Computing and Telecommunication Center Newsletter
December 2004

The Portal

The CTC is working hard to bring true portal functionality to the campus. You may wonder what exactly constitutes a portal. A portal, as we use the term, gives users access to information based on the role of the user, and the user can customize the content and the look of the portal. The portal is not a static web page with the same information for everyone; it provides real-time information based on database technology. Once a user logs on to the FHSU portal, the portal will know if the user is a student, a faculty member, a faculty advisor, a Department Chair, a Dean, as well as other roles (prospective student, alumni, for example). There will be a standard presentation of information for students and faculty, for example, a default look and feel. This default look and feel can be modified by the user. Further, a typical portal has a number of tabs and/or a variety of separate windows (called channels) that present different kinds of information, and some of these channels are determined by the user.

The content of portals varies. To see a typical portal, go to msn.com, opera.com, or www.lycos.com (click on My Lycos). You will typically see the weather in one window, a variety of stock quotes in another, news in another, a search engine in another, movie news in another, etc. The FHSU portal will have similar options, but it will have FHSU-specific information too. It will provide access to Student Web Services for students, "Faculty Web Services" for faculty, WebMail for students, Blackboard for students and faculty, University news, a University calendar, and a number of other channels. The portal will provide single sign-on to Student Web Services, WebMail, and Blackboard. This means that when a user logs on to the portal, access to WebMail and Blackboard is transparent to the student user.

The Portal developers will depend heavily on portal users for input on the look and feel of the portal and for the desired channel options. To give users effective representation we have formed a Portal User Group. The kickoff to this Portal User Group occurred on November 11. The co-chairs of this Portal User Group are Dr. Diane Scott, who represents the student service side of the Portal, and John Ross, who represents the academic side. Other participants include: Mike Barnett, four faculty members representing the four colleges (some yet to be named), Dr. Robert Nicholson (faculty), Dr. Tom Jackson, Joey Linn, Dennis King, Kent Steward, Mitch Hall, Judy Getty, Dr. David Schmidt, Jackie Ruder, and Chad Dague. This User Group will give direction and guidance to the portal developers, shape portal policy, and communicate with the campus community. We are very pleased the User Group members have accepted this challenge.

The Portal User Group will be forming student focus groups to help select the types of information to be included in the Portal. The students will help prioritize the channel options, communication options, and the default look and feel for students. The Portal User Group will sponsor a contest among students to name the portal.

The Portal User Group will be meeting with a variety of groups on campus to get feedback. If you have any questions or concerns about the portal, contact Dr. Diane Scott or John Ross. back to top

ITPAC has begun reviewing the issue of becoming a laptop university. To evaluate this issue properly, I believe that we need to look at campuses that have done a good job of incorporating laptops. Not to put a fine point on it, we need to review campuses that have done it right. If we choose to implement a laptop program, we want to maximize its effectiveness. We have consulted with a university that has an effective program at Educause. Educause is a national organization that endeavors to help universities incorporate information technology into their campuses. Educause features best practices, innovative technologies, and frank discussions of the pros and cons of adopting a variety of technologies on campus.

Several of us from FHSU met with representatives from Winona State University from Winona, Minnesota. We also met with support staff at Northern Michigan University. Educause featured a controlled study of classes using laptops and classes without laptops at West Point. In reviewing these experiences, we have learned some lessons. All of these universities recommend providing faculty with laptops first, so that faculty members become comfortable with their use and experiment with classroom applications. Some of the more successful laptop universities also feature faculty user groups, shared lesson plans, classroom case studies (stored on a server), and faculty training other faculty. These kind of activities facilitate faculty exchanging information with other faculty on classroom (and non-classroom) activities that benefit from the use of laptops.

Winona State University started their implementation by having one college distribute laptops and also by having one set of classes (such as selected English Composition classes) start using the laptops. By starting with these types of targeted uses and targeted audiences, more support was available for these early users. Winona State found that making laptops available over the summer – for students and faculty – was essential too. So they negotiated variable lease agreements so that students and faculty could keep their laptops over the summer. They found that once faculty and students start depending on their laptop, they do not want to part with it over the summer.

These are some of the issues that we will be discussing at the upcoming ITPAC meetings. If you have any opinions, concerns, or creative ideas about using laptops, please contact me. back to top

As we approach the end of the semester and finals, please remember that 150 question answer sheets are available for pick-up at the Dispatch Window (TH111). Please make sure the students use No. 2 pencils, fill the bubbles completely and erase cleanly. Boxes of No. 2 pencils for classroom use are available at the Dispatch Window. Return the answer sheet, student score sheets and a completed test scanning request form to the Dispatch Window. Your test will be scored and the requested reports printed within 24 hours, M-F.

Having a protected password is essential to the security of the information that you have on your account and the protection and privacy of the information that you may have access to on CICS. We encourage you to periodically change your Lotus Notes and CICS passwords. If at any time you feel that your CICS password may have been jeopardized or would like to have it changed, please e-mail Jane Rajewski at jrajewsk@fhsu.edu. Include in the note your CICS ID, current CICS password and what you would like for your CICS new password (up to 8 characters). You will be notified via LN when to start using the new password. back to top

These are the end-of-semester and holiday hours that the CTC Tomanek Hall Computer labs will have from Dec 1 through the Martin Luther King holiday. The hours can also be found on our web page at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/labs/hours1.shtml. back to top

We have posted information on a web page to aid faculty or staff who are unfamiliar with submitting a Request for Computing Services (RCS) to reserve our CTC TH123 (Mac Lab) or TH121 (Pentium) Computer Lab for a class or workshop. The information can be found at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/labs/reservinglabs.shtml .

Faculty or staff MUST submit a CTC Request for Services to reserve a lab. We are unable to schedule the labs without this request and you may not bring a group over to use any CTC lab without this reservation. You may have your secretary submit the request for you. After we receive this request, we will notify Connie Nichols in the Scheduling Office.

If you reserve either lab, we recommend that you come over prior to using the lab to ensure that you can access everything that you need for your class or workshop. back to top

With the end of the fall semester rapidly approaching, it is important that you notify Viv Zimmerman at vzimmerm@fhsu.edu whenever faculty, staff, or student employees terminate employment with your office so that we can remove their IDs and update our mailing groups and security tables.

It is imperative that all security is removed for those who no longer work in your office. back to top

We have noticed an abundance of extremely large e-mail attachments throughout the fall semester. These types of notes use a considerable amount of server space. To free up server space and make the system run more efficently, please read all notes containing these large attachments immediately and then delete them. If necessary, you can print the attachment and have a hard copy or save the attachment to a file on your hard drive.

We have an Attachments database available for any LN user to post large attachments. It's very easy to use. To load the Attachments database in your Favorite Bookmarks folder, do the following:

By placing the Attachments DB into your Favorite Bookmarks folder, the next time you can select from the folder rather than going through all of the above steps. When you send e-mail, instead of including the attachment in your note, ask the user to open the Attachments database and view the attachment. If you'd like, include a link to the Attachments database in your note.

You may view All Documents in the Attachments database or view by Author, Category, or several other options. I prefer viewing by Author as the attachments are in order by first name of author or by Category to locate a specific topic easier. If you need assistance working with or using the Attachments database, please contact the CTC HelpDesk at 5276. back to top

Along with guidelines for making Web sites accessible, the state has now come up with guidelines for making PDF documents accessible. These guidelines will go into effect Feb. 1, 2005. All PDF files will need to be accessible under the following timeline:

a. Phase 1 (February 1 – July 31, 2005)

Submission of the agency plan and implementation (February 1 – July 31, 2005).
In Phase 1, concentrated efforts need to focus on PDFs such as:

b. Phase 2 (August 1, 2005 – Mar 31, 2006)
Any PDF, accessed from the web after January 1, 2005, that does not fall into the categories in Phase 1.

c. Phase 3 (April 1, 2006 - ongoing)
This is the maintenance phase. From this point forward, all PDFs created will be made accessible based on the guidelines.

d. PDF file accessibility shall be completed no later than March 31, 2006.

1. Following are the types of Web-enabled documents that may be published as PDFs:

a. Documents (official, legal or signed) whose onscreen appearance must mirror their hardcopy version, because, if altered in any fashion, the meaning or use of the document would be unacceptably compromised.

b. Documents (large, complex) that users would likely save to their computers for reference and/or print.

2. Exemptions to this Guide:

a. This guidance is not applicable to safety and security information which is not available to the public. If a user is in need of any of these documents then it will be made accessible.

b. Any document not actively being used is considered an archived document and shall be made accessible upon request. Requests for access to these documents will be treated as open records request, except for employees who need them for their duties.

Some alternatives that we suggested to the committee that drafted the guidelines were to leave Word documents in .doc or .rtf format and file protect them using the Protect Document under the Tools menu. That way the documents would remain handicap accessible, but also would retain the look you want them to have.

I know that this seems like just one more thing we have to do, but their feelings on this subject are that if a PDF document is worth taking the time to make it handicap accessible, then perhaps it doesn't even need to be on the Web site. So, if anyone has questions about this, please contact me at sklaus@fhsu.edu or contact Suzanne at 5520. back to top

Have a safe and fun-filled holiday!