Office of Academic Assessment highlights campus partnerships–Spotlight on Deepa Devarakonda, Zane Everitt and Frank Newland, OIT

Published: May 06, 2021

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Launched in 2018, Creed to Succeed helps the university evaluate the core curriculum, offers current students an opportunity to provide feedback on their educational experience and provides the university with critical information regarding student success. The course, housed in Canvas, is Auburn's premier graduating senior data collection course and would not be possible without the collaborative efforts of multiple campus offices. Each unit involved with the initiative brings a distinct set of skills and unique value to Creed to Succeed. The Creed to Succeed initiative recently received the 2020 President’s Outstanding Collaborative Units Award because Creed to Succeed provides pivotal support to efforts aimed at increasing student achievement at Auburn. The Office of Academic Assessment looks forward to recognizing the partners involved with Creed to Succeed throughout the Spring 2021 semester in their monthly spotlight.

The Office of Information Technology, or OIT, was established at Auburn in 1982. Initially, OIT's primary purpose was to provide maintenance for mainframe computers and provid data entry and test scoring services. OIT now provides a variety of centralized computing services and resources for Auburn faculty, staff and students. These services serve the Auburn community by providing user support through the IT Service Desk, software licensing, Campus Web Solutions, training and consulting, and much more.

The Office of Academic Assessment was initially looking for support to automate some of the daily course maintenance activities and OIT has supported the initiative in a variety of ways. The Office of Academic Assessment worked primarily with Deepa Devarakonda, Zane Everitt and Frank Newland, each employees of OIT. When asked about the collaboration between our offices, Everitt stated, “We learned a lot during this collaboration; especially with regards to creating systems that are effective for both OIT and OAA, as well as other collaborators on campus. The information that was found during our research can be useful to other offices across Auburn’s campus by adding a layer of visibility to those who have not had access to this type of information before.” Creed to Succeed has provided many opportunities for collaboration; each collaboration has had a common goal of effective and efficient use of skills and talents.

If you would like to contact the Office of Information Technology or have inquiries relating to technological difficulties you can reach them best by phone at (334) 844-4944 or for zoom and in-person meetings by email at itservicedesk@auburn.edu.

Submitted by: Marla Zappa

Zane Everitt

Zane Everitt stands in front of the Office of Information Technology located on 300 Lem Morrison Dr.