This Issue Virus Be Gone! How the Campus is Fighting Future Outbreaks MyUCDavis Mozilla SITT Web Site IET policies page Video-Based Training

Swimming, fishing, hiking, gardening, vacationing, relaxing? Nah, this summer the technologists on our campus will leave those proverbial hammocks behind. In addition to planned upgrades, operational enhancements, and routine services provided by Information and Educational Technology (IET) and other campus units, the following projects and learning opportunities are in the works.

These last few months have seen the beginning of the expansion of MyUCDavis, located at http://my.ucdavis.edu/, into an enterprise portal capable of supporting complex business and academic functions. A number of initiatives are underway to help the campus integrate major systems, build a strong enterprise directory, provide secure online transactions, enable access to streamlined processes on the Web, and overall ensure a smooth integration of business and functional needs. This summer, various project teams will continue to work on those initiatives. By the beginning of Fall, expect these changes:

• New course management features for faculty, their designees, and students. Enhancements will include:
  • a new self-test quiz module that will allow instructors to make quizzes and tests that students can take via the Web. Quiz Builder is powerful enough to enable instructors to build and modify new question profiles, organize question profiles into collections, release quizzes in various formats, and generate reports about question effectiveness, class statistics, etc.
  • Website Builder will soon enable instructors to control the navigation and "push" of information through their course Web sites built with Website Builder. For example, instructors will be able to determine when certain Web pages and documents will be released to students, and can determine which students will receive information.
  • The course management communication features will be improved so that Instructors will be able to setup threaded discussion lists in MyUCDavis. Threaded discussion lists operate like a combination between a chat room and a bulletin board. There will also be a new look for chatroom and class email requests that matches the MyUCDavis look and feel.
  • Instructors who previously participated in the WebCT pilot will be able to seek assistance from the Teaching Resources Center to move their WebCT-created course material onto MyUCDavis. New faculty with existing WebCT course material can also receive assistance transitioning to MyUCDavis. Follow this link to read the Academic Computing Coordinating Council's (AC4) recommendations to support the course management tools in MyUCDavis and to transition WebCT users.
  
  
• Access to the portal's Web-based email program will be simplified. You will no longer have to enter your password twice when you access Geckomail in MyUCDavis. And your email will still be secure.
  
  
• The MyUCDavis Development Team has been working to increase the portal's speed and functionality. Testing of the streamlined portal has revealed that Mozilla (downloads available at http://www.mozilla.org/) is the browser that works best with the enhancements. A link to download the most recent version of Mozilla will be available from MyUCDavis when the changes are integrated. The team is investigating other options as well.

Like most everybody else on this campus, you no doubt have witnessed the damage brought on by the increasing number of hostile network and computer intrusions. This summer, IET, under the leadership of the IT Security Coordinator, will continue to put in place the components of a multi-pronged approach to ensure the availability, integrity and confidentiality of our electronic data.

• Blocking Email Viruses: Anti-virus software will be installed on the campus email servers (those operated by IET and named after colors). See Virus Be Gone! How the Campus is Fighting Future Outbreaks in this issue.
  
  
• Securing Access to Computer and Network Resources: If you use email, do online transactions, access DaFIS or the Payroll Personnel System, or check your stock ratings on MyUCDavis every morning, chances are you are faced with the cumbersome process of maintaining a growing list of loginIDs and passwords. A project team was formed in February to investigate whether a campus-wide authentication service could be developed to simplify authorization processes and security management and provide other ancillary benefits supporting digital signatures and encryption services. The team's report is expected this summer.
  
  
• Responding to Security Breaches: Like all other higher education institutions, UC Davis is a target of unauthorized attempts to view, manipulate, or damage campus computer systems, networks and/or data. Such security incidents can be very serious, sometimes resulting in information theft, financial fraud, and/or sabotage of computers or networks. Recognizing these risks, a UC Davis Incident Response Team will be formed this summer to investigate and reduce security vulnerabilities and establish mechanisms to limit the spread and impact of an incident.

In these times of budget constraints, meeting with distant colleagues, collaborating on research projects, bringing that coveted guest speaker to campus, and deciding which candidates to interview for your critical job vacancy are all becoming increasingly challenging. Fortunately, the world of videoconferencing now offers exciting new possibilities, thanks to the dramatic expansion of the communication infrastructure and the increasing power of PCs. You can now turn your desktop computer into a powerful, yet cost effective videoconferencing system. Recognizing these new trends and possibilities, a project team formed by Vice Provost Bruno has been investigating videoconferencing over the Internet as a potential service to the campus community. Watch for the project team's report and recommendations later this summer.

The 9th Annual Summer Institute on Technology in Teaching (SITT) takes place this July 15-19 on campus. Each year, the Teaching Resources Center (TRC) partners with Mediaworks staff and other specialists on campus to provide a learning environment for instructors interested in the latest instructional technology tools and established practices. For more information visit, http://trc.ucdavis.edu/trc/sitt/.

• Training Materials: The campus has built a video-based training library to provide technical training materials to the campus community. For a list of courses and instructions on accessing the tapes, visit Video-Based Training.
  
  
• Orienting Students: All summer IET helps the Student Advising folks orient incoming freshmen and transfer students to the UC Davis world of computing. The students will learn all about computing accounts, the UC Davis student computer ownership expectation, the wide variety of campus computing services, and the many ways in which the MyUCDavis portal will serve them up until graduation day.

A mere peek at the coming months at Mediaworks, the campus' digital media and educational technology resource, reveals some exciting projects:

• If you haven't yet heard about UC Davis Medical Center's new Birthing Center, the folks at Mediaworks are making sure you get a first hand look without ever leaving your desk. By taking the Mediaworks-created virtual tour of the Center's facilities, you'll be able to move around, zoom-in and out, and visit both public and private rooms.
• The videographers will be working hard on a Promotional Video for Visitor Services as well as a Bicycle Safety Video for Trauma Prevention at Medical Center
• Mediaworks helps campus instructors create educational technology for their courses, allowing then to enhance the learning environment for their students. This summer Mediaworks will be assisting instructors in Pshychology, Art History, Chemistry, Anthropology, Neurobiology Physiology and Behavior, Anthropology, Vegetable Crops, and Agricultural Resource Economics.

Earlier this year, a workgroup was formed to plan the implementation of Active Directory on campus. This service will facilitate the adoption of Windows 2000 on both servers and desktop computers. A number of campus organizations, large and small, are expected to join the UC Davis Active Directory Forest, starting this summer.

UC Davis adopted its own version of the UC-wide Electronic Communications Policy (ECP) on March 29 (see the IET polices page). The UC Davis policy has broad implications for the campus as it addresses all forms of communications that use an electronic medium (e.g., email, instant messaging, telephone, the Web). This summer, an IET workgroup will be identifying areas where interpretive guidelines and procedures need to be drawn up. In response to this policy, the campus is also working on separate policies related to mass communications (including unsolicited email issues) and the World Wide Web.

For updates on these and other summer activities, be sure to check the "What's New" page on the IET Web site.