Academic Technology Advisory Committee
The Academic Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) guides technology decisions to support the university's academic mission for teaching, learning, research and scholarship.
ATAC membership is role-based to ensure representation across all academic areas. Members meet regularly to evaluate academic-related technology software and products requested by the Brandeis community, as well as policy and standards related to academic technology, including the learning management system.
Responsibilities
- Make and receive recommendations, inquiries and proposals concerning the application of technology to teaching, learning, research and scholarship. Provide a channel for concerns and suggestions from the community.
- Make decisions regarding proposals related to academic technology applications, policies and standards, including the learning management system (currently Moodle).
- Coordinate with other IT Governance working groups to compile an inventory of academic technology products in use across campus.
- Discuss and seek to resolve issues which span departmental or divisional boundaries. Escalate issues and funding requests when necessary to the Technology Prioritization Committee when appropriate.
- Provide direction to prevent, where appropriate, unnecessary redundancy or non-sustainable implementations and their resulting inefficiencies and risks.
- When necessary, solicit information and assistance from other campus offices as needed.
Committee Membership
- University Librarian, ATAC Chair: Matthew Sheehy
- Program Director, Center for Teaching and Learning: Marty Samuels
- Arts and Sciences Division Head, Social Sciences: Betsy Brainerd
- Arts and Sciences Division Head, Humanities: Caren Irr
- Arts and Sciences Division Head, Creative Arts: Aida Yuen Wong
- Arts and Sciences Division Head, Sciences: Susan Birren
- Vice Provost for Research: Steven Karel
- International Business School, Faculty Representative: Arnold Kamis
- Heller School, Faculty Representative: Michael Doonan
- Rabb School, Faculty Representative: Carmen Aguilar
- ITS Leadership Representative, ex officio: Steve Knowles
Academic Technology Request Process
Requests for new academic software technology products to be evaluated or purchased should be submitted using the Academic Technology Request Form. Representatives from the library will reach out to all who submit a request to be sure the committee understands the needs and to initiate the process for the ATAC to make decisions on requests.
Once the request process has been initiated, it may take up to 8-12 weeks to evaluate the product and secure the necessary approvals. Although the timeframe may vary depending upon resource availability, priority, and committee schedules, evaluation steps* include:
- Confirmation of the receipt of the ATAC Product Request Form.
- Library review of product request information and academic assessment of the request.
-
Product endorsement by the requestor, additional stakeholders or the IT Governance Executive Sponsors for funding, initiated by the ATAC chair.
- ITS top-level assessment of the product and the vendor.
- ATAC review and approval of product request.
* Requesters will be notified if/when their request does not move forward to the next step in the evaluation process. It is rare, however issues may arise that cancel a request even after the ATAC has approved a request.
Available Academic Technology
Products Evaluated and Implemented
The following products have been evaluated and approved by the Academic Technology Advisory Committee or through both the ATAC and the IT Advisory Committee (ITAC). Products labeled with "Library" oversight are peripherally managed by the ATAC. Other non-academic technology can be found at the ITS Software Website.
Software | Description | Availability | Support | Oversight |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adobe Creative Cloud | Academic & Administrative: Application Suite |
Faculty & Staff Student via Discount |
ATAC/ITAC | |
Airtable | Academic: cloud-based platform that allows users to create and share relational databases. Free version available for all Brandeis. Purchase requests must be submitted to the ATAC for Academic use requests. | Department Level |
Contact ATAC for Availability |
ATAC |
ArcGIS (ESRI) | Academic: Mapping & Analytical Software | All Brandeis | ATAC | |
Atlas TI | Academic: Powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data. | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
Chemdraw | Academic: Chemistry Drawing Application | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
Echo 360 Lecture Capture | Academic & Administratie: Lecture Capture Tool | Faculty & Staff | ATAC /ITAC | |
eLabFTW | Academic: Electronic lab notebook. Open source platform available to All Brandeis. Product Support only available to the Division of Sciences. | All Brandeis |
Access/Support via elabftw.net |
ATAC |
EndNote | Academic: Reference manager for formatting citations. | All Brandeis | ATAC | |
Feedback Studio | Academic: Plagarism Detection Application | LMS Only |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
Filemaker | Adminstrative: University Application | Faculty & Staff | ITAC | |
Gradescope | Academic: Assessement Tool | Faculty | More Information | ATAC |
Graphpad Prism | Academic: graphing and analysis forscientific data | All Brandeis | Access & Support | ATAC |
Kaltura | Academic & Administrative: Media Hosting Platform | Faculty | ATAC /ITAC | |
Macmillan Achieve / Sapling | Academic: Macmillan Application Suite Integrations for the Brandeis LMS | LMS Only |
Pedagogical Support Email |
Library |
Mathematica | Academic: Data Analysis Application | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
Matlab | Academic: programming and numeric computing platform | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
MNova | Academic: Analytical Chemistry Data processing Suite | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
Overleaf | Academic: Online LaTex Editing and Collaboration Tool | All Brandeis | ATAC | |
Qualtrics | Academic: Experience Management Software | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
SAS | Academic: Statistical Analysis System | All Brandeis | Library | |
Sketchfab | Academic: Online editor for 3d Modeling | Faculty & Students via Maker Lab |
For More Information Email |
ATAC |
Stata | Academic: Statistical Application | All Brandeis |
Pedagogical Support Email |
ATAC |
Voicethread | Academic: Collaboration Tool | Faculty & Students | ATAC | |
Zoom | Academic & Administrative: Communications Tool | All Brandeis | ATAC /ITAC |
Product Evaluated, Not Implemented
The following products were evaluted by the ATAC following standard evaluation protocols involving Library, ITS, Procurement and Legal review processes and were not implemented for use at Brandeis.
Product | Status |
---|---|
ALEKS | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Security and Accessibility |
Beyond Labz | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Cancelled by Requestor |
BioRender | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Funding Source Not Identified |
Canva | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Security |
Canvas | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Moodle 4 |
ChemOffice | Evaluated, Alternative Solution: ChemDraw & MNova Separate Licensing |
Covidence | Evaluated, Not Implemented Enterprise-Wide |
Delve Tool | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Digital Inspiration | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Doodle Premium | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Funding Source Not Identified |
Feedback Fruits Pilot | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
FormLimiter | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Security and Accessibility |
GoAceIt | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Contract Requirements |
Google Chat Features | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Security and Accessibility |
MAXQDA | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Nearpods | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Security |
Nimbus Learning | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Cancelled by Requestor |
Otter AI | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Alternatives Already Available |
Padlet | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Contract Requirements |
Poll Everywhere | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Features Included in Echo 360 |
Proctorio | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
ProctorU | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Rayyan | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Accessibility |
Redcap | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Security and Accessibility |
Shovel | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Sibelius | Evaluated, Not Implemented Enterprise-Wide |
Spatial Chat | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Tableau | Evaluated, Not Implemented Enterprise-Wide |
ToDoIst Outlook | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Alternatives Already Available |
TreeAge | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Contract Requirements |
UpToDate | Evaluated, Not Implemented: Library Database |
Walden: The Game | Evaluated, Not Implemented |
Questions? For additional information regarding these products, please contact library@brandeis.edu.
ATAC Agendas and Minutes
The Academic Technology Advisory Committee meeting agendas and minutes are posted to Box (Brandeis login required).
If you have questions, please contact ATAC Chair Matthew Sheehy.
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