IT Update: What it Means for Faculty

8 02 2011

All faculty and staff got an email from CIO Jerry DeSanto this morning, and  I thought it might be helpful to try to pull out and discuss what’s specifically relevant to faculty.  Here’s my take, though IR staff and administration are welcome to comment or clarify.

Jerry mentioned that IR has three priority projects:

1. “Converting the platform on which our enterprise resource planning system (Banner) runs on from VMS to Linux.” This change doesn’t have much of a direct impact on faculty, other than that it’s a major upgrade to the University’s infrastructure.

2. “Implementing phase one of an Identity Access and Management (IAM) system.” The main impact of this change on faculty will be that we’ll soon be asked to use our R numbers as our user IDs.  We’ve discussed this previously on the TAG site, but as a quick reminder, the main reason IR gave us as to why this change is coming is so that each user will have a unique, immutable ID. And this needs to happen before we can move to Microsoft Live @ Edu.

3. “Establishing Active Directory domains for devices and individuals.” Active Directory is a Microsoft service that will sync your Windows account –  you’ll be able to access synced files from any computer on campus.

Jerry points out in the last paragraph of his email that a main impact these three projects will have on faculty is that they’re taking up quite a bit of time and energy on IR’s side – which means that we might need to be patient when we have special requests that require IR staff time.

Reactions, thoughts, comments?


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Meeting Notes 1/24/2011

25 01 2011

Sorry for the outburst of posts today! But just wanted to share some news from our TAG meeting yesterday.

The meeting centered around our frighteningly long to-do list and how to tackle all of TAG’s various projects.  One of our main discussion points was how to get more faculty actively involved in TAG – so if anyone has any suggestions, please let us know! We’re hoping that our departmental meeting visits in early Spring 2011 will help us recruit more willing victims volunteers.  If not, we may have to cut back on our project list.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the projects we’re working on, somewhat in order of priority:

  1. Transition to Microsoft Live @ Edu email.  This transition will have two main impacts on faculty.  Firstly, faculty who currently use Thunderbird will need to adjust to a new interface (Outlook desktop client or web client).  Secondly, IR is still exploring ways to migrate faculty email both from the current RoyalMail server and especially from faculty local drives to Live @ Edu cloud storage.  TAG is figuring out the best ways for us to be involved in this transition – whether that means training faculty on the new interface, participating in discussions about migration strategies, etc.
  2. Classroom Mediation Survey. TAG is working with IR, Academic Affairs, and the CTLE to put together a survey that will determine what classroom technology is used in what classrooms, so that equipment budgets can be allocated more efficiently.
  3. User ID change. TAG’s role here will basically be to help get the word out to faculty so that no one will be surprised come March/April when they need to log in with their R number.
  4. Knowledge base. TAG hopes to provide here on our website lists of faculty who use certain classroom technologies (see, for example, our list of campus resources on Facebook and other social media) – so that if you’re interested in trying out a new technology tool in your classroom, you’ll know who on campus you can talk to about it.
  5. Faculty websites. TAG is working with PR to establish protocols for requesting and building faculty websites within the new CMS.  We’re on track to have two models to show other faculty, one built using a basic template and one built using an advanced template.
  6. Faculty scholarship database. Word has it that Academic Affairs is reviewing products for tracking and cataloging faculty publications. TAG hopes to provide faculty feedback on the products reviewed before a decision is made.
  7. Keeping the TAG website up to date. We hope that this website becomes (if it isn’t already) a useful resource for faculty.
  8. Evaluating and providing feedback on technology training for faculty.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in and willing to lend a hand on any of these projects, please let us know!

Last but not least, TAG’s next major step is to visit a department meeting in early Spring 2011 for each department on campus. We’re currently working on developing talking points for those visits. Keep an eye out for your TAG liaison at your next faculty meeting!

 


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Categories : Announcements

User IDs will be changing!

25 01 2011

TAG just got news yesterday of a major change to University authentication systems – starting in either March or April this year, our user IDs will be changing to R numbers.

This means that to log in to any University tool (like my.scranton), you’ll be typing in your R number rather than your existing ID, but your email address will remain the same.  So for example, my email address will still be yarmeyk2@scranton.edu, but instead of using yarmeyk2 and my password to log in to my.scranton, I’ll be typing in my 8 digit R number and password to authenticate.

IR explained that the reason this is happening is so that everyone’s user ID is a unique identifier for them that’s no longer tied to a last name, since last names can change over someone’s career at the University.

Many of the other big changes happening on campus, like the transition to Microsoft Live @ Edu email, will take place *after* this transition to new user IDs has occurred.


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