's focused on, processes recommended and pending deadlines.

A frequent request graphic designers receive is to create an accessible “org chart,” usually presented as a tree diagram. If the diagram is embedded as an image within a PDF, it is theoretically possible to repair it within Adobe Acrobat, but the process is time consuming and needs to be repeated for every revision. 

This session will review the recent WCAG 2.2 updates to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines used in most accessibility guidelines including Penn State’s A.D. 69 Accessibility of Electronic and Information Technology (https://policy.psu.edu/policies/ad69). This session will also review how these guidelines have evolved and their relation to overall usability. It will also introduce related guidelines such Section 508 (U.S. government), WAI-ARIA and WCAG 3.0 (currently under development).

Session Description:

"Your communication is only as good as your understanding of the person you're communicating with." - "The Platinum Rule" 

This session will help participants learn their communications styles and how to understand the styles of others. We'll begin with a short assessment and then have a discussion about the 4 main styles, how we can identify someone's style, and how we can adapt to communicate more effectively with others.

We are all leaders in our own lives. A formal leadership role is not required to improve your leadership skills. How we lead ourselves and our lives is important regardless of our working titles. This session will help you sharpen your listening skills, build on good ideas, think on your feet and tap into your creativity. Improv helps you bring the element of play into your work, opening you up to new ideas, being more present and learning when to control a situation and when to let go. Come join us in a fun and safe place to explore how improv can help you grow as a leader.

Attendees will receive an overview of what we have done to implement a team focused solely on Process Analysis and the tools we are using with our clients to assist in creating leaner and more efficient processes.

Session Description:  

Does your project team feel tense? Do you feel like you wear too many hats? Do you feel like your project team could improve their relationships with each other? Role clarity is the foundation for successful project execution. In this session, attendees will hear from our team on how Outreach and Online Education IT (OOE IT) leverages the roles of Business Analysts, Project Managers, Quality Assurance Analysts to achieve project success.  

Session Outcomes: 

MS Teams is a powerful hub for communication and facilitating work. Whether you are running a project, working with colleagues, or just using MS Teams to communicate, we will share best practices that we learned by using MS Teams to facilitate cross-unit projects. We will touch on file storage & organization, when to post in a channel vs use of email, how to keep all chats organized, and more!