New Technology Services and Programs for Faculty and Students

Dear Faculty,

OCCS is excited to make new technology services and programs available to faculty and students. The following information provides details on using iTunes to host podcasts for course lectures, a Red Hat Linux campus license, new contracts for PC and Macintosh purchases, and a new student notebook program.

iTunes U
OCCS has developed Blackboard integration with iTunes U at ODU. Instructors can post audio and video files for student access using the popular iTunes media player. Content placed on iTunes U at ODU using the Blackboard integration is restricted to students in the Blackboard course. For more information on setting up an iTunes U at ODU class site, please view the documentation available on Blackboard under Faculty Information or contact the Center for Learning Technologies (CLT). CLT offers faculty and their teaching assistants hands-on experience creating and deploying audio and video podcasts for use in Blackboard courses using iTunes U at ODU. Workshops are offered in February and April. Registration is required at http://clt.odu.edu/facdev. Faculty are welcome to contact CLT at clt@odu.edu to request special sessions if needed. You can also visit the iTunes U at ODU public site at http://itunes.odu.edu/.


Red Hat Linux
OCCS has signed a new campus license agreement for Red Hat Linux. The campus license provides access to all current and past versions of Red Hat Linux with patches and updates. Along with the license, OCCS has access to Red Hat’s 24 hour phone/web support. For more information, please contact your TSP or dhamel@odu.edu.


Lenovo and Apple Partnerships
OCCS is pleased to announce new partnerships with Lenovo and Apple for institutional computer purchases and for the new student notebook program.

Institutional Purchases
The University has partnered with Lenovo as the primary vendor for institutional purchases for desktop and notebook computers. Lenovo replaces Gateway as the University standard hardware vendor. The configuration portal for standard Lenovo desktop and notebook computers is located at http://occs.odu.edu/hardwaresoftware/purchase/index.shtml. Lenovo offers the base University configuration bundled with 5-year warranty for less than $1,000.

For the first time, the University has entered into an agreement with Apple for institutional purchases of Macintosh computers. Apple is offering aggressive pricing and special options, such as a 5-year warranty, in the agreement. The standard configurations and web site are still under development. OCCS is also working with Apple to develop enterprise-level support services for Macintosh computers.

Mobile Monarch Student Notebook Program
Starting in Fall 2008, OCCS will support a student notebook program. The University strongly recommends that all students own a computer. We’ve worked with Lenovo, maker of award-winning ThinkPad notebooks, and Apple Inc to create the MOBILE MONARCH program to make computer buying as painless as possible.


MOBILE MONARCH notebooks come equipped to work on ODU’s wireless network and with the software needed for most programs at ODU. Other benefits include:

• Special Pricing for ODU Students.
• 4-year Warranty. Standard warranties for computers are 1-3 years. This warranty is valid even if you are no longer at ODU.
• Protection. This program provides complete protection for any accidental damage to your computer for 4 years, even if you are no longer at ODU.
• ODU Loaner Computers. If your computer requires service while you are a student at ODU, you will be able to obtain a loaner computer while yours is being serviced.
• On-campus Warranty Service. Most service on your computer can be done on-campus, so you don’t have to wait for a service technician to come to you or for your computer to travel to some out-of-state service center.
  

Ann Tatman is leading a project team to implement the program and develop the computer specifications that will meet requirements from each academic department and college.

Because computer specifications are now being developed for the Fall 2008 semester, we recommend that students wait until computer specifications for the 2008-2009 school year are posted at occs.odu.edu before purchasing a computer. The site will be available for student orders in May. If you have questions, please contact Ann Tatman at atatman@odu.edu or (757) 683-4750.

Thanks,

Rusty Waterfield

E-Waste Recycling Event Pictures

Protect the Data

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which provides a great opportunity to announce new and updated University Information Technology (IT) policies. The University Information Technology Advisory Council (ITAC) has implemented a new structure for the development, approval and distribution of IT policies. The new structure includes policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines as defined below.

• Policy
  
  
  
  • Broad general statement or principle
    
  • Changes infrequently
    
  • Institution-wide application
    
  • Approved at senior level (President)
  
  
• Standard
  
  
  
  • Focus on requirement and controls
    
  • States how to accomplish policy
    
  • Detailed processes that require conformity
    
  • Approved by ITAC
  
  
• Procedure
  
  
  
  
  • States how to comply with standard
    
  • Documents step-by-step process
    
  • Operational
  
  
• Guidelines
  
  
  
  • Documents best practices
    
  • Recommended, not required

The policies, standards, and procedures are the basis for our IT security program. OCCS leads the effort to develop and monitor the University IT security program to meet federal and state compliance requirements. Implementation of the IT security program is the responsibility of the entire campus community. We are all responsible for protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of University data.

Every aspect of the IT security program serves to “Protect the Data”. The policies apply to all IT resources used to conduct University business or used to transmit or store sensitive data. For the most part, the policies are based on recognized best practices in IT management and security. In some cases, the policies are very prescriptive to comply with a new Commonwealth of Virginia security standard. The policies are not intended to restrict academic instructional or research activity. However, no activity should place University data at risk. We don’t want confidential data exposed or stolen, the integrity of our data questioned, or to lose any important data. We must “Protect the Data”.

A full listing of the updated and new policies and standards is available on the OCCS web site at http://occs.odu.edu/policies/index.php. The policies are also available on the University Policy and Procedures web site at http://www.odu.edu/ao/polnproc/. I hope you will take the time to read and understand the policies and standards. I want to conclude with some recommendations that you can implement to help secure our IT environment.

1. Store sensitive data on University servers. If you are storing sensitive data on departmental servers or other media, make sure that appropriate security practices are in place.
   
   
2. Let the TSP be the administrator on your computer. A single compromised machine increases the risk for other University IT resources. If you must be the administrator of your machine, we recommend the following minimal actions.
   
   
   
   
   
   1. Use a normal user account for daily activities
      
      
   2. Only use administrator access when necessary.
      
      
   3. Enable the Windows firewall
      
      
   4. Use strong passwords
      
      
   5. Install operating system and security patches through the University WSUS server
      
      
   6. Use anti-virus software
      
      
   7. Disable file shares
      
      
   8. Minimize network services
   
   
   
3. Block spam email by using SpamTrap
   
   
4. Browse the Internet wisely
   

Budget Cuts

Dear OCCS Colleagues,

Back on August 27th, President Runte informed the campus that Old Dominion University was required to implement a 5 percent budget cut. In providing guidance to the campus, the President stressed the importance to "buffer all areas central to our mission, our academic core." This guidance is truly understandable when you consider that a significant budget impact to our academic core could have negative consequences to our students and on tuition revenue. In our decision-making process, the goal of the OCCS management team was to protect the services associated with our core instruction and research activities.

The budget cuts for OCCS were significant, however the budget decisions were made with a perspective of the full range of technology services provided to the campus and also with a long-term view of current and future services. The cuts we made will still allow us to make investments to support future technologies, trends, and services to meet the requirements of the campus. At the same time, the cuts will require us to "tighten the belt" and reduce some existing services.

We also implemented cuts that would also provide for future cost savings or cost avoidance. For example, the cut to the printout delivery service announced to the campus was as much cost avoidance as a budget cut. The direct cost savings from the cut are a result of reducing part-time labor, gas, vehicle maintenance, etc. The cost avoidance comes through avoiding the increased print volumes to central printing during budget reductions. We continue to notice a shift of printing to the central printing service from academic units. The central printing volume is increasing and the volume on academic unit copiers is decreasing. From our experience during budget reductions, this shift increases. We cannot afford any increase cost against our printing budget. The yearly central print volume for the six instructional academic colleges is over 3.7M. And, we are frequently printing 1 - 5 page jobs, printing a cover page, putting the printout in a bag and then delivering it. I believe these print jobs will shift back to local printers, which is an appropriate use of resources.

The following details the budget cuts for OCCS.

• Eliminated Dial-up Service for Faculty
• Eliminated guest dial-up services
• Eliminated IT Research Services (Gartner Core Research, Faulkner Information Services)
• Terminated fiber lease between main campus and CCPO facility on 52nd street.
• Eliminated printout delivery service
• Reduced student lab consultants
• Abolished vacant IT Training position
• Abolished vacant Desktop support position
• Reduced Infrastructure budget by $250K

We will continue to look for cost savings that can be applied back into our budget. We are also asking for your help to identify areas that would provide for cost savings. Please send me your ideas and suggestions.

Our focus in OCCS will still be to provide quality, reliable and cutting-edge technology services and support to the campus. Thank you for your dedicated effort and creative solutions that are a big part of making ODU a top university.

Thanks, Rusty

Welcome Back Faculty

Dear Colleagues,

The changes and growth at Old Dominion University are exciting. The announcement of the largest freshman class and the continuous news of new research awards are evidence that Old Dominion University is the place to be. The physical improvements are visible everywhere from the new Tri-Cities center and Research I Building to the renovation of BAL. OCCS has contributed to some exciting changes as well. The staff in OCCS has been working this summer to improve the instructional and research technology tools available for faculty and to create and improve learning workspaces for students.

Here are some of the highlights:

• OCCS’s Classroom Central staff spent the summer building 2 new mediated classrooms in the Education Building seventeen more in the Batten Arts and Letters Building, and 5 classrooms and 2 seminar rooms in the new Tri-Cites Center
  

• Two 25-station computer classrooms, which can be combined into a single 50-station classroom, were built at the Tri-Cities Center.
  

• Additional hardware resources were added to the Blackboard Learning System to improve performance and reliability. The Blackboard Learning System was upgraded to version 7.2 to fix several security issues and faculty will notice the change where course listings now include both the course name and number.
  

• The most significant change to Blackboard is the addition of the Content System. Faculty can store a single copy of course content in a library to be shared across multiple course sections. The Content System also provides for improved file management to include versioning.
  

• The Faculty/Student Communication System (FSCS) continues to be a popular tool for managing communication in a course. This OCCS developed tool was modified to list student MIDAS account IDs in addition to student names.
  

• The online testing system Questionmark Perception was upgraded to version 4.3. This tool has been heavily used by the NewPage course delivering thousands of quizzes directly from Blackboard. The upgrade provides faculty the ability to take the tests or quizzes that are available for students.
  

• OCCS negotiated a site license for EndNote, a software tool for publishing and managing bibliographies. The deployment of EndNote is underway in all academic areas.
  

• In addition, OCCS negotiated a license for MATLAB and 50 toolboxes. The license allows for use of MATLAB for academic and non-commercial research activities. We are working on a controlled deployment of MATLAB for existing users.
  

• OCCS deployed software to provide research faculty direct access to the research mass storage system from a Windows-based system.
  

• The new Tri-Cities Center and VMASC facility has been added at 10Gbps to the ODU-managed regional optical network called ELITE (Eastern Lightwave Internetworking Technology Enterprise).
  

• In addition, the network connection to the Peninsula Higher Education Center was upgraded from 45Mbps to 1Gbps. This upgrade will support both academic courses and research activities, in particular the Center for Advanced Engineering Environments (CAEE). The network connection at the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center will be upgraded to 1Gbps in late September or early October.
  

• OCCS made several changes to the student computing environment on campus. Color printers and scanners are available in all general purpose computing labs on campus and at the Virginia Beach and Tri-Cities Higher Education Centers.
  

• We are improving access to computer lab resources by establishing student collaborate workspaces across the campus. As an initial step, remote printers for students have been installed in 7 academic buildings plus Webb Center and the Library. Access to the printers is available through a web plug-in.
  

• As part of the Webb Center 24/5 initiative, the Webb Center computer lab will be available on a 24-hour basis Sunday - Thursday.

Our department also has several initiatives currently in development.

• OCCS is collaborating with the Center for Learning Technologies on a number of new technologies for academic support to include web conferencing, e-Portfolio using the new Blackboard Content System, and podcasting using iTunesU (itunes.odu.edu).
  

• Proposals are being evaluated for the University’s standard desktop and laptop computer contract. A decision will be made by mid-September for deployment in October.
  

• In addition, proposals are being evaluated for a student laptop program. The program will not be mandatory, however will offer students an attractive price, and support services starting in Fall 2008.
  

• Several other technologies are being evaluated to include a virtual computer lab environment to support remote and shared access to high-end scientific and engineering applications.
  

A major emphasis will be placed this year on meeting requirements of new Commonwealth of Virginia IT security regulations. OCCS and the Information Technology Advisory Council (ITAC) have established new University IT policies and standards as part of a security program that will help the University comply with the new state standards. The overall goal of the security program is to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of University data. The new IT policies and standards reflect the requirements of the state standards, federal regulations, and IT security best practices. The University IT policies and standards apply to all IT resources used to conduct University business or used to transmit or store sensitive data. The application of the policies and standards should not impede instruction or research activities, however, no activity should introduce unacceptable risk to University data. Please take time to review the new IT policies and standards (http://occs.odu.edu/policies/index.php).

Over the summer, we started evaluating the University email system for faculty/staff and students. In the next week, we will request your input through a survey on email functionality and satisfaction. Our goal is to make a decision on the email direction for the University before the end of the calendar year.

I hope you have a great semester and check out this blog weekly for new posts.

Thanks,

Rusty Waterfield