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February 2004
ACADEMIC COMPUTING AND COMPUTING SUPPORT SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS |
eClassroom in Arts
Instruction began January 7th in UCR's 2nd eClassroom environment. Using standards-based videoconferencing and classroom computer-control software, two computer-equipped classrooms were transformed into a single teaching space. The first eClassroom, used for statistics instruction, went "live" at the beginning of 2003. The latest eClassroom project, in our Fine Arts building, is currently being used to teach English 146, "Special Topics in Technoculture and Digital Media".
Teaching in Large Classrooms Workshop
A Faculty-Led Workshop on Teaching Large Classes, using technology already deployed in our classrooms, demonstrated how easy it is to incorporate multimedia technology into everyday classroom instruction.
iLearn Update
iLearn (Blackboard) continues to garner increased utilization by the campus. Winter 2004 sees us with more than 2200 course shells created with a large proportion of the faculty using the system as their primary interactive environment with their students. |
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Family Housing Wireless
Using 802.11 a/g wireless technologies, network services have been extended to a 1.4 square-mile area with approximately 130 structures that make up the Family Housing complex. This housing facility consists of small cottages dating from the 1940s where it would not be feasible to run regular wiring. This area houses many graduate students, and this installation will put these students on a par for network access with the undergraduate students.
Riverside Dark Fiber Net
The City of Riverside has fiber installed along their power utility right-of-ways that they are willing to lease to the University on a long-term basis. Financial and technical agreements have been reached on a dark fiber connection to the CE-CERT research facility about two miles from campus. Work is expected to start on this project in February. In addition, discussions are underway to also connect the California Museum of Photography and the Riverside County Office of Education with the campus through an extension of this fiber using CWDM technology.
NEC PBX
Recently an agreement was reached with the vendors to scale back the Alcatel PBX to only cover analog telephones in the Residence Halls on campus. Work is underway to install an NEC 2400 PBX to provide services to the rest of campus. Presently a test system is operating on campus and is providing service to some of the most difficult-to-reach areas. This system will be in service by the end of March.
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CENTER FOR VISUAL COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS |
Hershey Business Workflows
CVC has partnered with the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs (VCSA) to develop software work flows for their Hershey Systems Inc., Optical Imaging System. These work flows are written through their API via JavaScript that makes calls to the JAVA engine. The process will allow admissions to scan student paper forms, add them to a MS SQL Database and allow UCR Admissions users to view the forms online via a web interface.
TAPS Kiosk
The UCR Parking Department has contracted CVC to develop an Online Kiosk System for them to use at their main parking kiosks. The application will replace their FileMaker Pro database application. Student workers will be able to login via a browser, view events for the given day, print parking permits, track event information and tie all internal charges to the main UCR Financial System. The system will allow for a unique graphic to change daily, will print to a thermal printer, and allow supervisors to change parking rates according to events. It is currently scheduled to be tested in the summer of 2004.
TA Evals
The Graduate Division at UCR contracted CVC to develop an Online TA Evaluation application that will allow students to review their TAs online. This will replace their current paper evaluations and save many hours of manual entries by student workers to add this data on spreadsheets. The system will allow TAs to track their performance and print official stats of their last quarter evaluation as well as view historical stats of their evaluations by year. The system prototype has been successfully tested by several hundred students and will have a second test phase during the Winter quarter by 70 classes being taught at UCR. |
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ADMINISTRATIVE COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS |
Manager and New Hires for SIS Enhancement
Restructuring and staffing for the project to enhance SIS has begun. A new SIS Technology Group Manager has been hired and searches are beginning for developers in the mainframe, data warehouse, and portal areas.
Web Based Comprehensive Hold Display for Students
Students will soon be able to view all hold activity that might prevent them from registering or receiving a Financial Aid disbursement. The holds display will be accessed through GROWL, the UCR student self-service website.
iGrade - Web Based Grading Interface to SIS
A robust, flexible grading process is being developed on an Oracle Database. It will use XML to interface directly with live roster data in SIS on the mainframe and perform immediate edits and updates to the students' records.
Data Warehouse and Email
Testing is underway on version 1 of the SIS data warehouse. Key features are point and click query, downloading of results grid to Excel, and an option to send a mass emailing to the query results.
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CLIENT SERVER COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS |
Web-based Travel System
The programming of UCR's web-based Travel Planning and Expense Reporting System has been completed. A timeline has been approved, which calls for the system to go into pilot during February 2004.
Update on COEUS/PAMIS
The UCR Proposal and Award Management Information System (PAMIS) is now being used to process all awards in an online, paperless environment. PAMIS is in the process of being deployed to all departments on campus.
Facilities Management System (FMS) Integration with EACS, PAN
The Enterprise Access Control System (EACS) now controls access to the FMS system. Individuals setup as FMS Reviewers are advised via a PAN email notification process when changes are made to facilities within their scope of responsibility.
Enterprise Reporting System (ERS) Enhancements
The Excel-based Enterprise Reporting System (ERS) has been enhanced to report outstanding lien balances from the encumbrance ledger. In addition, a condensed detail report is being provided so that PIs can review current period activity on a single page format.
LDAP Authentication
Several recent projects (PeopleSoft Portal, PAMIS, SIS Data Warehouse) have been developed to authenticate against UCR's Enterprise LDAP Directory. An Oracle Stored Procedure (PL/SQL) with PERL calls to LDAP provides an API for other applications to authenticate against the Enterprise directory.
Graduate Student Information System Proposal
Computing and Communications has proposed the development of a graduate student information system. It will contain information on graduate students and ultimately be integrated with the Student Information System, the UCR Academic Personnel System, the Proposal and Award Management Information System (PAMIS), and UCRFS.
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MEDIA RESOURCES HIGHLIGHTS |
iClassroom Website
Recently we launched a new web site devoted to information regarding the history, status and future plans for the instructional technology deployed in our general assignment classrooms. This site highlights our most recent 4-year initiative (upgrade to ALL 60 General Assignment Classrooms) and our plans beyond.
Multimedia Technologies Group - The next 4 years
In our first 4 year plan (nearing completion this June) all 60 General Assignment Classrooms received an appropriate compliment of equipment based upon classroom size and types of classes taught. This included very bright digital projectors, P.A. systems, digital cameras, DVD and VHS players, new screens and lighting changes to the rooms, where needed. All equipment was ready for an instructor to bring in their PC and connect directly to the system. During the next 4 years we will begin a replacement/enhancement program. We will be replacing equipment as it ages beyond our standard or when the standard of that equipment gives way to something new. Additionally we will be enhancing the classrooms by providing a single consistent point of control that is IP-based that will allow faculty to easily master the use of the equipment since the interface will be consistent across all rooms. As well, we intend to add a Thin Client, a video system (providing streaming, archiving and IP-based video conferencing capabilities), dual projectors and through a related initiative we will be providing instructors with large web-based file storage for access to their files from any point on the Internet.
Classroom Technology Survey Results
This past fall, we conducted our annual survey concerning instructors' satisfaction with the technology deployed in General Assignment classrooms. The results were very positive! Overall, 94% of instructors that responded stated their classroom technology needs were satisfactorily met this quarter while 6% stated their needs were being partially met. These results are utilized to prioritize and guide our efforts relating to Classroom Technology upgrades, enhancements, and support.
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COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY HIGHLIGHTS |
Credit Card Initiative
As other campuses have already done (Irvine, Berkeley) we are in the final planning stages of a similar campus-wide credit card solution for on-line transactions. This will enable web-based transactions and allow all departments to participate and get maximum discounts by funneling all transactions through a single source. We expect to roll out a development version in late February or early March with a full deployment in mid-May of 2004. There is also a V.2 of the plan to provide commerce sites/space on central servers to make it easy for departments to take credit cards. These systems will interface with the financial system as well as provide storefronts.
New Computing and Communications Status Page
Computing and Communications is creating a new comprehensive Status web page for the UCR campus. This all-inclusive web site will visually show, at a glance, the current status of UCR's Enterprise applications, network and server systems. A section has been added to display comments regarding work-in-progress or future system maintenance.
Sun Initiatives
UCR and Sun are partnering to lay the foundation to increase the efficiency in UCR's IT infrastructure with several initiatives:
- Investigate the gains in virtual services, where services can be migrated and replicated between multiple CPUs (N1 provisioning).
- Investigate the gains in instructional technology when faculty has complete freedom to move seamlessly between development of classroom material and its presentation (SunRay thin-client technology).
- Develop and test portal technology for student access to UCR's learning management and webmail systems by using Sun's iForce center resources.
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