Committee meeting - May 28, 2020

Carol Lu  
Secretary to the Committee  
May 28, 2020  
  
Present: Steven Bourque, Don Duff-McCracken, Erick Engelke, Paul Miskovsky, Trevor Bain, Bill Baer, Andrew McAlorum, Andrea Chappell, Jason Testart, Dave Kibble, Lori Paniak, Pratik Patel 

Regrets:  Daryl Dore, Greg Smith, Adam Savage, Robyn Landers
  
Agenda  

1. Chair’s remarks [5 min.]
2. Approval of the minutes of the meetings of Thursday May 14, 2020 [5 min.]
3. Use of O365 tools for teaching and learning (Andrea Chappell) [15 min.]
4. Increase in incorrect Proofpoint filtering (Lori Paniak) [5 min.]
5. Changes to Campus Telephony and pricing (Andrew McAlorum) [15 min.]
6. Student Computing Labs in the Fall term (Dave Kibble) [10 min.]
7. Other Business [10 min.]
8. Roundtable discussion – all [20 min.]
9. Next CTSC Meeting [Will be held Thursday June 11 at 1:30 p.m.]

Chair's Remarks (Steve Bourque)

• Microsoft Teams has added new features, including 3x3 video gallery, a 'raise hand' function, and pop-out windows for chats and meetings
  • https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-technology/news/new-features-available-microsoft-teams

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting

• The previous meeting’s minutes were accepted as distributed.  

Use of O365 tools for teaching and learning (Andrea Chappell)

• Andrea gave a presentation on the Use of O365 tools for teaching and learning
  • There is interest in using Teams and other O365 tools for teaching and learning
  • Would like to get feedback from CTSC about different scenarios where these tools would work and where they would not work 

Comments and discussion

• Arts has hired 57 Online Learning Assistants working in 8 teams of 5-8 people, would their feedback/experience be helpful? 
  • Yes, this feedback would be useful
• How does Teams compare to Google Drive? 
• Missing rostering functionality in Teams would be an issue
• Hard to join teams; it is difficult to discover what teams already exist
  • Teams can be identified easily on the back-end with IST's team naming conventions

Increase in incorrect Proofpoint filtering (Lori Paniak)

• Computer Science emails are being marked as 'imposter' by ProofPoint and disappearing
  • Mail from the CS mail server is forwarded to a uwaterloo email address and getting marked as an imposter email; students never end up receiving these emails

Comments and discussion

• If an email doesn't go through Connect, ProofPoint thinks the email is being spoofed

  • The ProofPoint spoofing protection was working as intended by blocking emails for accounts in Connect that were sourcing from external servers using a @uwaterloo.ca email address

• IST has made changes to the ProofPoint imposter algorithm/whitelisting today
• The imposter list gets moderated on a regular basis
• ProofPoint does not send imposter-labelled emails to users
• Computer Science domain has been whitelisted
• Should ProofPoint be labelling mail that originates from campus as 'imposter'?
  • Students on campus would be able to spoof and send spam 
• Showing users imposter emails poses a risk; users may be more likely to respond to spam emails 
• AHS has also run into this issue
  • Users using Mailchimp to email both internal an external mailing lists 
  • If you are sending an email from a University of Waterloo email address but not sending the email from a University server, the message will not be sent

Changes to Campus Telephony and pricing (Andrew McAlorum)

• Andrew gave an updated presentation on the changes to campus telephony and pricing
• The focus of the telephony discussion is on the design and implementation from an IT perspective
  • Executive Officers and UCIST are reveiwing the financial aspect of these changes

Comments and discussion

• Arts has purchased headsets from the W store
• A discount is given for quantities 10+
• CTSC members appreciate that IST is aiming to be more transparent with telephony billing
  • Current billing system is outdated
• There has been a double billing issue in the past
  • The system has been upgraded to prevent double billing; this will be corrected after the next billing cycle
  • It is recommended that users limit call forwarding during this transition period
• Arkadin could potentially be replaced by Teams
• Headset costs could be high upfront
• Engineering is in favour of this transition 
  • Department is 3/4 using headsets 1/4 using handsets
• Hardware recommendations have not been determined yet
  • IST will provide setup documentation for recommended hardware
• Will this transition require more set up from the faculties? 
  • Handsets might require more setup
• What is the expected lifespan of the hardware?
  • Would like headsets to last ideally until 2025
• WUSA is now using Yealink instead of Polycom
  • Tested with Teams but campus phones have private IPs; Teams requires public IPs
  • Looking to eventually eliminate all phones
• Project timing is not ideal since 15% budget reduction has already been submitted; did not anticipate that headsets needed to be purchased
• Environment is installing phone lines in semi-public places (e.g. grad offices)
• Arts saw a 20% uptake in the four  departments that transitioned to Skype for Business 

Student Computing Labs in the Fall term (Dave Kibble)

• Dave circulated an email yesterday with considerations for student computing lab access 
  • Would like to collect feedback from CTSC members by end of June
• Final numbers for total students on campus in the Fall are not available yet

Comments and feedback

• Engineering has ~1000 workstations available for students but there is not enough staff capacity to clean all the workstations
• Regular supplies get stolen from student labs, how do we prevent sanitizer/wipes from being stolen? 
• Some labs have Microsoft surface tablets which are slightly easier to clean than full desktop machines
• Dave to establish a small brainstorming group to further discuss
  • Interested members: Erick, Paul, Don, Trevor, Adam, Bill, Lori
• IST is investigating Azure virtual desktops
  • Included in the A3 license
• Due to reduced student capacity, some lab instructors may not want to teach additional sessions 

Other Business

No other business. 
 

Roundtable

Client Services, IST (Andrew)

• IST is expanding the use of Kanopy for Media Resources streaming to support online teaching
• Microsoft Teams was used to host the President's Town Hall, University Senate meeting, and Board of Governors meeting
  • Teams will also be used to host the University's Wellness Day conference and Waterloo Innovation Summit in July 
• The Jira Service Desk pilot will be expanding; Arts Computing Office to start using Jira Service Desk 
   

Engineering (Erick)

• How can we repurpose new lab equipment that was recently purchased before the pandemic? 
  • CTSC to discuss in a future meeting

AHS (Trevor)

• Advised users to update their password after the last round of phishing simulations

Comments and discussion

• Faculties can provide users with further education on phishing (e.g. what you should do, how you can tell this is a phish)

• Grad student response rate was ~6%; staff response rate was 6-10%

  • Spam assassin flagged the simulated phish as spam

Computer Science (Lori)

• For hybrid lectures: if a student online has a question, is there a way for the prof to be notified that someone has a question during the lecture? 
   

Environment (Don)

• Focusing on getting instructors trained to use WebEx
  • Inviting an IT staff member to each WebEx meeting to troubleshoot
  • Contact Don if interested in learning more about the process

WUSA (Pratik)

• Microsoft Lists is expected to be released soon; similar application to Planner and Airtable