News for the IT Community from Information Technology Services at The University of Iowa

Windows 7, Office available to faculty, staff for personal use at home

Ken — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:31:33 +0000

University of Iowa faculty and staff members are eligible for great deals on the latest Microsoft software to use at home – including the brand-new Windows 7 operating system, Office 2007 and Office 2008.

Two user options are available: downloadable versions of Office that can be used as long as faculty and staff are employed by the UI, and perpetual-use rights to Windows 7 and Office available on disk.

Office 2007 (Windows) and Office 2008 (Mac) can be downloaded from the ITS Software Download website for $10 (a disk option is available for $12). This software is available for home use as long as the user is employed by the University of Iowa.

The new Windows 7 Professional operating system, Office 2007 and Office 2008 may be purchased from the University Book Store and Wild Rose Books at UIHC. Windows 7 is available at a special promotional price of $33.95 while supplies last ($64.95 thereafter). Office 2007 is available at a special promotional price of $44.95 while supplies last ($71.95 thereafter). Office 2008 (Mac) is available for $55.95. There are no employment restrictions on software purchased at these prices.

For more information, visit http://cs.its.uiowa.edu/software/msfshu.shtml

New ITC website offers real-time information on availability

Ken — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:26:12 +0000

A new website for the Instructional Technology Centers (ITCs) on campus allows users to find a location near them and determine the availability of computers.

The new site, which went live on Oct. 29, also features a mobile version.

The site’s designers gathered input from students when they began planning their overhaul back in January of this year. “We worked with the IMU Marketing and Design group to get student feedback,” says Ryan Lenger, a manager of the Learning Spaces Technology work group in the Campus Technology Services department. “We wanted to design the new site for the student users. The feedback we received was that the old site was confusing and cluttered. We were also told that the primary – and possibly sole – reason students use the ITC website is to find resources such as lab locations, schedules, types of computers and software. We took this feedback and focused on two key themes: simplicity and descriptions of available resources.”

On the new site, search tools are clearly placed on the front page to let students browse by campus location or software title. For instance, if a student is in the English-Philosophy Building, she can type “Adler” and receive a list of computer labs sorted by distance from that building.

The new site also displays real-time information about computer availability, using green, yellow and red icons. Using the previous example, the student is able to look at the distance-sorted list of labs and find a location with available computers. If more than 60 percent of the computers in a location are available, a green icon appears next to the lab location; yellow indicates that between 40 percent and 20 percent of machines are available; availability of less than 20 percent is indicated by a red icon. A Google map shows the lab’s location on campus. Clicking on the lab’s name displays other unique information about the facility (access policy, types of computers, software) as well as a seven-day schedule.

The site also simplifies locating specific software. “Because of vendor licensing,” Ryan says, “in some situations it’s only feasible to install a piece of software in one lab or on specific computers. The new website allows searching by software vendor or title, and it displays the labs or specific computers where a particular software product is installed – and whether that computer lab is available.”

Call for proposals for the Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards

Ken — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:21:35 +0000

The Academic Technologies Advisory Council is calling for proposals for the Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards.

The goal of the Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards program is to raise the level of teaching and learning at The University of Iowa by supporting significant and innovative instructional technology projects that have the potential to improve student success and retention. These projects should be considered as “proof-of-concept” projects that are new to The University of Iowa and should be similar in caliber to those that have received the President’s Instructional Technology Innovation Award.

Priorities: In the spirit of innovation, all new ideas are welcome, but the focus must be on instruction. Priority will be given to projects that, if proven successful, can be replicated throughout the University. Cross-disciplinary projects are encouraged, but not required. Priority will also be given to projects that support the TILE Project: Learning Spaces to Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage.

Audience: Projects that primarily improve the instruction of undergraduates are encouraged. However, this program is not limited solely to undergraduate education.

Awards: A total of $100,000 is available for awards. The number of awards will be determined by the quality of the applications. A single award or multiple awards may be made. Applications can be made to support the costs of hardware, software and personnel. Funding is not available to support faculty salaries.

Process: During the preparation of proposals, applicants are encouraged to contact Liz Pearce at 384-2203 or liz-pearce@uiowa.edu for assistance in determining whether your project is suitable for the funding program.

Application steps for the 2009 Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards are as follows:

Attend the Innovations Award Pre-Application Workshop (Friday, Oct. 9, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in UCC 2520-D)
Oct. 23: Applications due in the Office of the Provost
Nov. 16 and Nov. 18: Interview selected applicants
Mid-December: Award winners notified and funds made available

For more information on the Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards program and to register for the workshop, point your browser to http://its.uiowa.edu/instruction/atac/.

Protect yourself against phishing scams

Ken — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:01:34 +0000

Recently, the University of Iowa e‑mail system has been inundated with fraud attempts, which are known as “phishing” scams, against members of the UI Community.

These fraudulent attempts use e‑mails designed to lure users into giving access to their Hawkmail accounts, as well as other personal information.

“Be suspicious of any unsolicited e-mail you receive, unless it’s from someone you know, or it’s an official ‘uiowa.edu’ message,” says Jane Drews, University IT Security Officer. “Just clicking on the link – even if you don’t enter any personal information – can infect your computer.”

Your HawkID is used to access Hawkmail and other University systems and resources that can potentially impact research and service for thousands of our users. It is very important that you exercise caution when using your e-mail account to prevent malicious users from using your mailbox as a launching pad for further attacks.

Drews wants all members of the University Community to be aware of the following:

There is NEVER a legitimate need for anyone to ask for your password in an e-mail
Websites that legitimately ask for your HawkID will always end in “uiowa.edu”

Compromised accounts lead to targeted scams involving your University credentials. With your help and vigilance we can continue to maintain a higher level of service for all University users.

For more information regarding phishing scams and how to identify them, please contact the ITS Help Desk at its-helpdesk@uiowa.edu or call 384-4357 (4-HELP). For general information, visit the ITS Help Desk website at http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/

SCOLA to be removed from campus cable TV after Sept. 30

Ken — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:51:17 +0000

The foreign news channel SCOLA (channel 99) will no longer be available on the campus cable TV system after Sept. 30. SCOLA programming on UITV will also cease on that date.

This de-selection of SCOLA is a direct result of a rapid evolution in the habits of viewers: from watching such content as scheduled via campus cable TV to watching it on-demand via the Internet. At the same time, there is a need to shift funding in these economically challenging times to the most critical and broadly utilized services.

Alternative, dedicated, foreign-language channels on the campus cable TV system include:

• NHK Japan, channel 5
• Phoenix Chinese, channel 6
• Univision (Spanish), channel 55

A wide variety of live and on-demand streaming of foreign language TV over the Internet is also available (some for a fee):

http://broadband-television.com/tv
http://www.francetvod.fr
http://www.germantv.info/GermTVstart_en.html
http://www.jumptv.com/international
http://www.russiantvonline.com
http://www.talfazat.com

If you have questions about this service change, please contact Mark Katsouros, Director of Telecommunication & Network Services, at mark-katsouros@uiowa.edu

New Microsoft Campus Agreement now in place

Ken — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:54:31 +0000

ITS staff members led the negotiations on a new three-year Microsoft Campus Agreement that covers the University of Iowa, Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa. Tracy Scott and Tracey Schmidt in the Campus Technology Services department began work last January to get a new agreement in place by the start of fall classes.

“The Microsoft Campus Agreement makes available to UI students, faculty and staff a number of Microsoft titles,” says Tracy, Manager of User Support and Education. “The most visible are Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, which can be installed on any University-owned computer or any UI student computer. Faculty and staff can even install Office at home if they’re going to use it primarily for work use. In addition, software licensed through Microsoft provides the backbone for several ITS services, including Hawkmail, HawkID, File and Print, and the Groupshare service built upon Microsoft SharePoint.”

The agreement also includes maintenance. “The agreement allows for computers to be upgraded with the latest versions of Microsoft Windows as well as Microsoft Office, and to receive all relevant updates during the three-year period,” Tracy says.

This year the UI upgraded to what is called the Enterprise CAL (Client Access License). This provides access to a number of additional titles, including Office Communications Server (OCS), Exchange Unified Messaging, Forefront Security products, advanced SharePoint functionality and more.

“Students see great value in the agreement because they can install Microsoft Office, which is worth several hundred dollars, for the cost of the CD,” Tracy says. “For campus, the agreement provides low barriers to upgrade to the latest versions, which decreases support costs and increases productivity. And with our upgrade to the Enterprise CAL, we’re getting access to some really exciting products that can potentially change the way faculty and staff work day-to-day.”

Planning for the new agreement started in January. “A number of things had to be done, including gathering pricing information, understanding the various titles that could be licensed, working to understand the campus needs and determining what financially made sense,” Tracy says.

Negotiating the three-year contract, which the UI took the lead on for the first time, involved a lot of collaboration and cooperation. “On campus, HCIS and ITS share the major pieces of the agreement,” Tracy says. “ITS worked with CITL to help determine needs and direction. Off campus, we worked closely with counterparts at Iowa State and UNI. It was certainly a partnership between a number of groups.”

Retirement of IMS database furthers mainframe decommissioning

Ken — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:19:33 +0000

Staff in Administrative Information Systems (AIS) and Systems & Platforms (SPA) continue to prepare for the eventual decommissioning of the mainframe, which is expected to occur by the end of 2011.

In July, staff from the two departments completed a long process of migration away from IBM’s Information Management System (IMS) database management product. IMS had been housed on the mainframe.

“IBM released IMS in 1966, and it was the first commercially available database management system” says Rich France, Manager of SPA’s Large Systems group. “Administrative Data Processing, which is now part of ITS, installed IMS/DB version two and Data Dictionary back in 1982. We’ve been through numerous versions and releases, installing IMS version six in 1999. That version has been unsupported by IBM for many years, but has continued to work flawlessly across a number of operating system upgrades. However, we’ll save about $60,000 annually by retiring this system, and since it had to be done eventually, the timing was right.”

Neil Bennett, who co-manages the Finance and Operations Support work group in AIS, says there are six migration strategies for moving applications off the mainframe prior to its decommissioning:

Replacement with MAUI (for student-related functions)
Conversion or re-hosting on an alternative platform
Utilization of PeopleSoft Financials to its fullest advantage and capabilities (general ledger, inventory control)
Utilization of PeopleSoft HR to its fullest advantage and capabilities
Transfer to local support/development
Discontinuing the service

“As budget pressures encouraged the retirement of the IMS database services, an attempt was made to accelerate the migration of those applications that depended on IMS services to realize financial savings as soon as possible,” Neil says. He listed the following inventory of impacted applications, and the action that was taken with each:

BOND (University of Iowa Bond System) – Functional requirements met by exporting IMS data and installing it in departmental databases; future functionality supported by MS Access and Excel applications managed by departmental personnel
KAPS (Capital Projects System) – Application made obsolete by using additional functionality of General Ledger and Facilities Management project management systems
KOMS (Contract Online Maintenance System) – Application made obsolete by using additional functionality of PeopleSoft Financials and Facilities Management project management systems
RENT (Online Equipment Rental System) – Application made obsolete by using functionality of existing Facilities Management project management systems
FIPS (Facilities Inventory Planning System) – Data migrated to Oracle tables; application replaced by web interface developed by Facilities Management
BLDG (University Building Headers) – Data migrated to Oracle tables; application replaced by web interface developed by Facilities Management
PODS (Publications Order Department System) – Order fulfillment will be outsourced; interim solution by departmental staff using spreadsheets to manage data exported for IMS segments
HATS (Housing Application Terminal System) – Application modified to use DB2 tables to replace IMS segments to continue mainframe service; eventually the application will be replaced by vendor software

Remote dial-up access will end Sept. 30

Ken — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:09:30 +0000

On Sept. 30, ITS will retire the service that provides remote dial-up access to the Internet.

ITS’ Remote Access service facilitates off-campus, dial-up access to the Internet for academic or work-related purposes. The service also is used by some campus residents who do not have a direct connection to the campus network. The service supports 56Kb connections to the Internet.

“Use of the service has steadily declined over the past few years, and almost every month sets a new record low,” says Steve Troester, Manager of the Network Services work group in TNS. “The costs of supporting the service continue to rise, despite the dramatic decline in the number of users, and it’s simply no longer economically feasible to continue it.” Steve says the number of users of the Remote Access service peaked at 5,900 in May 2003. In June of this year, only 279 people used the service, a 95 percent drop.

Users are being contacted with information about alternative Internet service providers. For more information, visit the Remote Access Dial-Up Service website.

Chronicle of Higher Education spotlights SITA work

Ken — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:45:55 +0000

The online edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education recently featured a story spotlighting the work of ITS’ Student Instructional Technology Assistants (SITA) program.

Members of the SITA program, which is part of the Campus Technology Services department, work with faculty to enhance the student learning experience. The article that appears on the Chronicle’s website highlights a wiki that SITA members created for a College of Law class led by Prof. Lea VanderVelde.

Read the full article here.

SITA members Jocelyn Benson, Leighton Christiansen, Nathan Culmer and Kem Saichaie worked with Prof. VanderVelde to develop a wiki that helps students understand the complex differences among states’ laws.

Of the final product – a wiki that had reached 1,300 pages by the end of the semester – Prof. VanderVelde is quoted in the article as saying, “There is no textbook which does as good of job. I’ve taught every textbook in the market.”

According to the SITA members involved in the project, by employing the UI’s Confluence Wiki, Professor VanderVelde was able to engage the entire class in one large group project that met or exceeded her numerous course goals. And the wiki was accessible and easy-to-use: After just one training session with SITA members, the Law students were able to make the wiki their own, enabling:

Collaboration. The wiki facilitated the collective organization of a far broader scope of knowledge than any one student could convey
Creativity. The wiki allowed students to explore their individual creativity within a group project, with freedom to customize pages and give them distinctive looks
Research. The wiki was created with the express purpose of joining in the discussion and debate going on among members of the American Law Institute as they aim to clarify the common law of employment

Visit the SITA website for more information on how to better use technology in the classroom.

‘Clickers’ add another dimension to the classroom experience

Ken — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:34:02 +0000

Information Technology Services (ITS) is offering faculty a new way to increase student engagement in the classroom.

Clickers – also referred to as student response systems, audience response systems, or personal response systems – allow students to answer an instructor’s questions via a small wireless device that records responses using a radio frequency receiver.

Instructors create content with built-in response indicators and ask students to use their clickers to respond at the appropriate times during a lecture. Instructors can create questions in PowerPoint with TurningPoint 2008, or they can use TurningPoint AnyWhere with any application.

For more information about student response systems, visit the clickers website.
The campus standard for clickers at the UI is provided by Turning Technologies. The University has adopted a bookstore model for purchasing the devices. Faculty should contact the bookstore and let store personnel know if they plan to use clickers for a particular course. Faculty should be prepared to tell the bookstore an approximate number of clickers to order for students. Students enrolled in courses using the devices will need to purchase a clicker for $37.35. Students can use the same clicker for multiple classes, and they will register their clicker through ICON starting in the fall 2009 semester.

ITS-Instructional Services is offering faculty several basic and advanced clicker training sessions. To register for two-hour sessions on Aug. 12 or Aug. 13 click here. Check out the “Upcoming Training Events” section on the front page of the ITS Training website for more information about fall training sessions.

ITS also is hosting a Clickers Conference on Sept. 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Visit the clickers website for more details.

Faculty who plan on using clickers in the classroom for the fall 2009 semester should contact ITS-Instructional Services right away for help in getting started:

Primary Contact – Lora McKee-Anderson, 335-5543 or lora-mckee-anderson@uiowa.edu
Secondary Contact – Annette Beck, 335-6043 or annette-beck@uiowa.edu
Turning Technologies Graduate Student Intern – Amanda Kirchner, 384-2726 or amanda-kirchner@uiowa.edu
Technical support e-mail – clicker-support@uiowa.edu

General Assignment Classrooms are equipped with the Turning Technologies software. Contact Lora McKee Anderson directly for a receiver.