Technology Advisory Group

TAG Meeting October 2, 2013 2:00pm-2:50pm

Attendees:

Jeremy Brees, Tim Cannon, Kim Daniloski, Dave Dzurec, Tara Fay, Jim Franceschelli, Eugeniu Grigorescu, Andrew LaZella, Sandy Pesavento, Kristen Yarmey

Mary Goldschmidt, newly appointed Faculty Development Specialist in CTLE, sat in on our meeting to introduce herself to TAG members and gain familiarity with TAG-related projects.

1. Brief Reports

Desire2Learn (Eugeniu)

Staff members in CTLE and ITDA continue to develop an implementation plan for our switch from Angel to Desire2Learn. More details are forthcoming, but here’s what we know so far:

• Desire2Learn will be in place in January and available for Spring 2014 teaching
• By default, 2 years’ worth of past courses will be converted from Angel to Desire2Learn (academic years 2011-2012, 2012-2013). Faculty will be able to request that older courses be converted (e.g., if you’ve used Angel to teach a course that only runs every three years).
• Desire2Learn support staff will do training for on campus trainers and administrators.
• In mid-November, there will be 2 introduction sessions for faculty.
• CTLE will be working with a few faculty members to pilot courses. (Eugeniu will let us know who.)
• Angel will be “turned off” in May 2014 (that is, it won’t be available for teaching), but it will still be available for content retrieval until September 2014.

Let TAG know if you have questions or requests related to the LMS transition and we’ll pass them along to CTLE and ITDA.

Identity Finder (Kristen)

At our September 2013 meeting, TAG members volunteered to serve as pilot participants for faculty implementation of automated Identity Finder scans (prior to full rollout). Automated scans were to begin at noon on Friday, September 19. TAG members reported no indication that scans had taken place, but Jim explained that users are not necessarily notified by the Identity Finder application when a scan is running and that users cannot see their own scan results. Kristen will contact Adam Edwards in Information Security for clarification on this point.

Kristen continues to work with Adam on preventing Identity Finder scans of confidential human subject research data or client files. Adam met with Joe Dreisbach and University Counsel Rob Farrell for additional discussions about managing sensitive research data. Adam reported that Joe would meet with the IRB.

Automated scans do not apply to faculty members using Mac or Linux machines.

Active Directory – R Number Log in (Jim)

On September 25, Kristen and Dave met with Jim, Jerry DeSanto (VP of Planning and CIO), Robyn Dickinson (AVP of Planning and Information Management), and Lorraine Mancuso (Director of Project Management) to discuss IR’s current and planned projects for this academic year. There were three major projects of particular interest to or impact on faculty: implementation of Active Directory log-in for faculty desktops, phasing out of Windows XP, and a new lecture capture pilot.

Jim reviewed IR’s plan for converting faculty desktop PCs to Active Directory login – which on the user side essentially means that we will log into our desktops using our R numbers, as we do for lab or classroom computers. The conversion just began and will roll out over campus through the rest of Fall 2013, scheduled by department. Users will get email notifications one week prior to their scheduled conversion, as well as an email reminder the day before conversion that will include instructions. Triage teams of IR staff members will be available to assist users.

This change will only apply to Windows PCs (XP and Windows 7). The change does not apply to Macs, laptops, or tablets. Connections to networked printers, copiers, etc will be maintained.

Faculty members in Psychology were scheduled for the first rollout (with IR staff, since they are all in AMH) on September 30, but an unexpected issue delayed the conversion. Tim reported that this was confusing for users who tried to log in with their R numbers as they had been instructed to do and were not able to access their machines.

Windows XP End of Life (Jim)

Microsoft is discontinuing support for Windows XP in April 2014. There are about 1,000 XP machines on campus at this time – about 400 of them in Academic Affairs (including faculty but also adjuncts, academic staff, etc). IR plans to update all remaining XP machines to Windows 7, though not all of them will be completed by April 2014. For faculty desktops with XP, the conversion will involve downtime. Jim said that conversions are being scheduled with the academic calendar in mind, and once the schedule is released, faculty will be able to request alternative dates for conversion if the assigned date conflicts with teaching or research. Training on Windows 7 is available from Jack Williams.

Lecture Capture (Jim)

Last year, MediaSite lecture capture systems were installed in two rooms in LSC. TAG members Jeremy Sepinsky and Tara Fay were among the faculty who piloted the technology. This year, there was increased demand for lecture capture in LSC, but it was not feasible for IR to install MediaSite in additional classrooms, since each MediaSite installation requires its own, local server.

This year, faculty in Nursing and Counseling are piloting a different, cloud-based tool for lecture capture – Panopto. Feedback so far is positive, and installation is much easier and faster. At the end of the semester, IR will seek feedback from the pilot faculty to decide how to extend lecture capture services on campus.  TAG member Sandy Pesavento will keep tabs on faculty feedback. Kristen suggested that CTLE arrange a Faculty-to-Faculty workshop or demonstration for Panopto.

Angel Support (Dave)

The Faculty Senate executive committee reported concerns from at least one faculty member about the availability of support for Angel during off hours (nights and weekends). Jim said that faculty can contact the Technology Support Center over the weekend (9am-5pm Saturday, 12pm-10pm Sunday) for support. On Saturdays, students work the TSC but can escalate a major issue to staff. On Sundays, a staff member is present.

3. Items for Discussion

Budget Priorities – Software and Labs

IR administrators are preparing contingency plans should budget cuts be required for the future. Two areas that may be at risk for cuts are specialized software licenses and computer labs. In order to minimize the impact on teaching and research, IR needs information from faculty about what is most important to us. Dave and Kristen would like TAG to gather faculty feedback in October and November that can be submitted to IR in time for discussions in December. Several points from our discussion:

• There was general agreement that a survey would be more effective than a faculty forum. We also agreed that we would need to work through department chairs, Faculty Senate, etc to encourage responses. We could especially focus efforts on departments that we know rely heavily on specialized software and labs.
• Jim will provide a list of specialized software and computer labs currently available. For software, Sandy asked if the list could include prices to give faculty a better understanding of which licenses are most costly. Kristen suggested that we could break the list into pricing ranges or levels if actual costs cannot be shared. Dave suggested that a financial incentive could be explored — for example, the Library’s acquisitions budget is allocated to departments, which then can use that funding for databases, journals, and books.
• We need to understand how specialized software is used — e.g., whether a faculty member needs one license for his/her research, a handful of licenses for his/her lab, or lots of licenses since the software is a required part of a course.
• We would also like to understand if faculty would consider alternative software options. For example, Tim suggested that we push faculty and students towards R rather than using SPSS, which is extremely expensive.
• The Library’s Learning Commons initiative will include providing specialized software at dedicated machines (possibly reservable), so the Library may be able to cushion some of the impact of cuts. Kristen and Jim will work with Learning Commons Coordinator Sheli McHugh to coordinate and share feedback from the faculty survey, such that the Library can anticipate new faculty and student needs.

Kristen will email all TAG members to ask for volunteers (at least one from each college – either a TAG member or another interested faculty member) to assist with developing and disseminating a survey (ideally by the end of the month). Please contact her with suggestions or concerns.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 3:00pm. TAG will reconvene on Wednesday, November 6 at 2:00pm in WML305 (Library instruction classroom).