ITS will be updating our software, which will include an automatic update of your desktop software. You may notice changes to the interface and icons for the program, but otherwise service will not be affected.  

As part of this change, this icon is going to change:

To this:

 or this 

If your backup needs have changed or want to explore other storage options, or if you have any other questions or concerns, please reach out to the ITS Service Desk at x7111 or email itshelp@colgate.edu.

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A new feature has been rolled out to allow you to select how your name is displayed in the online directory. Your legal last name will always display, but you now have the following options to select how your first name is displayed:

• Preferred first name only
• Legal first name only
• Legal first name and your preferred first name in parenthesis

To select your preference, go My Contact Information on the portal home page and select your directory name format. The online directory will take up to two hours to reflect this change. If you do not change your preference, your legal name and your preferred first name (if one exists) will both show.

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Moodle Outage – Disruption – Mon 5-Dec-16 –

Block configuration – RESOLVED

Issues Reported:

Starting at about 1:00pm Mon 5-Dec, multiple Moodle users reported a failure after logging into Moodle, receiving a database error message rather than a Moodle view. We were unable to determine the exact severity of the issue immediately, but did not classify the situation as critical since we received only a handful of problem reports at the Service Desk and identified dozens of successful logins during this period.

Our hosting service, eThink, turned on system debugging messages while investigating the issue. These messages were annoying but did not actually prevent users from accessing Moodle functions, however many users might not have understood that the system was still usable since in some views the messages filled a screen, displacing regular page content..

eThink reported the login problems as resolved about 1:50 p.m. and identified the cause as an error resulting from their system reconfiguration of course blocks.  

Additional block problems were identified later in the afternoon by ITS staff, with Administration and Navigation blocks missing for all users.  eThink resolved the missing blocks configuration issue at about 4:30pm. A further block issue with the course listing in the user Dashboard was finally resolved at about 5pm. No user reports were received, but we believe the issue started at about 4:00pm.

Impact:

1-2pm – Not all users were affected by the login issue (we received about 7 total reports of problems), but all were at least inconvenienced by the debugging messages.

4-4:30pm – All users were missing Navigation and Administration blocks. Course listings were misplaced in the user Dashboard.

5pm – All blocks were restored to normal locations

Status:

Resolved

Please report any further Moodle issues to the ITS Service Desk.

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ITS will be performing network maintenance Tuesday, November 15^th at 6:00 a.m. The work being performed is not expected to cause connectivity issues, however,  a brief slowdown in network throughput may be experienced. We appreciate your patience as we work to improve and maintain Colgate’s network infrastructure.

If you encounter any difficulties with network or phone connectivity please contact the ITS Service Desk at extension 7111, email us at itshelp@colgate.edu or stop by the ITS Service Desk. The ITS Service Desk is located on the third floor of the Case – Geyer Library (adjacent to J.B. Colgate). Professional staff are available for in person support Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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Friends,

We’re writing to let you know about a few changes to some of the services you use most frequently, and with a reminder on how to stay up to date on changes and improvements to services as they happen.

Colgate E-Mail Addresses

You may have already noticed that when you start a new e-mail, the list of e-mail addresses is a bit shorter. There’d been an issue where three e-mails were displayed for each person at Colgate. We’ve worked with Google and corrected the issue. Please know that the e-mail address displayed is, in fact, the correct one. The others were displayed unnecessarily.

Long Distance Telephone Codes

After consultation with our colleagues across the University, we’ve removed the requirement to enter long distance codes when making an interstate or international call. The inconvenience of this feature outweighed any benefits. You’ll no longer need to use your long distance code, nor request one for new employees.

The ITS Blog

It’s great to be “in the know” about what’s happening in ITS, but e-mails for every issue can be a bit much. We’ll always let you know by e-mail if there’s a service disruption or other problem that requires quick attention. And we’ll continue to send periodic digest-style updates like this one with highlights of service improvements and changes, but not every time. For more detail on what’s happening in ITS, we invite you to check out our blog online. http://blogs.colgate.edu/its.

Many thanks,
Steve Fabiani

VP/CIO
Colgate ITS

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Overview:

Colgate’s Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) will be offline for maintenance from Mon Jun 20 at noon until Thu Jun 23 at 4:00pm.  

During this outage Moodle will be upgraded from version 2.5 to version 3.0 and hosting will be transferred from local servers to eThink Education servers.

Impact:

System Changes:

• Moodle will be upgraded to a new version, 3.0
• The general interface (theme) of Colgate’s Moodle will have a more modern look and feel to enhance navigation and the user experience. Lambda
• Standard logins will be changed to the Colgate CAS single-sign-on used in familiar sites such as the Portal
• Account, course, and enrollments will be fully automated
• File uploads will be limited to 64MB
• Our Moodle servers will be hosted off campus with eThink Education

Not changed:

• All courses and content on the current Moodle server will be transitioned automatically to the new v3.0 server
• CAS logins still use your Colgate network username and password

Time Frame:

Moodle will be removed from service at 12:00pm (noon) Mon June 20. Service will be restored at 12:00pm (noon) Thu Jun 23.  

The Moodle system upgrade will continue throughout the summer as we make final configurations, add features, and adjust settings.

Affected Users:

Faculty, staff and students who use our Moodle LMS.

For more Information:

The new Moodle is documented at our new Moodle Info site at Moodle-Info.Colgate.Edu

If you have questions about this transition please contact the ITS Service Desk (see Colgate.Edu/itshelp) or contact any of the following Academic Technologies staff:

• Doug Higgins (dhiggins@colgate.edu ext 6337)  
• Dan Wheeler (dwheeler@colgate.edu ext 7742)  
• Jeff Nugent (jnugent@colgate.edu ext 6347)
• Kelly Dempsey (kdempsey@colgate.edu ext 7596)  
• Zlatko Grozl (zgrozl@colgate.edu ext 6492)

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Moodle Transition to  v3.0 – Message for Faculty

In June of 2016, ITS will be upgrading Moodle to version 3.0. This upgrade will provide improved functionality, as well as an enhanced look and feel of the Moodle environment. The decision to upgrade Moodle was based, in large part, on feedback and recommendations that emerged from the Faculty Moodle Satisfaction Survey conducted by the Committee on Information Technology(CIT) in 2015. Faculty satisfaction with Moodle was, for the most part positive, and the upgrade will address several of the issues identified in the survey report. Colgate will be partnering with eThink to facilitate and support this upgrade (fully managed hosting, upgrade, data migration, and testing). Additional information about the upgrade is briefly outlined below.

Timeline

Key milestones for the upgrade include the following:

• April & May 2016 – ITS planning and technical preparation.
• June 2016 – Finalize a configuration of a test instance of Moodle v3.0
• End June 2016 – “Go live” with upgraded site.
• July / August 2016 – User education (faculty workshops / support resources)

What will this mean for you?

While the look and feel of Moodle 3.0 will be slightly different, the overall functionality will remain the same.  We have been working to identify and summarize those changes which we think are most relevant for Colgate faculty members. The linked document below, “Transition to Moodle 3.0” presents our analysis to date. In essence, we believe there are many positive changes yet few that change your environment negatively or dramatically.

Transition to Moodle 3.0 (Google Doc) 

Education & Support for Faculty

Faculty can anticipate a range of support opportunities prior to the start of the Fall 2016 term. Specific scheduling details about these opportunities will be made available in follow-up communications.

• Hands-on workshops
• 1:1 consultations
• Self-paced tutorials
• Documentation
• Exploring test site

Contact

Please direct any questions or requests for additional information to our project lead for the transition to Moodle 3.0, Dan Wheeler, in Academic Technologies — via email (dwheeler@colgate.edu) or phone extension 7742.

Ongoing updates and information will be made available on the following web page:

colgate.edu/moodle

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Overview:  The ITS Academic Technology team would like to assist faculty in preparing for the new Spring 2015 semester with:

• January Workshops
  • Exploring Technology for Enhancing Learner Feedback
  • Exploring Technology for Enhancing Communication and Collaboration

REGISTER FOR A WORKSHOP

• Moodle End-of-Semester/Start-of-Semester Reminders

Do-it-yourself or assisted content migration from old courses, combining Moodle courses, creating personal grade and course backups, and more…

• Classroom Technology Orientation

If you are interested in an orientation to the technology in a classroom please send an email request to ITSHelp@colgate.edu and we can schedule an orientation meeting.

• Technology Project Planning

Now is the time to reserve a spot on our planning lists for student technology projects, be they via CEL – send an email request to cel@colgate.edu – or with ITS – send an email request to ITSHelp@colgate.edu  

• Teaching with Technology Microgrants

Interested in trying a new piece of software or a mobile app with your class?  Up to $500 is available for software and apps just by completing this simple application.

• Other Needs?

Just send us an email at ITSHelp@colgate.edu or call x7111 and we will be glad to assist you however we can.

Learn about projects your colleagues have done:

You can review many projects undertaken here; we are also happy to discuss and apply other educational technologies in support of teaching and learning.

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In early January, Information Technology Services will be making some changes to our organization to better meet the technology needs and support demands of the Colgate community. Significant enhancements will include bringing the help line function back on campus, increasing the hours of professional support, improving support options for students, and better integration between the help line and the rest of the ITS support structure.

Moving the ITS Help Line on campus will improve the coordination and integration of the Help Line and Service Desk functions, creating one seamless operation. Two new full-time Help Line staff will join Jon Beers and Sarah Curtis who currently operate the ITS Service Desk. We will be improving the way Help Line calls are routed for additional support, taking advantage of the ability to consult quickly with colleagues. Our newly hired staff will also participate in the campus community and become an integrated part of the ITS support team resulting in a connected and unified support process.  With the the Help Line in-house, issues requiring escalation will be directed to the appropriate staff sooner resulting in a more expeditious resolution.

An additional change in our support structure is the promotion of Ahmad Khazaee to Manager of End User Support.  In this role, Ahmad will oversee the coordination between the Service Desk and End User Support, including initial hardware configuration, software configuration and troubleshooting, hardware repair, and classroom auditorium and event support.  He will also oversee the installation and classroom computing resources and applications, an area where we have been making steady improvements. Many of you know Ahmad and can appreciate his dedication to outstanding customer support, caring nature, and ability to execute on complex projects.

The way you interact with the Help Line will not change.  Calling 228-7111 and selecting option “2” will put you in direct contact with a professional staff member. You may continue to send email to itshelp@colgate.edu for inquiries or issue reporting.  Starting in the spring semester, professional staff will be available to answer your calls Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., an increase of 30 hours per week.  Other qualified staff will be on hand outside of these hours to offer assistance and properly escalate issues.  Critical outages will continue to be handled by our on-call infrastructure team.

As with any significant change, we recognize that there are concerns about continuity and quality of service. The thoughtful praise and confidence in Dean and Darryl is greatly appreciated. Please know that we have carefully weighed the benefits of this change and are incorporating the community’s feedback into the design of the new support services.

We have heard concerns raised about the consistency and quality of on-campus support, and anecdotes regarding the difference in the degree of helpfulness expressed between the Help Line and on-campus staff.  We take these concerns seriously and have formed a customer service action team to better understand these shortcomings and institute immediate changes to ensure we always provide the highest level of competent, friendly, and comprehensive support. We encourage you to reach out to us with additional concerns and suggestions on how we can make this the most supportive technology environment.

Over the last ten years the number of calls to the Help Line has dropped significantly while the number of support calls and events outside of standard hours has increased dramatically.  The in-house Help Line staff will be able to handle this additional volume as well as provide enhanced support that was previously referred to other ITS staff. This new alignment will also allow for better support to the more than 1,400 annual events requiring ITS assistance.

These changes allow us to expand the high-quality service the community deserves, which is not possible under the current contract with our external service provider.  A unified team working together on campus means improved communication, collaboration, problem solving, relationship building and the ability to grow with Colgate’s evolving technology support needs.

Please contact Jen Servedio, Director of Technology Support Services, jservedio@colgate.edu or Kevin Lynch, CIO, kplynch@colgate.edu  with any questions, suggestions or concerns.

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