INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER

OLYMPIC COLLEGE

Winter Quarter 2008

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HELP DESK HOURS

 
Monday - Thursday: 7:30AM - 9:00PM
Friday: 7:30AM - 5:30PM
Saturday: 8:00AM - 11:30AM

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• IT Manager’s Comments;
• Instructor’s SharePoint (Website alternative);
• Increased flexibility for Instructor’s Desktops;
• Streaming Media Tools for instructors improved;
• Re-Hosting;
• Closer Media Services and IT coordination;
• Help Desk Wrap Up.

IT Manager's Comments

As the campus looks across the list of IT managers one thing becomes quickly apparent, there are a lot of old faces in new places. That is especially true of the Executive Director position. If you do the math, OC is counting on fewer IT staff too. All the IT interim managers wish to thank you for your patience with us as we try to meet technology needs and develop new ideas and services for the campus community while we climb (without ropes) a step learning curve.

Speaking of new ideas and services, Dr. Mitchell challenged us this summer to focus more on instructional issues in the new academic year. I hope that you will agree that IT is committed to that challenge, some of you might even agree that we are starting to see results. This newsletter hopes to highlight an increasing focus on instructional issues and needs.

Instructor’s SharePoint (Website alternative)

Do you want an easier way to engage students on the web? Working with instructors, IT tested and implemented http://Instructors.olympic.edu (an alternative to Professors Online) during summer and fall quarters. Instructors were telling IT that Professors Online uses FTP, authoring software with a steep learning curve, and that it was difficult to use from their homes. During summer quarter, a small group of instructors and IT tested SharePoint 2007 as a possible alternative for Professor Online. This testing team discovered that SharePoint:

• Offers students more ways to interact with each other and the instructor than Professor Online tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, document libraries, discussion groups, team sites)
• Is easy to use from off campus for both adjunct faculty and students
• Has a much easier learning curve than traditional web software

Currently over 20 instructors and programs are using SharePoint. Since this project is a work in progress, more templates and options are being added to give instructors more functionality. Visit the site at:
http://instructors.olympic.edu/default.aspx
and watch as instructors find creative ways to engage students and provide for different learning styles.

Instructors have also asked about support and training. Distance Learning (Professor Ben Meredith) and IT have been collaborating on providing introductory training through “The Center”. Distance Learning will also be consulting with instructors on building sites. IT is developing modularized web based streaming media training on how to build and use SharePoint sites. To get your own Instructor’s SharePoint site, Instructors can have their division “Account Requestor” contact the HelpDesk. The IT HelpDesk is being training on how to answer instructor SharePoint questions for additional instructor support.

Increased flexibility for Instructor’s Desktops

MESH professors and IT are designing a desktop configuration which will give instructors increased flexibility for installing software. We are working on an agreement to accompany the increased flexibility. After the test group of instructors have reviewed the resources and agreement, the agreement and resources will be taken to the Faculty Council, President’s Cabinet and perhaps ITAC (Instructional Technology Advisory Committee) for review. After a collaborative review and testing, these resources will be made available to instructors sometime during this quarter.

Streaming Media Tools for Instructors improved

Based on feedback from streaming media instructors, IT rewrote the web application (SMPublish) to produce sharper and larger moving images when viewed on the web.
Here is an example of the streaming file produced by the old SMPublish program. Just paste the address into the address bar of your browser: mms://stream1.olympic.edu/jhanson/oldsetting.wmv.
Here is an example of the output from the new SMPublish program: mms://stream1.olympic.edu/jhanson/Modifiedsetting.wmv. 
This improvement in the program should make it easier for instructors to build and mount streaming media that will improve student learning. Of course this application can be accessed by adjunct instructors from their home computer over the Internet at http://stream1.olympic.edu/smpublish. You will be asked for "office\" and your username just like on campus.

Re-Hosting

The Re-Hosting Project continues to make progress. There are still a few fixes that are being made, and as a result, there was a delay in conversion deployment. The last published schedule had the pilot colleges (Grays Harbor, Olympic, and Clover Park) converting to the new system in November 2007. The CIS will be presenting a new conversion date schedule to the Re-Hosting governing boards in early 2008. Final schedule approval will be in March 2008 and the new conversion schedule can then be announced to the colleges.
Despite the delay, there has been substantial progress made in several areas both at the CIS and here at Olympic.  Previous schedule delays were due to HP missing milestone dates resulting in programming code and applications being delivered to the CIS later than anticipated.  Most of the code and applications have been delivered to the CIS and tested with the core applications.  With the code and applications in-house, CIS is more knowledgeable on what to expect from future deliverables and is not predicting the long delays we’ve had in the past. 
On campus, we have our Early Access system with Login, Report Wizard, Account Management, and most recently, Degree Audit. First round teams are testing, populating and customizing each application in preparation for campus use. The applications will be demonstrated for the campus and training will be provided for users when the applications are ready.  The Re-Hosting Administrative System site has been launched on the OC Intranet (http://intranet.olympic.edu/sites/adminsys/default.aspx).  Be sure to check the site for the latest information on schedules and training opportunities.  Your IT team will continue to work with the various campus departments in preparation for the conversion date.

Closer Media Services and IT Coordination

Media Services and IT will be cross training on the support of ITV and teacher workstations (TWS) support. Since there is at least a part-time IT Tech at Poulsbo and Shelton, cross training will allow faster response to ITV problems, TWS problems or equipment failure at Shelton and Poulsbo.  Media Services Techs will, as a result, not always have to make the trip from OCB to OCP and OCS to fix media equipment problems and therefore have more time to work on a broader range of instructional issues.  IT and Media Services will be investigating additional ways of improving support for instructional technologies to improve the instructional experience for students and instructors.

Help Desk Wrap Up

The changes in IT were felt everywhere, including the Help Desk. The Fall Quarter went well, with several important projects starting and getting wrapped up. Some of the things that you may have noticed were an increase in visibility by all members of IT Customer Service. This combined with process changes have allowed for us to be more responsive to customer needs. Our goal is to engage all of our customers and stakeholders more proactively. These changes will continue, so look forward to an even better spring.