May 2009 Status Report

Information Technology Activity and Status Report May 2009

Announcements for Faculty and Staff Meetings Contact Information Technology Anytime Support Desk Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (310) 506-HELP (4357) Tech Central Payson Library, 2nd Floor Mon. - Fri. 9am - Noon Sat. 1pm - 5pm (310) 506-4811 Office of the Chief Information Officer (310) 506-4501 Request IT Services http://services.pepperdine.edu/it /forms

Reorganization. Two promotions within the IT Division were announced this month. Kim Cary, formerly the Associate Director for Information Security, has been promoted to Director and Chief Information Security Officer. He now reports to the CIO. Kim has final authority and responsibility for protecting the security and integrity of the University’s information related assets. In order to create better staff synergies, the IT departments responsible for application development and support have been combined. We have merged Information Systems and Program Management, headed by Sr. Director Danna Gianforte, with Enterprise Information Systems (commonly referred to as C2C), headed by Director Michael Ebbs.
These teams are responsible for PeopleSoft, WaveNet and related applications such as imaging. Danna will lead this newly formed applications team. Her title has been changed to “Senior Director for Enterprise Information Systems.” Over the next 90 days, Danna, Mike, and others will determine the best way to structure this new group in order to accomplish the myriad PeopleSoft upgrades and application development projects that will be pursued over the next two years. Desktop Replacement Savings. If you have plans to replace desktop computers in labs or office areas, consider using a new technology called NComputing for considerable cost savings. By using one hard drive to support multiple workstations, NComputing reduces hardware costs by about 60% and power usage by 80%. Each workstation has the look, feel and capability of a standard desktop computer, but is considerably less expensive to purchase and maintain because one CPU is seamlessly serving multiple users. So far, the University has installed over 50 NComputing units. For more information, contact Tom Hoover, Director for Instructional Technology Support, at ext. 5547.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009

Greater User Support, Efficiencies and Expense Reduction Service Levels Up, Recharge Rates Unchanged. University Internet traffic has doubled from April 2008 to April 2009. Even so, over the past three years, the University’s recharge rates for network connections remain unchanged. This increase in service reflects additional base investments made by the University beginning in FY09. Additionally, a more efficient network design and further steps to reduce the scope of our annual hardware maintenance contracts have also been helpful in keeping recharge rates unchanged. See the chart below for more detail regarding monthly University bandwidth usage from April 2008 through April 2009.

The University’s Internet traffic during the first four months of 2009 was more than three times greater than the total annual usage in 2007. See Chart B below for the annual rate of Internet traffic from 2000 – 2008. This tremendous jump in Internet traffic has been made possible due to the robust upgrades to our Internet links that took place in 2007 and 2008. The specific projects include the new links to CENIC, Verizon GigE, and MetroEthernet (OPTEMAN), for some of the graduate campuses, and the replacement of graduate campus frame relay links with traditional network circuits. We are proud to have facilitated this tremendous new capacity for the University without increasing departmental recharge rates. The chart below compares University Internet traffic on an annual basis.

Copiers and Public Printers. On May 1, 2009, GoPrint replaced CSPrint as the University’s public printing solution for copiers and printers. Not only is the GoPrint software more robust and stable, it is supported by two servers, which offers redundancy and minimizes down time for the public copiers and printers. In addition, GoPrint will provide better maintenance and repair services than the previous

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009

company. If you would like more information about GoPrint, please contact Tom Hoover, Director for Instructional Technology Support, at ext. 5547. Data Center Virtualization. The Systems and Networking Department presented a preliminary proposal to the IT Leadership Council to virtualize a large percentage of the Data Center by using software called VMware. VMware typically facilitates lower costs by combining multiple physical services onto one machine. Not only does this technology increase the efficiency and availability of Data Center equipment, it significantly reduces energy costs. Server Engineering has been using VMware in their test and development areas with great success. Next month the School of Law (SOL) will migrate their servers to this platform. In addition to the efficiencies discussed above, the data stored on the servers will have greater protection from external threats such as hackers. Password and NetworkId Management. By the fall semester, a new NetworkId management system will be deployed that will allow users to reset their password using WaveNet when they are blocked from the system rather than having to call the Anytime Support Desk for assistance. This tool allows faculty, students, and staff to create new identity profiles that are used to verify an individual’s identity in WaveNet before a password can be reset. Since one of the most common calls to the Anytime Support Desk is for a password reset, this new service will positively affect a large number of community members. Part of this project will also allow student users to redirect their Pepperdine email using the NetworkId management system to their preferred external e-mail account.

Faculty Support Activities and Projects Google Docs. We are working hard to make Google Docs accessible to faculty and students through WaveNet by the start of the fall semester. Google Docs is a set of collaboration tools for working on documents and sharing them across the University. Note: Gmail is not part of the Google Docs application. We have explored adopting Gmail for student e-mail. At this time, the project is too complex and costly to pursue. Instead, we will provide better tools for students to forward their Pepperdine e-mail to an external e-mail address of their choice. Elluminate Conference. Technology and Learning hosted a regional Elluminate conference in April on the Drescher Campus. Elluminate is a Web conferencing tool that allows users to speak to each other as well as send instant messages, share applications, utilize a whiteboard for online collaboration and record audio and written input from the sessions. Approximately 50 people attended the conference with representatives from all the schools, including faculty and staff. Twenty of the attendees were virtual participants. Appropriately, Elluminate was used to record the presentations, see . This past year, Pepperdine faculty have used Elluminate in a variety of ways including the following. • • • •

Hosting virtual guest speakers for classroom discussions. Allowing hospitalized students to participate in class while recuperating. Pre-recording lectures to avoid canceling class, which allows faculty to attend conferences. Holding virtual classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and obtaining 100% attendance—an attendance rate that is significantly higher than in-person classes on that day.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009

• Creating student collaboration “rooms” for fully employed students to meet and work on projects from home rather than having to mesh schedules and locations. Elluminate is also a great way to host meetings without requiring participants to travel. For more information, visit the Elluminate IT help page or contact Gerard Flynn, Director of Institutional Technology Support at extension 7264. GSBM. The Technology and Learning Department conducted a presentation at GSBM’s New Faculty Orientation regarding the University’s instructional technology resources. In addition, the department continues to provide private technology training sessions to faculty. This month faculty in the West Los Angeles and Irvine Graduate Centers scheduled training meetings. GSEP. All GSEP Psychology Division summer adjuncts have been encouraged to set up individual appointments with members of Technology and Learning for an overview of the University’s instructional technology resources. The training sessions cover individual training needs as well as an overview of Blackboard, University Libraries’ research services and best practices for utilizing electronic journals. Technology and Learning has been working closely with GSEP to coordinate this training initiative. Other training activities at GSEP included an Elluminate session for staff responsible for faculty support. GSEP would like their faculty to become more proficient in the use of Elluminate in order to facilitate greater online collaboration within their classes and to reduce the amount of travel required for meetings. All Schools. In preparation for semester-end support, Technology and Learning offered Client Services staff training to refresh their knowledge of grading and end-of-semester administration tools in PeopleSoft and Blackboard in order to support faculty use of these tools. The department continued providing 1:1 training for faculty at all the schools. Other services included working with a Seaver professor’s teaching assistant to export course research into the professor’s Xythos repository. For more information about Xythos file storage, contact Gerard Flynn, Director of Institutional Technology Support, at extension 7264.

Administrative Support - Schools Encino Campus Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) Upgrade. At the end of April, wireless network capacity tripled at the Encino Campus. The upgrade increased wireless access speeds from an 11 Megabits per second (Mbps) to a maximum of 54 Mbps. The addition of new wireless access points includes additional radio channels that enable more students to connect with far less radio interference from other competing devices.
The new wireless LAN has load balancing and channel management features that will allow larger classes to connect without crashing or significantly slowing the network. Users will experience more consistent and reliable connectivity.
This controller-based technology has features that improve security, reduce the amount of management time required to maintain the LAN and has greater compatibility with our WavesConnect authentication system, which will be noticed by all users. This project has had significant challenges over the past year, e.g., building configuration, funding, etc., so we are particularly pleased to have brought the Encino Campus up to par with the wireless access available at the West Los Angeles and Malibu Campuses. Encino Campus LAN Upgrade. The Local Area Network speeds at this campus increased by at least 10 times at the end of April when a legacy hub was replaced by full-duplex switching technology. This upgrade was planned and engineered with little or no service disruption at our Encino Campus.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009

The faculty, staff and students will experience a notable increase in bandwidth within the building. In addition, videoconferencing can now be used in the classroom - a capability that has been requested by GSBM faculty members. Seaver Facilities. IT continues to work with Construction and Campus Planning to ensure the new audiovisual equipment installed for the Elkins/RAC/AC renovation is consistent with the University Smart Classroom standards. This includes a Sympodium built-in computer, projection system, DVD/VHS player and display annotation system that will allow drawing on the built-in PC’s display with a stylus. As a result, faculty will no longer have to bring their own computer to class. IT’s long-term strategy is for faculty to have the same type of A/V equipment in any classroom in which they teach. The Smart Classroom strategy will be rolled out over several budget years. Online Course Evaluations. The online course evaluations for the spring semester have concluded. The results by school are reported in the chart below. Jay Brewster, Associate Provost, will lead a meeting in May to discuss the next steps for this project. Graziadio School of Business and Conducted first pilot evaluation period in fall 2008, with an approximate 75-80% reManagement (GSBM) sponse rate. GSBM elected not to participate in spring 2009, with hopes of new functionality being released by the vendor in summer 2009. Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP)

Conducted first pilot evaluation period fall 2008, with an approximate a 50-55% response rate. This pilot consisted mostly of online and blended courses, which previously averaged a 30-35% response rate. GSEP conducted their second pilot in spring 2009, with a final response rate still pending.

School of Law (SOL)

Conducted their first full implementation (without a pilot) for spring 2009, with an approximate 50-55% response rate.

School of Public Policy (SPP)

Conducted their first full implementation (without a pilot) for spring 2009, with an approximate 75-80% response rate.

Seaver College

Conducted their first pilot evaluation period in spring 2009, with an approximate 6065% response rate.

Administrative Support - General PeopleSoft Development Freeze. The chief information officer has instituted a soft development freeze regarding all supplemental PeopleSoft changes and modification requests. This soft freeze does not apply to packaged regulatory updates, queries, reports, or other requested modifications necessary to comply with mandated changes under reporting regulations. Requested changes that propose substantial demonstrated efficiencies or cost savings will be approved. This soft freeze is necessary in order to bring the project back to its original “plain vanilla” mission in order to plan and support future upgrades of the PeopleSoft applications with the limited financial resources that remain available. The chief information officer will be discussing the impact of this soft freeze with the deans and other constituents through the months of May and June. Bible Lectures 2009. Over 50 IT staff volunteered to provide the support required for the 2009 Bible Lectures. A special thank you goes to the Presentation Services team for the leadership and support they provided for this important event. WaveNet Reorganization and Redesign. There are a number of initiatives in progress to improve the end user experience with WaveNet. After looking at the various upgrades required, a decision has been made to overhaul the basic WaveNet information architecture with assistance from a consulting firm with significant higher education experience.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009

Mainframe Decommissioning. On July 31, 2009, the University mainframe will be turned off. Thereafter, SIS archived data will be accessed with a PeopleSoft query through WaveNet. Two training sessions for query writers have been scheduled for May 19 and 21, 2009. Query writers will be able to write their own queries in the PeopleSoft test environment; and those queries will be migrated to production.
There will also be standard queries in the data warehouse module, similar to those frequently used on the mainframe. These queries are currently being developed and tested through the C2C working groups. Nolij.
We are a month of way from completing the ambitious project to convert 5.5 million pages of documents from the Stellant document storage system into Nolij. Nolij (pronounced knowledge) converts paper files to electronic images so that documents can be electronically filed, easily retrieved, and preserved. In addition to the Stellant conversion, the following progress was made on imaging projects this month: • Advancement. 65,000 documents were migrated to Nolij. This involved matching all their old legacy identifiers, including Social Security Numbers, to the campus-wide identification number (CWID). This project is part of a larger initiative to remove Social Security Numbers from all electronically stored files in Nolij. • Registrar. Transferred 55,000 legacy transcripts from the mainframe. This will allow transcript printing after the mainframe has been decommissioned. In addition, over 100,000 microfiche documents will be migrated from DVDs into Nolij in order to preserve historic student records. • Seaver Admission. A project has begun to provide integration between Nolij and PeopleSoft for Seaver Admission.
The integration will provide the Seaver Admission Department the ability to update applicant checklist items within Nolij and have those updates reflected within PeopleSoft in a timely manner.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009

Benchmarks and Accountability Anytime Support Desk. During April 2009, there were 2,537 requests for support managed through the Anytime Support Desk. Of these requests, 2,259 (89%) were resolved within one day and 2,436 (96%) were resolved in fewer than five days. The average wait time for individuals calling the Anytime Support Desk was 73 seconds. The first call resolution rate was 76%. This is the percentage of requests that are resolved by the Anytime Support Desk on the first call. Online Requests. There were 191 additional requests for support managed through online Web request forms that were directed to the appropriate Information Technology departments without involving the Anytime Support Desk. The top two types of online requests were audiovisual (63) and departmental telephone service (37). SunGard does not charge the University for support requests that are made directly via the Web request forms. The online forms can be accessed at . Anytime Support User Survey. Through an automated feedback process, all Anytime Support Desk callers are provided the opportunity to complete a Web-based feedback survey. Of 2,536 survey requests sent to customers, 237 (9%) were completed in April 2009. The five-question survey uses a “1 to 9” sliding scale with “7.00-9.00” equal to Excellent. Month

Response Rate

Overall Satisfaction

Response Timeliness

Skill Set

Communication

Resolution Timeliness

April

9%

7.59

7.70

8.07

7.61

7.74

March

10%

7.77

7.81

8.05

7.82

7.90

February

11%

7.99

7.99

8.06

7.76

7.99

Staff Support by Major Area. All IT Division employees are allocating their day-to-day efforts using client, project, and task codes. Using this data, total division-wide staff effort for April 2009 was distributed as follows. University Administration Support

1,100 hours

7.42%

$55,185.90

Colleges, Academic Affairs

3,613 hours

24.37%

$131,222.90

University-Wide, Common Services

5,308 hours

35.81%

$245,043.71

IT Administration and Management

2,746 hours

18.52%

$112,979.54

General Overhead (Leave, Holiday)

2,056 hours

13.88%

$82,592.40

14,823 hours

100%

$627,024.45

Total:

Support for Schools. Of the effort provided to Pepperdine Schools, the breakdown is as follows. Month

Seaver

GSBM

GSEP

SOL

SPP

April

57.91%

22.33%

17.81%

0.50%

1.45%

March

46.75%

30.35%

21.12%

0.78%

1.00%

February

46.61%

27.16%

23.54%

0.63%

2.06%

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, May 2009