Ithaca College

Welcome to our monthly IT@IC update.  Each month we will bring you highlights of efforts that we are working on related to the IT services for the campus community.  Let’s get started.

 JULY 2017 CONTENTS

1. New Department Name
2. Windows 10 Upgrades
3. Final Stages of our Major Network Overhaul
4. Enhanced Video Streaming Features to Support Courses and Other Uses on Campus
5. The Last Bit

NEW DEPARTMENT NAME

We’ve changed our department name to Information Technology to better reflect the services we provide and what we do, and to make finding information about us easier.  Over the coming months, we’ll transition to using the new name in our publications, webpages, signs and messages.  We’ll also use the phrase “IT@IC” in some places as a friendly way to refer to ourselves and the services we offer.  

WINDOWS 10 UPGRADES

We have been busy transitioning campus computers from Windows 7 to Windows 10, which offers improved performance, security, and overall experience. There are hundreds of computers across the campus currently on the new operating system, and over the coming year we will be migrating the rest of the campus’s Windows 7 computers to Windows 10. 

If you are currently using a college-owned Windows 7 computer, there are three different ways that the upgrades will be completed: when your computer is replaced via technology renewal, self-service installation, or remote installation.

1. Technology Renewal: Faculty and staff that are scheduled to have their PC replaced through the technology renewal program will receive Windows 10 on their new PC out of the box.
2. Self-Service Installation: Starting this fall, faculty and staff who are not scheduled to receive a new PC through the technology renewal program will have the option to self-install Windows 10. The self-service installation takes approximately forty-five minutes to complete, and automatically backs up and restores all your files, even your bookmarks! After the PC reboots, you can log in and pick up right where you left off.
3. Remote Installation: This option will be available starting in the Spring 2018 semester, if you would prefer not to use the self-service option.  The instructions will be simple: on the date when we will remote install Windows 10, you’ll only need to leave your PC powered on and we’ll take care of the rest; the next time you return to the office, your PC will be upgraded to Windows 10.

Here's a summary:

• Labs, eClassrooms and Conference Rooms -May 2017-August 2017
• Summer Tech Renewal Faculty Staff - July 2017-August 2017
• Fall Tech Renewal Faculty/Staff - September 2017- November 2017
• Self Service Deployment to Faculty/Staff PC’s - Mid-September 2017
• Spring Tech Renewal Faculty Staff - January 2018-March 2018
• Remaining PC’s Remote Installation - Starting January 2018

 More details will be shared in the coming months.

THE FINAL STAGES OF OUR MAJOR NETWORK OVERHAUL

Over the past year there has been a significant investment in upgrading the campus network. The Internet connection has doubled in capacity, outdated hardware has been replaced with modern devices, we’ve added redundancy and better fault tolerance capabilities should a piece of the infrastructure fail, and we are in the very final stages of replacing the edge switches in buildings around campus (as of the writing of this article we have 3 locations left out of 70 areas that needed replacement). 

The edge switches are the network distribution points in each building and are the last piece of the network hardware and software that needed to be updated.  The edge switch updates are required to provide an improved service level for modern end-user devices, better support digital learning initiatives, and enhanced college administrative operations. The network infrastructure updates support BYOD (shorthand for bring your own device – all of those iPads, smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.) and enhances secure wired and wireless access. Additionally, these updates will increase efficiencies for the network team allowing them to make further enhancements and engage more deeply in constant quality improvement.

We want to thank the campus community for your patience as we performed these critical updates.  We now have an almost entirely new network, from the fiber running into the campus, to the edge switches in each building and everything in between. This new network will provide us with much better reliability and performance in the years to come.

ENHANCED VIDEO STREAMING FEATURES TO SUPPORT COURSES AND OTHER USES ON CAMPUS
New capabilities of the media.ithaca.edu system at Ithaca College (also known as Kaltura)

New Automatic Captioning for Media

The Teaching and Learning with Technology group is happy to announce that we now have captioning capability in our media system, inside Sakai, or through media.ithaca.edu.  Any new uploads to the media.ithaca.edu system will have automatic machine captioning that creates English captions for any new audio or video added to the system.  While the auto captioning is not perfect, it will get our users about 70% of the way there with the option to manually edit the remaining words or phrases that get "misread" by the auto caption.  The edit tools are intuitive and allow for quickly correcting the file which automatically updates once the client's caption work is saved.  This will be a huge time saver for anyone that is tasked with captioning video or audio on campus.  Additionally, the text transcript of the captions is automatically made available to download which is a great way for some clients to take the text and use it in their specialty reader software, etc.

Captions add to the overall educational user experience as each word is indexed and can be searched which speeds up the time spent looking for specific content.  Users can click the link next to the word in the search and automatically be taken to that exact moment in the video when it is spoken. 

Additional capturing services are also in the works for captioning in both English and Foreign languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Russian and Turkish).  More updates coming soon!

In Video interactive Quizzing

Any media uploaded to the system can be turned into an interactive multiple-choice quiz.  This feature is fantastic for engaging students in new ways using technology. As users watch a video, a question appears at its chosen point; the video continues after the user answers the question. Depending on configuration, users may be allowed to repeat sections, skip questions, revise answers, receive hints, and discover the correct answers. Practically, in-video-quizzing (IVQ) increases engagement, tests knowledge and retention, and gathers media effectiveness data. Users can watch media segments multiple times in preparation for answering questions; and receive feedback, correct answers, and in-depth explanations when completing questions.  On the playback side, IVQ is part of Kaltura player and is supported by the player wherever media quizzes are embedded and presented. Viewing and use is supported on any digital device.

THE LAST BIT

You may have noticed that over the past few months we’ve posted articles in Intercom asking for feedback on a few different areas.  This is part of several efforts we are working on to improve how we deliver services to the campus community.  During the fall, we expect to launch a number of improvements for accessing information about our services, accessing the college’s Web-based resources, and providing better information about the status of your IT service requests.  We’re excited about what’s in development, and look forward to continuing our efforts to improve our services.  As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please send them to cio@ithaca.edu.  Thanks! -Dave Weil, Chief Information Officer, Information Technology, Ithaca College.