TAG Meeting Notes 12/1/11

2 12 2011

[Updated 12/08/11 with links to additional information]

TAG met yesterday to catch up on all our initiatives. Here’s the latest:

  • The Learning Management System (LMS) Work Group has formed and will begin meetings this week.
  • The Mobile Apps work group met at the beginning of November. Meeting minutes are available (PDF). The meeting was mostly dedicated to getting everyone caught up on the existing mobile app and mobile website.  The minutes indicate that any new mobile development will occur within the existing University app (made by Straxis), but this point seemed undecided during the meeting itself. Kristen is seeking clarification from group leader Connie Wisdo on this question.

Sandy Pesavento (education) has withdrawn from the group due to time conflicts, but Andy Berger (physics) has volunteered to serve as a faculty representative along with Ben Bishop and Kristen Yarmey.

  • The Novel Pedagogy Group has received funding from the College of Arts and Sciences to design a mediated classroom that will accommodate the new pedagogies they are exploring. The group is working with Jim and OIT to mediate the room, which is intended to be a model of what the University could do should it prove effective.
  • Members of TAG met with IR in early November to discuss the results of last summer’s TechQual survey. Kristen will post the results and highlights of the discussion on this site under a separate title.  We’ve been asked not to share the results, but we did post a summary of the discussion.
  • IR invited TAG to provide feedback on a rough draft of a new Incidental Use Policy during last month’s IMAC meeting. Jeremy will post specifics about the policy on the TAG site under a separate title.
  • IR is in the process of hiring a new manager to coordinate the work of the Office of Instructional Technology.
  • Progress is being made on the Academic Technology Plan. Anne Marie interviewed several faculty members and administrators to get a sense of what the Plan should include.
  • Faculty directory. At our last meeting TAG discussed the faculty directory’s inability to list more than one department affiliation for a single faculty member. Anne Marie discussed this concern in a Banner meeting earlier this week.  There are several similar issues with Banner not being able to describe employee designations (e.g., emeritus, program director, department chair…).  It seems like the University needs to have a larger conversation about data storage and sharing – Banner wasn’t really designed to handle all of these designations. Anne Marie will look into how other universities handle data sharing.
  • Computerized testing. Teresa spoke with colleagues at Villanova University and found out that they use Par software to conduct secure, controlled online testing.  The downside to Par is that it doesn’t integrate with Villanova’s LMS (Blackboard). Jim will look into Par to see what options we might be able to provide for computerized testing on campus.
  • Security Awareness Training. The email announcement for IR’s security awareness training program went out early by accident. All faculty are encouraged to complete the training program – it’s  a series of short videos, totaling around 60 minutes.  The idea is to expand a general user’s knowledge and understanding of security issues.  See Jeremy’s post from 11/14/11 for details.
  • We talked briefly about the Oracle outage on 11/10 and the wireless outage on 11/16. IR has an incident policy now that indicates how and what information about outages should be disseminated.  During the Oracle outage, information was displayed on my.scranton showing alternate ways for users to access Angel and email. RoyalDrive was not included, but this has been fixed.  Jim is meeting with the rest of the IR team this week to figure out what happened during the 11/16 outage. His goal is for IR to be able to send out early notifications when something is happening.
  • The email transition is a go! The email team itself transitioned this week. Students will be transitioned at the end of December after exams. We discussed the best time to convert faculty, and the best option seems to be January.  We’ll transition in batches, by department. Notifications with more details will be sent out on paper and via email, but here’s essentially what will happen:
    1. You will get email notification in advance, and a final email notice the day of the transition. If your department’s migration is happening at a time that will not work for you, you should contact IR right away to reschedule.2. Your email account will move to Live @ EDU during the night.  Server email will be migrated automatically.

    3. When you log in to my.scranton the next day, you’ll see a new tab with instructions for accessing your new account through the web portal, and instructions for migrating local mail [with Transend Migrator].  You will also need to update your mobile devices and any other email clients (Gmail, MacMail) with new POP3 information.

    4. Your email address will be firstname.lastname@scranton.edu. You will still receive email sent to your existing email (lastnamef2@scranton.edu), but you can’t send out email from that address, so you will need to update it in email listservs, etc.

    5. Training will be available that week to help you get started.  We asked Jim if short screencapture tutorials could be made available as well.

    6. Calendars won’t be migrated until later in the spring.

    7. Office 2010 will be pushed out around the same time.


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TAG Meeting Notes 10/27/11

27 10 2011

TAG met this morning to catch up on our projects. Here’s the latest:

  • A Learning Management System (LMS) Work Group is forming to review and evaluate alternatives to Angel. Connie Wisdo in ITDA will lead the group. There are six spots available for faculty participants, and (as of a few minutes after our meeting!) we now have a full slate of volunteers:

Tara Fay, Biology
Julie Nastasi, Occupational Therapy
Keith Yurgosky, Communications (part time)
Maureen Carroll, Math
Teresa Conte, Nursing
Wesley Wang, Economics/Finance

The group will also include 3 representatives from CTLE (including Eugeniu), 5 representatives from IR, and 4 students (graduate, undergraduate, and adult).  CTLE and IR will begin drafting evaluation criteria this month in preparation for the first full group meeting in December. The goal is to make a decision by May so that we can run both Angel and the new LMS in parallel in 2012-2013.

  • The Mobile Apps work group is forming to guide the design and development of mobile applications for teaching and learning. This group will begin meeting in November. Connie will lead this group as well, and it will include representatives from Alumni and PR. Faculty member participants are:

Ben Bishop, Computing Sciences
Sandy Pesavento, Education
Kristen Yarmey, Library

  • The University now has an in-house WordPress Network (http://sites.scranton.edu), available to be used for University blogs. Currently the only users are the Admissions office, though the Library will be migrating its blogs to the local server during Intersession. Anyone interested in migrating or starting a University blog should put a request in Project Tracking under “Systems.”
  • Continuing education opportunities. Wilkes University is hosting an Apple Education Seminar on November 17. Villanova University is hosting a Technology Expo on April 26, 2012.
  • IT Roadmap. Jeremy and Kristen met with IR to discuss their project list for 2011-12. The email conversion timeline is still uncertain, but IR expects that the first test conversions will begin in November and that student conversions may be done after final exams end. Faculty and staff conversions will likely be in January. IR will continue to communicate with TAG about the most optimal time for faculty conversions. Questions about the conversion came up during the last Faculty Senate meeting.
  • Faculty directory. TAG shared concerns with IR about the faculty directory’s inability to list more than one department affiliation for a single faculty member. The fix for this problem is more complex than we anticipated and will involve working with several University departments.
  • TAG will meet with IR on November 10 to discuss results from the summer TechQual survey.
  • CTLE has two upcoming events for faculty. On November 9, Margarete Zalon will lead a faculty-to-faculty exchange on management of bibliographic resources. On November 17, there will be a Faculty Advancement Series event on peer review and writing for journals. CTLE also has hired a new associate director, Brian Snapp.
  • CTLE is exploring options for classroom response systems (also known as clickers).  They have a demo scheduled with Top Hat Monocle, and a TechCon is researching other options. Sandy mentioned that there are tools like PollEverywhere available that utilize text messaging rather than clickers.
  • Jeremy, Sandy, Anne Marie, and Jim all attended the recent EDUCAUSE conference. Items of interest included Penn State’s open source WebLion application for program assessment, Pearson/Google’s new OpenClass learning management system, QR codes, mobile education, Google+, and Google Hangouts.
  • At the last Faculty Senate meeting, a motion passed that asks the Provost to provide updates on various academic initiatives.  The motion included the Academic Technology Plan that TAG members have contributed to.
  • The newly reconstituted IRAC group met, with two TAG members (Dave and Paul) serving as faculty representatives. Their recent meeting focused on the TechQual survey results, which will be discussed with TAG on November 10.
  • Teresa provided further insight on the Nursing department’s need for computerized testing. We discussed several options, including the purchase of Chromebooks or the use of specialized, restrictive software. OIT’s budget cannot maintain any new mediation, so the construction of a full computer lab would mean that other mediation could not be maintained. Jim would like to know if any other departments have this kind of need. TAG will continue to explore possible solutions to this issue.
  • This week’s IT Forum was on Data Security and Classification. (Kristen will post specific notes.) We discussed how faculty might be exposed to and educated about different data types and security procedures.
  • Jeremy reported on a classroom mediation issue in the Loyola Science Center. He asked if OIT could provide email updates to faculty to let them know if/when a computer or projector is not functional in one of the classrooms where they teach. Jim is exploring this idea with OIT.

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TAG Meeting Notes 9/29/11

29 09 2011

We had our first TAG meeting of 2011-2012 this morning.  We had a lot to catch up on from the summer, so apologies for the long notes! As always, post a comment if there are any questions or concerns.

  • New members. Teresa Conte joined us from Nursing as a replacement for Cathy Lovecchio. Ben Bishop (Computing Sciences) joined us late last spring, as did Lori Nidoh (representing Public Relations). S.P. Chattopadhyay is currently on sabbatical, and Kevin Wilkerson has returned from his.
  • Novel Pedagogy Cohort. Jeremy and a few other CAS faculty members have formed a small group to explore and implement new pedagogy techniques in their classes – some of which involve technology while others don’t.  Tools to be explored include lecture capture and clicker systems. If any other faculty are interested in innovative pedagogy, let Jeremy know.
  • Lecture capture.  A team of stakeholders (including TAG members Jeremy, Kristen, Sandy, and Eugeniu) met several times in the spring and summer to review possible products for lecture capture.  The final recommendation was a hybrid solution of Media Site (as a back end) and Crestron HD appliances for the actual capture. Implementation will start in the Science Center and then spread to other departments. Right now, IR is working on setting up the back end servers while VistaComm is implementing the front end capture devices. The goal is to have LSC lecture capture ready to go by Spring 2011, and then expand to other departments next year as funding allows. Sandy and Teresa noted that Education and Nursing would be very interested in implementing lecture capture in their classrooms. Thanks to Jason Oakey over in Instructional Technology for taking the lead on this project!
  • Office 2010.  The upgrade to Office 2010 for faculty and staff is tied to the email conversion (see below) due to the incorporation of Outlook.
  • Windows 7. The upgrade to Windows 7 for faculty and staff machines currently running Windows XP is held up due to a security issue. XP users are currently admin users on their computers. While this gives us a lot of flexibility and control over our own machines, it also introduces security risks – users can accidentally install malicious code.  When we move to Windows 7, IR will change XP users’ roles from admin to standard user accounts. By default, standard users wouldn’t be able to install or delete applications, but ideally there will be a way for users to obtain temporary admin status when they need to install programs. IR is currently working out these privilege management issues, so Windows 7 deployment is pushed back to (tentatively) Spring 2011.   Wesley asked about 64 bit vs 32 bit machines – Jim said that by default new machines will be 32 bit, but faculty who need 64 bit should let him know.
  • Email conversion. The Microsoft Live @ Edu email transition has been delayed by issues with identity management (e.g., automatically assigning set permissions to new hires, and removing permissions from retirees, departing employees, etc). IR is working on a workaround plan that would let us go forward with the email conversion while temporarily skipping over identity management. IR is aware of “crunch times” in faculty schedules, so faculty email conversion will probably wait until intersession or beyond.
  • Personally identifiable information.  Ben asked about security concerns for faculty members who don’t use University email.  Jim recommends that any University business, and especially any University business that involves confidential information, be done using University services (like Angel and Royal Drive). The Identity Finder tool is available to help faculty and staff find any PII that might be on their machines. IR also has security training videos that faculty can watch to get an entry-level awareness of PII.
  • Information Resources Advisory Committee.  IRAC had been inactive for a year but is now reconstituted. IRAC members will be providing input on IR’s service portfolio. TAG members Dave, Paul, Eugeniu, and Lori will be on it as CAS faculty, PCPS faculty, CTLE, and PR representatives, respectively.
  • TechQual. IR ran this customer service survey over the summer. Preliminary results just came in, but IR is still processing them and will present them to IRAC next month.
  • Loyola Science Center. Most of the IT work in LSC is done, but there are still a few equipment issues popping up in classrooms. IR will continue working on this. Remaining projects include lecture capture, the auditorium, and RoomView, a tool that will allow Instructional Technology to monitor and maintain classroom equipment (e.g., whether or not a projector has been left on).
  • Wireless. The wireless upgrade project was approved.  Phase I (freshmen residences, the new Mulberry Street residences, and the LSC) is complete and adds 350 new WiFi points to the campus. Phase II is currently underway and will add 252 WiFi points in 21 buildings (residences, St. Thomas, and the Long Center). Phase III is scheduled for summer 2012 and will include the remaining academic and administrative buildings as well as outdoor coverage.  This is a big improvement – many thanks to the Network Infrastructure staff!
  • CTLE liaison. CTLE used to have two faculty liaisons who focused teaching and pedagogy. They have now added a third faculty liaison, TAG member Sandy Pesavento, to provide input on faculty interests and needs regarding pedagogical uses of technology.
  • Mobile access to Angel. CTLE and IR experimented with Blackboard’s iOS app for Angel, but found it to be a very limited tool, particularly for teachers (e.g., faculty can’t enter grades or interact with Angel dropboxes).  So mobile access to Angel still isn’t conveniently available at this time.
  • LMS review. Our contract with Angel expires in 2013, so a review committee will begin exploring other learning management system (LMS) options in January. Connie Wisdo in ITDA will lead the group. Eugeniu said that we might have an opportunity to use a “free” installation of Blackboard temporarily (on top of our existing Angel installation) so that faculty could try it out. Dave asked whether or not we would be able to migrate courses from Angel into a new LMS. Eugeniu said that from our current version of Angel (7.4), we could export/import single courses into Blackboard, with some imperfections. If we upgraded to v8 of Angel, we’d be able to batch migrate courses. Blackboard would also complement our Royal Card and emergency notification systems, since they’re Blackboard products (Transact and Connect), but it might not be easily tied into Banner.
  • Academic Technology Plan. The Provost’s office has no updates on the Academic Technology Plan.
  • Mobile website and app. Lori shared some analytics to give us an idea of how the mobile website and mobile app are being used. The app has been downloaded 7,604 times (mostly by iOS rather than Android devices). An in-app poll asked about the user’s identity, and 57% of the poll-takers were current students, 28% were alumni, 10% were prospective students, with faculty, staff, and other community members making up only 6%.  New app modules include Admissions and the Library (live but still being tweaked), with an Alumni module on the way. An iPad version is also on the timeline for this year, and hopefully mobile authentication is on the horizon.  The m.scranton mobile site is getting plenty of traffic. The most commonly viewed mobile pages are the home page and the admissions and academics home pages. [Note: Stats on the mobile app are here (in PDF). Stats on the mobile site are here (also in PDF).] PR is also setting up automatic redirects from the full site to the mobile site for recognized mobile devices – right now, the only active redirect is from the full site home page to the m.scranton home page.
  • Faculty websites. We’ve figured out a good workflow for faculty websites with CTLE. Any faculty member who wants to create a new website in the CMS should contact Aileen McHale in the CTLE. The CTLE TechCons will set up the faculty member’s web space, and then can help him or her as needed with templates or other support.  Sandy and Anne Marie would like to encourage faculty members (and any other page admins) to keep their websites current.
  • Continuing education. TAG members interested in learning more about academic uses of technology should keep an eye out for continuing education opportunities, since funding may be available. Jeremy and Sandy will each attend a day of the EDUCAUSE conference, courtesy of the Provost’s office.  Anne Marie and a few representatives from IR will also attend. TAG members who do participate in continuing education are asked to report back and share conference highlights.
  • Computerized testing. Teresa reported on concerns from the Nursing department. Nursing licensing exams are all online, so the department uses computerized testing to help their students prepare for the licensing environment.  Nursing faculty have run into trouble finding places to conduct their computer tests – there isn’t enough space to accommodate large classes, and classrooms that do accommodate that many students have been booked for other courses.  An ideal solution would be a large “shared resource” lab (possibly run by CTLE/Library) that faculty could schedule for tests, with computers set up to restrict access to the testing environment. Anne Marie suggested that we look at how other schools have solved this problem. Teresa will get more details on Nursing needs. Jim asked if other departments have this need, and for what class sizes. Once we have more information, we can agree on a good solution and then seek funding.
  • Our next meeting will be October 27. TAG members are asked to keep collecting (specific!) feedback from other faculty members on technology concerns or issues, and we’ll keep sharing information here as projects continue.

——

Note: Updated 10/24/11 with PDF docs of mobile app and website statistics shared during the meeting.


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Categories : Angel and Desire2Learn, Email, Minutes, Mobile, Network and Infrastructure, Security, TAG Administrative, Upgrades

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:

 

 


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Live@EDU updates

4 05 2011

I went to an IT Services Live@EDU Information Session, taught by Jack Williams, this morning and picked up some updates about the upcoming email transition.  Below are some of my notes – IT Services folk, please correct me if I got anything wrong.

About the transition:

  • Before we’re scheduled to transition, Microsoft Office 2010 will be pushed out through KBOX, so we’ll all have the latest version of Outlook installed. Not sure what will happen here for Mac users.
  • We’ll have step by step instructions showing us how to configure Outlook to retrieve our (server) mail from RoyalMail. Folder structures will be preserved.
  • Anyone who needs to migrate local email from Thunderbird can use a tool called Transend (which will also be pushed out from KBOX). Transend can migrate into Outlook local email from Thunderbird as well as Thunderbird address books.
  • Calendar events can be imported into Live@EDU from Oracle, though connections between people may be lost. Details are still forthcoming.
  • We’ll have a new Live@EDU username that we’ll use to access our email, Office Web Apps, and SkyDrive.  This username will be firstname.lastname (for me, kristen.yarmey).  But your email address will not change.  Note: We’ve mentioned before that R numbers will soon become our user IDs. This is still happening.  So eventually, when all of these transitions are over, you’ll use your R number to log into the my.scranton portal, but you’ll need your Live@EDU username to log in to email.  This is a move away from the single sign-on that we currently have.

About the Live@EDU services:

  • There’s a website of training materials for Live@EDU, currently under construction.
  • Microsoft Web Apps provide online access to limited versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote.  If you have Microsoft Office 2010, you can easily pull down documents from the Web Apps to edit them more formally in the full desktop client versions.  But as I understand, this capability is not so seamless with Office 2007 and is somewhat troublesome with Office 2003.
  • There were several questions about using SkyDrive and the Web Apps to collaborate with non-Scranton colleagues.  You can use SkyDrive to share documents with non-Live@EDU users, and they can edit the documents on SkyDrive using WebApps (similar to Google Docs), but they can’t upload files – so they wouldn’t be able to pull down documents into a desktop version of Office 2010 and then upload the new version.
  • A question came up about how SkyDrive compares to RoyalDrive. RoyalDrive is not going away, and it has been configured to be used by groups of University faculty and staff (for example, there’s a Weinberg Memorial Library group folder).  SkyDrive is configured only for individual use.  Jack recommended that University of Scranton-specific documents be stored on RoyalDrive.

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Email Transition: Faculty Senate Presentation

11 03 2011

Jeremy and I will be at the Faculty Senate meeting today to do a brief presentation on the email transition to Microsoft Live @ Edu.

For reference, I’m posting my slides, and you can also find my notes here in PDF format.

[slideshare id=7233533&doc=emailtransition2011-110311100121-phpapp01]


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TAG Meeting Notes 3/3

4 03 2011

Just a few quick updates from yesterday’s TAG meeting:

  • We have three new members! Welcome to Dave Dzurec (History), Wesley Wang (Economics/Finance), and Sandy Pesavento (Education).
  • The Classroom Mediation survey has been distributed and is due today (Friday).  There was some confusion reported between the Classroom Mediation survey (which focused on equipment and was distributed by department chairs) and the Knowledge Base survey (which focused on software and was handed out in department meetings visited by TAG members).  Unfortunately, our timing didn’t work out as well as planned.
  • The Identity and Access Management system upgrade is still in progress. User IDs will likely be R numbers, but current email addresses will be carried forward.  You’ll likely be able to log into the my.scranton portal using your email address rather than your R number.
  • We discussed the plan for the email transition and debated how to get the word out about this plan to faculty members.  We recently sent out an email to all full-time faculty via FAC, and Jeremy, Kristen, and Jim will present to the Faculty Senate next Friday (March 11) about the transition plan.  We’re not sure how to reach part-time faculty.
  • TAG members have been visiting academic department meetings, to varying degrees of success.  We’ve gathered a lot of feedback from faculty about their technology needs.  The more specific feedback (e.g., projectors in a certain room not working) can be addressed by IR.  But TAG needs to address some of the larger issues (e.g., how do we get faculty to report problem computers/equipment to Tech Support so that they can be fixed?).
  • Faculty are still concerned about the lack of Mac support on campus, especially for things like antivirus software and uploading files to ANGEL from Safari (though that’s an issue with ANGEL rather than with our IR division).
  • There seems to be a need for discussions with faculty about academic & pedagogical uses of social media tools.  TAG will be looking into this more in the future.
  • There is a reported perception that TAG serves as a mouthpiece for the administration rather than as an independent body – but we’d like to beg to differ.  TAG has been asked by Academic Affairs and Information Resources to provide feedback on technology issues, not to repeat a previously determined message.  And communication between TAG and both Academic Affairs and Information Resources has been two-way rather than one-way.

Thanks to everyone who attended – and as usual, please feel free to address any of these points in the comments!


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E-mail Transition Planning

25 02 2011

On February 22, a few interested members of the faculty and staff met to discuss what we could do to make sure the email transition to Live@edu goes as smoothly as possible. For details about the schedule and how the transition will take place, see this post.

We haven’t decided exactly what we’ll be doing, but, with the help of IR, we would like to implement a “Pick Your Date” e-mail transition program over the summer. The idea works like this:

  • Over the summer, faculty can “opt in” to have their email switched over to Microsoft Live@edu
  • IR needs about 3 weeks notice for anyone who wants to switch prior to the week they wish to do so
  • There will be one round of transitions each week, probably occurring on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Everyone signed up for that week will be switched over simultaneously
  • There will be Tech Cons from CTLE on hand to help with getting used to the new system and/or moving email from your local folder to the cloud service
  • There will be voluntary 30 minute lunch-time presentations on a weekly basis introducing faculty to the new web-based system
  • Faculty who transition early can function as “go-to” members in their department, since they’ll have some experience with the system long before the rest of the faculty are forced to switch over

Picking the week you want to switch ensures that you can deal with the new system on your own terms, i.e., when you’re not teaching, or in the middle of a big grant proposal, or on vacation or what-have-you.

Any thoughts or preferences? Will this work? Won’t it? Let us know!


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February IT Forum

18 02 2011

Yesterday, the Department of Planning and Information Resources held a very well attended forum where they discussed the switchover from RoyalMail to the new Microsoft Live@edu software to manage our university’s email. Some of the key points brought up were:

  • Your access information will likely change to a permanent, unique identifier (likely your R-number). Your e-mail address will not change.
  • Migration of users to the new system will begin in the Summer of 2011, starting with the staff.
  • Faculty email conversions are slated to begin (on a department-by-department basis) the 3rd week of the fall semester.
  • Early adopters are welcome! Starting in the Summer, any faculty who wishes to convert their email early will have the option to do so. When we find the procedure for this, we will let you know asap.
  • There is a hard limit of 10GB on the new email system. Requests for a more storage cannot be honored for any reason. This is due to the limits of the software implementation and is dictated by Microsoft.
  • Mail stored in your webmail will be moved to Live@edu without any effort on your part.
  • Mail stored on your local computer can be moved to the new system. There are a number of software packages IR is looking into that can facilitate this, but it will require some intervention by the user.
  • Since there is a 10GB limit, you should make sure you have less than 10GB of mail stored on your local drive. Vince Yanusauskas put together a short handout to check the amount of email stored on your local computer. You can find that here. If you are storing less than 9GB, you have nothing to worry about!
  • If you are storing files via Thunderbird or Outlook on your local hard drive, please post below how much you’re using. We’re interested in knowing how many faculty might run into this 10GB limit.

You can download the full presentations here.


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Email Transition: A Note about Old Email

15 02 2011

TAG has heard some concerns among faculty lately about the upcoming email transition to Microsoft Live @ Edu.  Most of the concerns have centered around making sure old email can be migrated into the new system.  Here are a few clarifications:

  • If you use RoyalMail and Thunderbird, there are two places email can be stored.  Each faculty member currently has 200 MB of space on RoyalMail – that email is stored on an on-campus server.  But many people have additional email stored in “local mail” folders – this email is stored on your computer’s hard drive.
  • Email stored on the RoyalMail server (that 200 MB) will be migrated into the new Microsoft Live @ Edu cloud environment by IR.
  • Instead of the old 200 MB quota on the RoyalMail server, the Microsoft Live @ Edu system allows each user to store 10 GB worth of email.  We’ll soon be sending out some instructions for how to figure out how much email you have stored on your local system so you can tell how close you are to that limit.
  • There will be a way for faculty to migrate their local mail from their hard drive to the Microsoft Live @ Edu system.  We don’t have specifics from IR yet, but faculty will not lose access to their old email.  Faculty, as end users, will have to actively do something to help move their mail once the transition time comes – but we don’t have to do anything yet.  During the transition, CTLE TechCons will be on hand to help faculty with the migration.
  • IR is not against faculty migrating their email to Gmail instead of using Microsoft Live @ Edu, as long as we keep in mind issues of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).  The University has to comply with increasingly strict federal laws, like FERPA, that protect PII.  Any information dealing with a student’s “educational record” should not be stored on Google’s servers.

The bottom line is – don’t panic, you’ll still have access to your old email.  If you have questions or other concerns about the email transition, please let TAG know!


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