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September 2000
ACADEMIC COMPUTING AND COMPUTING SUPPORT SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS |
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Web Based Course Support for Faculty
For two years, C&C has been providing support for faculty who wish to provide students with web based course materials. The system used to provide this support has been Web Course in a Box (WCB). This product was acquired by Blackboard and C&C will be converting all web based course support to the new product during this academic year. C&C expects to host some 350 courses using WCB and 50 courses using Blackboard during the Fall 2000 quarter. Faculty continue to increasingly utilize more "advanced" WCB features (forums, listserves, white boards, quizzes). C&C has 3 career staff (all with PhDs) supporting this effort and has received funding to hire a fourth FTE (that will also serve as in a management role).
Social Science Analytic Compute Facility
Under the guidance of the Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, C&C will be partnering with College faculty to develop an analytical compute facility (providing statistical software support, a "collaboratory" setting, and a multi-media lab to bring research efforts into appropriately equipped classrooms). During the current academic year, C&C will operate smaller labs in Economics, History, and Sociology while developing a vision for the new facility (the new lab will replace the existing, smaller facilities). The Dean has named a senior faculty member as a Special Assistant for Information Technology who is acting as a lead on this effort.
Mailspinner License Negotiations not Successful
UCR had hoped to offer students webmail services during the Fall quarter 2000. After extensive product review, Mailspinner was selected as the product of choice. Unfortunately, license negotiations have not been successful. C&C is now contemplating the implementation of a "shareware" product. UCR would be very interested in a UCOP facilitated Mailspinner campus wide license agreement effort.
C&C RAS and Proxy Server in Production
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COMMUNICATIONS HIGHLIGHTS |
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On-campus New Network Connections During Past 8 months
C&C recently completed the networking of a NEW 250 room on-campus residence hall. Students are moving into this facility beginning on 9/23/2000. This dormitory (Pentland Hall) has approximately 500 10/100 connections (all switch/router installs, switch programming, design work, etc. were performed by UCR staff). During the past 8 months, C&C added over 3,000 10/100 active dorm ports to the campus network. Over the summer, C&C brought up the Rivera Library network (350 10/100 connections with a Gigabit link to the Science Library) as well as the new network in the Pierce (Chemistry) addition.
Off-campus New Network Connections (remote Student Housing)
C&C recently completed the design, installation, and configuration of a 600 node network in a "public / private" student apartment complex. The represented C&C's first direct and prolonged interaction with a private contractor developing a network (owned by the contractor) but designed, managed, and maintained by UCR staff.
Importantly, connectivity is currently provided to the complex via an 11 Mbs wireless connection (about a 1.5 mile link from the top of the College of Humanities Arts and Social Science building to a raised antenna on the complex).Currently, with about 50% occupancy, traffic on the link averages about 1.65 Mbs with bursts of no more than 2.4 Mbs.
C&C is negotiating with the city of run aerial fiber to the complex to meet long term bandwidth needs.
Phone Switch Replacement
C&C is completing work on an RFP for a new phone switch that will replace the existing GTE 4600. C&C hopes to issue the RFP within 60 days and install a new switch (IP enabled) during September 2001 or during the December holiday.
Wireless Network Development Proceeding, but on a Limited Basis
C&C has received a permanent budget augmentation to install and maintain a campus wireless data network. For the past several months, C&C has been partnering with the College of Engineering on a "pilot" deployment. However, there are several wireless technical developments that should occur during the next 4 months and C&C is waiting for progress in these areas prior to working on a broader implementation. These improvements include the following: bandwidth increases to 22 Mbs, user Radius authentication at the wireless Access Point, and power to the Access Point via Category 5 copper.
UCOP Assistance Desired
C&C is seeking a solution that would allow limited access to the commodity internet (from certain campus sub-nets) while allowing unlimited access to I2 sites and on-campus servers.A UCOP facilitated solution to this issue would be greatly appreciated.
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CENTER FOR VISUAL COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS |
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New Web Support Model for Campus Faculty and Academic Departments
C&C –via C&C's Center for Visual Computing- is piloting a new model for faculty and academic departmental web support. The support model will offer three tiers of service:
- Silver Service
This service will provide access to C&C developed or vendor supplied "templates", as well as limited support (no cost and in-office) to facilitate the use of these templates.
- Gold Service
For a fixed fee, this service will provide all Silver level support, as well as limited custom work required by the user (graphics, forums, chat rooms, e-mail, etc.).
- Platinum Service
This service level is a complete custom site (provide on a completely recharge basis).
C&C will coordinate these efforts through the various Dean's office to make sure the templates as well as any custom work provides a consistent feel to the various web pages that are created via this service offering. This service is a result of two "instructional technology" funded hires made during the past 12 months.
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INSTITUTIONAL COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS |
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IBM Mainframe Upgrade Complete
During July and August of this summer, C&C completed its IBM mainframe upgrade. The system (used primarily to host the Student Information System) was upgraded from a dual processor IBM 9672-R22 (38 MIPS) to a single processor Multiprise 3000 - H50 (117 MIPS). The upgrade (which also included 2 GBs of memory and 144 GBs of new DASD) was extremely successful, dramatically improving both on-line responsiveness and batch processing times. Web access to the Student Information System –for registration, on-line degree audits, grades- will be expanded by several hours during the Fall quarter (batch processing time will be limited to midnight until 5:00 A.M., perhaps less), and both the Registrar office and students groups are very pleased.
Rebuilding of Student Information Programming Team Continues
During the past 18 months, UCR lost two of its most talented Student Information System and Financial Aid programmers to PeopleSoft. Both positions have now been filled (with junior and mid-level programmers).
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CLIENT SERVER COMPUTING AND ADMINISTRATIVE COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS |
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"First" PeopleSoft Closing Complete
UCR recently completed its first fiscal closing using the PeopleSoft financial system. The UCR financial system contains not only the General Ledger, but the Budget and Staffing systems as well. All UCOP "translations" (financial, budgetary, staffing) have been submitted and accepted and all fiscal year 00/01 carry-forward entries have been posted as well as 7/1/2000 current year budgetary transactions.
PeopleSoft Upgrade Plans
UCR is strongly considering NOT upgrading from PeopleSoft version 6.0 (currently running at UCR) to PeopleSoft version 7.5. Although PeopleSoft no longer supports 6.0, 7.5 contains virtually no "functional" enhancements (that would produce meaningful improvements for the campus user community). UCR is considering waiting until version 8.0 is released and upgrading to PeopleSoft's completely web enabled product.
Accounts Payable Improvements
Significant improvements to the PeopleSoft Accounts Payable / General Ledger interface were recently placed into production. These improvements summarize Accounts Payable transactions by P.O. number, Full Accounting Unit (FAU) distribution, and voucher number. These summarized transactions are subsequently passed to the General Ledger. The campus has very warmly received the changes. C&C will introduce a robust encumbrance accounting system based on these A/P modifications.
Report Server Introduced to Support FY 99/00 Closing
In order to support the dramatic increase the use of PeopleSoft financial system, C&C introduced a report server in late June 2000. Every evening, the UCR financial system database is replicated; the user community accesses this copy of the production database via the new report server. The report server is a 3 processor Alpha ES40 (3 600 Mhz Alpha chips). Use of the system is OPTIONAL; however, reports are created 50% to 75% faster on the new server. Users typically run month end reports on the new server while using the production system for mid-month, ad hoc reporting.
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MEDIA RESOURCES HIGHLIGHTS |
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Commitment made to Upgrade Classroom Technology
During the last budget cycle, the administration made a $1,000,000 commitment over 4 years to upgrade classroom technology in UCR's 60 "general assignment" classrooms. Working with the Registrar's office and a group of faculty, C&C is finalizing a plan that will upgrade 25% of the general assignment classrooms each year for four years (following a plan that will produce "A", "B", and "C" level equipped classrooms depending on faculty needs and the profiles of courses typically using the rooms). Unfortunately, C&C was NOT able to secure funding for FTE to help plan, manage, implement, and maintain the aforementioned classroom technology upgrades.
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OTHER NOTES |
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Associate Vice Chancellor Search Underway
The search for a permanent replacement for the late Larry Sautter is underway. The position is open until filled with candidate review beginning on 9/15/2000.
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