Information Technology Services Annual Report

Transcription

1 Information Technology Services Annual Report Submitted by Robert A. Riley, Vice President Information Technology Services With assistance from Robert J. Dillane, Director of Information Management Services David W. Shapiro, Director of Technical Services Michael C. Zeigler, Director of Client Services

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3 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Personnel Matt Velazquez was hired as network support specialist in November to replace Mark Wolfe, who resigned in September to take a position with another company. Joy Albright joined the ITS staff as system administration assistant in February. The position became vacant when Dave Kline left in January to take a job at another college. The number of positions in ITS remained at eight full-time administrative positions including the vice president, four full-time support staff positions, one part-time telecommunications technician (hired as needed) and about two dozen students. An organization chart for can be found in Appendix A. A new position (web programmer) and title changes for Todd Gamble (to senior PC support specialist) and Nate Tulli (to PC support specialist) were approved for During , members of ITS took advantage of the following opportunities for professional development as well as college and community service: Led, participated in or provided support for the following: Datatel Users Group national meeting; Datatel executive forum; several technology web seminars; Board of Trustees meetings; New Trustee Orientation; New Faculty Orientation; Senior Send-Off; LVC Live; New Student Orientation; training sessions for college faculty, adjuncts, administrators, support staff and students; Palmyra Middle School Career Day; Katrina Relief Trip to St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Campus Committees: Committee on Information Technology and Services; Space Utilization Committee; Digital Communications Program Advisory Committee; Web Policy & Planning Committee; Web Development Team; and Search Committees for Director of Human Resources, Director of the Library and Assistant Bookstore Manager. Facilities-Related Projects NEW SCIENCE CENTER (NEIDIG-GARBER) Continued to refine technology program, budget and phasing plan in conjunction with the architect, construction manager and the rest of the LVC team. Assisted with the planning and consolidation of the biology and chemistry departments to the north side of Garber and moved physics to the lower level of Lynch. LYNCH BASEMENT (SOUTH) Completed wiring, phone and network installations for offices, labs and classrooms to be used by Physics starting in May while Neidig-Garber is being renovated. 150 N. COLLEGE AVENUE Completed wiring, phone, network and cable TV installations for 150 N. College Avenue to be used for student housing in the Spring 2006 semester. NETWORK/SERVER ROOM The Lynch Network/Server Room was connected to the building generator for emergency power. ROHLAND FARMHOUSE Completed wiring, phone and network installations in Rohland for use as offices by Facilities Services. Because the building is not served by campus voice and data, Verizon is being used for phone service and Comcast for Internet service.

4 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Page 2 CARD ACCESS TO BUILDINGS Implemented card access to exterior doors in Funkhouser and Mary Green. All of the large residence halls including Dellinger, Hammond, Keister, Marquette and Vickroy now have card access (as does the New Student Center). Also coordinated the connection of the card access system to emergency power in these residence halls so that card access remains functional in the event of a power failure. Academic Computing TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED CLASSROOMS Worked with Media Services to convert Lynch 190 to a technologyenabled classroom bringing the total to 19 such classrooms (or 43% of all classrooms) on campus. Assisted Media Services with planning for the upgrade of Lynch 167 scheduled for the summer of DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS Continued the annual coordination of the acquisition, lease, configuration and distribution of Digital Communications (DigiComm) laptop computers and software. Participated in developing the Digital Communications notebook return and swap procedures for retrieving notebooks from students who graduate in ; and determined how underclassman eligible for refreshed notebooks will receive a new notebook, transfer data and return old notebook. Coordinated the purchase, configuration and distribution of software and notebook computers to the DigiComm students; monitored budget. BLACKBOARD Use of Blackboard increased again this year (see Appendix B for the numbers). Completed the move to Blackboard s Enterprise Edition that provides: 1) the ability to use our existing LVC password instead of a separate one; 2) increased security (SSL) for transmitting data across networks; 3) better integration with third-party software such as plagiarism detection and portal software; 4) a scripting language that can be used to automate processes and improve the interface to Colleague. ANTI-PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE Fully implemented TurnItIn anti-plagiarism software for use in Fall 2005 by all instructors from within Blackboard or directly from the TurnItIn web site. Conducted faculty training workshops and installed improvements from TurnItIn that created a more seamless environment for students and faculty. DYKNOW Worked with the Dean and faculty in the digital communications (DigiComm) program to establish a pilot program for DyKnow Vision, a software application that fosters interaction through collaborative note taking, student response tools, content replay and anywhere, anytime access. ITS was responsible for researching, planning, purchasing and implementing the software (installing it on a server and on DigiComm student laptops) and hardware (USB tablets). Desktop/Laptop Computing REPLACEMENT CYCLE Began in the replacement of all college-owned desktop and laptop computers on a four-year cycle (the previous replacement cycle was every five years). See Appendix C for a breakdown of college-owned computers by type and function. LAPTOP PROGRAM Obtained approval for a laptop program that provides full-time faculty and administrators the option to receive a laptop instead of a desktop when their college-provided computers are up for replacement. This program was extremely well received. Eight-four percent (26/31) of eligible faculty selected notebooks; eighty-one percent (22/27) of eligible administrators selected notebooks; overall 83 percent (48/58) of eligible faculty and administrators selected notebooks. Drafted and received approval for a multi-platform support policy for faculty.

5 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Page 3 DESKTOP/LAPTOP COMPUTER STANDARDS Completed evaluation of desktop/laptop computer suppliers Dell and Lenovo. Process involved on-campus meetings, conference calls, evaluation units, review by faculty and staff and a recommendation to remain with Dell for Windows XP Professional remains the preferred operating system for PCs while MacOS X continues as the standard for Macintosh. At the end of the academic year, the following were campus standards for Windows and Macintosh computers: PC Desktop Dell Ultra-Small-Form-Factor Pentium D 820/2.8 GHz, Dual Core, 2X 1M, 800FSB, 1.0GB DDR2, 80 GB hard disk drive, 8X DVD+/-RW, Ethernet, 17-inch flat panel all-in-one stand. PC Notebook (Staff) LatitudeD620 Intel T2300E 1.67GHz, Dual Core, 14.1" WSXGA+, Intel integrated graphics accelerator 950, 1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 80GB hard disk drive 7200RPM, Win XP Pro, 8X DVD+/-RW, 9-cell primary battery, Ethernet and wireless ( b/g) networking. PC Notebook (Digital Communications Program) Latitude D820 Intel T2300E 1.67GHz, Dual Core, 15.4" WSXGA+, 2.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 512MB video card, 80GB hard disk drive 7200RPM, 8X DVD+/-RW, 9-cell primary battery, Ethernet and wireless ( b/g) networking. Macintosh Desktop - imac, 17-inch, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW), 160GB hard disk drive, 128MB video RAM, Ethernet. Macintosh Notebook MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo, 13.3 widescreen display, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, SuperDrive (DVD +/-RW/CD-RW), 60GB hard disk drive, Ethernet, AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth. PRINTER STANDARD Switched from the Hewlett-Packard (HP) 4250 printer to the Dell w5300n for standard monochrome laser printing; continued to use the HP LaserJet 4650 for color laser printing. SOFTWARE STANDARDS The College's standard suite of applications continues to be Microsoft Office (Office XP Professional for Windows and Office X for Macs). The College s standard web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows and Apple Safari for Macintosh. Other supported software includes Microsoft Outlook Express, Publisher, Visio and TeraTerm Pro. COMPUTER INVENTORY Completed implementation of a desktop/laptop computer inventory (a.k.a. the CEC or Computer Equipment Chart) in an Access database. At the end of the academic year, plans were being made to implement a call tracking system that includes an inventory database for (see next item). CALL TRACKING/INVENTORY SOFTWARE At mid-year, began using home-grown software built with SharePoint services to track support calls (a process previously handled manually). Selected and purchased an integrated call tracking/computer inventory system called TrackIT! to replace separate home-grown systems. Data from the old systems were converted to TrackIT! system to avoid re-keying to the extent possible. ATHLETICS DIGITAL VIDEO SYSTEM Continued to work with athletics staff to fully implement a digital video editing system for marking-up football game films, and expanded use of the application to 11 additional sports. COMPUTER LEASING COMPANY Dissatisfaction with the current leasing company led to research into alternatives and a decision to begin using Celtic Leasing for acquisitions of servers, desktops and laptops in the summer of OTHER Worked with the institutional data analyst to improve the Fact Book based on research and enhancements explored last year.

6 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Page 4 Information Management Services ACCESSLVC Implemented major upgrades by Datatel to web registration. Added FERPA allowances form, TurnItIn formatted class rosters, and teacher certification candidacy reports. Began preparing for WebAdvisor 3.0 (the next major release of the software for AccessLVC) with an initial load, testing and training. The new version is expected to go live in ADMISSIONS Implemented the ability to import online admissions applications from CollegeNet into Colleague. Rewrote several major reports that are automatically distributed to coaches and department chairs to allow for easier maintenance by the admissions office. ALUMNI/DEVELOPMENT Worked with the web team and staff from alumni-development to implement an online honor roll of donors. Developed spreadsheets for a 20-year giving analysis. Worked with a committee to begin the process of choosing a replacement for Benefactor, which is being phased out by Datatel. Created a Valley Fund Analysis Report, a sophisticated process that saves many hours of development staff time. Converted several reports from Safari to Download/Word merge processes in order to improve reliability. Created a tracking process for donor prospects called Prospect Connections. FINANCE Wrote numerous data collection routines to support the Tripp Umbach Economic Impact Study. REGISTRAR S OFFICE Implemented automatic generation of commencement program data and made many enhancements to support the web registration process and registration reports. COLLEAGUE RELEASE 18 Participated in many web training sessions and one consulting session in preparation for Colleague Release 18 (R18) conversion. Attended R18 sessions at Datatel Users Group pertaining to Release 18. Performed initial load of first general release of R18 and began work on the long process of converting Computed Columns, subroutines, paragraphs and reports. We have developed many reports over the last 16 years and R18 requires all of them to be tested and many to be re-written at least in part. SQL SERVER AS COLLEAGUE REPORTING DATABASE Continued adding tables in SQL Server to hold live data from Colleague for use in reporting. Added two operational reports using data in SQL Server. Began working with user defined functions to improve reporting from SQL Server. Implemented HammerLaunch as the Crystal Reports viewer for accessing data in SQL Server. CAREER SERVICES Developed Colleague data export to CSO Research s Interfase software. Assisted Career Services with preparations for going live in Fall OTHER Upgraded Unidata to version 7.1. Improved the automation of new student account creation. Received training on Crystal Reports and Microsoft Reporting Services. Assisted in the choice of TutorTrac software for the Writing Center and began planning for implementation in Worked with Facilities Services on the selection of a CMMS. Network/Server Administration SERVERS Replaced Webmail (student ), File and Web servers (all running Windows 2003 Server) as part of the three-year replacement cycle. Moved Web server to IIS6 and upgraded Exchange 2003 to Enterprise Edition for greater capacity and improved management capabilities. Added two servers (Storage1 and 2) for redundant/mirrored backup of most of our other servers.

7 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Page 5 WIRELESS NETWORK Installed wireless network in Mund, New Student Center and Heilman/Arnold. Expanded the wireless network to areas outside of the center of Lynch which was wireless upon completion of the renovation in RESIDENCE HALL NETWORK (RESNET) Upgraded wireless link between Lynch and Derrickson from 3- to 54- Mbit per second. Installed and configured Campus Manager, a new device to manage ResNet registration, remediation and security. Ninety-seven percent of resident students were connected to ResNet in the Fall of 2005 (see Appendix D). INTERNET CONNECTION Installed a 10 Mbit (Ethernet) link to the Internet from TelCove at a slightly lower cost than we previously paid for a 6 Mbit connection (four T1's) from ATX. Upgraded Packeteer Packet Shaper, a device that helps to manage the use of our Internet connection. NETWORK PROTECTION / MANAGEMENT Migrated to an external anti-spam service from MCI. Began using ProCurve Manager Plus for network monitoring and automation. WEB Installed WebLog Pro for better analysis of visitors to college web site. OTHER Upgraded Veritas backup software to a new version that allows continuous protection for data stored on the File server. Installed new POS and credit card processing systems in the college store. Purchased Fluke network test equipment for use in troubleshooting and certification of voice and data wiring. Other IBM-SPRINT Informal conversations with IBM and Sprint throughout led to a no cost consulting engagement scheduled for early next fiscal year.

8 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Appendix A Information Technology Services Organization Chart Number of Staff (FTE) in IT Services Administrative Staff Support Staff

9 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Appendix B Blackboard Use Fall 2000 Fall 2001 Fall 2002 Fall 2003 Fall 2004 Fall 2005 Faculty Course Sections Students

10 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Appendix C Total Desktop/Laptop Devices (** Not including DigiComm laptops) June 2001 June 2002 June 2003 June 2004 June 2005 June 2006 Devices By Type (** Not including DigiComm laptops) June 2001 June 2002 June 2003 June 2004 June 2005 June 2006 IBM-Compatible Macintosh Devices By User Classification (** Not including DigiComm laptops) June 2001 June 2002 June 2003 June 2004 June 2005 June 2006 Student Academic Administrative

11 Information Technology Services: Annual Report Appendix D Number of Students on ResNet Fall 2000 Fall 2001 Fall 2002 Fall 2003 Fall 2004 Fall 2005 Estimated and before Registered to present