AGENDA
· Welcome and Introductions
· Announcements
· Academic ITCH Progress Report
· Review Admin ITCH Priorities Project List in preparation for 2008 budget proposals
· Create a three-to-five-year “Vision Plan”
· Identify possible projects for the Advancement of Technology Fund
· Identify representative for next Academic ITCH meeting
· Set agenda and identify possible additional participants for next meeting(s)
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Announcements Academic Computing hired Frank Barber to replace Beth StinsonRalph Arnett has given notice of resignation; replacing him will be difficultReview starts tomorrow on Admin Computing’s other position – ITS3
3. Admin ITCH Progress Report
Tony – See updated Project calendar below. Projects for 07-08 are already being worked on; other projects must get started right away, others can wait a while.
Accomplishments from 06-07
CashNet was big – allows the college to accept credit card payments; e-market for Advancement to take donations; enhancements include tuition payments, also allows other departments to accept payments; CashNet has been very successful and achieved its goal – 70% of payments are now over the web and it has freed up staff time for other efforts.
Record of Academic Achievement application – Registration staff used to have to hand type a cover sheet for the record of academic achievement – now all they have to do is type in a student ID number to produce the cover sheet – it has made a big difference in processing records in a more timely manner.
Banner and Ruffalo Cody data load – working and implemented for Advancement.
Migration of Banner to Linux – testing and problem resolution of the banner database on Linux is on-going.
Subversion - software that tracks source code – custom things have been migrated from Banner to Subversion.
Implemented single sign on – only have to do it once. HR applicant tracking will also use single sign on.
Implemented web for prospects to get admission info – from there they can go directly to “submit your application” online. Set up and testing is on-going with Web for Admissions.
Current Projects
HR applicant tracking program seminars were held – training to start in September and will be ongoing. Training is open primarily to those involved with the hiring process. It’s basically a simple point and click system.
TRIO scholarship tracking application and reporting – Ralph has been working on this.
Oracle database being upgraded. The goal here is to complete the migration from the OpenVMS operating system to a Linux operating system on a new server. This allows us to upgrade Oracle 9i to 10g. Banner will then be moved to the new platform. Right now, we have the Banner test database running on Oracle 10g in the new Linux box and we’re resolving problems. Approximately 89 programs need to be re-written so that they’ll work in Linux. This will be done in January. Banner 8 comes out in April 08 – planning to upgrade next fall.
Banner 8 requires Oracle 10g (Oracle 11 is to be released soon). The migration described earlier will get us ready for this upgrade. The upgrade itself will take about 8 months - April to November (evaluation, technical & user testing, installation).
CIS re-hosting for payroll is on-going. Payroll, HRS, and Admin Computing staff have had training on the new system.
INT/ILC started last year, being coded now – going well – it’s like a tutorial for students for planning individual learning contracts and internships. Needs to be built, tested, etc.
DIS audit of security plan for hardened passwords may force us to change our Banner passwords on a regular basis. We plan to implement hardened passwords for Banner this winter. Will force everyone to change their passwords.
Evaluation processing system next phase will be starting soon to allow faculty to enter information.
Deans’ database – Working at resolving the issues and determining what the different pieces of data mean and how to handle them. Three new stake holders want something different – where does this fall in the prioritization and what are the main pieces that have already been identified? Curricular and faculty pieces? Two major sections – start with the admin portion then go to curricular support – have not started building something yet. We recognize there is transition but need to keep the continuity going. Bring info to a Deans’ meeting and familiarize them with it. Amy Betz is scheduled to be back to work half time on October 1st. Eddie Brown is the project sponsor. The Deans’ database is in the current year’s projects.
Modifying or developing a new application for transcript ordering is being looked at.
(NEW) Leave slips and timesheets are also being looked at for automation via a web application – CIS has now put it on their list of things to do, but it may be out a ways. Two part – leave would be requested by the individual – it would go to your supervisor – then to HR and bypass the timekeeper. An automated system would catch errors immediately. Audit has made this a priority.
(NEW) Bruce – Computer standards: courses on weekends want to reduce class time – gone to internet chats, have gone to Moodle, people have had problems in various forums – did a debug recently; people have all kinds of different computers and systems. What are the standards and applications we should be using? A standard would eliminate problems. If you are admitted to a program you must meet the computer requirements. Video Conferencing: people didn’t like the internet chats, now experimenting with video conferencing, but only allows four people to participate. Would like to host larger groups of 10 or so. Wouldn’t need to build a broadcast studio. DIS is doing this as part of their training process. Get someone to explore in context of setting standards at the same time. Network Services can check it out then do a cross team review. Since these are acadmic issues, this issue will get turned over to Rip.
(NEW) It was discussed that several places provide new student guides on websites that have the info for computers and software – need to make people aware of where to access this. Can the banner users group look into coordinating this? C&C and bug will work together and bring discussion group together. See http://www2.evergreen.edu/wikis/computing/index.php?title=New_Student_Guide
(NEW) Sherry – MIT Masters Program up for accreditation this year – reviewed every 5 years. In last year superintendent ….. Assessment data for programs needs to be centralized. Issue that data is quantitative, will also have narrative data. Bring in data from surveys … quantitative data has been input manually; what we are doing right now won’t be sufficient past this point. We need a place out there where all the quantitative data can go; survey data can go and be aggregated; needs help so she can report to state what we are doing. Central Washington’s program has been disapproved and put on probation because it did not meet the Professional Educators Standards Board’s criteria for accreditation. Accreditation is dependent on having a system that meets this state board’s approval. There is a graduate module in Banner that we have not touched and it may need to be explored and see if it would help Sherry. Need a method of data comparison. Rip is working on a tool that might help. Sherry will get Central’s report to Aaron – the OSPI report about Central is a public doc.? PESB visit is in October and she needs her report in by end of October. Needs a statement about a timeline that they can show a good faith effort of what we are working toward. Aaron: We need to show specifics about what we are doing. C&C will see what we can do to support Sherry in this urgent need. Rather than quick temporary fixes, wants something that will work long term. Keep Laura Coghlan in communications. Tony will get a group together. Andrea will get info from Western.
(NEW) Allen – Gateway has a difference in the way people (faculty, staff, students) sign on. Banner knows your role, but evergreen.edu doesn’t. He wants to have a wiki that knows he is faculty and will let him in and students don’t have access. Maybe put a link inside self serve. Customize what people see by what their user role is.
Andrea – Online communities. Portal conversations. Just student blog going on right now, not a lot of interactivity between prospective students and current students. Integrate prospectives before they become a member of the community.
Student email billing – software has been purchased. Some work has been done by Randy to set it up and test it. Now when do we implement it? Working on it, but not a big priority.
4. Review Admin ITCH Priorities Project List in preparation for 2008 Budget Proposals BUG needs to meet regarding a plan for November 2008.HR position control project – Holly – on hold for form Bs – lots of compensation issues and a lot of time involved. Stalled out on pause, but will get it going again. Waiting on seeing what CIS re-hosting will give us. Recruiting being is done at this time, rather than spending time on this. Collin – may need to look for products that are already developed and plug them in. Holly – we are still looking at what we need. Banner HR is still on the table as a possible solution – still need to look at it more closely. Need for integrated systems, rather than pieces and parts. Need a system that is well supported.
Enterprise reporting solution – Tony working on a write up stating why we need a reporting system and the potential costs. Need a tool that will easily pull information out of Banner. Would like to reduce the number of open database connections (ODBC’s) to Banner for security and performance reasons. There are several options, but users are very interested in Argos. Will try to make this a priority for implementation in FY 08-09.
What needs to be brought higher on the priority list:
Web for development – Susan not in attendance – communities portal stuff – need self service piece – RJ is interested.
Banner work flow – saw a demo about 5 yrs ago – do we own it? Will allow us to stop having to craft individual messages to those who need the information on students. High data entry staff would benefit immediately.
Computer aided facility management (CAFM) – tracking and preventative maintenance – space data base and inventory information – information should be broadly shared with those who need to know on campus. Should be an enterprise thing that anyone can access with information about the rooms available. Work order system first then space scheduling. Staffing and expertise not currently sufficient to replace Bob – need others involved and better system. Need to define what they need so they can be specific when they ask for it. Still three or four months before they can start looking at what they need. Solutions need to be in place before he retires. What is the least expensive most effective tool?
Ruffalo Cody (Call Center) interface to CashNet is about creating a way to feed credit card transactions to CashNet for processing. The goal is to eliminate manual credit card processing and information being maintained at Evergreen. Once the card information is transmitted it can be deleted from Ruffalo Cody.
Budget requests to be made from this 08 list – Collin doesn’t recall if we have asked for funding for Admin Computing staff – we need to have the conversation. Numbers one and two on the list were funded. Does C&C have a plan for hiring – more staff is needed. We either do the projects or suffer the consequences. We need people who can do the job or we can’t move down the path or else we are wasting time. Resources are being used in other places rather than pooling them for the big projects. Projects that do get finished then move into maintenance mode that takes staff time. Senior staff isn’t always aware of what it takes to make these things happen.
(NEW) Network Services needs to be plugged into this process so their needs get met too. Need storage, security professional, remote access for both faculty and staff needs to be a funding priority (personnel issues around remote also need to be looked at) – do we need an analysis of what we need or wait for funding first.
Need to take a look at what it takes to run an IT shop. Need a position created to work on and develop this area. We need more staff if the institution expects to address all of the computing needs that are currently known.
Admin Computing’s list of projects (current and future) is accepted by the Admin ITCH group. Tony is trying to engage some students to work on specific programming assignments as part of their course work. It would help us get some work done and gets experience for the students. Will be teaching the students “this is how we do it at Evergreen.” The work must be done in a way that we can support it long term.
Advising system for transfer students – The legislature was going to mandate it for schools. None of the components are available in our system now – electronically receiving transcripts, etc. – we need to think about the components for this project to be prepared if/when it comes up again.
5. Three to Five Year Vision Plan – for the 2009-2011 Fiscal Biennium Proposal
Interns / teachings
Portal
More staff (?)
Banner work flow
Continued reduction of separate (shadow) systems
Off campus access
Response to transfer credit project
Portfolio
Online communities – faculty
Video conferencing solution
Security
Disaster recovery
Something better than Moodle (Academic)
Communication tools – review/adapt (with students)
Mobile friendly access
Email/voice mail integration
Cell phone access – see if students can push
Utilization software
One-cardStorage
Equipment replacement
We will prioritize this list at next Admin ITCH meeting.
6. What projects to fund from the Tech Advance of one time money for 08-09 ($78,000).
Need to hear from the ITCH group - what projects might we propose? Below is the list of what needs to be provided to make a proposal:
1. problem or efficiency
2. cost/savings
3. implementation costs
4. maintenance costsThe CMS was last project we funded with one time technology money. No meeting in September. We will meet in October to formalize the 08-09 priority list.