FTC minutes, April 16, 2015
M. Connolly announcement: George.Wyner (absent) will form a Òdrone groupÓ. Contact him by email; also announce this opportunity to colleagues.
Our last meeting now at 2 pm. On Tuesday, May 12
TodayÕs Presenters: Christina Joy (CTE/IDeS) and Scott Cann (IT)
C. Joy: CTE notes
1.Excellence in Teaching Day; IDeS now part of Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). All day; Mike Wesch, cultural anthropology, and Silvia Bunge, Psychology and Neuroscience, for a morning session; lunch in Lyons Hall for continuation of discussions; workshop tracks in the afternoon – Canvas, MediaKron, course design; classroom pedagogy; Core Renewal groups; cocktail-style reception at the end (teaching with technology awards at the reception). #BCTeach15.
2. Canvas courses for summer session now available (Helen Healy).
Fall Canvas courses available in a couple of weeks.
Grading scheme in Canvas – a bit of confusion – custom documentation under development; workshops for grading are being held in near future – contact C. Joy for a consultation.
M. Connolly: FTC function is to take these announcements to our departments.
Scott Cann ITS Notes
1. MyFiles to Cloudlock – sunset for closing down MyFiles in January, 2016. Exceptions possible, but shutting down a server has security issues; U Maryland did not properly retire/shutdown such services after the major security breach of 2014. Cloudlock is encrypting that allows secure storage in Google Drive. Snag (possible problem) – enabling Cloudlock for one person makes it available for everyone. already available, but not usable (Òunauthorized access requestÓ). Retirement of MyFiles concentrated among a small group of 20 people (migration person by person) who are the heavy users.
ITS now testing Cloudlock. Testing phase confronting problems of passwords for shared documents.
No need to clean up files in MyFiles for transfer (for those involved in retiring their MyFiles).
2. Network Activation update – adding eduRoam access in with a different process. Important security upgrade. IP addresses all handled in the background (cameras, printers, etc.). When the upgrade begins, we all should be prompted for credentials. This precedes IPv6 improvements (from IPv4) that will follow, but these are not directly affected.
3. Student Progress Reporting – survey of students showed 60% participation; old system of individual/manually submitted cards produced a much lower rate.
4. Yosemite – summertime image (X.X.3) will be out this summer; wait to upgrade. Be aware of MatLab and other possible software compatibility issues.
Yosemite increases the speed of performance demonstrably.
5. Summer plans
a. New design for ÒservicesÓ webpages:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/help
Sample, non-BC model: one.iu.edu - all-purpose entry page for a service catalog.
Beta version at BC: srvcat.bc.edu (https) under development; launch in mid-May. ÒPopularÓ searches for services will move to the top of a lengthy list (plus a search engine). Down the road (as the page develops) a different array will be developed for different types of users (student, faculty, admin). ÒPredictive choicesÓ on drop down menus will also be developed.
FTCs suggested a rollover function on each button.
Not merely IT Services; ALL services; The ÒGO TOÓ site, as it were.
b. Google non-core services for fall semester
c. ITS/Librarian service desk in OÕNeill – third floor in OÕNeill will become one place to go for Library staff and IT staff together. HELP desk presence also will be set up in Ref area (Òacross the bridgeÓ on the third floor, too)
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d. Security education improvement
e. Publication of ITS strategic plan
f. Encryption pilot – investigations of new products
Joys and Woes
Rob Gross – more Spam getting through the bc.edu address.
K. Baden– increase in numbers of emails lost to rerouting. Suggestion solutions: modify filters; instruct gmail to place everything into the InBox.