Nick Wallingford
Basic details
Chronology
Early life
Current employment
Education
Other activities
Personal strengths
Life history and interests
Research outputs

I was employed by the Bay of Plenty Community College, then renamed Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and now Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology) from February 1983 until December 2018.

I was initially employed to provide an education and training programme for the beekeeping industry. Starting from nothing, I was able to

  • investigate
  • design and prepare
  • deliver and administer

a distance education and training programme which is still in use as a national programme.

The course was used as a 'show piece' item for the Polytechnic to demonstrate its innovative and effective approaches in working with industry and using innovative systems for educational delivery. The course was used extensively in presentations to outside bodies, including the Minister of Education. The course was

  • the first distance education course to be approved outside of The Open Polytechnic (then Technical Correspondence Institute)
  • the first programme to be validated by the Authority for Advanced Vocational Awards under provisions of section 10(1)(c) of their Act
  • the first distance education programme to incorporate the use of a personal computer in the original preparation, the delivery and the administration of the course.

I delivered the programme successfully until 1990, when the course was transferred to Telford Rural Polytechnic, where it is still being used.

In early 1989, I was seconded to work with Ms Joan Leversedge. The Polytechnic's Management Information System was being developed under her management. My initial work included

  • preparing units of training for delivery to staff
  • delivering training to staff
  • identifying and investigating system errors
  • actioning data corrections as required, due to programme or new user errors
  • providing user support
  • writing all user documentation, including help screens and manual

Our MIS was fully implemented, including student, staff, rooming and enrolment sections, on 1 July 1990. I assisted in that successful implementation, training users and advising on policy and coding system decisions to be made.

In mid-1991, the MIS was sold to two other polytechnic for their implementation and use. I was actively involved in implementation, training for trainers and on-going support. The implementation for both was successful.

In July 1991, Ms Leversedge took up a new position. The system programmer and I co-managed the team. During this period, I provided all user support for the two external installations. I provided system design for two upgrade releases of our system for the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the external users.

In July 1992, I took up the position of Planning Assistant, reporting to the Divisional Manager - Corporate Planning. I later reported to the Divisional Manager - Education Services doing the same work. My role included:

  • designing and creating systems, sometimes but not always including either PC or minicomputer aspects, for users. These include the system for salary budget preparation, the input system for budget creation and the systems to allow for distributed reporting and enquiry by team leaders on team financial position.
  • designing and implementing budget and accounting input and reporting facilities to assist the Polytechnic's aim of enhancing team based activities, with distributed budgetary controls and responsibilities.
  • designing and implementing a quality documentation system for policies, procedures, guidelines and forms. This has included the processes to prepare documents, design and creation of the control system itself and the maintenance of the controlled documentation system.
  • preparing ad hoc reports and presentations for a variety of management purposes, often involving the synthesis and manipulation of data from various sources.
  • teaching introductory computing courses for trades and other non-computing students.

At the beginning of 1995, I returned to full time teaching.

I developed an introductory computing course consisting of three NZ Qualifications Authority units, ensuring the course met essential delivery and assessment requirements. I taught that course and a number of other entry level computing skills courses to a variety of classes at the Windermere Campus.

At the beginning of 1997 I was transferred to the Bongard Campus of the polytechnic. My role involved the design and delivery of a variety of computing related short courses, including Introduction to the Internet. I also taught NZQA approved Framework units related to Office Technology (word processing, spreadsheet, database).

Since 1998, I taught for the Business Administration and Business Management teams, delivering information and communication technology related units and modules, with a particular emphasis on management-related computing issues.

In 2002, the Polytechnic sucessfully undertook accreditation to be able to teach the Bachelor of Computing Systems (BCS) degree. After participating in the process of accreditation, I applied and was appointed as the Programme Co-ordinator for the new programme.

Following a change in management structure in the school, I relinquished the Programme Co-ordination role in early 2005 and reverted to full time teaching on information technology programmes ranging from levels 3 to 5 (level 5 being first year degree level).

For the 2006 year, I took a leave of absence and worked as a Technical Analyst for InternetNZ.

Upon returning in early 2007, I resumed teaching on the IT programmes. At the beginning of the 2008 teaching year, I moved to the N.Z. Diploma in Business teaching team, teaching the new prescriptions for 550 (Business Computing) and 650 (Applied Computing).