Accomplishments 2014 - 2015
Accomplishments 2014-2015
These accomplishments are based on our IT Priorities for 2014-2015
1. Teaching/Learning Environment
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Learning Spaces | Bailey Renovation Newton Innovation Center | |
| New Teaching Technologies | Blackboard Collaborate, video conferencing. Easy to use within myCourses. Top Hat, instant response system. Geneseo licensed an 840 student use license of Top Hat instant response system. Ten faculty with 907 students used Top Hat in Fall 2014 and 11 faculty used it will 1104 students in spring 2015. We are working with the SUNY CCIO contracts committee to work with Top Hat to put a SUNY agreement in place that can reduce our costs. | |
| Development | Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT) 2015, May 2015 hosted by Geneseo Total Attendees: 437; Total # Presentations: 152 SUNY Schools Represented: 55 Non-SUNY Schools Represented: 20 Tracks Scholarship of Teaching & Learning 21st Century Learning Environments The Open Educator Access, Completion, and Success Keeping the Lights On: Infrastructure & Support Vendors Participating: 29 | |
| Training | The following training was offered throughout the year: myCourses, Top Hat, Flipped Classrooms, Windows 8 Overview, Using Blackboard Collaborate within myCourses, Google Apps for Education courses, Voice Thread, Turnitin, Prezi | |
| IITG Grant Support | Two augmented reality (AR) sandboxes were built to help students understand topology and watershed maps. | |
| Research Computing | Research Computing 2014.docx |
2. Identity Management/Federation
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Identity Management: Banner/HR services to support account creation and directory information | Rewrote our entire account management process to streamline it, make it more extensible, and easier to use. We can now batch create users as well as create users far more often (every 6 hours instead of every 24 hours) and we can search data as it is updated from banner opening the door for us to update even more often if in the future. This will also open the door to more self service account management and lowering staff time spent on account management tasks. | June 2015 |
| Recovery Email for PIN/Password Rest | Implemented new option for Knightweb PIN and Geneseo Password self-service resets. Gives users a new alternative to the "SSN based" reset option which helps students who do not have an SSN. It is also much easier for newly admitted students to use and reduces support overhead. | Fall 2014 |
3. Analytics to help drive critical institutional decisions and outcomes
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Admissions Profile | Provides Enrollment Services administrators and Admissions counselors with dashboard of key statistics related to application processing. | September 2014 |
| Advancement: Fundraising Analytics Data Support | Developed various process to support fund raising analytics and reporting | |
| Advancement: Implement population queries to support fund raising analytics | Implemented populations which identify groups with common interests, giving history, or other categorizations to support fund raising analytics | |
| Athletics Grade Report and Extracts | Operational support for AD staff |
4. Campus Business Process Improvements
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Admissions Application Workflow Enhancements | Provided various enhancements including consolidation and simplification of Argos UI. Enhanced support for groups like AOP and ISSS | |
| Admissions Audio Tour Update | Implemented new audio files and added new locations for the online Admissions audio "walking" tour. | August 2014 |
| Admissions Tour Calendar Enhancements | Provided variety of enhancements to support new tour opportunities and to improve usability of the calendar. | Summer 2014 |
| Advancement: 2014 Honor Roll of Donors | Acknowledgment of donor contributions | September 2014 |
| Advancement: Gift Import process | Implemented process to import Gifts from the Web and Payroll Deposit into Banner | |
| Advancement: Online Volunteer Process | Implemented online process within Knightweb and Banner for Advancement to manage fund raising volunteers | Fall 2014 |
| Banner Advancement - Alumni address, email, and phone updates | Implemented many automated processes and corrections to Improve accuracy of alumni contact information and therefore improving communication with Alumni | |
| Banner Document Mgt - Import Financial AidAward Letters | Efficiency and accuracy of student academic record. | February 2015 |
| Banner Document Mgt - Import DegreeWorks Degree Evaluations | Efficiency and accuracy of student academic record. | May 2015 |
| Banner Financial Aid Verification Process Enhancements | October 2014 | |
| Banner Holds Web Page | Created a web page on the Dean's website to describe individual Banner holds that get placed on student accounts. This was done to provide students with detailed information allowing them to better determine how to get their hold removed. | Fall 2014 |
| Banner - Redesigned Withdrawal and Leave Business Process | Assisted Enrollment Services in designing and implementing a new business process for managing and reporting on student withdrawals and leave's of absence. | Fall 2014 |
| Banner XE Faculty Grade Entry | New Banner XE Faculty Grade Entry module improves efficiency and accuracy of grading process for faculty. | July 2014 |
| Banner XE Student Advising Profile | New Banner XE Student Advising Profile module makes it much easier for advisers to see key information about their advisee's academic record | July 2014 |
| Banner XE Registration | Implemented new Banner XE Student Self-service Registration module with added functionality and significant improvements in usability. | June 2015 |
| Barnes and Noble | Provided support for campus selection of new book store partner including the RFP Selection process and campus integration. | May 2015 |
| Business School Professional Development Events Enhancements | Provided security improvements, new search options, and support for historical reporting on graduated students. | Spring 2015 |
| Campus Clarity Export and Holds | Provided additional support for Campus Clarity integration with Banner and management of student holds to ensure timely compliance with mandatory student training. | August 2014 |
| Chemistry Online Waste Reporting Form | Help provide mandatory campus reporting for waste in more efficient and reliable manner. | June 2015 |
| Dance and Theatre Alumni Web Pages | Implemented alumni pages for Dance and Theatre website | Fall 2014 |
| Degree Works Implementation | Implemented new degree audit module that provides students and advisers with significant improvement in functionality to help them manage the student's academic program. | Fall 2015 |
| Directed Study Request Form Enhancements | Provided enhancements to business rules and workflow efficiency. | January 2015 |
| Drupal CMS Faculty Page Course Enhancements | Provided method to list courses on an instructors page based on the courses they are currently teaching in Banner. Greatly reduces manual maintenance and also guarantees more accurate information on faculty web pages. | October 2014 |
| Drupal CMS Image Support | Provided new method for managing images on web pages which is easier for content editors to understand. | Fall 2014 |
| Edgars Fellows Application Workflow | Provided Redesigned Workflow for Edgars Fellows Application using Google Applications to streamline the committee's decision processing | February 2015 |
| FingerLakesOpera.com Redesign | Implemented new responsive design website for fingerlakesopera.com with significantly enhanced visual appeal and support for mobile platforms | March 2015 |
| GOLD Enhancements | Provided many enhancements to GOLD system including Administrative efficiency, new search features, improved search efficiency, better UI integration between GOLD website and workshop registration, security improvements, and other enhancements | |
| Graduate Admissions | Provided wide variety of support of creation of new Graduate Admissions group including creation of new website, online inquiry form, online application, reporting, and more. | Fall 2014 |
| GREAT Day Annual Scheduling Improvements | Redesigned GREAT Day submission and calendar processes to provide operational support efficiency. Enhancements also included security improvements. | |
| Greek/Athletics Donor Roll | Provided online donor roll to recognize donor contributions | March 2015 |
| go.geneseo.edu Restriction | Implemented policy restricting go.geneseo.edu use to websites associated with support of Geneseo mission. | |
| Housing: Automate housing and meal plan applications | Enhanced processes that create housing and meal plan applications when a deposit is received to eliminate manual data entry steps and provide better integration with Symplicity | |
| Housing: Banner/Symplicity Integration Enhancements | Provide better support for semester-to-semester room/meal plan roll-over, special conditions for Townhouses, identify scholars-in-residence in Symplicity, and other miscellanous situations | |
| Human Resource Website Enhancements | Provided variety of new content and features for HR website including new landing page, new employment section, and new performance management section for UUP employees
| |
| I9 Lookup Form | Implemented Argos Online I9 form to eliminate need for Banner access for most student worker supervisors | October 2014 |
| Library Service Event Database | Provided consolidated database of Library services provided to patrons that can be used later for assessment purposes. This will assist the Library in its ongoing process of assessment and continuous improvement. | May 2015 |
| Preferred Name | Implemented capability to display a preferred first name for students on "inward facing" web services including knightweb, mycourses, online directory, and others. This initiative has so far been focused on Transgender students for safety reasons, but the program may expand to the entire student population in the future to allow students to be identified on campus by their desired given "first" name. | August 2014 |
| Senate Constitution website usability | Implemented UI improvements for viewing the senate constitution and easier editing for content managers of the site. | April 2014 |
| Standup Pledge Submission Workflow | Implemented online standup pledge submission to remove manual steps and improve administrative efficiency | January 2015 |
| Student Database Programmer | CIT Student database programmer completed many information system requests including 44 new Argos based reports and several modifications to knightweb. | |
| Student Web Assistant Support | CIT Student web assistants completed over 250 website projects and requests which includes providing access and training, consulting, web site design, and custom web application development | |
| Student Onboarding Workflow Improvements | Redesigned various processes associated with incoming students, access to accounts and resources, acknowledgement of responsibilities, and other processes. | |
| Test Center Alternate Test Date Request Form | Online form to improve efficiency of submission, approval, and management of alternate test date requests | May 2014 |
| VentureWorks website | Implemented website for new VentureWorks entrepreneurial initiative | Fall 2014 |
| Dean's Conference website | Implemented website to support scheduling, registration, and other functions of Dean's conference hosted by Geneseo |
5. Desktop Deployment
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Faculty/Staff Munki rollout | Added the Munki client to 2015 replacements and created a new repository structure to manage versions of software on campus macs | June 2015 |
| In-Place Deployment | Created a deployment process to process Macs without wiping out the shipped operating system. Thus reducing turnaround time | June 2015 |
| Lite-Touch Deployment 2015 | Updated existing drivers to accommodate the new HP devices | June 2015 |
| SCCM Packaging/Deployment | More software Packages were created to allow for a more dynamic image creation and deployment process | July 2015 |
| Student Automation of Faculty/Staff Deployments | Created a deployment process and secure location where students, rather than TSPs, are given a custom set of tools to prepare computers for deployment into the field | May 2015 |
6. Software Infrastructure/Maintenance
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Admissions 2015 ASC Application Load Upgrade | Installed mandatory annual SUNY Application Service Center software which loads applications. | August 2014 |
| Admissions 2015 Common Application Load Upgrade | Installed mandatory annual updates for Common Application automated application load process. | August 2014 |
| AppWorx Upgrades | Upgraded AppWorx for defects fixes, additional features, and support of Java8. Provided many new and updated business process flows within AppWorx. Migrated file deliver method to NFS for improved maintenance and eventual ability to eliminate insecure ftp service. Provided Groovy integration for enhanced programmer productivity. | May 2015 |
| Banner Alumni Module Upgrades | Mandatory upgrades for Alumni module | July 2014 |
| Banner APM 1.1.2 Upgrade | Provide new functionality to enhance fund raising analytics reporting | July 2014 |
| Banner APM EDW/ODS Upgrades | Required for APM upgrade and helped maintain application currency. | July 2014e |
| Banner Document Mgt System (BDM) 8.4/8.5 Upgrade | Upgrade provided enhancements and defect fixes. Requirement for BDM AX v7 upgrade | January 2015 |
| BDM Application Xtender 7 Upgrade | Upgrade provided enhancements and defect fixes. | |
| Banner Financial Aid 2015-2016 Aid Year Implementation | Banner software releases and custom processes were installed, developed, configured, and tested to | February 2015 |
| Banner Financial Aid 2014 NCAA Reporting | Mandatory reporting requirement. | October 2014 |
| Banner Forms Enhancements | Installed regular WebLogic software updates, developed new method of forms delivery to avoid expense and support overhead of digitial code-signing certificate, upgraded to support Java8 | |
| Banner Transfer Articulation Catalog Cleanup | Assisted Registrar office with automating cleanup of the catalog that determines equivalent courses ("transarticulates") from outside institutions to Geneseo courses. | Spring 2015 |
| Drupal CMS Database Tuning | Tuned queries related to problem performance areas on home page. Tuned database in general for overall improved performance | Fall 2014 |
| EMS Updates | Applied EMS release updates and installed EMS API to support AxisTelevision service | |
| MasterCalendar Upgrade | Enhanced features and UI style updates | Fall 2014 |
| PointNClick/Banner Integration | Provided enhancements and resolutions for issues related to integration with PointNClick Electronic Medical Record system and Banner. | |
| Registrar Support | Provided support during transition to new campus Registrar. | Spring 2015 |
| Postgres 9 Database Upgrade | New features, defect fixes, security updates, and clustering. | Spring 2015 |
| Netbackup 7.6 Upgrade | Upgraded our Netback infrastructure to 7.6 including new features, support for new operating systems, and security fixes | |
| Puppet Configuration Management Refactor | Refactored entire Puppet code base to use much more manageable and extensible methods. This allows us to much more easily roll out changes to all our linux hosts and control them from one central code base that can be backed up and monitored. Puppet is allowing us to manage more servers in less time and to make their configuration much more consistent. | |
| Major VMWare version upgrades | Moved our ESX and View infrastructure to the latest major version, 6.0. Includes many features, security fixes, and big fixes. | |
| Cisco Call Manager upgrade | The central VoIP call manager was upgraded from 8.6 to 10.5 and a second call manager server was added for resiliency. | |
| Cisco Unity upgrade | The central voicemail server was upgraded from 8.6 to 10.5. | |
| Informacast Installation | Due to the wireless interference generated by the mass notification system, we have started a migration to using Informacast as a way to do mass notification with the VoIP infrastructure. The initial setup has been installed in Lauderdale Health Center to allow for emergency notification within the building. |
7. Mobility/Mobile Development/BYOD
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| CIT Website Redesign | The CIT website was redesigned using a responsive design approach to provide a better experience across both desktop and mobile platforms. This project was undertaken to gain experience with the technology prior to larger www redesign effort. The site architecture was also modified substantially to make it easier to locate the most commonly used content. | June 2015 |
| Wireless AP deployment | Over the past year, we deployed more wireless access points (APs) and are in the process of upgrading them to support the latest wireless network protocols. |
8. Physical Campus Infrastructure (Storage, Core Network, Wireless Network, Data Center 10GB)
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| F5 Load Balancer | Implemented F5 Load Balancer for many services including knightweb, XE, and custom web applications | |
| Physical VMWare infrastructure refresh | Upgraded the 10 physical servers running over 250 Virtual Machines. Rolled 2 of the replaced servers out as "lifeboat" stand alone servers for redundancy and fault tolerance. | |
| Central storage upgrade | We upgraded the central storage system to provide additional storage space and improve service. | |
| Wireless Network Controller | We reconfigured the wireless network controllers to be more resilient (Replacing a n+1 configuration with a 2n configuration) | |
| Stadium Network Installation | As part of the opening of the new stadium, four new network closets were configured to support wired and wireless connectivity. The aggregation point in Schrader was upgraded to handle the stadium network traffic. |
9. Risk management and information security practices to protect institutional IT resources/data and respond to regulatory compliance mandates
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Database Object Audit | Created audit report on Banner production database to monitor changes to database objects including tables and pl/sql code. | December 2015 |
| Drupal CMS Security Updates | Applied regular security and core functionality updates for Drupal CMS. Helps ensure integrity of the system and repair defects. | Ongoing |
| Header Redirect Security Hole | A security hole was discovered in a commonly used technique involving the PHP header function for redirects that resulted in an exploit. The hole was resolved in multiple locally developed PHP web applications | November 2014 |
| Defined New Group structure | New group structure we are beginning to implement across our infrastructure will allow for more granular service roll out to accounts (such as some accounts only getting wifi access but no other services) as well allow for auditing accounts for what services they are authorized to access. | |
| Decommissioning of Windows 2003 servers | Windows 2003 went end of support from Microsoft on July 14th 2015. We worked to remove as many 2003 server as possible by that date. We have 3 remaining production 2003 servers, all slated to be replaced in the next month. | July 2015 |
| Maintained Linux Security patches | Updated all of our linux servers periodically throughout the year to deal with Security issues and bugs. | Ongoing |
| Windows Patch Deployment | Maintained local server to deploy monthly Microsoft security and bug fix patches and roll them out campus wide to all Windows computers on our domain. | Ongoing |
| Desktop Backup Rollout | Purchased and began rolling out a desktop backup solution to college owned computers. | |
| SnapManager for Oracle | Implemented new software for creating backups and clones of Oracle databases vastly decreasing the number of steps required making disaster recovery and backups significantly better. |
10. The Internet of Everything
Project / Service | Notes | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| UP Recording System | We upgraded the University Police phone recording system to use a networked system for recording dispatch calls. | |
| Wireless AP upgrades | We are in the process of upgrading the access points to support the latest wireless network protocols. | |
| Fiber Repair | We repaired some fiber optic cables that are used with the campus fire alarm and energy management systems. |
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