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.

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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

New Live@EDU Timeline

23 06 2011

Jim Franceschelli just sent the faculty another update regarding the e-mail transition. In short, faculty will not be transitioning over the summer months. Delays in the Identity and Access Management conversion are pushing back the Live@EDU conversion for most faculty until, likely, early September. We’ll keep you posted as new information becomes available.

Change is inevitable in Information Technology and the conversion to Live@edu is no different. Planning and Information Resources has run into delays with the email conversion because of continued issues with the implementation of the Identity and Access Management (IDAM) system. The latest technical challenges put the email project time line in direct conflict with the Banner ERP migration to Linux. As you can guess, the Banner ERP migration takes priority. Conversions into the Live@EDU environment won’t start until the August time frame. That means that email will not change over the summer. The hope is that the Email team will take the leap into Live@EDU in late August with general users beginning following sometime in the fall. Work continues on a revised time line. Additional notifications will be sent to the University Community as the progress is made on the IDAM issues.
It is worthwhile to note that the problems that have arisen and the delays encountered don’t have anything to do with the email/calendar system. The work and testing confirm that the Live@EDU system continues to provide a sound and robust email and calendar system. The problems surround the applications that are being built to provision accounts, manage access, centralize passwords, etc. This IDAM system is being written by an external vendor and ties to the corporate database for automatic management of accounts. Unfortunately the Live@EDU system is the first of many systems that will have the accounts setup and managed by the IDAM and we are forced to modify our implementation schedule because of the delays.
Given the current schedule, collision with the Banner ERP migration dates, and technical difficulties with the IDAM, the window of early faculty adopters in the summer months is no longer possible. Furthermore, new staff and faculty arrivals, as well as incoming students, will be provisioned accounts in the existing email system. Student conversion will also be delayed, possibly until the end of the Fall 2011 term. We are conscious of the academic calendar and the heavy workload that the beginning of the fall term brings for faculty, staff and students and we will continue to make every effort to make this transition as smooth as possible.
The delay of the Live@EDU implementation is a disappointment to many of us; however, the email & calendar conversion plans need to be realistic on how we can effectively accomplish the goals. We are putting a great deal of effort into developing information, documentation and training sessions to make the eventual transition an easy one for all of our users.
IT Services will continue to keep you updated and as more solid information becomes available we will provide the University Community an update on the project time line. If you have any question, please contact the Technology Support Center.


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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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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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IT Forum on Microsoft Live @ Edu

27 01 2011

IT Services is holding an IT Forum on the Microsoft Live @ Edu email transition coming up this summer. Here’s the announcement from the my.scranton portal:

Is your email in need of organization?

Do you need help with archiving old emails?

Learn some new tips and tricks for handling your email !

Come to the IT Forum on February 17th from 11:30 am to 1:00pm in BRN 509 and learn how to best organize your email, how to archive old emails to access later and some new tips and tricks for handling and your email.

Lunch will be served and there will be prizes!! All members of our community are encouraged to attend. Registration is required by February 15th, by emailing ITServices@scranton.edu.

 


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Campus email will switch to Microsoft Live@Edu

4 11 2010

Here on the TAG site we’ve already talked about how campus email is heading for the cloud.  Now, finally, thanks to IR, we have the news you’ve all been waiting to hear: the email system we’ll be switching to is (drumroll please)…

Microsoft Live@Edu.

There are a lot of details still to be worked out, but here’s what we know so far.

When is this happening?

  • The target date for campus implementation is June 2011.

What’s changing?

  • ALL campus email (faculty, staff, students) will move to the Microsoft Live@Edu platform.  Your email will be stored in the cloud rather than on a campus server (or your local machine).
  • We’ll have more storage space for email- everyone gets 10GB instead of 200MB. Wahoo!
  • Thunderbird will be gone.  We’ll be encouraged just to access email via a web browser, not via a desktop client.
  • You’ll keep the same @scranton.edu email address.  People emailing you won’t notice anything different.
  • Your old email can be migrated into Live@Edu, so you don’t have to worry about losing anything.  Details on migration procedures are still forthcoming.
  • Oracle CorpTime will be gone (not that many faculty members use it anyway!). Campus calendaring will be integrated with our email.
  • We’ll all get 25GB of space on SkyDrive, a cloud storage tool that you can use to access your files from anywhere.  But this isn’t replacing RoyalDrive – you’ll still be encouraged to back up your files to RoyalDrive, at least for the time being.
  • We’ll get easy access to Microsoft Office web apps – so you can do basic editing on Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files even if you don’t have Microsoft Office installed on your home machine.
  • Mac users will be able to use Live@Edu just like PC users.

Why is the University doing this?

  • Our old email system was… well… old.
  • Cloud storage for email is MUCH less expensive than our current, on-campus system – about 50% less expensive.
  • Cloud storage is much more robust (and more secure) than storing email on your local hard drive.
  • Microsoft Live@Edu gives us some extra features that our current email system doesn’t provide –  collaboration and productivity tools, calendar integration, etc.

Why not Google?

Google was definitely considered as an option, but after much debate, Microsoft Live@Edu was selected as the best enterprise tool that would accommodate the needs of most University users.  IR shared with us a few reasons why:

  • Live@Edu integrates well with the campus’s existing systems – we already use a lot of Microsoft tools.
  • Google is an advertising-based system, and there were some concerns about ads – both that users would have to see them all the time, and that user email content would be searched and indexed so that ads could be better targeted.
  • IR wasn’t comfortable with Google’s track record on privacy issues.
  • Google doesn’t tell users *where* their data is being stored.  For the University, it’s important that data be stored *within* the United States – especially data containing personally identifiable information.

But I like Google!

  • Google fans can still forward their email to Gmail.  That said, we have to be a bit careful about this – the University has to comply with increasingly strict federal laws, like FERPA, that protect personally identifiable information.  IR is working with the General Counsel’s office to get a better feel for exactly what information makes up a student’s “educational record.”  We’ll post more about this as we get more information.

How can I find out more? How is this transition going to happen?

  • Transition plans are still being made. Jim Franceschelli is heading the project management team and has promised to keep us up to date – and we’ll post information as we get it.
  • Right now, the best way to find out more is to attend the IR Forum on Thursday, November 18, from 11:30am-1pm, at which IT Services will introduce Live@Edu to the campus community.  You’ll need to register with ITServices@scranton.edu.  UPDATE: If you missed it, see the slides from the Forum (ppsx).

How is TAG going to be involved?

We’ll be discussing this question at our next meeting! We have a few ideas so far, though:

  • We’ll coordinate with IR to help them get faculty prepared for this transition.
  • Jeremy and I have asked for access to some test accounts early in 2011 so that TAG members can get a feel for what barriers or significant changes faculty will be facing.
  • Jeremy and I are thinking of doing some early training for tech-savvy faculty – maybe in April or May 2011. Let us know if you’d be interested in this – you’d likely get to switch over your account early!

Questions or concerns?

  • TAG members will be compiling a list of faculty questions and concerns that we’ll do our best to answer and/or act on as the implementation plan proceeds. LET US KNOW what you’re thinking – either by commenting here or posting to the TAG Discussion List – and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

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