Information Technology Services Report to the Board of Trustees April 23, 2014 Information Technology Services April 23, 2014 (Prepared March 24, 2014) STUDENT SUCCESS 
Commitment to Excellence iPads for Admissions and Financial Aid Departments ITS is providing iPads with pre‐installed media, applications and 4G support to UA recruiters in Admissions and Financial Aid. The iPads provide mobile access to Royall, Nolij, PeopleSoft and other data sources to better serve prospective students, students who have applied, and students who are seeking financial aid assistance. 
Royall & Company provides the University with marketing and recruitment expertise to increase the number of undergraduate applications. Royall targets qualified students and optimizes the application fee and credential chase processes. The program has yielded significantly more applicants for both domestic and international undergraduate students. Royall A new campaign is underway to reach out to Fall domestic applicants who have yet to confirm their enrollment at UA. These students will be contacted by Royall and surveyed regarding their interest in enrolling at UA. The survey results will be available to UA for follow‐up and planning purposes. Students interested in enrolling will be able to pay the confirmation fee in the Royall portal. In addition, a new recruitment campaign, the Sophomore‐
Junior search, will be underway shortly. 
Student Response System Selection The Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Clicker Technology Review Committee selected Top Hat and Turning Technologies to pilot in the spring. Approximately 750 students and 13 instructors participated in the pilot. The committee recommended the selection of Turning Technologies as the new clicker solution. The Faculty Senate voted in support of this resolution at the March meeting. Purchasing is working with Turning on the contract terms. This new solution will offer faculty and students the option to use a virtual clicker solution on a smart phone, tablet, or laptop instead of a physical clicker. A physical clicker will still be an option for students who do not have a mobile device or for locations that may not have wireless access. ITS is developing a summer 2014 implementation strategy. 2|ITS UPDATE
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Retention Efforts – GradesFirst GradesFirst provides early alert, advising management, integrated communications/scheduling and tutoring management services for the purpose of improving the quality and effectiveness of academic advising. By implementing this solution, the advising centers and colleges will be able to improve interactions with students, as well as provide the opportunity to collaboratively address the needs of the students. Two software systems to aid in retention efforts, GradesFirst and Educational Advisory Board (EAB) Student Success Collaborative, are currently being implemented. The project to implement the first phase of GradesFirst is on schedule for spring break 2014. It includes advisory summary reports, advisor notes, and reporting capability. Advisor roles have been set and approximately 90 advisors have gone through the training. The interface between PeopleSoft and GradesFirst was completed and is being tested. An issue remains checking the applications security to ensure it complies with FERPA Regulations. Phase II is expected to begin shortly after the implementation of Phase I. 
Education Advisory Board (EAB) Student Success Collaborative ‐
done The goal for Education Advisory Board’s Student Success Collaborative (SSC) is to “measurably advance institutional outcomes by providing students, advisors, faculty members, deans, institutional research, senior academic leaders and other key institutional stakeholders with insights to guide smarter decisions, which will in turn create more efficient, effective and inspired pathways to graduation.” The SSC combines technology, research and predictive analytics to help the university positively inflect outcomes with at‐risk and off‐
path students. The SSC will use current and historical UA student data in building a predictive modeling and academic analytics engine to identify. The project for implementing EAB’s SSC is underway. Weekly meetings are being held with EAB’s technical team to determine what information is needed for interface between PeopleSoft and EAB SSC. The UA technical team is providing mapping information for EAB to develop scripts for the interface. UA will verify the results once the scripts are completed and run in a test environment. 3|ITS UPDATE
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The Curriculum Guide provides information for all standard programs and approximately 10% of programs that are mapped for three‐year completion. Phase one of modifications was completed in 2013. Curriculum Guides Phase II work completed: 
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Created reporting mechanisms so OAA can track guides created, courses referenced, three, four and five‐year programs, etc. Improved the display search to make it more intuitive for end users to find programs that interest them Configured attributes for programs to allow for better, improved classification of programs, i.e. weekend, online, hybrid Additional work to be included in Phase II include: 
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Map up to 80% of programs with three‐year completion tracks Adjust all programs to reflect changes in graduation criteria Change requirement from 128 credit hours for graduation to 120 hours Make approved changes in GenEd requirements as approved by OAA Make updated guides available for incoming students in 2014 
e2Campus The University’s new emergency notification system, e2campus, continues to provide faster, better emergency notifications to students, faculty and staff. The next step is to integrate e2campus messaging with electronic message boards, social networks Facebook and Twitter. Next, we will be integrating with other emergency systems such as fire alarm systems, campus loud speaker systems and telephone bridges. New users continue to subscribe and we have reached a total of 18,012 active students, faculty and staff that we can reach with text messages. 4|ITS UPDATE
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We are in the process of scheduling in April a series of focus groupS for our students. These sessions are designed to seek input from students about what they want in the university portal, MyAkron. The focus groups will be conducted with the assistance of the Taylor Institute. They will help the University understand: Akron Experience 
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Expectations for portals from today’s users The role of news in MyAkron Navigation strategies The role of social networking in MyAkron Possible layouts for a revised experience in MyAkron 
Creating a Mobile Friendly Web The University’s webpages are being converted to become compliant with and display in various mobile devices. This conversion will allow the use of content already prepared by various departments, schools and colleges to be friendly with the myriad of mobile devices that our constituents now use to browse the web. These changes include: 
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New "responsive design" templates New templates on our recruiting and outreach pages. This process is currently 98% complete and is expected to be completed by April 2014 Templates are now being applied to school, college and department pages. These are being prioritized on an ongoing basis. Groups with new sites are created with the new templates only and other groups are being converted as they come up for major changes to their sites Anticipate a completely mobile friendly experience at www.uakron.edu by June 2014 5|ITS UPDATE
GLOBAL RELEVANCE Develop Dynamic and Globally Relevant Programs 
 System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012 Upgrade The System Center Configuration Manager (CCM) manages over 6,000 PC‐based, Macintosh and Linux clients on campus. We are also able to manage university clients when they are away from campus. ITS is nearing the end of testing and plans to start transitioning users to SCCM 2012 on March 24 with all users migrated by the end of the semester. 
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The IUC‐CIOs (Inter University Council of Ohio) met with the University System of Georgia to learn more about how they negotiate state‐wide licensing with Oracle. Representative CIOs from the IUC met with Oracle on March 13 and 14 to determine how Oracle can improve IT for higher education in Ohio and whether aggregate licensing of Oracle products can provide a pricing advantage for Ohio schools. IUC‐CIO Oracle Licensing 
Online Learning (eLearning) UA's strategic enrollment services staff, in consultation with the colleges, has identified a set of programs that are strategically important to the University's online learning initiative. We are in the process of supporting the curriculum development and approval efforts for the courses in these programs. As of March, there were 166 curriculum proposals in the system for mode of delivery change to online. In the last nine months, Design and Development staff has assisted faculty with the development of 72 new online courses (14 complete and 58 in process). There are 133 online course sections offered for Spring of 2014 and 126 online course sections offered for Summer 2014. A 40‐hour workshop has been developed to assist faculty members in the creation of online courses. To date, 17 instructors have completed this workshop. There are currently 32 instructors enrolled in the spring session. This session is being taught in a Distance Learning Classroom between main campus and the Wayne campus. 6|ITS UPDATE
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Content Management Systems SharePoint and dotCMS are both undergoing major upgrades that will provide better tools for management of university information, both internal and external. 
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Shared Service: Supporting PeopleSoft at LCCC Installation is complete on the new Sharepoint version in preparation to migrate from the old system Migration is 70% complete at this time The Cloud version of SharePoint in Office 365 is beginning testing toward the next generation of our SharePoint experience. dotCMS is being upgraded, tested and launched, behind the scenes. A launch of the new dotCMS version is targeted for April 15 UA’s work with LCCC (Lorain County Community College) to create shared service initiatives for the benefit of both institutions and provide support for LCCC's PeopleSoft administrative enterprise application continues. Application Support: UA provided the application upgrade and database support for LCCC Campus Solutions bundles 31, 32, HCM bundle 23, and PeopleTools V8.53. These updates occurred over several weekends. Numerous issues were referred to UA by LCCC and all updates took place without any problems. PeopleSoft Planning for the Split and HCM Upgrade: UA has begun working with LCCC to plan the split that will occur between the Campus Solutions and Human Capital Management applications. That project will begin at UA in April and LCCC is expected to follow about one month later. Following the split, both institutions will upgrade HCM from V9.0 to V9.2. The HCM Upgrade is projected to continue through June 2015. By negotiating for lab and consulting services, both institutions should experience savings over performing the upgrade on their own. Hardware Upgrade: Work is underway to replace the hardware used to run the PeopleSoft database and application servers at LCCC. The target date for the move is planned for April 6. 7|ITS UPDATE
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NEOshare ‐‐ The Northeast Ohio Independent Shared Service Center NEOnet, a northeast Ohio shared service center for computer services supporting regional K‐12 school districts continues its work with UA. IT Service Desk: A meeting was held with NEOnet and the current help desk provider for some of the schools supported by NEOnet. It was determined that the UA service was broader and potentially offered greater value than the existing model. A pilot will be conducted to determine the business case for the model. The pilot is expected to produce metrics that will be used to determine charges per phone call. If successful, a second school system will be added. Over the next few weeks, a detailed business process will be defined before launching the pilot. DISTINCTION 
Facilitate Faculty Development and Success by Expanding Clusters of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research Web Conferencing The Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Web Conferencing Committee recommended to the Faculty Senate the selection of Cisco’s Web Ex for the University’s web conferencing solution. The Faculty Senate voted in support of this resolution at the March meeting. This solution offers the potential to reduce travel costs for meetings and professional development. Purchasing is working with Cisco on the contract terms. As an Inter University Council (IUC) institution, we are able to take advantage of a significantly reduced price that has been negotiated at another IUC institution. ITS is working with the Faculty Senate committee to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to begin in Summer 2014. 
Respondus Monitor The Design and Development staff of Instructional Services is working with the Nursing Program to pilot Respondus Monitor. The pilot exams are complete and survey data from the participants is being collected. Respondus Monitor is a product that enables institutions to protect the integrity of non‐proctored, online exams. Students use their own computer and a webcam to record assessment sessions, all without leaving Springboard. 8|ITS UPDATE
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To help ensure the quality and high standards of its online courses, the University is engaged with Quality Matters (QM), a national program that provides on‐site, online and web‐
based professional development opportunities for instructional designers and faculty. Quality Matters UA has been recognized for their quality of 17 courses by Quality Matters. At least 149 faculty members and staff have completed the Quality Matters in Online Course Design program. The University hosted an “Applying the Quality Matters Rubric" workshop on March 14. It was attended by 16 instructors from seven Ohio institutions including seven UA faculty members. COMMUNITY 
Promote Vibrant and Engaging Environments and Facilities Digital Signage Growing Use Students, faculty and staff have access to timely information through digital signage. There currently 22 locations with digital signage, including Residence Life & Housing, Student Union, and several colleges and departments. These 22 locations account for over 90 screens. We recently added MCUC to the group. We are working to expand participation to include all of the campuses. Emergency notification through the digital signage is being developed by the University's web team. The system will be tied to our emergency text messaging system, E2Campus. At present we do not have a delivery date but hope to complete the process this spring. 
Wired and Wireless Network Over the next three years we plan to upgrade our wired and wireless networks to accommodate the additional data traffic demands. We have engaged IntelliNet Corp. to provide the additional expertise and implementation of a robust network remediation. In addition, IT will work with a wireless vendor to architect and engineer the University’s wireless network for the future. A request for proposal has been released to locate and employ the best vendor for this project. 9|ITS UPDATE
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The University’s current voice mail system has been providing service since 1999 to over 4,000 users on the main campus, Wayne College and Medina’s MCUC. The system is in dire need of being replaced. Installation of a new system with AVAYA Aura Messaging product that will provide additional features and capabilities has been planned for Summer 2014. Voice Mail System Telecommunications has contacted Verizon Wireless to increase both indoor and outdoor cellular coverage across campus. Preliminary plans call for a neutral host Distributed Antenna System to be installed in Summer 2014 by Verizon engineers and technicians. Cellular Service INTEGRATED PLANNING 
Achieve Measurable Success Work continues on the PeopleSoft database split with the project plan nearing completion. The first meeting of the Steering Committee is planned for March 20, and it is expected that the formal kick‐off of the project will be the following week. Preliminary review of enhancements for the upgrade, including a fit‐gap analysis for commitment accounting and instructor workload is being scheduled. PeopleSoft Split and Upgrade Project 
Time & Labor Absence Management The University has automated the process of time collection of hours by both non‐exempt and exempt employees as well as managing the requests for planned absences. Last November, most employees, including student employees, went live on the EmpCenter system. The process to load the remaining hourly employees not on EmpCenter yet has begun with the expectation that they will go live later this year. Communications on the specific timelines for the go‐live activities for these groups will be provided in the upcoming months as the departments affected help to confirm these dates. Additionally, changes will be made to the system to support the work rules established for the new collective bargaining unit at the university. 10 | I T S U P D A T E
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Springboard Clean‐up and Upgrade The effort to clean up 2008, 2009, and 2010 courses in Springboard continues. The project has reclaimed approximately 100 Gigabytes of storage on the database server. Springboard will be upgraded to version 10.3 on March 24. This release contains many bugfixes and usability improvements. Items of note are the ability to send notifications to students when content items have been updated, additional improvements to the layout of discussions, evaluation of non‐submissions in the dropbox, improved workflow for creating quizzes, and an integration with Wiggio that allows for students to collaborate in groups. The upgrade has been applied to our test environment. Members of the Springboard Faculty Steering committee have evaluated the version on test and voted to approve the March 24 upgrade date. 
Desire2Learn (Springboard) Internet 2 Offering Along with The University of Arizona, The University of Akron is co‐sponsoring Desire2Learn “D2L’s” bid to become an Internet 2 service provider. ITS staff validated functionality of D2L’s learning suite and lecture capture product. We are receiving a one‐year pilot of the Capture product at no cost. Along with ITS staff, the Springboard Faculty Steering Committee was invited to attend a product roadmap presentation by D2L’s vice president of engineering. Going forward, UA will have membership in an advisory committee, providing input into D2L’s product roadmap. In preparation for this advisory role, ITS staff is collecting feature requests from UA faculty, staff, and students. This project will enable us to work closely with D2L to ensure their learning suite meets the needs of UA faculty and students. 11 | I T S U P D A T E