Department Affiliations and the Faculty/Staff Directory

31 08 2011

TAG recently heard some concern from faculty about the online Faculty/Staff directory (on my.scranton, under University Links) and its inability to display more than one departmental affiliation for a faculty member.  For example, a faculty member in the Department of Latin American Studies and Women’s Studies is listed in the online Directory only as a member of their “primary” departmental affiliation, not as a member of LA/W/S.

We heard from IT Development & Applications (ITDA) that the online Faculty/Staff directory, which pulls information from Banner, cannot accommodate multiple titles or departments for a single person.  As a solution, ITDA suggested using the Department/Division directory, which you can search using your browser’s Find feature (Ctrl+F).

However, this proposed solution doesn’t resolve the faculty concerns.  Firstly, the Department/Division directory itself is incomplete (for example, the LA/W/S listing only includes three contacts rather than all of the associated and affiliated faculty) and doesn’t display live data (so it doesn’t include 2011-2012 new faculty, and I noticed several faculty and staff members who retired in 2010 and were still listed).  More importantly, this workaround doesn’t address the real issue, which is that multiple affiliations are becoming more common for both faculty and staff, and such information should easily accessible and searchable in University directories.

TAG doesn’t have a solution for this issue, but we hope to work with IR to figure something out in the near future.  Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions. Thanks!





iPads available for faculty and students

22 08 2011

Just a heads up that there are iPads on campus available to students and faculty who want to try out tablet computing this fall.

Students can borrow one of three circulating iPads from the Library for a 24-hour period. (We’re also considering purchasing one or more Android tablets if this program proves popular.)  The Library’s iPads are only available to students – not faculty or staff.

Faculty can borrow an iPad for a week at a time from the CTLE. Eugeniu sent out this announcement to all faculty on Friday:

Do you want to become familiar with the latest tablet technology and its use in pedagogical settings? The CTLE has an iPad that faculty can borrow for up to one week to explore and experiment with. With an iPad you can surf the web, check email, watch movies, read books, take and save class notes. You can download the latest apps and connect the iPad to the video projector in a mediated classroom. For more information or to borrow an iPad, contact the CTLE at x4038.

Faculty who are interested in using mobile devices in the classroom could also consider applying for one of the CTLE’s Teaching Enhancement Grants.

If you’re using a tablet or another mobile device to support your teaching or research this fall, please let us know how it goes!





ANGEL downtime on Monday

16 08 2011

This went out in an all-faculty email, so everyone should have gotten it, but just for record-keeping’s sake:

ANGEL will be unavailable on Monday August 22, from 8:00AM – 2:00PM to install Service Packs 12 & 13 for Version 7.4 and to conduct system and database maintenance.  Please contact Jason Wimmer (wimmerj2@scranton.edu) with any questions or problems.

Thanks, Jason!





Two upcoming outages

10 08 2011

IR posted two notices about upcoming outages to the my.scranton portal:

There will be a brief internet outage on August 13, 2011 between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM as maintenance is performed on internet infrastructure. Off campus resources will not be accessible from on campus. On campus resources will be unavailable from off campus. Please contact the Technology Support Center at 570-941-4357 with any questions.

and

Network Infrastructure will be performing system maintenance on the CNAC systems on August 15 2011, between 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM. No downtime for authenticated users on the wired network is expected.  Downtime for wireless users is expected to be less than 10 minutes. Users attempting to authenticate to the wired or wireless network via CNAC will be unable to do so during this 10 minute window.

 





Connecting to the Academic Webserver

29 07 2011

IR has shared with us these instructions (PDF) for faculty and staff who need to update pages on the new academic server (not the CMS).

As always, if you have questions or run into any trouble, please let us know!

——————–

Update (8/1/11): Instructions were revised – the link now takes you to the corrected PDF. Thanks to Tim Cannon for catching the errors!





IR Outage starts today at 4pm

28 07 2011

Just a reminder that the planned IR upgrade starts today at 4pm and continues through 8:30am on August 2.  RoyalMail and Angel will be accessible, just not through the my.scranton portal.





Track your tickets with Footprints

25 07 2011

At today’s IT Forum, Jim Franceschelli and Jason Wimmer presented on Footprints, the software that IT Services uses to track service tickets.  The U has been using Footprints for about two years, logging about 12,000 tickets so far.  This summer, IR has rolled out a new end user interface for Footprints, which is intended to help IT Services staff serve users more efficiently.  My notes on what faculty should know:

    • To date, there have been three ways you can report a problem or request a service from the Technology Support Center – you could call  (941-4357), email them, or walk up to the TSC desk in AMH.  Now, you can still use those three methods, but you also have the option of reporting a problem electronically through Footprints.
    • To get to Footprints, go to my.scranton.edu > University Links >  Footprints (under Administrative Links).
    • You’ll see three main options in the Footprints “Service Catalog”:

1. Report an IT Problem. Use this when something’s wrong and you need it fixed.  Pick the category of your problem (computer, phone, enterprise applications, audio/video, Royal Card, or cable tv), choose a subcategory from the options listed, fill out the form with as much information as possible, and then save it to submit the ticket. If you’re not sure exactly what category or subcategory to choose, just do your best – the TSC staff member reviewing the ticket can change the category to reroute the ticket if needed.

2. Change Management. Faculty probably won’t ever really need to use this option – it’s for modifications to existing University applications (changing Banner forms, querying Banner, etc).

3. Request an IT Service. This is for things like requesting multiple PCs for a special event, moving a VoIP phone, etc. You can also use this section to request installation of special software on a University PC. Just like #1, fill out the form with as much information as possible, and “save” to submit the ticket.

  • You can also use Footprints to check the status on a ticket, whether you called/emailed in a problem/request to the TSC or entered it into Footprints yourself.  Click on “Home” and choose from the dropdown menu of “My Requests” to see active and closed tickets. You’ll be able to see TSC staff members’ notes on what’s going on with your request (e.g., if you’ve reported a problem with ANGEL, Jason might leave a note that says that he’s waiting for a call back from ANGEL support staff).
  • Footprints also holds a Knowledge Base (see the link on the top of the page, next to Service Catalog), which holds keyword searchable solutions to common problems, written out by IT staff members.  Solutions are posted either in Q&A format or as step-by-step instructions.  The solutions are reviewed every six months to make sure they’re still accurate.  There are already 80 solutions posted, with more on the way.
  • Any University community member can contribute to the Knowledge Base – so TAG can use it to share technology shortcuts or tips that might be helpful to other faculty or staff.  Just write up your instructions and email them to ITServices@scranton.edu.

Hopefully, the end-user interface of Footprints will resolve some of the faculty concerns about communication with IR that TAG heard back on our Fall 2010 faculty questionnaire – so please give it a shot and let us know how it goes!

I’ll link to Jason and Jim’s slides when they go up, but in the meantime, post in the comments if you have questions.





IT Forum on Footprints

14 07 2011

There’s a summer IT Forum coming up about Footprints, the software that IR uses to track service calls to the Technology Support Center.  I’ll be there and will post any updates of interest to faculty – but all are welcome to attend.

Here’s the announcement and registration info, as posted to the my.scranton portal:

Summer IT Forum
July 25th, 2011
BRN 509
11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Footprints Client View
The next IT Forum will highlight the use of Footprints from the view of the University Community. FootPrints is a ticket tracking system utilized by the University of Scranton Planning and Information Resources (PIR) Division, for information technology (IT) requests. It tracks IT service tickets and provides communication among PIR departments and our customers. Students, staff and faculty can submit a ticket to request assistance with an IT-related problem or check on the status of a ticket. They can also search through knowledge base articles that have been submitted by IT support staff on a variety of issues. Faculty and Staff can also use Footprints to submit Change Management requests (modification to existing applications, new applications, or report / query requests) and to request special IT Services (such as PC Setups, VOIP, Port Changes, RoyalDrive, etc).

Presenters: Jason Wimmer, of IT Development and Applications and Jim Franceschelli, Director IT Services

All members of our community are encouraged to attend. Lunch will be served however registration is required. Registration is now on the portal, under University Links-Events/Facilities, select IT Services Training and Event Registration.





RoyalMail and RoyalDrive downtime

11 07 2011

This notice is up on the my.scranton portal – note that it includes RoyalMail and RoyalDrive, but not Angel:

A migration of the University’s enterprise database and related IT systems to a new hardware/operating system platform is scheduled from 4:00 p.m. July 28, 2011 through 8:30 a.m. August 2, 2011. This migration will affect the availability of my.scranton.edu, as well as all Banner-related systems, departmental applications found on the Employee Applications tab and many other systems accessed via the my.Scranton portal, including Royal Drive. For a complete list of systems that will, and will not, be available, go to http://www.scranton.edu/myscranton.

Departments should have contingency plans ready in case the restart of the enterprise IT systems is delayed. Notice(s) of system availability will be provided via the Personal Announcements channel on my.scranton.edu, beginning on August 2nd. Please do not attempt to use any part of my.scranton.edu prior to August 2nd.

Following the migration, problems should be reported to the Technology Support Center at 941-4357 or techsupport@scranton.edu . This will assist us in prioritizing and focusing on the problems of highest importance. Please do not contact individual IT departments’ staff directly with problems.

Robyn Dickinson
Associate Vice President Information Resources

The PIR website offers some additional details on what will be unavailable:

Due to maintenance on the University’s IT systems, Banner, the my.scranton portal and RoyalMail will not be available from 4:00 p.m. July 28, 2011. until 8:30 a.m. August 2, 2011. In addition, the following Enterprise Systems are NOT available during this time:

  • Banner INB
  • Banner Self service
  • Imaging
  • Banner Workflow
  • Auxiliary Systems and/or Employee Applications such as the Work Order System, Events System, and OIT Equipment Request Form
  • Web Content Management System
  • Royal Drive
  • Royal Lists
  • Online Course Evaluations

Systems that will be available are:

 

 





New Survey from the Department of Planning and Information Resources

11 07 2011

Hi all,

I just received the following e-mail from the VP of Planning and CIO, Jerry DeSanto. TAG was not involved in the planning or execution of this survey, but it has the potential to be very valuable and I would encourage you to fill it out. There are approximately 5 pages of questions, including some option demographic information, and asks you to rank a large number of items from 1-9 in three categories: Your minimum acceptable level; you desired level; and the level the university currently offers for this service. For each question, there is a place to add comments. Personally, I ranked and commented on nearly every question, and completed the survey in about 40 minutes. I understand that this is a long time to spend during your busy summer, but the more feedback we can aggregate, the more we can figure out what we need and what our next steps are. So please take the time to provide some thoughtful comments if you receive this survey! Thanks!

Dear Colleague:

To help us evaluate and improve the University’s technology services, please take a few moments to complete the TechQual survey via the link below. The survey, developed out of Pepperdine University, asks questions related to your desired level of service and how well you think we are doing in several key technology areas. Your response will not be individually identifiable, and all results will be reported in aggregate form.

The survey can be accessed via the following web link through August 1, 2011.

Survey Link: https://survey.techqual.org/
Respondent ID:

To begin follow the survey link and enter your respondent ID. The respondent ID is unique to you and allows you to start the survey and finish it later. You should not forward this respondent ID to other individuals as they will be able to see the feedback you entered.

I thank you in advance for helping us assess our services. If you have any questions about the TechQual survey, visit: http://www.techqual.org, or contact the Planning & Institutional Effectiveness Office at planning@scranton.edu

Jerry DeSanto
VP Planning & CIO

P.s. – the “Respondent ID” should be different for each person’s email.