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ITS NEWSLETTER VOL 6, ISSUE 2 Letter from the CIO This continues to be an exciting time for technology and libraries at the University of the Virgin Islands. The University has invested greatly in library renovations and technology across both campuses. In the October 2008, Volume 4 Issue 1 newsletter, ITS pledged to take the University into the next plateau of technology services. In 2010, ITS has moved the University “Onward and Upward on the Path to Greatness” – maintaining our commitment to the University. ITS has redesigned the newsletter to better align with President Hall’s Seven management values: High Performance Institution with a Focus on Quality, Service Oriented, Informed Decision Making, Fiscal Responsibility, Uncompromised Integrity, Performance Assessment, and Emotional and Spiritual Health. I would like to personally recognize the ITS staff who worked diligently to improve both libraries’ appearance and resources, customer service, equipment, and to identify critical needs across both campuses. Again, I thank you all for your support and look forward to working with you to continually improve ITS services to the UVI community. Please contact me via telephone or email to share your ideas or suggestions. Tina M. Koopmans Chief Information Officer Ext 1540 Tina.Koopmans@uvi.edu In This Issue Web Top Desk………………….1 What is Blended Learning……...2 STT Reference Desk Upgrade.....4 Bookmyne App………………....5 Portal & Single Sign On…….….6 ITS Audit Effectiveness …..…...7 CETL myCampus Community....8 Employee Recognition…….…...9 Auto Attendant Rollout……….1 VC Upgrades Coming Soon…..3 ITS Launches eBooks……….. 4 Service Level Agreements……5 ID as Username……………….6 NEH and VIHC Grants……….7 Holds Raiser’s Edge Training ..8 FY 2010 Annual Report FYI....9 Videoconference room upgrades are on the way! Videoconference classes are a very important part of course delivery here at UVI. This fact was acknowledged in the 2009 survey of faculty and students regarding experiences with blended courses that included videoconference technology. However, when asked about their level of satisfaction with videoconference technology for teaching and learning, only 37.5% of faculty and 34.01% of students indicated that they were either very satisfied or satisfied with this mode of instruction. The following comment from some of the students sums up the experiences: “VTC sucks the time away. It takes time to set up, debug and get going… all questions seem to have to be repeated”; and “professors should be trained to conduct VC classes to learning [sic] how to incorporate both classes *St. Croix and St. Thomas+ into the learning experience.” This feedback and our own assessments of the VC rooms have placed videoconference room upgrades at the top of our list of priorities for FY2011. An allocation of Title III funds resulted in $100,000 to make these upgrades possible. In Fall 2010, the CETL Director began working closely with faculty and ITS technicians to assess the videoconferencing equipment. Some of the concerns expressed by faculty included lack of timely connection of rooms and inconsistent interface of equipment from room to room. In Spring 2011 the CETL and ITS technicians began communication with vendors regarding the needs, and invited a videoconference engineer from enVision Technologies, Inc. to assess the rooms. We are currently awaiting quotes for a final decision before processing equipment orders. Faculty and students’ constructive criticism of the VC modality includes recognition of its value to UVI course offerings through the convenience of sharing faculty across campuses while reducing extent of travel, and in the richness of the learning experience that comes from interacting with students on the other campus. UVI videoconference technology must be updated to address the concerns regarding inconsistent interfaces between rooms, late room connections and non-functioning hardware that produces communication failures. New cameras, instructor screens, microphones, document cameras and content display tools integrated into the current equipment will make better use of the technology, and improve the teaching and learning experience for both the professors and students. Video Conference Upgrades Video Conference Upgrades 2 Blended learning combines face-to-face instruction with web enhanced instruction to form an integrated course delivery model. The blended learning model can lead to increased student engagement. However, in order for the blended environment to work for faculty, and more importantly students, a fair amount of preparation time is required in advance of the course. Dr. Glenn Metts in the School of Business has integrated the blended learning model into his MGT 429 (Organizational Behavior) course and has graciously provided this feedback on his experience in the blended learning environment. WHAT WAS THE CATALYST FOR YOU TO USE THE BLENDED LEARNING MODEL FOR YOUR COURSE? There were a few reasons for doing this 1) I have a problem with all online classes and wanted to experiment with a blended version since I believe I could get more work out of the students and increase their contact time with the course material if I could utilize a mode that they readily accepted and were comfortable with. In the blended course they attend one in-class meeting a week and spend another 3-4 hours completing a module that is available to them 24/7. Students are actually doing more work without complaining. 2) The classroom time slot crunch – it just makes sense instead of adding expensive room capacity. The blended environment means that two classes can be run in what would have been a time slot for one class, as long as the learning outcomes do not suffer. 3) I am not sure that quality learning does not happen in a blended class so I wanted to see for myself – I believe the face-to-face contact is vital but how many times a week do we really need that? HOW IS YOUR CLASS STRUCTURED? (FACE TO FACE MEETINGS, ONLINE ACTIVITIES, BLACKBOARD, ETC.) I use Blackboard to setup the learning modules (one for each week of the course) that includes reading, an on-line quiz, participation in a discussion forum, and supplemental material (reference, YouTube Video, or something interesting) that is in sync with the topic of the week and use the discussion board on Blackboard to discuss. I require three (3) quality responses on the discussion board every week. I start the initial thread and may add more later in the week as the discussion moves along. In addition to the learning modules I have 2 exams each on half the text material covered in the lectures and a group paper. HOW HAVE YOUR STUDENTS REACTED TO THIS STRUCTURE? So far so good – they like the once a week meeting and have pretty much kept pace with the modules. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT? ADVANTAGES: Get more work out of the students, better classroom utilization, pedagogically it is interesting and certainly a part of the future of higher education, possibly equivalent or better than the traditional classroom (learning outcomes will tell), in a mode that today’s students like and understand. DISADVANTAGES: More work for professors in setting up and monitoring the completion of modules and discussion board topics, possibly not as good for learning outcomes, may be difficult for non-traditional students who are not IT oriented. The CETL is leading a cohort of faculty (of which Dr. Metts is a part) who will be completing the Blended Learning Series through the Sloan Consortium. This is a three part series that establishes best practices for the blended learning environment and methods to reconceive the traditional face-to-face class for the blended learning environment. What is Blended Learning? What is Blended Learning? 3 Librarians at the University of the Virgin Islands are working to continue to improve reference services. Our main goal is to increase our patron’s ability to find information about a topic. New technologies will be added to the reference desk so that students can follow along as the librarian demonstrates search queries and allow the student to engage in active learning by practicing using the strategies with the librarian present. Our new ADA compliant reference desk ensures that reference services are accessible to all. Reference queries present prime examples of the “teachable” moment. They catch researchers at their point of need and provide opportunities for one-on-one personalized instruction and hands-on learning. Librarians circulate within the main reading area to offer assistance to users at workstations. Studies queued indicate that roving is an effective way to offer on-site assistance. Another aspect of improving our reference services will be revamping our off-site online chat reference services. Online chat reference is a chat service which offers real-time assistance to the user from a remote location. A campaign to promote reference services is underway. The teachable moment approach will be rolled out before the end of the spring semester and the online chat service will be back online by the first summer 2011 session. Librarians at UVI are committed to the ongoing work of improving how library users are served with direction to library materials, advice on library collections and services, and expertise on multiple kinds of information from multiple sources. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to Ask a Librarian! ITS is pleased to announce web . Users can now log IT helpdesk requests online at any moment of the day. The process is effortless, user friendly and simple. Once online, go to mycampus.uvi.edu and login using your UVI domain credentials. Once logged in, click on helpdesk. When opens, go to shortcuts located on the left side of your screen. Select “New 1st line incident”. The window below will open. Your contact information will appear in the window. Inset your category, sub category and call type. In the request window click the date (stamp), the time and your name will appear in the window. Record your helpdesk request, provide as much detailed information as possible. Users are encouraged to make use of the IT knowledge base located under the shortcuts window. The knowledge base is designed to assist users in solving their own technology challenge. If you have any questions about how to use web please contact us by email at helpdesk@uvi.edu . Happy logging! An automated call answering attendant feature will be added to the helpdesk at ext. 1466 to serve you better. In the next couple of weeks, callers will first be greeted by an auto attendant, which will provide callers with options on how calls will be routed. The auto attendant is automated call technology that answers calls and provides the caller will be provided options for choosing the department they desire. The implementation of the attendant feature will assist callers in getting faster resolutions of their inquiries or helpdesk requests. Added Value: Users get quick answers for certain types of questions (ex. hours, directory questions). Calls are routed efficiently and customers are directed to the best method or staff member to assist them. Better customer service, because staff is focused on ensuring quality of responses to submitted issues rather than transcribing phone calls. Web Top Desk Auto Attendant Rollout Reference Area Improvement in the St. Thomas Library Reference Area Improvement in the St. Thomas Library 4 ITS will be developing service level agreements with several functional departments within UVI. The purpose of the service level agreements is to formally define service expectations between units. Ms. Wheatley, Manager of Technology Customer Service will be in contact with your department heads to set up a meeting with your unit. If you use an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can interact with UVI’s libraries while on-the-go. The BookMyne application allows you to search the library catalog, either by entering a keyword, or by scanning a book’s barcode using your device’s camera (useful when exploring bookstores or a friend’s bookshelf), monitor your library account, renew materials, and check the status of intercampus requests, explore lists of award-winning and bestselling books, view library hours of operation, and reserve study rooms. To start using BookMyne: Open App Store, search for “bookmyne”, and download the app (it’s free). Open the app, move the search slider bar to within 50 miles, select UVI Libraries, click Add to My Libraries. To search the catalog: At the bottom of the screen, click on Search. Make sure the Keyword button is highlighted, and then enter a keyword. To scan a barcode, click the Barcode button, click the camera image, and aim the camera at the barcode. To check your account: At the bottom of the screen, click on My Account. Click Login to My Account. For User ID, enter your UVI ID number. For PIN, enter welcomeuvi, unless you have previously changed your library account PIN. Leave Nickname blank. Click OK. Choose Checked Out Items to view your materials or renew items. Choose Holds to check the status of intercampus requests. To explore award-winners & bestsellers: At the bottom of the screen, click on Suggested. To see library hours: At the bottom of the screen, click on Libraries, then click the arrow next to UVI Libraries. Electronic full-text copies of published print materials, such as reference books, scholarly monographs, and trade books, eBooks, are now available @ your UVI Library!!! You may view the e-book online for 15-minute intervals, or checkout for off-line reading during three-day loan periods. Use the eBooks link in the online catalog (http://library.uvi.edu) - Electronic Resources to see over 3,400 titles in the NetLibrary collection. eBooks will also be indexed in the catalog with other library resources. If you are off campus, the system will prompt you for your UVI ID number.  To view eBooks, select View this eBook. Books can be viewed online for 15 minutes  To checkout eBooks, you must have either: a. Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) version 1.6.934 installed on your computer. ADE may be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website <http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/> b. BlueFire Reader, the free app for iPad and iPod  To checkout eBooks, you must also authorize your copy of ADE with a unique Adobe ID. This will activate the DRM (digital rights management) required to view protected eBooks from the library and enforce the loan period. (If transferring to a portable device, the portable device will have to be authorized with the same Adobe ID.)  To check out an eBook, while viewing an item select eContent Details, then Check out & Download this ebook.  You must have a NetLibrary user account to checkout an eBook . While connected to eBooks from the http://library.uvi.edu, click Create a Free Account from the top navigation bar. The loan period for eBooks is three days. Contact your library for assistance: STX-692-4132; STT-693-1367. BookMyne App for iPhone, iPod, or iPad Launch ITS Launches eBooks: Giving a New Meaning to Checking out Library Books! Service Level Agreements Coming Soon! Service Level Agreements Coming Soon! 5 The UVI myCampus portal, http://mycampus.uvi.edu, provides single-sign-on access to technology resources. By logging into this single resource, one has seamless access to email, Blackboard, BanWeb, PeopleAdmin and the HelpDesk application. No more do users have to remember different usernames and passwords for different systems. All these systems recognize you, from the initial login into the portal. After logging into the portal, just click on the application you want to access from your Launchpad. The portal is also a central point for building communities, polls, forms, announcements and many other tools. Communities are an online presence for clubs, committees or other groups and can be public, where anyone can join them; private, where only those invited can join; or restricted, where persons can request permission to join. In that space, documents can be shared, announcements sent or polls presented, all visible only to members of the community. The portal is built from smaller portlets. Portlets can be added to pages and communities as needed. These include a portlet for easy polling of groups. Web forms can be used to gather information from persons or as an online form. Announcements can be sent to a specific community or group. Portlets also exist for blogs, calendars, document libraries, displaying web content and many other tools. As ITS continues to work on providing a single-sign-on environment, overall identity management of UVI users is needed. With an identity management solution in place, user creation and authorization in systems will be fully automated. an employee is entered in Banner, one will be given access to resources based on the job, the campus, the status. Student accounts would be handled in the same way. This requires standards and policies for consistency of employee and student data entry. As part of the identity management project, employee usernames will be changed to the UVI ID number. Student usernames already follow this format. This change will lead to several benefits. A student who becomes an employee would not require a new username created. Duplicate usernames resulting in the appending of numerals will not be necessary. With the UVI ID number as the employee username, email aliases will be created for all. Employees will use firstname.lastname@uvi.edu as their primary email address. Again, this change will alleviate persons receiving emails intended for others caused by confusion with the username. These changes will eliminate manual handling of the account creation and authorization process, again eliminating errors. Official names as entered in Banner will be used for the creation of email aliases. Individuals will not be allowed to request use of another name as their alias. The person creation, authorization and authentication process will overall, be a more secure one. Portal & Single Sign Portal & Single Sign-On On ID as Username 6 Working collaboratively with Accounting and the Controller, an FY2010 IT audit of the Banner systems resulted in effective audit controls found. With that finding, the financial audit for FY2010 was less intensive, requiring reduced paper to back up system reports. With ineffective system controls, paper must be submitted to back-up all financial transactions. Ernst & Young conducts audits of UVI’s finances and related transactions annually. Periodically, this audit includes Banner, as Banner is used by the Accounting Office and the University for tracking financial transactions. The audit of Banner includes looking at user access, overall security of the systems and servers, ensuring authorized access to appropriate areas only. In these respects, the Banner controls were deemed appropriate and effective. The Ralph M. Paiewonsky Library was awarded two grants to assist with the preservation needs of the Special Collections. The Special Collections includes rare and unique compilations of works that exemplify a diverse people, culture, and heritage throughout the Caribbean region. To ensure the continued safeguarding of the collections and its availability to generations to come, funding was needed to support this endeavor. The first grant was awarded from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States. The Preservation Assistance Grants of $6,000 would allow the library to hire a consultant to conduct a preservation needs assessment of its Caribbean Special Collections on both the St. Thomas and St. Croix campus. The assessment would include recommendations for environmental control maintenance, disaster preparedness and response procedures. In addition, the current collection storage area and collection maintenance will also be included in the evaluation. The second grant was awarded from the Virgin Islands Humanities Council (VIHC). VIHC is a local nonprofit organization that supports research, education, and the promotion of public projects in the humanities throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands. A grant in the amount of $7,800 was awarded to conduct book preservation workshops for librarians, historians, archivists, culture keepers and others responsible for maintaining books and manuscripts throughout the territory. These workshops will provide hands-on experience in book repair and will demonstrate preservation techniques for extending the life of the collections. ITS Audit Effectiveness ITS Audit Effectiveness National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) and VI humanities Council (VIHC) Grants 7 Don’t forget to check out the CETL community on the myCampus portal! The CETL community contains “How To’s” for Blackboard, articles on topics related to technology and pedagogy, discussion forum and a calendar for upcoming training sessions. To find the CETL community got to the “Communities” tab in the mycampus portal and then to “Communities I Have Joined”. After you have had a chance to review the community and its content, please let the community owner (CETL Director, Christy Vineyard) know if there is any other information you would like to see posted or would find helpful. All faculty are members of the CETL MyCampus Community. During the week of November 15 – 19, 2010 the CETL space was used for Raiser’s Edge training for the Office of Institutional Advancement. Peggy Fahie organized the event and remarked that the CETL space was ideal for the group size and type of training. However, it was not without the coordinated efforts of the CETL and ITS that the training was able to proceed, Peggy commented “It was a team effort and I want you all to know that we appreciated it greatly.” The CETL myCampus Community is Now Available The CETL myCampus Community is Now Available Office of Institutional Advancement Holds Raiser’s Edge Training in CETL 8 The 2010 ITS Annual Report is out and available. Titled “Onward and Upward on the Path to Greatness”, the report reviews the activities of Information & Technology Services in the last fiscal year. It is available on the ITS home page, http://infotech.uvi.edu, under Publications or visit annual report directly at http://www.uvi.edu/sites/uvi/Publications/ ITS_FY2010_Annual_Report_Final.pdf FY 2010 Annual Report Now Available ITS would like to recognize the entire ITS team for their work in renovating the libraries and assembly of the compact shelves. All of these people spent extra hours, worked extra hard and went above and beyond to get the library cleaned out and put back together again. There were many things that needed doing from removing shelved books and cataloguing them to put in containers, to re-shelving on the new compact shelves, to assisting with re-carpeting, to installing new equipment and put furniture together. Employee Recognition Employee Recognition President Hall recognized ITS at March 12, 2011 Board of Trustees meeting for the leadership in the establish- ment of the St. John Learning Center, renovations of the libraries on both campuses and the use of technology to improve efficiency.