Committee meeting - September 5, 2013 | Computing Technology and Services Committee

Meltem Kurtman
Acting Secretary to the Committee
September 16, 2013

Present:

Dave Wallace (Chair), Meltem Kurtman (Secretary), Bill Baer, Bruce Campbell, Andrea Chappell, Marko Dumancic, Erick Engelke, Bob Hicks, Dawn Keenan, Dave Kibble, Robyn Landers, Bill Ince, Paul Miskovsky, Carl Nagel, Terry Stewart, Jason Testart

Guests:

David Bean, Cathy Newell-Kelly

Regrets:

None.

Agenda

Update on online learning (Cathy Newell-Kelly, Andrea Chappell) [1:30pm-2:10pm]
Chair’s remarks (Dave Wallace, Chair) [2:10-2:15pm]
Approval of the minutes of the meeting of August 22, 2013 and business arising [2:15pm-2:20pm]
Review of current Waterloo Identity and Access Management (WatIAM) issues (Jason Testart) [2:20-2:35pm]
Updates (2:35-2:50pm; Various)
- Email (Bruce Campbell)
- Active Directory (Bruce Campbell)
- Green IT (Marko Dumancic)
- IT security (Jason Testart)
- Campus Firewall project (Bruce Campbell)
- Student Printing (Bill Baer)
- IT Strategic Plan (Andrea Chappell)
- Organize for Success (Bob Hicks)
Other business (2:50-3:00pm)
Next Computing Technology and Services Committee (CTSC) meeting
[Will be held Thursday, September 19, 2013, at 1:30 p.m., in Mathematics & Computing building (MC) 2018A.]

Update on online learning (Andrea Chappell, Cathy Newell-Kelly, David Bean)

Chappell gave an update on the following topics:

August 19th Desire2Learn (D2L) meeting
- D2L Binder – a new feature
- D2L Insights/Analytics
- D2L support changes
- Change management
Semester start plan
- D2L changed approach to term start
- “Chill and freeze” on updates
- Plan to get clients to known patch level across board and then freeze
- Takes away some of our timing flexibility, but seen as a positive move
LEARN add-ons
- Maple TA integration due in September
- Access to Pearson publisher textbooks through LEARN
- Reporting tool
D2L continuous delivery
- Plans to move to continuously release code model with monthly cycle
- Software more reliable, easier to support
- Incremental value, increased transparency
- New tools optional
- Service packs will be mandatory
- About two months lead on upcoming changes

Comments

None of this is cast in stone. There is a certain amount of discomfort. We need to better understand this. Continuous delivery would be the same if we were hosting D2L.

Newell-Kelly gave an overview of the following topics:

Newell-Kelly gave an overview of the following topics:
- 300ish courses, dozen or so programs
- Growing in grad (course-based Masters)
- WatPD, Student Success, Academic Integrity
- Professional Development (non-credit for fee)
How does Center for Extended Learning (CEL) provide support?
- Team of 55+ staff
- Design, digital media development, quality assurance, student support, systems development and support
- Focused on fully online, some blended
CEL partners:
- Instructional Technologies and Multimedia Services (ITMS)
- Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE)
- Library
Some current projects:
- Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) & Council of Ontario Universities (COU)
  - MTCU wants greater collaboration, improved access, quality
  - COU established “Ontario Universities Online” initiative
  - Currently funding available (Productivity & Innovation fund $45 M, Online Learning fund $42 M over 3 years)
- MOOCs & Open courseware
  - Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are freely available, and include instructor support
  - Open courseware is freely available, but without the instructor support
  - Waterloo is working toward launch of an “Open Waterloo” site later this fall
- Math open content
  - Building core math courses online, as well as high school curriculum
  - All content to be freely available
  - Exploring tools for delivery (Maple, D2L)

Comment

Wallace noted that Andrea Chappell and Dave Bean are working on formalizing an Operational Level of Agreement between ITMS and CEL.

Chair's remarks (Dave Wallace)

Last week, University wide strategy was approved.
There is a Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO) meeting coming up in October.
PIF (Productivity and Initiation Fund): Applications have to be approved by the end of the month and the money has to be spent by the end of next month.

Approval of the minutes of the meeting of August 22, 2013

The minutes of the meeting of August 22, 2013 were approved as distributed.

Review of current WatIAM issues (Jason Testart)

Testart distributed a document prior to the meeting and talked about the following WatIAM shortfalls:

Alumni Accounts
Exchange Provisioning
Duplicate Accounts
Campus Identifier Assignment
Course Security Group Provisioning
Identity Lifecycle
Pending Move
Email Destination Validation

Comments and discussion

The first thing we have to do is go through the identity lifecycles. How do you fix the issues while taking into consideration the next generations?
What are our logical, business driven requirements?
It is best if we can get active participation.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is important.
- It might be harder to implement than we think
Policy 8 classification of information was a start. Looking at security models out there such as ISO15001.
- Policy 8 has no implementation; we have to take it to implementation level.

Testart will report back in Mid-October.

Updates

Email (Bruce Campbell)

Undergrad email and the Cloud: Spoke to the Student Success Office, told them this is only an investigation. Will start consulting with various groups and speak to the Secretariat. So far, heard from two faculty members. They have strong opinions about the Cloud. Over the course of the Fall term, we will know if we can recommend this. Students are generally supportive of this. The older generation is more reluctant. We will touch base with other universities. This was taken to University Committee on Information Systems & Technology (UCIST); approval was given to investigate.

Active Directory (Bruce Campbell)

Colin Bell is bringing this to a conclusion. He will be having meetings this month.

Green IT (Marko Dumancic)

This will be on the agenda at the next meeting.

IT security (Jason Testart)

Nothing to report.

Campus Firewall (Bruce Campbell).

Having meetings with IT Directors. An audit is scheduled for October.

Student Printing (Bill Baer)

There will be a meeting with Papercuts next week; will discuss printing scenarios.

IT Strategic Plan (Andrea Chappell)

At a recent Information Systems & Technology (IST) mini-retreat, IST management was presented with some of the governance themes that arose from the IT Strategic Plan process, as part of information gathering towards a discussion at UCIST this fall. Examples of governance flows included IST partnerships, how they work, and how decisions are made, using the Teaching and Learning (T&L) area, and administrative information as examples. In T&L, there is no overall governance/strategy committee for technologies. The former Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), Instructional Technologies Advisory Committee, operated more as an information sharing group, not advisory. Regarding the IT Directions, as per the timeline in May's release document, there will be an update to campus in early November. IST is compiling items that contribute to the potential opportunities identified. UCIST, as the steering committee, will need to determine how to update it with progress from other areas of the IT community. Also, the ITSP auditors have been sent documentation that they requested, and interviews of participants have started, to understand the process.

[Note: Email to the CTSC mailing list after the meeting raised questions about the process towards governance discussions. They were responded to by Chappell.]

Organize for Success (Bob Hicks)

Dave Kibble is in his new role as of September 1st. We will be doing interviews in September for the vacant positions.

Other business

No other business.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on September 19, 2013, at 1:30pm, in MC 2018A.