- Campus:
- IU Bloomington
Meet Lora Fox, an IU staff member who has learned to balance managing administrative systems, pursuing her master's degree, and making it to marching band events.
What did you want to be as a child and how has that journey led you to where you are today?
When I was young, especially in high school, I was going more in the art kid direction. I was in higher-level art classes and looking at art schools. It ended up not being the path for me -- I realized late in high school that it was more of a hobby, and it brought me more joy in my downtime than something I could imagine doing professionally.
I come from an IT family -- my brother and I grew up building computers. We grew up chronically online. IT has really been my hobby since I was very young, and I had never in my life thought about doing it for work. When I was in school at IU, I was going in the biology direction – I was interested in neuroscience (and still am!). I needed help with my computer - I couldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi – and I went to get help. I had a really old laptop with a terrible OS and they told me to install the real version of Windows they had. So, I left and came back the next morning, having done so. The guy at the desk (Dan, great guy, still works here) was like “Do you need a job? We’re hiring.” I applied and started working at the Support Center taking calls and working at walk-in. It really hadn’t occurred to me that this was a job people would pay me for since it was just a hobby in my mind for so long.
There is a team in support called “Mission Critical” that focuses on learning management systems and tools, like Canvas, and I joined, ultimately turning it into a full-time role. ("Mission Critical” because they also write and post IT Notices when systems go down.) I ended up moving into a team lead role and worked with my amazing colleagues there – shout-out to James and Zak -- to change the reputation of the team, as it wasn’t seen as super technical when I joined. Right before I came into my current role there was a meeting of the Support Center supervisors and, when talking about finding someone to join Mission Critical, one of the supervisors referred to the job as “super technical.” It was the best gift I could’ve gotten going out the door because it showed that all the work we’d done made a difference, and it hit me even harder because, frankly, I’m a woman in IT, and that adds an extra hurdle to clear when you’re trying to convince some people of your teams’ technical abilities.
What is your current role and what kinds of work do you do on a day-to-day basis?
In my current role as Principal Unizin IT Consultant, my day-to-day changes frequently. I have a lot of autonomy, which I think is really important (thanks, Michele!) – it lets me chase work that really motivates me. I work with a lot of people, and my primary job is representing IU in the Unizin Consortium, so many of those people I work with are at institutions across the US. I really value those connections – it’s so important to me to work with people who are as passionate about education as I am. Lately we’ve been creating faculty development materials for learning analytics—so, helping faculty understand what kinds of data are available, especially in Canvas and other places, and how they can use them to inform their teaching ethically. In my Data Steward role, in addition to vetting new tools and services, I’m also co-chairing the Learning Data Innovation Assembly with Sabrina Andrews. We’re hoping to move forward our use of learning data at IU in collaboration with a lot of our peers around the university, and I’m currently very focused on our governance of those data as part of that group. It involves reading a lot of studies, talking to a lot of subject-matter experts, and writing a lot of process. And building collaboration spaces in Teams, naturally.
Unizin also has a big affordable content focus (IU eTexts, led by my incredible IU colleagues Mark Goodner and Noma Maier, and powered by Unizin technologies, has saved students $100 million over 12 years!). I’ve been working with folks at IU Libraries as part of a program called the Course Material Fellowship Program where instructors can sign up to replace their course textbooks with free materials, and they use an eText platform (Pressbooks, made available to us via Unizin) to share those materials. Our 2020 and 2021 cohorts included 17 instructors whose involvement saved students $300,000 in the first semester, with over $535,000 in estimated savings to students for each academic year those faculty continue to use their resource instead of a traditional textbook. I help review applications, hold Pressbooks workshops, and help faculty through their questions and issues using the platform.
Do you have any advice for people entering a new role – especially in leadership – to establish themselves and their authority?
My advice would be to figure out what motivates you, what your interests are, and what your values are. For me, I am a clinically anxious person, and back when I was in support I was in that role where people are calling you and asking you any conceivable question about their technology – I’m an IT girl, but that is still terrifying! So, ultimately I used my anxiety and directed it at finding the answers to those questions and writing them down, so that I didn’t freak out the next time someone had the same question. Being interested in problem solving helped a lot. That survival mechanism is probably the thing that kicked off my career, and it didn’t just help me, it helped other people too. As I moved into higher-level roles, it became increasingly important to understand what I value, too, because sometimes when you’re making a judgement call, all you can do is rely on your principles to help you make a decision you’ll be able to live with.
Overall, I think I was able to land in leadership roles because I was able to demonstrate that I was passionate, rather than just wanting to be a leader.
What are some interests or hobbies you have in your free time?
I do a little bit of drawing and doodling every once in a while, but mainly playing video games. So currently I’m playing the obligatory Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. I also play Starcraft and RimWorld. My colleagues know that RimWorld is a game I have a problem with… and Minecraft. A lot of creative games. And I garden. You have to touch grass sometimes, after all.