Info
ormatiion Teechnology SServicees Re
eport to the
e Board off Trustees
Septem
mber 8, 20010 In
nformation Technologyy Services Septe
ember 8, 201 0 (Prepared
d: August 18, 22010) LEAD
DERSHIP Establissh leadershi p in the areaas in which w
we have cho
osen to excel. •
SShared Servicce: Ongoing support; ccombine tech
hnical and fu
unctional u
units The Un
niversity of A
Akron continues to support Lorain’s ERP implem
mentation. Combin
ned meetinggs with UA and LCCC staff occur on aa weekly bassis. Development and iinfrastructure support ccontinue to b
be provided for student, financial aand human ccapital manaagement app
plications. In the sstudent servvices area, su
upport to maake the “in p
person” processses more effficient is taking place. Combin
ning Units: TThe next phaase of the prroject (phasee 2) is being
planned. The goal oof phase 2 iss to prove w
we can take b
business unitts (i.e. IT, payroll, etc..) from both
h schools and
d combine th
hem into one unit thaat will serve both schools, eliminatin
ng the duplication and the associaated cost. Before selecting thhe business u
units to be combined wee intend to vvisit two firm
ms, NASA annd the Univeersity of Pho
oenix, to bettter understa
and how they planned and implem
mented their extensive sh
hared service operatiions, which aare operatin
ng successfully. After thee visits we plan to exch
hange Scott M
Madden, a cconsulting firm that speccializes in shared services plaanning, to heelp us select the businesss units to be
e combin
ned. Board o
of Regents &
& Lumina: The first repo
ort of shared
d service wass made tto the Ohio B
Board of Reggents and th
he Lumina Fo
oundation, which is responsiblle for fundin
ng a large part of this phase of the projectt. Lumina proovided guidaance as to th
he information they wou
uld like cap
ptured for diistribution to
o other statees. 2|ITS UPDATE
•
C
Curriculum A
Approval Pro
ocess Review
w: TTimeline reviised The con
nsultant, TEA
AM Informaatics, reporteed that the FFaculty Senate’s Curricu
ulum Propos al Process Im
mprovementt Project con
ntinues to move ssteadily towaard a Spring rollout. The rem
maining timeeline is as fo
ollows: Novem
mber: System
m installation
n and testingg will be com
mpleted by first week o
of Novemberr. A shortt pilot rollou t will occur during which selected u
users will use
e the new
w system to process livee proposals. Training forr faculty membe
ers will be avvailable by m
mid‐Novemb
ber while thee pilot test iss underw
way. December: A gene ral rollout of the new cu
urriculum prroposal process will beggin on Decem
mber 7 and be completeed by Decem
mber 15, prio
or to the sstart of wintter break. Januaryy: Effective JJanuary, 20111 the new ssystem will b
be operation
nal and willl serve as thhe only curriculum propo
osal entry syystem for the Universsity. At thatt point the o
old system w
will be closed
d permanenttly and enttry of all new
w curriculum
m proposals will use the new system. Closing off the old system does no
ot mean that all reviewss must be completedd at that tim
me. All propo
osals that are entered in
nto will move thro
ough that syystem until final the old curriculum database w
approvval is grantedd. The old
d curriculum
m proposal system will be usedd to supporrt program a nd course change
es for the Falll semester. •
C
Contributor R
Relations In orde
er to supportt the ever increasing dem
mand for alu
umni and develop
pment servi ces, a group
p has begun investigatingg new technologies to suppport Contriibutor Relatiions. Office and o
others involvved in that acctivity across The Development O
on of the Blaackbaud Con
ntributor campuss viewed a ddemonstratio
Relations applicatioons softwaree package. Impressions were that it
provide
ed significanntly more fun
nctionality than the currrent applicattion being u
used. A next step will be to create a request for proposal to determ
mine which a pplication w
would best m
meet The University need
ds. 3|ITS UPDATE
ENGA
GAGEMENT Design ITS servicess to function for the pub
blic good – fo
or our students, the insttitution and the commu
unities that w
we serve. •
During the summe r, the web teeam has con
ntinued to w
work on convertting Universsity departm
ments and colleges to thee new web design. New W
Web Sites Lauunched in July/August 20
010 • Board of Tr ustees now reachable at trustees.uaakron.edu • Institutionaal research TThe Universitty’s New We
eb Pages Web Sites Nearing completion • Education
• ITS • Engineeringg • Arts and Sciiences College • University C
• Office of Geeneral Counssel hing sites ass they becom
me ready • Student affaairs is launch
•
N
Non‐Credit staatus update An inve
estigation intto a new no
on‐credit/con
ntinuing edu
ucation application is undeerway. Destinyy Solutions cconsultants w
were on sitee July 26‐30 cconducting intervie
ews with staakeholders reepresentingg functional aareas from Summit, Wayne annd MCUC. A separate serries of meetings were he
eld with re
epresentativees from LCCC. Destiny has committeed to providing a Phase
e One Discovvery report w
with recomm
mendations by mid‐August.
The pro
oduct has m ore robust n
non‐credit fu
unctionality than our currentt applicationns from Peop
pleSoft that are used to manage ourr for cred
dit courses. Oracle’s (thee owners of PeopleSoft)) vision is to partnerr with Destinny rather thaan upgrading its own product. Next stteps: •
•
•
•
ons Review recoommendatio
Determine estimated costs Document rresponsibilitty areas (ITS resources, D
Destiny resources)
Review timeelines and reeal costs. Create an O
Oversight Co
ommittee forr Continuingg and Professionaal Education to better m
manage grow
wth and efficiency inn the non‐crredit area. Once in
n place, this application will enable tthe Universiity to expand
d its non‐‐credit/conttinuing education offerin
ngs. 4|ITS UPDATE
•
G
Governance &
& Project man
nagement Since th
he PeopleSooft 9.0 Migraation Projectt which was completed last year, a framework and processs has been eestablished for selecting and maanaging proj ects associaated with our PeopleSoftt modules. An initiative has beegun to revieew the proceess and the fframework tto incorpo
orate its use for all IT pro
ojects includ
ding those fo
or the Compu
uter Operatioons, Learning Technologgies and Web
b Development groups. This review
w will focus o
on improvem
ments and ch
hanges that need to
o be made too the framew
work and prrocess, tools that can help automaate and streaamline it and provide a plan to impllement this ffor all IT un
nits. It is exp
pected that tthis review aalong with itts recommendations and
d plan to implement will be pressented in Sep
ptember. •
N
New Data Ceenter With an
n informal coommitmentt on the partt of Summa, plans for the shared data centerr are movingg forward. ITS has also met wiith IT person
nnel from AG
GMC and Staate concerning optionss for a new ddata center. As prevviously reporrted, The Un
niversity of A
Akron’s interrest in a shared data ce
enter is the rresult of ourr need for dissaster recovvery and the increasse in hostingg computing services for organization outside off the Uniiversity. Theese function
ns require redundancy, u
uptime, higher securityy, etc. INNO
OVATION Optimize our studeents’ opportunities for success by prroviding innovattive servicess and instrucctional experriences. •
First ph
hase of the ppilot in which
h a few screens were plaaced on campuss is still in prrogress. Screeens are in p
place and op
perating in th
he Student Union, Law
w School, Ro
ob’s Dining H
Hall, and Artss & Sciencess. N
Novicast Digiital Signage or the Fall 20
010 At pressent, the pla n is to wait ffor studentss to return fo
semestter. We plann to set up fo
ocus groups and surveyss with students, faculty annd staff to fo
ormally gaugge their reacction to the Novicasst signage. A secon
nd phase of the pilot is p
planned for early in the Fall semeste
er. The seccond phase iincludes add
ding 10 moree screens to the pilot bringing the total tto 26. ntended to b
be part of the
e Funding Dynamics’’ Novicast sccreens are in
he emergenccy Universsity’s emerggency messagging system. A test of th
notificaation system
m in mid‐Auggust proved ssuccessful. W
We were ab
ble to quickly display aand remove test emergeency messagges. As partt of the projeect, Information Techno
ology’s web tteam develop
ped an editoor enabling U
UA personneel to easily eedit the conttent on the screens. 5|ITS UPDATE
•
C
Campus‐wide
e Innovation
n Deployyment plans for the Univversities inno
ovation tool,, Spigit, are in develop
pment whic h will be preesented to th
he project’s steering committtee for fina l approval. We are worrking diligenttly to complete the inittial deploym ent this Fall. Next stteps: •
•
•
•
•
•
Formulate IIdea Manageement proceess at UA Present an overview to
o the Steering Committee Identify reppresentatives from each Division to serve on an Idea Managgement com
mmittee Finalize conntract with the vendor Design the SSpigit tool fo
or UA use Develop a m
marketing pllan. Informaation Technoology (IT) haas identified Spigit as thee technologyy tool it ffeels will enaable us to taap into the “collective geenius” at the
e Universsity. •
EElectronic Re
eaders Increassingly publishhers are making digital vversions of rrequired college
e textbooks aavailable to sstudents. Beginning Falll 2010 semestter, Barnes &
& Noble is offfering studeents an optio
on to purcha
ase an elecctronic versioon of their teextbooks through its No
ookstudy program
m. The con
ntent of the eTextbook is downlo
oaded to thee computer aand displayeed on the screen usingg an e‐Readeer. The e‐
Readerr provides toools to highliight and annotate the textbbook. E‐read
ders like the Kindle, Nook, the KKno Reader, Sony e‐
reader and Apple’ss iPad are wiinning more ore users. and mo
Digital textbooks h ave the advantage of being le
ess harmful to the envirronment, easier tto carry arouund and lesss expensive. However, not everyy textbook is available in
ormat (yet) a
and n a digital fo
there aare some lim
mitations. It ccan be difficu
ult to flip thrrough pagess and revview footnottes. Some do
o not work w
without adeq
quate lightin
ng and som
me are difficcult to read iin sunlight. TThe Federal government recently cautioned against ‘req
quiring’ etexxtbooks becaause they are not acccessible to thhe screen reeaders used b
by the visually impaired. Instructional Servicces is taking the lead in iinvestigatingg different e‐
propriatenesss for Univerrsity of Akron readerss to determiine their app
students. With the help of facu
ulty, deans, aand the Provvost’s Office
e, p of academics and the assessment willl bring togetther a group
technology professsionals. The review is in the early staages. 6|ITS UPDATE
•
B
Boopsie: mobile applicattions Informaation Technoology is evalluating Boop
psie’s mobilee application
n and devveloping a teentative imp
plementation plan. Working with Boopsie
e, it will be ppossible to ccreate a fullyy branded m
mobile app fo
or the Uniiversity of A kron in three months, so
omething th
hat would take a year o
or more to ddevelop on o
our own. Th
he applicatio
on will be availab
ble for Blackbberry, Andro
oid, Noikia, iPhone, HP/P
Palm, and all browse
er based smaartphones Boopsie
e will allow tthe Universiity to have aan fully functtional application that wi ll provide acccess to: •
•
•
•
•
people directory Campus maapping and p
Full library aaccess and ccourse inform
mation and reading listss Athletics, caalendar/eveents and shutttle schedule Emergency information
n Blogs and TTwitter as weell as third‐p
party content INCLLUSIVE EXCELLENCE Value d
differences w
with the inteention of pro
omoting learrning, critical thinking and personal enrichm
ment of studeents. •
Representatives off the Collegee of Nursing and the Speech‐Languag
ge Patholo
ogy & Audiology program
m identified the need fo
or a system tto automaate patient sscheduling, p
patient acco
ounts/billing,, and electro
onic medicaal records for their clinics. EElectronic Medical Recorrds: Seven rresponses to
o RFP The two areas parttnered with IT to researcch software applicationss that will meet the rrequirementts identified for this project. Other ncluded in medicaally oriented programs aat the Univerrsity were in
discusssions. In July, a request foor proposal ((RFP) was isssued to vend
dors who provide
e Electronic Medical Reccords (EMR). There weree seven responses to the R FP. The com
mmittee hass been engagged in vendo
or demonstrrations. The
e goal is tto have the field narrow
wed to 2 vendors and to schedule sitte visits. TThis process has identifieed that the p
pricing level is well abovve the avaailable fundi ng so more research willl need to bee done to identifyy additional funding sou
urces. The tim
meline was too implement the EMR in
n August witth full deployment by earrly Septembeer. At The University oof Akron, thee three areass that will usse an EMR are Health Services (Di vision of Stu
udent Affairss), Nursing C
Center for Commu
unity Healthh (College of Nursing), an
nd Speech, LLang/Path an
nd Audiolo
ogy (Summitt College). C
Cost, benefitt and propossed implem
mentation deetails are forrthcoming. 7|ITS UPDATE
•
SSpringboard!! Upgrade For Falll 2010, Instr uctional Serrvices has beeen preparin
ng to supportt an upgrade of Sprinngboard, thee University's learning m
managementt system, to version 9. Springbo
oard's new and improved
d features include
e: •
Improvemeents to the N
Navigation Baar, the Classslist, the Manage Filees tool, and Rubrics. •
A new Courrse Builder that will simp
plify course developmen
nt tasks. •
A new Mannage Dates to
ool that will simplify thee maintenance of start andd end dates iin the coursee from term‐to‐term. w Course Buuilder helps ffaculty organize and buiild their course The new
using an intuitive aand accessible drag‐and‐‐drop interfaace. In earlie
er ns, faculty buuilt course m
materials individually, mo
oving from version
screen to screen foor each course componeent. The new
w interface places all of the course components in a single location. Faculty can add con
ntent quicklyy by draggin
ng and dropp
ping a component's easyy‐
to‐unde
erstand iconn into their ccourse. •
LLecture Captture Program
m A well‐crafted lectuure is time sensitive. It m
must fit in th
he scheduled
d slot or it is lost foreever to studeents who are unable to attend classs. n revisit if the
ey However, a recordeed lecture caan live on. SStudents can
mation to missed the first perrformance aand re‐proceess the inform
ete their nottes and conccept develop
pment with m
more time to
o comple
spend. We don't al l learn at the same pacee. With th
hat in mind, Instructionaal Services iss encouragin
ng the use off Panoptto Focus, an easy‐to‐usee software prrogram that lets instructtors record ttheir in‐classs lectures fo
or later revieew by studen
nts. The Pan
nopto Focuss (version 3.00) recorder ccaptures and
d integrates
instructtor narrationn with visuals such as Po
owerPoint p
presentations, web sittes, or drawiings on a tab
blet PC. Thee instructor ccan edit the recordiing before u ploading it tto an access ‐controlled server. Students can accesss the folder r with the reccordings forr their course
e and vie
ew them on ttheir compu
uter. Studentts can take ttext notes during or after classs that are th
hen time‐syn
nced with th
he recorded session
n. If the instrructor adjustts the settinggs it is possible for the student to downloaad recordingg in .mp3 forrmat to playy on a mobile
e device. Students control thhe playback and can go d
directly to th
he portions of the lectture that theey need to review. In ad
ddition, the rrecording is searchaable by keyw
words such aas text in a P
PowerPoint p
presentation
n. Becausse Panopto FFocus is softw
ware‐based rather than hardware‐
based, instructors aare not tied to teaching in a particular classroom
m n record ma terials from their office,, home or otther location
n. and can
8|ITS UPDATE
ASSESSMENT Metrics that measure ITS utilization and improvement against targets. • ITS Metrics The most current ITS metrics available at the time of this report are attached. If a line item does not have a target, the metric is intended to indicate the amount of work or activity being delivered. Lines with targets indicate levels of performance we strive to achieve. 9|ITS UPDATE
ITS DEPARTMENT SCORECARD – JUNE 2010
DAILY SERVICES PROVIDED
Support Center (Help Desk)
Number Support Center calls
Average Speed of Answer
1st Call Resolution Rate
Number of tickets opened by HD
Total tickets opened
Calls closed within four hours
Calls closed first day
Calls over one week old
Support Center abandoned calls
# of Users serviced at walk-in centers
# of Laptops checked out at walk-in centers
Central Servers (Data Center)
Data Center uptime percent (% of posted hours)
Mainframe uptime percent (% of posted hours)
Unix/Linux server uptime percent (% of posted hours)
Windows/Apple Server uptime percent (% of posted
hours)
Web Server www.uakron.edu uptime percent
Total number of virtual/physical servers on platform
Total number of data center outages
Messaging & Network
Total email accounts (UAnet IDs)
Total active email accounts (UAnet IDs)
Total forwarded email accounts (forwarded off campus)
Total emails processed (originates internally + originates
externally and accepted)
Total emails filtered (originates externally and either
tagged spam/virus or rejected)
Percent of emails filtered (percent of total mail originating
externally either tagged or rejected)
Email uptime percent (weighted by percent users affected)
Total active network nodes
Data network uptime
Wireless network uptime
Total number of reported network outages
Web
Total Web page views
Total unique Web visitors
Total ZipLine (portal) logins
Total ZipLine (portal) unique logins
Printing
Total print jobs processed
Training
Total attending and completing class
Contact hours for classes
One-on-one training sessions
Application support – one-to-one assistance (tickets)
Number of visits to online tutorials (NOTE: Office 2003
training and WebCT training suspended in July and
August in prep of Office 2007 and new LMS)
JUNE
TARGET
*15
N/A
*16
>64.8%
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
<2%
N/A
N/A
*17
JUNE
MAY
APRIL
5438
3m9s
87%
3982
4808
1043
1758
105
27%(1448)
920
718
4,573
3m38S
70%
3,800
4,882
4,274
4,530
4121
26% (1169)
1,420
2,860
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
99.88%
369 / 199
0
100%
392 / 207
0
198716
47590
96
10539728
197068
46126
91
15617206
493239
1156018
6.81%
11.00%
100%
11,369
100%
100%
0
100%
13,395
100%
99%
2
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
2,363,764
231,662
662,743
35,151
2,884,139
294,243
763,115
33,221
1,381
152
150
100
45
N/A
N/A
72
42.75
N/A
9
119
58
N/A
21
1,000
688 Atomic
Learning
tutorials and 21
workshops
660 Atomic
Learning
Tutorials
100%
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
N/A
0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
99.50%
N/A
100%
100%
0
6,189
100%
100%
0
10 | I T S U P D A T E
ITS DEPARTMENT SCORECARD – JUNE 2010
JUNE
TARGET
DAILY SERVICES PROVIDED
Critical Application Data
Administrative logins PeopleSoft
Administrative users PeopleSoft
Logins to PeopleSoft self-service via ZipLine (students,
faculty, staff)
Number of PeopleSoft users via ZipLine (students, faculty,
staff)
NT Process Scheduler statistics
App Engine
Crystal
COBOL
PSJob
RoboFTP Script
SQR
XML Publisher
Admissions applications: Grad
Admissions applications: Law
Admissions applications: Undergrad
Self-service enrollment requests (by students)
Self-service enrollment requests unique users (students)
Administrative enrollment/maintenance requests (by staff)
Administrative enrollment/maintenance requests unique
students
Transcripts produced
Enrollment verifications produced
Grades posted
Student financials transactions, unique students
Student financials transactions
Charge
(7,285 students)
Financial Aid
(3,451 students)
Payment
(8,159 students)
Refund
(2,578 students)
Waiver
(861 students)
Financial aid ISIRs loaded
Financial aid ISIRs loaded, unique students
Financial aid award transactions
Financial aid award transactions unique students
Financial aid disbursements
Financial aid disbursements unique students
University-Enterprise Manager Computers
Total Windows desktops clients
Total Windows laptops clients
Total Apple clients
Total Managed Clients
Lab Computers (count & utilization)
Windows Laptops (ITS managed)
Students Checkout
Mobile Teaching
Special Use
Total Logins
Total Unique Users
*10
*12
*11
JUNE
MAY
APRIL
N/A
N/A
115,676
919
107,654
931
N/A
364,277
225,956
N/A
N/A
31,750
27,430
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
1,628
5,821
1,674
3,341
163
11,351
14
298
99
1,530
49,767
8,558
441,313
1,509
3,558
1,635
3,286
156
10,100
12
317
135
1,685
96,177
12,308
1,167,312
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
19,544
25,525
2,679
100,603
13,622
127,460
82,580
9,809
30,689
3,253
1,129
10,470
7,137
28,559
8,128
6,732
3,439
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
3,902
2,331
458
6,691
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
652
375
207
70
4,764
1,511
48,889
17,453
2,036
461
15,004
126,143
107,944
999
15,852
860
488
10,075
7,763
19,991
4,809
705
501
885
3970
2618
455
7,043
1,904
622
375
177
70
21,549
5,217
*1
11 | I T S U P D A T E
ITS DEPARTMENT SCORECARD – JUNE 2010
JUNE
TARGET
DAILY SERVICES PROVIDED
Windows Desktops (ITS managed)
ITS General Purpose
Departmental
Total Logins
Total Unique Users
Kiosk Stations
Main Campus
MCUC
Total Kiosk Logins
Total Kiosk Unique Users
Apple Labs
Departmental Laptops
Departmental Desktops
Total Logins
Total Unique Users
Distance Learning/Audio Visual/Academic Technology
Number of DL class sessions
Number of Springboard active course sections
Number of Springboard unique active users
Number of unique instructors using clickers
Number of course sections using clickers
Number of students (all sections) using clickers
Number of Audio Visual equipment deliveries
Department & Administration
Total ITS headcount at end of month
Full-time
Part-time
Consultant
Approved openings
On leave
Student
Total "Ask the VP" questions
Total department hours accrued for vacation
Total department reported vacation
Total department reported sick time
JUNE
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
*13
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
696
10,530
16
15
394
131
124
7
0
4
0
N/A
MAY
APRIL
677
104
573
7,579
2,872
124
116
8
10,726
4,743
181
27
154
2716
1048
706
125
581
31,964
5,856
124
116
8
28,206
8,636
181
27
154
10,585
1,899
218
501
9,081
16
15
394
485
1824
2,976
23,255
50
82
4,151
2702
130
123
7
0
5
0
84
N/A
26,103
44,040
24,724
130
123
7
0
7
0
115
N/A
26,776
42,659
24,072
Footnotes
*1.
*10.
*11.
*12.
*13.
*14.
*15.
*16.
*17.
ITS managed clients logged in to the University network in the last 30 days.
Process Scheduler Stats are cleared weekly. Stats for April were not retained. We are keeping stats for May and future months.
FAFSA applications for financial aid.
Total is higher than unique users because individual students may have had more than one transaction.
Includes UA on-campus rooms and Medina County classrooms. This includes both distance and local use.
Only semester totals are available for Computer Based Assessment & Evaluation.
There are 10 days with no phone reports.
Industry standard for the first call resolution rate is 65.8%, for Higher Education 58.8%, industry target is 70.9%.
Cost savings to the institution for first call resolution is about $150. per call. Outsourced Support Desks FCR is 66.3%. ** HDI
best practices survey 2007.
Laptop Check-out centers included in report Student Union
12 | I T S U P D A T E