TAG Meeting Notes 2014-04-09

14 04 2014

TAG Meeting April 9, 2014 12:00pm-1:00pm

Attendees:
Jeremy Brees, Teresa Conte, Paul Cutrufello, Kim Daniloski, Dave Dzurec, Tara Fay, Jim Franceschelli, Eugeniu Grigorescu, Katie Iacocca, Andrew LaZella, Lori Nidoh, Sandy Pesavento, Kristen Yarmey

TAG members thanked Eugeniu and the CTLE for sponsoring lunch for our meeting (and for hosting us!).

1. Brief Reports/Updates

Desire2Learn (Eugeniu)

CTLE and IR will jointly host Desire2Learn Day on April 24, 2014 (more details in all-faculty email). The event will include Open Office Hours with D2L staff, workshops on using blogs, social media, Wiggio, and Panopto with D2L, and a presentation by faculty member George Gomez (Biology) on his experiences piloting D2L in Spring 2014. All faculty are invited. Most of the sessions are walk-in, but please register if you plan to attend the luncheon.

Eugeniu also reminded TAG members that faculty should back up any student data (including grades, discussion forms, and dropbox submissions) in Angel that they wish to keep. Step by step instructions have been emailed out, but CTLE staff will also hold workshops on this during Senior Week for anyone who needs assistance (see CTLE’s workshop calendar for dates/times). Student access to Angel will be turned off as of May 30, but faculty will have access until July 31. After that, data stored in Angel will no longer be available.

Identity Finder automated scans (Kristen)

Kristen has been working with Adam Edwards and Scott Finlon in Information Security to answer faculty questions about Identity Finder automated scans. Kristen wrote up an Identity Finder FAQ that she will update after getting final confirmation on a few questions from Information Security.  Kim mentioned that her department also had questions about performance and scheduling. Kristen will accompany Dave to the next Faculty Senate meeting to invite further questions or concerns.

WordPress (Kristen)

Following the discussion of WordPress at our March TAG meeting, Kristen and Dave met with Interim CIO Robyn Dickinson and Jim Franceschelli for a TAG update. Robyn and Jim explained some of the time constraints on IR staff members. TAG, the Library, and CTLE will continue to work with IR on this question. In the meantime, a faculty request for a WordPress blog was approved (thank you!). Jim said that WordPress was not yet an option in the Technology Support Center’s Footprints Service Catalog (tsc.scranton.edu), but he will follow up on this.

PR Department/Program Website Initiative (Dave, Teresa, Sandy, and Lori)

TAG members Dave, Sandy, and Teresa attended a meeting of the Committee on University Image and Promotion (CUIP) on March 17 to discuss PR’s department and program website initiative (see Teresa’s notes from that meeting, with additional comments from Dave).

Vendor Converge Consulting has been hired to assist in the preparation of content of about 50 program and department web pages, selected at that meeting. (See PR’s project announcement letter for a full update and list of departments/programs.) Each program/department has been asked to identify a representative who will meet with Converge during their campus visit on April 23-24. Lori noted that as of April 9, all but 2 representative slots had been filled. Dave emphasized that departments and programs will still have ultimate control over the content on these academic pages.

2. Items for Discussion

TAG Communication with Deans (Dave and Kristen)

At the invitation of Dean of the Library and Information Fluency Charles Kratz, Dave and Kristen met with members of the Provosts’ Advisory Board on April 3 to follow up on recent discussions of WordPress (the Interim Provost herself was not present due to the Kane Competition). Charles proposed that formal lines of communication be established between the Deans and TAG, to keep the Deans informed about academic technology issues. The other Deans in attendance (Conniff, Mensah, and Welch) agreed, noting that they would like to be better prepared for meetings about academic technology with an understanding how the technology could impact their colleges. Charles suggested that TAG meet once a semester with the Provosts’ Advisory Board for information-sharing.

Kristen and Dave shared this proposal with TAG members, with no voiced opposition. Kristen further proposed that TAG invite the Deans to contact a TAG member from their college to accompany them at meetings about academic technology in the future. TAG members agreed; Kristen will pass this invitation back to the Provosts’ Advisory Board.

TAG Membership and Leadership for 2014-2015 (Dave and Kristen)

As previously discussed, Kristen will step down as TAG co-chair at the end of the semester. Teresa Conte (Nursing) volunteered to serve in this slot (thank you!). There were no other candidates, so Teresa will start a two-year term as TAG co-chair in Fall 2014. Kristen will work with Teresa during the Summer to ensure a smooth transition. Dave will continue as co-chair in Fall 2014, and Andrew LaZella (Philosophy) will serve in Spring 2015 while Dave is on sabbatical.

Kristen asked TAG members to let her know if they do not plan to serve in 2014-2015. She also invited new members to join if interested.

Kristen and Dave will nominate Paul Cutrufello (Exercise Science) to serve as TAG’s Senate liaison for 2014-2015.

3. New Business

Royal News feedback (Lori)

PR is seeking feedback on Royal News, the weekly email/web newsletter for University students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. Lori asked TAG how best to solicit feedback from faculty. TAG members suggested coordinating a focus group with the Provost’s Office (perhaps as a Brown Bag session) as well as offering an online survey. Several TAG members noted that they liked Royal News and had no complaints or concerns. If PR puts out an online survey, Kristen will post it to the TAG site. Any faculty members who wish to share thoughts or comments (or participate in a focus group) on Royal News are encouraged to email royalnews@scranton.edu.

Heartbleed (Kristen)

Kristen shared Information Security’s update and recommendations regarding Heartbleed, a major OpenSSL vulnerability that has affected user privacy and security on many websites. The University’s main authentication service (CAS) was not vulnerable to this issue, and other servers and campus services are now all up to date. Information Security recommends, however, that users change their passwords for Internet sites and (especially if you reuse passwords) for my.scranton. Jim warned against reusing passwords and recommended KeePass as a password management tool.

IT Services Updates (Jim)

Jim provided a few brief updates on IT Services projects relevant to faculty:

  • Windows XP — IT Services aims to have all faculty desktop machines upgraded to Windows 7 before the end of the Spring semester. However, some faculty members aren’t returning calls to schedule and update. Kristen asked TAG members to remind their colleagues to respond to IT Services scheduling efforts.
  • Royal Cards — Old Royal Cards will expire on May 1, but there are still many faculty who have not gotten updated cards. TAG members will remind their colleagues to visit the Technology Support Center before the end of April to avoid being locked out of buildings, etc.
  • Internet Explorer 10 will be pushed out via KBOX before the end of the semester (upgrading from IE 8). Chrome and Firefox installations are currently up to date.
  • Java 7 has now been approved. Jim encouraged faculty to complete these updates in order to avoid security vulnerabilities or software incompatibility.
  • Funding for a campus-wide license for Panopto (a hosted lecture capture service) has been approved! IT Services is working with CTLE to integrate Panopto with Desire2Learn. TAG will work with IT Services in 2014-2015 to expand the availability of the service on campus. Kristen suggested that if IT Services knows approximately how much it will cost to add Panopto to a classroom, perhaps faculty members could apply for CTLE Technology Grants (or other funding) to speed implementation in their building/college.

As a follow-up question, Teresa asked Jim if student photographs could be integrated into Desire2Learn (for class rosters, seating charts, etc). Jim promised to look into this request.  [Post-meeting update from Jim (via email): “Unfortunately, I’ve been told this isn’t possible…  D2L does not have a provision to include photos in an automated upload from Banner. The D2L informed us that there was no way to do a bulk load of photos into D2L.  The only way to upload a photo into a student’s profile is for the student to upload it themselves. D2L is coming to campus later this month.  It might be a good question to broach to them… maybe we can get it on D2L’s development list.”]

4. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:00pm. TAG’s final meeting for Spring 2014 will be Wednesday, May 7 from 12pm-1pm in WML305. Network Engineer Calvin Krzywiec will join us to discuss IR’s drafted strategy for accommodating the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend. Lunch will be provided (thanks to Library Dean Charles Kratz).


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Categories : Angel and Desire2Learn, Announcements, CMS and University Website, Minutes, Security, TAG Administrative

(Another) Update on Department/Program Websites

14 04 2014

Earlier this month, we posted notes from a joint meeting of TAG and the Committee on University Image and Promotion (CUIP) about department and program websites. To fill in some additional information, here’s a project announcement letter (PDF) PR put together for the Deans. The announcement includes a list of departments and programs selected for the pilot as well as a questionnaire that will be used to help elicit information from faculty members about departments/programs.

Many thanks to the faculty members who have volunteered to work on this joint initiative! Please let a CUIP or TAG member know if you have questions or suggestions — TAG members Dave Dzurec, Sandy Pesavento, and Teresa Conte are each serving as their department’s representative (History, Education, and Nursing, respectively).


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Update on Department/Program Websites

2 04 2014

TAG member Teresa Conte attended the March 17 meeting of the Committee on University Image and Promotion (CUIP) for a discussion of PR’s Department and Program Website initiative (introduced in the notes from TAG’s February meeting). Here are some notes from Teresa about the project:

University of Scranton Website – Project Information and Update:

  • The University updated its general website in 2012-2013
  • The Committee on University Image and Promotion (CUIP) is overseeing the next phase of updating which is focusing on Department and Program webpages.
  • Because TAG had identified the older Department webpages as an issue that affects enrollment and program images, we have partnered with CUIP on this project and have been represented at CUIP meetings.
  • CUIP has secured a company (Converge) to write the updated web content.
  • CUIP met in March and the first 50 Programs were identified to be revised and updated. Eventually, every Department/Program will have their webpages updated. The goal for completion for the first part of the project (first 50 programs) is the Fall of 2014.
  • Once the content is written and approved, another company (search being conducted) will format and publish the content to the web.
  • Converge has developed a survey that departments will complete that will assist them in using the most updated information for this project. Departments/Programs are able to individualize their web content and select what they would like highlighted, and suggest media content and other pertinent information to be included in the update.
  • This project is of vital importance to the members of the University as there is a wealth of research that shows that more and more prospective students visit websites before committing to a campus visit. This makes the website the first impression for thousands of prospective students.

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Update 2014-04-03: Dave Dzurec (who also attended the CUIP meeting) provided some notes to answer questions about the project:

Departments and programs still have ultimate control of the content. The hiring of the consulting firm came in part from a larger TAG discussion about the maintenance of department and program pages–and a request for greater support from the administration in maintaining these sites.  The consulting firm is aiding in the redesign of a number of program pages (initially 50 different programs selected by a joint TAG/CUIP committee). The redesign will be done in consultation with the program faculty (TAG has already reviewed a draft of the questionnaire that will be sent to the program directors/chairs) and then overseen by each department. At this point once the update is complete the program/department site update process will continue to function as it does now–that is individual staff and faculty members in each department will be responsible for updating the sites. The longer term hope is that the administration will hire someone to more actively assist department faculty and staff in keeping the sites up to date and navigating the joy that is the CMS.

 

 


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TAG Meeting Notes 2014-02-12

14 02 2014

TAG Meeting February 12, 2014 12:00pm-1:00pm

Attendees:
Jeremy Brees, Tim Cannon, Paul Cutrufello, Kim Daniloski, Dave Dzurec, Eugeniu Grigorescu, Katie Iacocca, Andrew LaZella, Lori Nidoh, Kristen Yarmey

1. Brief Reports

Acceptable Use Policy

CIO Jerry DeSanto announced on February 6 that the new Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources Policy had been approved by the President’s Cabinet. The new policy is an update to the old Code of Responsible Computing. Many thanks to Jim Franceschelli and Dave Dzurec for co-chairing the committee charged with revision.

PR Department/Program Website initiative

Back in late November, Dave, Kim, and Kristen (along with Hal Baillie, Darla Germeroth, and Ray Schwenk) met with Gerry Zaboski and Lori Nidoh in PR to discuss department and program websites. Also in on the meeting (phoning in from Cedar Rapids) were representatives from Converge, a vendor that PR has hired to help us with initial planning and updates for departmental websites and academic program pages (note: *not* course catalog content/program descriptions, which require formal review).

The main goal from a faculty perspective is to develop content for department/program pages that is consistent across the University website and does a better job of communicating what it is that we do — reflecting the quality of our programs/departments, “telling the story” of the student educational experience, etc. (In 2012-2013 TAG had prepared a proposal for improving and maintaining department/program websites that advocated for additional support for this task.)

Briefly, Converge plans to 1) outline/inventory needed content, 2) do some search engine optimization research (e.g., what terms do users type in to Google when they’re looking for nursing programs?), 3) develop a draft template for page content, 4) get faculty feedback via a campus visit and questionnaire, 5) draft some copy, and 6) help us prepare a long term strategy. Their main output would be a consistent template for department/program pages, and they will create content for up to 50 department/program pages (though the institution has the final say on content). Gerry explained that this way we can get a lot of updates done quickly.

PR and Academic Affairs would like to bring together a steering committee or task force to coordinate this project, with work beginning in March. Gerry has broached this topic with the Committee on University Image and Promotion (CUIP), which includes faculty representatives.  After the November meeting, Kristen and Dave had asked TAG members to identify faculty who might be interested in serving on such a steering committee. Teresa, Sandy, and Dave then volunteered.  However, Lori noted that it has not yet been decided which program/department pages will be selected as the focus of the project, and she was not sure who will make that decision. We agreed that once these programs/departments have been selected, TAG will support the faculty representatives on CUIP in trying to recruit faculty volunteers to participate.

Desire2Learn

Desire2Learn went live in January, and so far the transition seems to be going smoothly (see the LMS transition page for details). About 30 faculty members opted to begin teaching in Desire2Learn in Spring 2014. Courses that are being taught in Desire2Learn have been disabled in ANGEL so that students don’t see them in both places.  Workshops and video tutorials are available for faculty.

Eugeniu reported that there was an issue with merging courses that CTLE wasn’t able to resolve in time for this semester, but it will be resolved in time for summer and fall courses. Another issue has been reported with links – Firefox and Chrome are problematic when trying to display unsecure pages within secure frames.

Mobile Apps

IR’s Mobile Apps feedback group met in December (pptx). Sandy attended as a faculty representative. The group reviewed the University’s current apps — ANGEL Mobile, eAccounts (for RoyalCard), the Straxis app, Student Services app, RoyalSync, and Desire2Learn (which also has two special purpose apps – Binder and Grader) — and discussed what additional features should be mobile accessible.  The Straxis app will be retired at the end of the year and replaced by a locally developed web app for the fall 2014 semester.

Royal Card

Faculty are reminded to visit the TSC to get a new RoyalCard. Take your old RoyalCard or a driver’s license, and you will be photographed.

Windows XP to 7 Conversions

(Jim was unable to attend the meeting but sent an update on this via email.) IT Services is continuing to work on converting all remaining Windows XP machines to Windows 7. Faculty machines are the current priority, with a goal of finishing all faculty conversions by the end of May.  IT Services will contact users to schedule a time and date for conversion — the process takes about two hours.  Dave noted that the history department was almost entirely converted and had no issues.

II. Items for Discussion

Specialized Software/Computer Lab Survey Results

Kristen is still working on putting together the survey results and apologized to TAG members for the delay.

WordPress Network

Kristen reported that at least one additional faculty request for a site on the campus WordPress network (sites.scranton.edu) had been turned down. There seems to be a continuing need among faculty and students for academic web space, particularly since the academic server (academic.scranton.edu) was decommissioned.

At our September 2013 meeting, TAG had requested that IR draft language on service levels for WordPress. Kristen asked Jim for an update on this issue. Jim was unable to attend this meeting but sent an update via email, excerpted here:

We met this past fall and have consulted with the CTLE on various support issues.  Unfortunately at this time, we cannot extend the wordpress offerings.  Looking at the current issues at hand – especially with the CTLE and the conversion to D2L – extending support won’t happen until January 2015 at the earliest. I know there is growing demand and many faculty want to use wordpress as an alternative web site.  Unfortunately the supported options are within the CMS.  D2L does have options for blogging and discussion boards.  I think TAG had offered to look at it from a faculty perspective – any news back on that?

Eugeniu explained that CTLE was unable to provide assistance to IR on support for WordPress at the same time as they are supporting faculty and students during the transition to Desire2Learn.

Kristen asked TAG members for their reactions. The majority agreed that we would like to keep advocating for WordPress but acknowledge that Desire2Learn should take priority at this time. Dave suggested that we revisit the question again in January 2015 as Jim indicated.

III. New Business

Vice President for Planning/CIO

Fr. Quinn announced in December 2013 that Jerry DeSanto would be stepping down as Vice President for Planning/CIO. Associate Vice President Robyn Dickinson will serve as Interim. While the search for a new Provost is taking priority, Dave and Kristen noted that they planned to volunteer TAG’s input (either formal or informal) in any upcoming search for the CIO position.

TAG Leadership for 2014-2015

Kristen will be rotating off as TAG co-chair at the end of Spring 2014. Dave will continue as co-chair for 2014-2015, but will be on sabbatical in Spring 2015.  They asked for one or two volunteers (preferably but not necessarily including a Senator) to serve a two-year term as co-chair. Andrew volunteered to serve in Spring 2015 while Dave is away. We are still in need of another volunteer to serve the full year.

IV. Demonstrations

Adam Edwards and Scott Finlon from Information Security came to the second half of the TAG meeting for two demonstrations.

Firstly, they demonstrated the administrative side of Identity Finder. TAG members have been piloting automated Identity Finder scans, which are running each Friday at noon. Identify Finder scans the user’s computer for any personally identifiable information (PII) in unprotected files. The Information Security Office receives reports that indicate the level of risk for that machine. Anticipating concerns about privacy and confidentiality, Adam and Scott showed a sample report. The report shows the number of hits and the location of each file with hits, but the actual information is obscured. Based off of these reports, Adam then works one-on-one with users to either delete the files or move them to a more secure location. Adam said that he is working with staff with the most risk first (e.g., people with 1,000 hits or more).

Secondly, Adam and Scott demonstrated using TrueCrypt (free open-source disk encryption software) to encrypt files or folders that contain confidential information (such as human subject research data). They have already shown this tool (along with another encryption tool in Identity Finder) to the IRB and would like to make it a recommended standard for campus use. [Update 2014-07-02: Support for TrueCrypt has been discontinued, so Information Security now recommends using 7Zip for encrypting sensitive or confidential data.] TAG members did not bring up any concerns, so we will move forward on this. Adam will share brief written instructions, and we will share them with the faculty as a recommended practice for confidential data.

Adam and Scott would like to start automated Identity Finder scans on faculty computers beginning with departments that would *not* have any confidential subject data stored no faculty desktops. We were not sure that such a distinction could be easily made, but TAG will try to work with department chairs to determine which departments might be willing to begin scans. Scott will send Kristen a list of departments as they appear in Identity Finder (based on Active Directory groups) as a starting point.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:10pm. TAG’s next meeting will be Wednesday, March 12 from 12pm-1pm in WML305.


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Categories : Angel and Desire2Learn, Announcements, Minutes, Mobile, Security, TAG Administrative, Website Proposal

Website Maintenance Proposal Group Minutes, 11-13-2012

14 11 2012

The website proposal group met on 11/13/2012 at 1PM. In attendance were: Kevin Wilkerson, Eugeniu Grigorescu, Sandy Pesavento, Teresa Conte, Kathleen Iacocca, and Jeremy Sepinsky.

The meeting agenda can be found here.

The discussion began with a recap of what TAG has learned, and the problems that exist regarding the current department webpages. See the above minutes for a detailed description. Some additional information that was provided by the attendees during the meeting:

  1. The current guidelines for departmental webpages have no way of requiring continued maintenance of the department pages. The language address “encouraging” the faculty to update and submit content. When crafting this language, the faculty and staff involved debated whether they could make it stronger, but decided they could only request participation from the faculty members.
  2. Some colleges have implemented “local” solutions. For example, PCPS has hired a Graduate Assistant savvy with the CMS to implement revisions as opposed to having individual faculty members update the pages.
  3. While Admissions is very concerned with the website from a student perspective, it is important to realize that we need good PR from a faculty perspective as well. When departments are looking for a new faculty position the website can play a critical role in whether or not quality candidates apply for the job.
  4. The current CMS, unfortunately, creates a barrier for the CTLE to help faculty update and maintain departmental or personal pages. The permissions structure requires the faculty to be present for updates, edits, and, particularly, publishing. Furthermore, the CMS preview rendering is NOT consistent with the final product that is displayed on a webpage. Thus, a Tech Con would be able to modify and edit a page so it looks good in a preview, but it will be changed when the faculty publishes. The number of iterations required to get a final, attractive product would be overly burdensome on the faculty.
  5. There were debates as to whether the University got what it paid for in terms of the CMS. It was designed to allow faculty easy access to update their own pages, but it is NOT as user-friendly as hoped. In order to include the features that many people needed, the interface and design became too complicated for the casual user.

To summarize the problem that this group hopes to tackle:

  • PR is not well-informed enough about faculty content to independently update the webpages;
  • Faculty are neither taught nor incentivized well enough to update the site on their own.

Thus, we hope to develop a CMS-agnostic process that bridges the gap between presentation skills and complete content.

Previously on our campus, there have been two models for the update and design of the webpages, neither of which seem to have worked. The Webmaster model, and the Faculty Ownership model.

  • The Webmaster Model
    • This model existed prior to the current CMS, where a person (or group of people; hereafter “The Webmaster”) was responsible for updating the pages with content provided by the faculty.
    • The Webmaster thus had the access and the skills to create and present the departmental webpages, whenever the content was provided by the faculty.
    • Unfortunately, the faculty did not often provide or update the information on the page, and the Webmaster was not tasked with actively seeking out that information. Faculty were not tasked with actively contacting the Webmaster with such information. Thus, many pages were not actively updated
  • The Faculty Ownership Model
    • This is the model that is currently in place. The faculty have full control over their departmental webpages. The CMS was intended to provide easy access to the content producers (read: faculty), so they could play an active part in the dissemination of that content on the webpages.
    • CMS training exists for the faculty, and afterwards they are able to update the pages. But it is far from simple or WYSIWIG. The biggest problem becomes when faculty want to update the webpage later. Because they update infrequently, it generally requires faculty to relearn the CMS in order to re-update, which is really the big time sink.
    • Because of the learning barrier for the CMS, most faculty don’t know how to use it, and a departmental webmaster is appointed. There are still no clear expectations of the webpage, and faculty are often ill-equipped for creating publicly consumable knowledge, let alone PR materials. Thus, while the webpages may be more frequently updated, there is less useful content and an inconsistency in presentation which hampers PR efforts.

Thus, given this information, the faculty present feel that a Periodic Webmaster model might work best. Our group describes this as one where significant updates to the departmental webpages happen at certain times throughout the year. The Webmaster would solicit updates and/or approval of changes from faculty regarding certain parts of their department’s webpage. For example, faculty changes may happen in January and June whereas front page changes may happen in February and September. Each recurring facet of departmental webpages should have a deadline attached to it. This is not dissimilar to the model currently employed for course catalog updates. For departments that want more regular updates, there would be an avenue available for ad hoc changes, or even the possibility of continued faculty access to the CMS.

At the close of the meeting, the members feel that this plan is worth exploration and will begin to work out the details and logistics of such a process. This will happen over the course of the next few months.

As always: questions, comments, or suggestions are more than welcome. Email tag-member@royallists.scranton.edu, or comment below.


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