Attending: Ed Anapol, Mike Baptiste, John Board, Ken Hirsh (for Dick Danner), Angel Dronsfield, Brian Eder, Ed Gomes (for David Ferriero) Ed Gomes, Patrick Halpin, Billy Herndon, Ken Knoerr, Forest Smith (for Melissa Mills), Kyle Johnson (for Caroline Nisbet), George Oberlander, Lynne O'Brien, Mike Pickett, Rafael Rodriguez, Jeffrey Taekman, Clare Tufts, Fred Westbrook, Robert Wolpert
Guests: Matt Young (for Chris Meyer), Amy Campbell, Neal Caidin, Suzanne Maupin, Chris Cramer, John Campbell, Kathy Pfeiffer, and Debbie DeYulia
Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 4:05 pm
I. Review of Minutes and Announcements:
- Tonight Duke/FL St game televised on channel 2 since a lot of students do not have Fox sports because it is a premium channel.
SISS PeopleSoft 8.0 upgrade plans
Kathy Pfeiffer
Update on several issues:
Strategic plan for this year - 2 Parts
Part 1 - Things to get done
- Stabilization
- Performance
- Building user confidence in outcome
- Rethink some processes
- Communication - talk regularly with central offices, user groups, administrators in schools. Would like to get some input from ITAC on how to get faculty involvement. Right now there is no way of getting feedback, especially from faculty.
Re-engineering projects - working with offices to rearrange processes around the system, give data to those who need it. They have made user progress.
Part 2- Implementation for next year
- Archiving and purging
- Administrative workflow
- Webreporting - simply reporting process, not easy to report directly against the tables, hard for end users. One feature they are looking at is a PeopleSoft product, so that they can develop reports and put them on the web, however, it needs to be in line with whatever data warehouse is used across the university.
- Update to 8 - web based product, all the end user needs is a web browser. There will be enhancements along with some reporting it. The team has been looking at it for about a month, but there is no implementation date yet. In conjunction, they are also rewriting SISS web for switching platforms and would roll it out all at same time - getting student input. Will provide easier access to more people.
- Easier to roll out to staff and faculty where appropriate, direct access to client via the web for certain functions that people are currently using the client for. It will require a lot of training... Navigational training, Searches are different, etc. Would need 2-3 months for training. They are reviewing PeopleSoft security and how it relates to the web client.
On Feb 28 - There will be a PeopleSoft demo
Contact Kathy Pfeiffer if you want to go, there are 30 slots available. PeopleSoft portal and 8 client along with new products will be demoed in the morning.What 8 looks like and the PeopleSoft portal will be in the afternoon, along with how to upgrade, reporting datamart, PeopleSoft training, hands-on workshop
Gradebook
A gradebook product will be rolled out with Version 8. It will be an add-on application to current client, allowing faculty to track test scores, etc, and post final grades. The Medical School is very interested in it.
Next Friday, February 15, PeopleSoft will be here to demo the gradebook. The gradebook needs to be purchased separately. At 10:30 am in the Medical school amphitheatre is where they are doing the demo for medical school faculty.
There is a gradebook in blackboard also, how will this work? The gradebook in blackboard is not flexible - so others will be interested in seeing this gradebook. They can also schedule another demo for other faculty member or can give a presentation on the gradebook.. It is difficult to get PeopleSoft to come back, but the SISS group can give a presentation on it.
What are we doing to assess version 8? They are rebuilding the web component, building test modules that they run every step along the way. They can simulate 2000 + hits.
Query potential - who can answer difficult queries and when? SISS group can deliver reporting to key faculty on PeopleSoft, knowing it would require training, etc. Rolling out standard reports. There is availability for those now - against the current database.
Last year there were process problems - because there was not faculty input. Last year, the students were the primary customers, now they would like now to address faculty needs and look for faculty participation.
There were open forums - need feedback. How can we get faculty involved? Mike and Kathy will go offline and go to CITIE community, etc and come back to ITAC and report what they are hearing. SISS can talk to directories of grad student's assistants. SISS is getting a group of key assistants together to talk to now. They can also talk to Melissa Mills and Mike Baptiste to get key personnel. They can go to each department and get key persons - there are 90 programs, maybe start with the big ones.
Enterprise directory, Duke NetID, and Duke Unique Id
Suzanne Maupin
NetID
Passed out a handout - documents written by directory services, would like to publish in Chronicle, etc to clear up confusion. Duke NetID- a new term for login or authentication id at Duke (ACPUB). There is confusion because there are so many other names for the same thing.
Suzanne would like to move the term Duke NetID into common use.
Is it your goal to change all of those to NetID? Yes, that is the goal, lots of room for progress. Would like to publish 2 documents simultaneously to clear up confusion - one about the Duke NetID and one about the Duke Unique ID
The Duke Unique Id is a 7 digit number If they publish the information about both together it might be less confusing. Duke unique id should never be used as a password.
There should be one Duke Unique Id for each person... does the system require that? Yes, it is a one to one ratio. No person has more than one id (not supposed to). Question - is the Grad school still using SSN as an id to identify people who get assigned to committees... they say that the SISS database requires that??? Payroll requires date of birth, gender, and SSN...
Pakis will look into it and will let ITAC know.
Halpin: Do you need SSN for card security? SSN is key used by the card office to enable student ID cards to allow them into rooms (so faculty need to gather and submit student SSNs for class access using cards!). Can we use unique ids instead? Someone will also look into that. You can have the unique id that maps behind the scenes to the SSN. New sap payroll will use unique id.
How easy is it to get a listing of duke unique id? Not easy. Cannot get unique id because it is a FERPA protected attribute for students. Some would like every database to use Duke unique id, not SSNs.If it was easier to get DUI listings, it might help
Increase the use of NetID, how to get departments access to new NetIDs easier. Right now faculty get aliases instead of NetID, would like to have the Nme 2etID, not just aliases, lists given to faculty with registrar only has aliases and they also need a list of Duke NetIDs.
How do i get my unique id... Duke Cards created in last 2 years have it printed on the back. There is a webpage to go to as well.
For email addresses use full name aliases. Urge people not use SSN as identifier, use DUI instead.
Is there any standard to keep external users out of pool? Yes, roles are assigned when they create unique id....clinical sites going to web-based systems - want to name external users. Faculty on graduate committee, etc. they may need to have unique ids. Accepted student applicants have an emplid id in SISS until they become a student and get assigned a DUI.
NetID lasts about a year after graduation, Authentication for alumni need separate database, but why can't alumni keep their NetIds?
There are technical reasons, one being the kerberos database cannot become too large. You have to be careful too, about licensed resources - everyone cannot have access to those things forever.
Enterprise Directory
collection of people data fed by employee, student, and web application system that adds, non-students, employees. Standard LDAP, uses Edu-person attributes and others. Phase one - at same time as SAP/payroll.
Enterprise directory receives updates from PeopleSoft, SAP, and other data sources. Current overrides from legacy directory.
Can't release directory for production use because there is not live data until SAP is ready. Implemented standardized cleanup routines.
Alumni are being held in directory, keep graduating students so far (needs to be discussed).
Decision to keep alumni based on ability to have 200,000 entries. Meeting with alumni office to determine rules, working with student affairs on authentication, Using shark for backup.
They are getting the ACPUB/K5 principle feed from Systems Administration rolling along in good shape waiting for SAP. What is the estimated time ? They have what they need from SAP... When will SAP go? Not ready to discuss a date.
There is a production LDAP directory up now. It is refreshed daily from legacy payroll. In the Enterprise Directory, there will be hundreds of attributes not in currently in the LDAP directory. There are people not currently in PH. Right now its just a lookup directory now.
The health system has decided to encourage the use of full name email aliases.
CIT
- Bb software, training, consulting and support for faculty and students; CD for self-paced learning
- Assistance with creating multimedia components for courses (e.g., scanning graphics, digitizing video and audio, interactive segments such as Flash animations)
- Student workers to help with some course development activities
- Work with OIT, Library, school IT staff to integrate services (e.g., e-reserves for course websites), enhance Bb functionality, site license appropriate software.
- Faculty awareness of instructional technology strategies suites to the disciplines
- Speakers and demonstrations of IT
- Web profiles highlight faculty IT use
- Online resources guides
- Enhancing Teaching with Technology CD shows faculty IT uses in different subjects
- Spring showcase of faculty projects last April; second showcase April 25, 2002.
- Consultation and project support for individual faculty
- Discipline-specific info sessions in departments
- Graduate student training in instructional technology
- Launch "IT Faculty Fellows" program in May for core group of faculty. Intensive summer training and follow-up assistance; incentives;faculty to server as educational technology advocates and resources persons
within departments or schools - CIT provides one time incentives of extra consulting, training, student workers and laptop computers to departments where at least 4 faculty wan to try new uses of technology.
- Current examples: Chemistry, History, English, Music, Romance Studies
- Through incentive grants program, CIT has assisted schools or
departments with more ambitious educational technology projects. Some
of the projects from past years are not fully integrated into programs
or being expanded through external grand support. Examples:- Multimedia support for Spanish
- WebAssign in Physics
- Student web projects in Markets & Management
- Visualization and simulation software in Engineering
- Video -based course materials in Law School
- PDA projects with NSOE, BAA, Nursing
- Primate fossil archive
- Cite organizing examples/database of "transformative" technology projects at other schools
- Spring 2002 grant opportunity for "highly innovative" projects
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Lynne O'Brien
Focusing on the idea of every course having a course website, make it easy for professors to have a site, Blackboard is one tool, also CIT helps people with non-Bb components, a lot of interest about streaming audio video, etc. as seen at the futures forum.
Basic website any courses
Departmental initiatives with cohort of faculty
Key courses or programs undergoing significant technology infusion
Share information about IT trends
- CIT staff presentations at regional and national conferences
- CIT to host IVY plus academic computing directors in April
- Meetings with Triangle CIT Staffs
- Donations from tech companies offer faculty a chance to try new equipment
Update on BB5.5
- Installed new Blackboard version, with SSL
- Migrated CourseInfo data to new Blackboard Servers
- Installed Kerberos Authentication module
-
Amy Campbell and Neal Caidin
Recent Updates: In December 2001 the Bb Project team (CIT, OIT), with consultation from Blackboard, Inc.
Professional Services:
- Updated hardware
- Production : Sun 420 application server (4 GB RAM), Sun 420 database server (4 GB), connected to Shark Array for disk space
- Test: Sun 220 application server (2 GB); Sun 420 database server (4 GB), Shark
- Failsafe database: on one of the Sun 420 database servers
- Upgrade/development: Sun 220 (2 GB), application .database combined
Current Status: Bb 5.5.1. build 139
- Upgrade to Bb 5.5.1. build 150
- Increase integration with PeopleSoft, University systems
- Form BB Advisory Group composed of representatives from across campus to discuss policy issues
- Provide user feedback e-mail list, voluntary subscription
- Resolve BB policy issues identifies by CIT, users, and the Bb Team Issues Arising Through Increased Use of Blackboard on Campus:
- Open vs Closed site and Faculty control of course site content
- Faculty beginning to consolidate course materials in one place
- Space for course projects not tied to one instance of a course
- Use of Blackboard's portal features: for courses,for more?
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Courses Created for Spring 2002 : total 613 (567 are unique, not cross listed).
Spring 2002 Student Enrollments :Total distinct students 6892, other users 902, faculty 496
Plans for Spring/Summer 2002: