Members present: Pakis Bessias, John Board, Dick Danner, Angel Dronsfield, David Ferriero represented by Robert Byrd, Nevin Fouts, Tracy Futhey, Michael Gettes, Linda Goodwin, Güven Güzeldere, Patrick Halpin, Craig Henriquez, Billy Herndon, David Jamieson-Drake represented by Bob Newlin, David Jarmul, Kyle Johnson, Eileen Kuo, Roger Loyd, Greg McCarthy, Melissa Mills, George Oberlander, Lynne O'Brien, Mike Pickett, Rafael Rodriguez, Molly Tamarkin, Robert Wolpert, Steve Woody
Guests present: Ginny Cake, OIT; Chris Cramer, IT Security; Cheryl Crupi, OIT; Phil Lemmons, News & Communications; Deb Johnson, Student Affairs; Kevin Witte, OIT; Dan McCarriar, OIT
Start time: 4:05 pm
I. Review of minutes and announcements:
Student listings in phone book--Angel tell ITAC that starting this fall there will no longer be a student section in the university telephone book. Research showed students use the online directory to find each other.
II. Introduction of new members and recognition of members whose terms expire
New to ITAC this year are: Daron Gunn, Duke Student Government, Guven Guzeldere, Department of Philosophy; Shailesh Chandrasekharan, Department of Physics; Owen Astrachan, Department of Computer Science; Christopher Gelpi, Department of Political Science.
Pat Halpin is attending his last ITAC meeting after serving 6 years as a member.
III. iPod demo and update
by Lynne O'Brien, Ginny Cake
Lynne tells ITAC that several faculty have expressed interest in using iPods in their courses. Seven courses are already getting assistance by CIT in using iPods. Seven faculty have submitted proposals for what they want to do with iPods in their courses and those proposals are under review. Sixteen other faculty have said they would like to do something but have not gotten as far as submitting formal proposals.
Ginny gives an overview of the project. Phase one was working directly with Apple to determine what could be delivered with existing iTunes technology. Michael Gettes worked with Apple on security technology and how we wanted it to work.
Ginny adds that the iPod program gained national media attention and that attention has not stopped.
The project team created a Web site to explain more about the project: www.duke.edu/ipod. There is help documentation, downloads, and more information. Any information on the iPod Web site is considered public even though the site is password protected. Ginny reminds ITAC members that the current site is temoporary. Also this is a pilot project and there is no commitment to continue the project after this spring.
Robert Wolpert suggests that since this is supposed to be an academic project, and since there is no academic content on the Web site, we need to remind students that this is an academic project.
Ginny adds that a one-year warranty was issued by Apple on the iPods and all peripherals. The back of each iPod is engraved to distinguish them from other iPods not part of the program. The iPods belong to Duke University until the end of the spring semester.
Information was preloaded on all iPods so out of the box the students could have experience.
Melissa asks if a course that was not afforded a grant through the CIT submission process could fund the project on their own? If yes, could they put content on the Web site?
Lynne says the only grant CIT makes is lending an iPod to faculty and providing assistance. The only thing that is asked in return is that they answer some questions as the project is being evaluated.
John Board asks if we know the timetable for the assessment. When is the evaluation of the project to be done?
Tracy says the Provost will determine that.
IV. Portal demo and update
by Deb Johnson, Keith Bredemann, Cheryl Crupi
Deb Johnson tells ITAC what changed on the DukePass portal since the pilot project began. The skin has changed. There is also a public “pre-login” page; Anyone can get to that page and see the portal but cannot log in without a NetID.
Lynne asks what happens when you click the Blackboard link.
The student who has logged into DukePass is authenticated and therefore goes straight into Blackboard without having to re-authenticate.
Deb adds that the Duke events calendar has been added to DukePass. Also, more newsfeeds have been added and students can now add their own RSS feeds. The weather section has changed and now has icons, and students can add locations to the weather section. Once authenticated, students can also see their individual FLEX (DukeCard) account information.
The academic tab displays a channel with library information (checked out items, due dates, fines owed, etc.) The database was moved up to a production server and the version of Uportal was updated.
John Board asks if the load on DukePass has been high?
Deb says that in terms of usage, on August 16 there were 500 logins, the last three days have been in the low 2,000s. Not a lot of marketing has been done, but stats show that students are using it.
George Oberlander asks which page has been the most popular. Keith says those stats have not been run yet, but the team is looking into it.
Someone asks why DukePass is limited to undergraduates. Deb says it is being explored and she hopes a proposal is forthcoming because there is interest by the graduate and professional schools.
Tracy says a big issue regarding graduate and professional students is branding. For example, the Fuqua School might want to have more of a Fuqua look or Duke Law might want the portal to look a certain way. The look and feel is what we’re talking about.
Someone asks about faculty using the portal. Are they allowed?
Tracy says that when we benchmarked with other universities, we found that there was almost an inverse relationship between money spent and success, so Duke has been approaching this is an incremental development project. If we can keep building success incrementally and at a modest cost, we are likely to be in a stronger position to extend to other audiences in the future.
Melissa asks if directors of undergraduate studies or pre-major advisors of undergraduates can have access.
John asks if the undergraduates would have a problem with faculty access to something that is basically for undergraduates.
Daron says DukePass is popular with freshmen and will continue to be popular he thinks. He can see the potential problems with letting everyone use it.
Eileen thinks it is useful information for all to use and since this information is available other places anyway, why not let others use DukePass.
V. Opening of the new Student Center - update
by Deb Johnson
August 16 in 101 Allen Building the beginnings of a one-stop student services center opened. It is like a physical portal. Some of the services offered include general information about student accounts, financial aid, and student loans; student account payment processing; loan and scholarship check endorsements; student travel reimbursement check distribution and cash advances; student biographical and demographic information changes; international student ID card; one-time room reservations; replacement Work-Study authorization form production; GRE fee waiver processing; centralized student forms collection and distribution.
Service center hours are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Wednesday.
VI. Beginning of term security update
Chris Cramer
The Security Office has been working on changes to NetReg. NetReg is a system that lets us identify who owns the computer at what address. The major change is that there is now a quick scan of the computers being registered. Close to 1,900 copies of Microsoft patches, 1,450 copies of Kerio firewall, and X were distributed.
There are similar bots and worms hitting the institution’s network, and students are not nearly as affected by this as Chris feels they would be without the scans and updates so this seems to indicate that the machine scans during NetReg have had a positive influence.
An education campaign is beginning and will continue throughout the academic year. One of the first is a campaign regarding what makes a good password. This will coincide with a scan of passwords and notifying students if their passwords are weak.
John Board asks about service pack 2 and what the experience with that has been.
Chris says not much has happened with it yet.
Dan adds that bandwidth monitoring has started and tickets have been issued since Monday, rate limiting will begin tomorrow.
Chris ends by saying this year has been much less stressful than previous years.
VII. Reception for members rotating off and new members
Tracy presents a plaque to Robert Wolpert for his 10 years of service to ITAC.