FAST FIVE for the week of September 16, 2012

Full Google Apps Suite: Ryerson University announced it will adopt Google Apps for Education. The complete Google apps platform will be used, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Drive, and other tools. The decision was made after a year-long consultation process and the conversion will occur over the Thanksgiving weekend. Ryerson and Google

New AVP IT at Trent: Trent University has hired Tariq Al-idrissi as its new Associate Vice President of Information Technology. Tariq was previously the Director, Technology & Information Management Support ay Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Trent CIO

Getting Healthy in Athabasca: A new Wellness at Work app has been released by Athabasca University. The application delivers programmable reminders of when to move away from your computer and exercise. The application includes videos demonstrating stretching and breathing exercises. Athabasca Wellness

Network upgrades at Brock: As part of a series of continuous infrastructure improvements at Brock University, major firewall upgrades have been announced. The changes enhance network reliability, security, and performance. Brock's Defense 

Digital Channel Governance: The University of British Columbia has created a Digital Channels Governance Committee to provide stewardship for  UBC's digital presence on the web, development of mobile applications, use of social media, digital signage, and related digital communication channels. UBC Digital Governance

FAST FIVE for the week of September 9, 2012

New budgeting system: The University of Toronto is implementing the Cognos TM1 to improve its budgeting and planning processes. The new system will enable multi-dimensional modelling, data warehousing, and enhanced performance reporting capabilities. The system will be implemented in time for the 2013-14 budgeting cycle. Data Store and Budget Platform

Parking at Dal: Dalhousie University implemented an online parking payment system this year, greeting returning faculty with an improved business process that eliminated an annual, storied long line-up for parking passes. The new system was developed in partnership with Heartland, the provider of Dalhousie’s OneCard System.

More new from Halifax: Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College are now merged. In a short 3 month period, all employees were cutover to Dalhousie systems, while the student conversion will continue over the next several months. Dal's agricultural campus

Trent upgrades LMS: Trent University is migrating from WebCT to Blackboard Learn 9 for course content delivery and management. Course content was migrated over the summer in preparation for this fall's classes. The old system will be decommissioned in October. New LMS @ Trent 

Algonquin mobility: Algonquin College has implemented the Blackboard Mobile Learn application for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Palm devices. Training sessions and demonstrations will be provided to help the community use the new application. Blackboard Mobile Learn

FAST FIVE for the week of September 2, 2012

New project management process: Wilfred Laurier University has implemented a request mechanism for projects and services through its new customer service portal. This new centralized project intake process will improve resource management, customer service, and process transparency. Laurier customer service

CEO search: Compute Canada has launched a formal search for a Chief Executive Officer. The newly incorporated high performance computing organization is looking for a CEO to build the organization and hire chief technology, financial, and scientific officers. Compute Canada CEO

Guelph adds redundancy: The University of Guelph has added a second ISP (Internet Service Provider) to increase bandwidth and improve reliability through greater redundancy. The upgrade comes just in time for the new school term and is expected to support the rapid growth in wireless demand across campus. uGuelph adds another ISP

Manitoba migrates: The University of Manitoba is migrating its learning management system from Angel to Desire 2 Learn. The University is implementing the change to improve student learning experiences and to provide a more flexible teaching tool for faculty. Angel to D2L in Manitoba

Major IT restructuring: The University of Saskatchewan has announced a significant organization change designed to improve service to their clients. The new organization includes six new reporting units within the ICT portfolio and is also designed to work collaboratively with other units on campus.  uSaskatchewan reorganization

FAST FIVE for week of August 26, 2012

Wireless upgrades: York University is upgrading its wireless service in preparation for the fall semester. The service is named AirYorkPlus and the project will implement new wifi equipment on a large scale across campus. The upgrades are intended to improve convenience of access by eliminating web-based login, and to improve performance of the network by increasing support of high-density areas on campus. Flying the friendly skies of AirYork

New classroom technology: The University of Calgary has implemented new classroom technology in 60 of its classrooms across campus. The new rooms have podiums with built-in control panels, document cameras, SMART podium monitors, and DVD players. the University is also offering in-person training to assist faculty with the new technology. New classroom technology model

Student safety: Queen's University has implemented a safety app for students. The SeQure system accesses safety information from a variety of information resources including University emergency data and the Kingston Police. A personal safety toolkit includes features such as a phone flashlight, alarm, and map of emergency locations on campus. Currently available on iTunes and Google Play, it will also be available for Blackberries in the near future. Queen's safety app

Library system upgrade: The University of Guelph is upgrading its Primo library system to version 4. The new release will add several features to the system including multiple facets selection, personalized ranking, and a "Like" feature. Primo library upgrade

UofT Tri-Campus Wireless: As part of long term improvements to campus wireless services, the University of Toronto has streamlined wifi authentication at all three of its campuses. Users will simply authenticate once and their device will automatically access wireless anywhere at the University. This upgrade enables roaming between buildings and among campuses. Tri-Campus wireless

FAST FIVE for week of August 19, 2012

Annual IT Planning: As the annual budget and planning cycle begins for many universities, many IT groups start writing their annual plan. York University's IT department has published an excellent example of a detailed annual IT plan: Computing Plan 2012-2013

Enterprise Architecture: The overarching principles and purpose of an enterprise architecture have been succinctly defined at the University of British Columbia's IT web site: UBC's IT Architecture

Convergence at Carleton: After successfully completing a campus wide IP network upgrade, Carleton University leveraged the new technology to deliver integrated security cameras, vending machine access, door access, and building automation into a converged infrastructure. Building Automation System

Firewall Upgrade: Brock University is upgrading its network firewall. The University's ITS group will be performing the upgrade to improve availability, reliability, and performance of their technology infrastructure. Brock Firewall

ERP Progress: McMaster University's ERP project has selected PeopleSoft as the product vendor and they are now at the stage of selecting a systems implementation vendor. McMaster's Implementation

FAST FIVE for week of August 12, 2012

Customer portal at Laurier: Wilfred Laurier University is launching a new customer portal for new work orders. Trouble tickets, service requests, and progress updates will all be available on this new service. Laurier Portal

Concordia Microsoft move: Concordia University has moved mailboxes to Office 365. Students at Concordia were moved from Live@edu accounts to the Microsoft Office 365 platform last week. Office 365 migration

New CIO: The new CIO at the University of Alberta is Duane Szafron. Duane is a professor from the University's department of Computer Science. His official title is Vice-provost and Associate Vice-President (Information Technology). uAlberta CIO

Laptop safety: Carleton University has created a new laptop registration program to help reduce thefts on campus. The new program provides a number of features intended to prevent theft and aid in the recovery of stolen laptops. Carleton Laptop Registration

Higher education IT blog: The CIO and Associate Vice-Principal at Queens, Bo Wandschneider, has started a blog about IT in higher education. Queens CIO

FAST FIVE for week of August 5, 2012

Innovation hub: The Ontario College of Art and Design has announced its Inclusive Design Institute. This institute focuses on innovative and applied research that addresses digital inclusion for human diversity. OCAD's central IT organization provides the network and data centre infrastructure for this project. Inclusive Design

House hunting for UVic students: Two UVic students have written the Victoria Rental Map app. The tool helps student find housing rentals based on bus routes, price, and size. The application combs through local Victoria rental service databases and maps those rentals onto a street map of Victoria.  UVic Housing

New CIO: The University of Ottawa has hired Danielle Levasseur as their new CIO. Prior to joining uOttawa, Danielle was a consultant and had been the interim CIO at McGill. uOttawa CIO

Effective Twittering: Many colleges and universities now incude Twitter feeds to send out notices about service interruptions. The notices coming from Simon Fraser University are particularly effective in communicating these issues. SFU Twitter

Courseware access: Memorial University is offering free courseware access through lynda.com. Faculty, students, staff, and retirees will have access to over 1400 courses. Memorial Courseware 

FAST FIVE for week of July 29, 2012

Virtual Guelph: The University of Guelph has virtualized 80% of its servers. They have standardized on VMware's vSphere version 5 for all of their virtual servers. Only 20% of Guelph's servers were virtualized two years, and the rapid growth of virtualization reflects movement from other departments and researchers across campus to this enterprise service.  Guelph in the Clouds

More Guelph news: A new voice-activated telephone directory has been implemented at the University of Guelph. The Speech Enabled Auto Attendant (SEAA) enables external callers to ask for faculty, staff, and departments by asking for them by first and last name. The caller simply dials "0" and he/she is prompted to speak the name. The system then routes the call to the appropriate person. Just Dial 0

MS/Office at Queen's: Queen's has implemented a campus-wide agreement with Microsoft for Office on the Mac and PC platforms. The agreement enables staff, faculty, and graduate students access to the MS/Office suite of products and is being distributed electronically through the Queen's portal. This project is linked to Queen's migration to Microsoft Exchange. Campus-wide Office

UBC implements VoIP: The University of British Columbia is currently deploying IP telephony in new and renovated building across campus. Using a secure and redundant network, UBC is ensuring quality of service standards are met. They are also providing emergency location information services. VoIP @ UBC

Former CIO blog: Jonathan Schaeffer, the former CIO at the University of Alberta has started an interesting new blog about academic life. Check it out at: Academic (a)Musings

FAST FIVE for week of July 22, 2012

SFU Student Applications: Simon Fraser University and BCcampus are working together to build a seamless, real-time student application system. The system will integrate the BCcampus provincial student application system (ApplyBC) with SFU's student system. BCcampus plans to implement the service to other institutions in BC over the next couple of years. SFU and BCcampus

CANHEIT 2012: Presentation content and photographs from the conference are now available on the conference web site. CANHEIT Content

Canadian Higgs-Boson Contributions: Computing resources and staff from several Canadian universities contributed to the recent discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle. Check out the article on Compute Canada's new website: Atlas Computing Resources

Carleton's Antivirus: Carleton University is rolling out Symantec as its new antivirus standard on campus. The new software will be installed on employee and lab computers. Home use for staff and faculty will be made available later in the summer. Symantec Rollout

TRU Quarterly: Thompson Rivers University's IT department publishes a quarterly update on their activities. In the latest issue they published 6 factors for measuring IT performance (page 2) and commit to reporting on these measures in subsequent newsletters. TRU ITS Quarterly

FAST FIVE for week of July 15, 2012

UNB Award: The University of New Brunswick has won a Best myCampus Award from CampusEAI. The award is based on leadership in Consortium initiatives, contribution to myCampus development, and achievements in portal usage. UNB myCampus

New ORION Web Presence: ORION, Ontario's advanced research and education network, has introduced a new website and blog. The new presence maintains all the services previously available and adds several new features. "New, but the same" 

Identity Management: Dalhousie University simplified its online presence and improved password security. The new system provides access to several Dalhousie IT services including the portal and Blackboard. Dal Online

IT Strategic Plan: McMaster University's strategic IT plan is not only comprehensive and well-written, but uniquely presented on-line: MacPlan

Douglas College announces new CIO: Ian MacLeod will be the new CIO of Douglas College starting in mid August. This newly created role is a first for the College as they begin a strategic transformation of IT. Ian was previously the director of IT at Camosun College and at BCIT.

FAST FIVE for week of July 8, 2012

Campus Safety: OCAD University has conducted an enterprise pilot of the Guardly application that is designed to turn a smartphone into a personal safety alarm. When the application's panic button is pressed an emergency alert is sent to a list of contacts, which can include 911. The server component of the application gives security dispatchers access to situational information about incoming callers. Smartphone Alerts  OCAD Panic Button

iPad Kiosks at Brock: Brock University has implemented an iPad kiosk to help visitors navigate around their Hamilton campus. The system is linked to the room booking system, campus map, and campus directory. The ease of use of an iPad combined with live access to event, scheduling, and directory information make the system particularly useful to new or infrequent campus visitors. Brock Kiosks

Online parking payment: The University of Windsor implemented an online parking payment system to enable students to buy parking permits through the web. Parking tickets can be paid online and students can also appeal parking infractions online using the new system. uWindsor Parking System

UofT alumni email: The University of Toronto now has email accounts specifically designed for alumni. As new students graduate this year, their email accounts will be converted from @mail.utoronto.ca to @alum.utoronto.ca and their mail is automatically re-routed to the new account. UofT Alumni Email

Content management system upgrade: Carleton University is upgrading its WordPress content management system to the latest version. Many of the changes are based on community feedback and they are socializing the change through a special coffee break event. Carleton CMS Upgrade

FAST FIVE for week of July 2, 2012

Next generation SIS: The University of Toronto is moving its student information system closer to becoming a one stop service for all student registration and financial status information. Their new student web dashboard provides improved academic, administrative, and financial information for students. UofT's One Stop

Latest university to go Google: Mount Royal University is moving its students to Google Apps. Email, calendaring, and document management are all being provided in an ad-free environment. Faculty and staff will also be able to get Mount Royal Google Apps accounts, without email, to enable collaboration with students. Mount Royal Google

Twitter support for online registration: Several universities ran registration last week and used Twitter to help coach students through the process. Wilfred Laurier's LORIS system was one example: Laurier Registration Tips

UofC network upgrade: The University of Calgary is upgrading its campus network service. The project will include improvements in reliability, capacity, and security of the network core, as well as upgrading several building networks. Network Renewal 

Memorial upgrades its data centre: Memorial University has initiated a new project to replace its end of lease data centre equipment. Scope of the project includes servers, storage (SAN), and backup systems. Data Centre Sustainment

FAST FIVE for week of June 24, 2012

Preferred email addresses: St. Mary's University IT team won the Atlantic region CAUBO quality and productivity award for its preferred email project. The university was recognized for changing its systems to enable students to simply provide their preferred email address to the university for communication purposes instead of an email address provided by the University. The change was a success with students, faculty, and staff because it improved the speed of communications. See page 11 of the attached link: CAUBO Productivity Awards

Cloud printing: McGill University's IT team also won a CAUBO productivity award for its cloud printing solution called uPrint. This new system enables students and staff to issue print requests from anywhere (on and off campus). The jobs are queued in the cloud and are released by waving a McGill ID card near an RF reader on any networked campus printer. See page 7 of the attached link: CAUBO Productivity Awards

Faculty collective agreement system: Concordia was also a winner at this year's CAUBO awards with its Faculty Resource Information System. This system simplifies the meeting of collective agreement requirements, automates per-course hiring processes, reduces manual data entry, and reports on academic resource allocations. See page 10 of the attached link: CAUBO Productivity Awards

Ralph Michaelis leaves Carleton: Ralph Michaelis, the CIO at Carleton University for the past 10 years, has left to become CIO at Canadian Blood Services. Denis Levesque has been named the acting CIO at the university.

Vancouver Community College: Ben Guanzon has left Vancouver Community College and the college is now looking for new IT leader. The posting is available at: VCC Director of IT

FAST FIVE for week of June 17, 2012

Another successful CANHEIT: Over 360 Canadian higher education IT specialists attended this year's CANHEIT conference in Saskatoon. This conference was the 10th annual CANHEIT and next year's conference will jointly hosted by uOttawa and Carleton. CANHEIT 2012

Continuing with conference season: This year's IT4BC conference was also held last week. It took place in Vancouver and the FaceBook page for the conference is here: IT4BC 2012 Conference

A more secure uMontreal: The University of Montreal finalized its implementation of secure VPN. They have replace VPN-PPTP with VPN-SSL and the process was finalized at the end of May. Completed VPN

Chief Technology Officer opportunity: The University of Lethbridge is looking for a Chief Technology Officer. This individual will report to the CIO. Application must be completed by July 9. Lethbridge CTO

Virtualization at Guelph: The University of Guelph continues in its commitment to virtualization. With greater than 80% of their server infrastructure virtualized, they are currently implementing VMWare's vSphere 5 to maintain latest currency.  Virtual uGuelph

FAST FIVE for week of June 10, 2012

Getting "In the Loop" at UofT: The University of Toronto has launched it new Information and Technology Services newsletter. This monthly publication is designed to share information about information technology projects and initiatives being planned, developed, and delivered by the department. In the Loop

BCIT Gets Lean: The British Columbia Institute of Technology Information Technology Services group is implementing the Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodology to improve its incident management process as well as incorporating it into their IT Services portfolio. In conjunction with the introduction of Lean, they are implementing the Cherwell ITSM suite to support incident management, service requests, change control, and problem management.

OCAD Promotion: Alastair MacLeod has accepted the role of Chief Information Officer at OCAD University. Alastair has been the Director, Information Technology Services at OCAD since 1998 and has delivered several strategic initiatives in his time there. 

Innovation Award for uSask: Kevin Lowey from the University of Saskatchewan's Information and Communications Technology department is the Gold Winner for Innovative Development in the annual Blackboard Catalyst Awards. He developed a tool to enable instructors to build Blackboard student test accounts. These accounts allow instructors to see exactly what their students see. Gold Winner

Future Tense: The 2012 Atlantic University and College Technology Conference was hosted last week by St. Mary's University in Halifax. There was a wide range of relevant speakers and presentations. Further information is available from the website: Atlantic Technology Conference

FAST FIVE for week of June 3, 2012

Wireless in Winnipeg: The University of Winnipeg launched a new and improved wireless service on May 23. The new service has 8 times the capacity of the old system, broader coverage, and secure connectivity.  UW Wireless

More Wireless in Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba is also upgrading its wireless service through the Wireless "N" Project. This initiative started in February and will bring wireless services to several key building across campus. "N" Wireless

HR Goes Live: The HR PeopleSoft module went live at Queen's University last week. This milestone concluded the multi-year project and the University looks forward to reaping the benefits. It is the third module of an ERP project that saw Finance go live in December 2009 and Student in March 2011. Queen's HR

Instructing in the Digital Age: Trent University and Fleming College jointly hosted the "Instructing in the Digital Age: Teaching and Learning Symposium" last month. The conference showcased interactive pedagogies, new and interactive modes of delivery, and the use of digital technology in the classroom. Trent and Fleming

Wireless in ... Vancouver: Douglas College is also upgrading its wireless service. The College has signed a contract with Bell Canada to implement Aruba wireless technology at both of its campuses. The new service will quadruple the number of access points. Douglas Wireless 

FAST FIVE for week of May 27, 2012

On TRAQ at Queen's: Queens University is implementing a $3.5 million administration system to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the university's research community. The Tools for Research At Queen's (TRAQ) system will support the school's strategic and integrated planning and will provide financial reporting tools. Queen's TRAQ

Just Ask SFU: Simon Fraser IT have recently completed their ASKME internal speech directory. The new system is an automated directory assistance system that uses voice recognition software to transfer calls. Just ASKME

Managing Your IT Career at UBC: To support over 600 IT professionals on campus, UBC has implemented a career framework to help these folks. The framework is designed to help staff identify opportunities, assess goals, and develop career plans. UBC Career Framework

CANARIE Joins eduGAIN: The Canadian Access Federation (CAF), managed by CANARIE, announced it is joining the European eduGAIN federation. The new connection will allow Canadian CAF members access to services at all eduGAIN member institutions, and vice versa. CAF Connects to eduGAIN

New uAlberta CIO: Last week it was announced that Jonathan Schaeffer, the CIO at uAlberta, was becoming the new Dean of Science. His replacement as CIO is Duanne Szafron, effective July 1, 2012. uAlberta CIO

FAST FIVE for week of May 20, 2012

uWindsor Mobile Apps: The University of Windsor launched three new mobile apps at its Campus Technology Day last week. These new apps are designed to improve student service by enabling access to course, schedule, grade, and exam information. Users will also be able to update their university financial information, direct message course instructors, and even listen to the University's campus radio station. myUWindsor Apps

Seneca Mobile: Seneca College has launched its SenecaMobile application for the iPhone (Android and BlackBerry releases are also planned). This launch is the first Blackboard Mobile Central implementation in Canada and can be downloaded from iTunes. SenecaMobile

Carleton Student Email: Carleton University is moving student email to Microsoft's Live@edu cloud hosting service. The new service will provide students with 10 Gb of storage and will be available directly through the Carleton portal. Student Email @ Carleton

uAlberta CIO News: Jonathan Schaeffer, the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President of Information Technology at the University of Alberta, has been named the new Dean of Science at uAlberta. Jonathan Becomes Science Dean

uWaterloo CIO News: Alan George has retired as CIO of the University of Waterloo. Dave Wallace, the former City of Toronto CIO, is Alan's successor. New uWaterloo CIO

FAST FIVE for week of May 13, 2012

Laurier Joins EDUROAM: Eduroam's newest member is Wilfred Laurier University. This secure wireless access service enables Laurier staff and faculty to obtain internet connectivity at any Eduroam campus around the world using their Laurier authentication credentials. The service is enabled at all three of Laurier's campuses. Eduroam @ Laurier

BCNET and High Performance Computing Conference: This year's BCNET conference for higher education IT and networking was merged with the High Performance Computing Conference. Video recordings for the conference sessions are available at BCNET HPCS 2012 

UofT Takes Cap Off: The University of Toronto has removed the usage cap for its wireless networks. The change is a result of a significant wireless infrastructure modernization project across campus. UofT Wireless Cap Removed

Campus Technology Day 2012: The University of Windsor is holding its 6th annual Campus Technology Day on May 17. The day is dedicated to sharing and celebrating technology impacts on teaching, learning, and research across campus.  University of Windsor Campus Technology Day

Student Computing Website: The Student Computing Website at the University of Victoria has been updated to provide students with live computer availability in labs across campus. Facility locations, hours, and computer types are published using the LabStats product. UVic Computer Availability

FAST FIVE for week of May 6, 2012

McGill Moves to Desire2Learn: McGill University has migrated from Blackboard's WebCT Vista to Desire2Learn for their institutional learning management system. The system is called myCourses and went live on March 19 with an extensive range of training and support to manage the transition process. myCourses @ McGill

Access @ York: York University has implemented a new single sign-on facility called PASSPORT YORK to simplify access for students, faculty, and staff to their online resources. With a single username and password users will be able to gain access to a growing number of services. PASSPORT YORK

Ryerson Goes Google: Ryerson University is planning to make Google Apps for Education available to all faculty, staff, and students. The transition to Google is tentatively scheduled for the fall. Ryerson is using a third party integrator, SADA Systems, to help with the implementation. Ryerson Google

TRU Active Directory Transition: Thompson Rivers University is migrating from Novell to Microsoft for their directory services. They are expecting the project will provide their users with more flexible and expandable storage, and improved integration with Microsoft and 3rd party products. TRU Directory

CIO Search: Douglas College in Vancouver is looking for a transformational CIO. The newly created role is strategic to the future of of the College. Douglas CIO

FAST FIVE for week of April 29, 2012

Queen's Moves to Microsoft: Queen's University is migrating staff, faculty, and grad students to Microsoft Exchange for email, calendaring, and task management. The transition will simplify mobile users' access to email, increase storage space, and will replace Oracle Calendar for scheduling. Queen's Outlook

Scheduling Software: Several schools are seeing the benefits of implementing classroom scheduling and timetabling software. Tools such as Infosilem are helping to optimize campus space at Carleton University. University of Saskatchewan and other schools are reaping the benefits via similar tools. Maximizing Space 

Lenovo's Gift: Lenovo has donated $500,000 to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in recognition of their long-standing relationship. This capital gift was recognized by naming a lecture theatre after the company. Lenovo @ UOIT

Simon Fraser's Field Day: Simon Fraser University hosted a Technology Field Day in campus on April 11. The day's theme was Presence at a Distance and showcased emerging trends in synchronous virtual technology and their application in teaching and learning. SFU Presence

BCIT Customer Service: BCIT has embarked on a service improvement process with a guiding principles workshop. Attached is a interesting graphic from the session.BCIT Service

FAST FIVE for week of April 22, 2012

Université de Saint-Boniface: The ERP implementation project, also know as Project A+, at the Université de Saint-Boniface was nominated as one of 6 projects of the year for 2012 by the Manitoba Project Management Institute. The nomination is significant recognition for a job well by the project team over the past few years. The project video can be viewed at Project A+

York Joins CASRAI: York University has joined CASRAI (Consortia for Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information). CASRAI is a not-for-profit organization that develops standards and data models for research data. York hopes the relationship with CASRAI will help improve research efficiency in the funding application process. York and CASRAI

Campus Technology Day: The University of Windsor is planning a Campus Technology Day on May 17. The day includes interactive sessions and poster presentations and will feature a keynote speech by John MacDonald from Google. The conference's theme is "Opening Doors with Technology" and includes discussions on the impact of technology on teaching, learning, and research. Campus Technology Day

Moodle Upgrade: Queens University plans to upgrade Moodle in May. New infrastructure will mean faster and easier access to the system for students and faculty. Queens also plans to add smartphone mobile features for beta testing in the summer. Moodle @ Queens

Technology Roadmap: The University of Alberta has published its Information Technology Roadmap. This document identifies how technology will be used in new and efficient ways and will "empower the University community through information technology excellence." uAlberta IT Roadmap

FAST FIVE for week of April 15, 2012

Cloud Adoption at UofT:  Bob Cook, CIO at the University of Toronto, describes the implementation of Microsoft's Live@edu and Office 365 cloud solution at his university. Bob explains the process of consultation, planning, and implementation of this strategic cloud offering. He also discuss their experiences and learning outcomes from the process. UofT Cloud 

UBC Goes Keyless: UBC is implementing chip-embedded cards for building access through the university. They plan to move to 100% keyless entry for all buildings, including the Okanagan campus, with the first 20 building going keyless this spring. In a university where there are 154,000 keys in circulation, the cost of replacing missing keys (over 10,000) helps to justify the cost of the new system. Keyless in BC

Carleton investigates a CV database: Carleton University is launching a project to investigate implementing a CV database. A committee has been formed with the mandate to complete a review of the needs of faculty, librarians, and graduate students for such a tool. Carleton CV Project 

New Blue Genes: IBM, in conjunction with the Federal government and the Ontario provincial government, has contributed two Blue Gene/Q supercomputers for research and development. The new IBM Canada Research and Development Centre is a $210 million investment and includes UofT, Western, McMaster, Queen's, UOIT, uOttawa, and Waterloo. Blue Gene

CANHEIT is Coming: Registration is now open for this year's CANHEIT conference. The theme for CANHEIT this year is "Building the Digital University." It will be held at the University of Saskatchewan from June 10 to 13. CANHEIT 2012

FAST FIVE for week of April 8, 2012

uOttawa Migrates to New Data Centre: The University of Ottawa's Computing and Communications Services group has moved to a brand new state-of-the-art data centre. Transition of servers and other infrastructure occurred over several weekends in February and March with the official opening happening on April 4. uOttawa Data Centre

uPEI's New ERP Project: In September of last year, the University of Prince Edward Island embarked on an ERP implementation project. The proposed system will include applications for student administration, financial services, human resources systems and other related business process and information requirements. They have just completed vendor evaluations of Jenzabar and DataTel SGHE (now known as "Ellucian"). uPEI ERP 

Brock's Tech Showcase: The largest free educational technology event in Ontario was held at Brock University. The fourth annual Brock Tech Showcase recently took place with over 400 educators in attendance. The showcase included such topics as the gamification of learning, iPads in the classroom, and enhancing visual thinking and data literacy.  Brock Showcase

uSaskatchewan Password Resets: Information Technology Services at the University of Saskatchewan has enhanced its automated password reset service. The new facility enables faculty, students and staff to reset their password using a text message. Password Reset

UofT Uses TechQual: Information + Technology Services at the University of Toronto is conducting its annual TechQual survey to analyse and report on the effectiveness of their IT services. This survey is based on the LibQual survey used to assess libraries that was initiated by Pepperdine University to assess higher education IT departments. For more details see: UofT TechQual Survey

FAST FIVE for week of April 1, 2012

Saint Mary's Sustainability Dashboard: Saint Mary's University (SMU) launched a new sustainability dashboard. This new website enables users to view power, heat, and water consumption in real time. The dashboard shows consumption rates from 13 locations across campus. The dashboard is part of SMU's ongoing commitment to sustainability and is based on a campus map that shows current rates at the click of a mouse. SMU Dashboard

OCAD Paints a CANVAS: OCAD is migrating from its internally developed learning management system to the open source Canvas CV system. The needs for OCAD are particularly unique and the assessment process included a thorough analysis of appropriate LMS choices for the institution. Further details on the process and the decision rationale are available at: OCAD's CANVAS

Compute Canada Announces Interim Executive Director: Compute Canada announced that Jill Kowalchuk has been appointed Interim Executive Director of the national high-performance computing (HPC) organization. Jill will succeed Susan Baldwin, who served as the Executive Director of Compute Canada for more than three years. New Compute Canada Interim Executive Director

UVic Enhances Disk Encryption: In response to a recent data breach at the university, as well a growing number of security and privacy threats, the university is enhancing its security services. Whole disk encryption has become part of the basic offering for all new standard computers and free anti-virus software is now available for UVic computers and one home computer. Enhanced Security & Privacy

Getting connectEd at UNB: The University of New Brunswick is launching connectEd, a family of products and services providing email, calendaring, file storage, messaging, and collaboration. For faculty and staff the suite of integrated Microsoft products will be hosted by IT on campus. Students and alumni services will be delivered through Microsoft's Live@edu cloud service. Connecting with connectEd

FAST FIVE for week of March 25, 2012

MunMail Exceeds 3,800: The new Memorial University email system for students now exceeds 3,800 users. MUNmail, as it is called, was set up as an alternative to the existing student Webmail. The service goes beyond email and includes GMail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. Existing email addressed are maintained, as are existing email messages. The interface uses the Memorial brand and there are no advertisements. Check it out on FaceBook at: MUNmail

Western University Picks Sakai: Western will be replacing WebCT with Sakai as its new learning management system. The first phase of the implementation started with a small pilot of 10-12 courses. The pilot is designed to allow instructors, students, and the support team to test the interface, tools, and functionality of the new system. The first phase of the pilot will be held over a four-month period running from January through April. A larger pilot will run through the spring and summer, with the goal of having all courses running on the new platform in September 2012. Training and migration support started in February. Further details can be found at: Sakai at Western

Queen's University IT Engages Students: A new Student Advisory Committee was established at Queen's to discuss Information Technology and Services. The students will set the agenda and discuss issues important to them with the Queens IT department. Students will also share where they want go in the future with IT at the university. Queen's Student Committee

Guelph Names New Chief Librarian and CIO: Rebecca Graham has been named the University of Guelph's new Chief Librarian and CIO. She starts her 5 year term at the end of May. Rebecca comes to Guelph from Harvard College Library. In her new role, she will be responsible for the overall strategy and policy administration of the University’s information technology, information services, and information resources. She will also oversee the administration of the library as chief librarian. Guelph CIO

Ryerson Introduces Blackboard Mobile Learn: Blackboard Mobile Learn has been introduced by Ryerson's Computing and Communications Services to provide mobile access to wireless-enabled Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch). Access is currently limited to iOS devices and it is free to both Ryerson staff and its students. It can be used to access updates to course announcements, grades and course documents (depending on file format), as well as add discussion board posts, blogs, and journal entries. Ryerson Mobile Learn

FAST FIVE for week of March 18, 2012

Carleton Selects Moodle to Replace WebCT: Carleton has decided to replace WebCT with Moodle. Since WebCT is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated Carleton decided to evaluate other learning management system options. According to their website "It was important that the system we selected be reliable, easy to use and meet our security standards. Detailed selection criteria was used to help guide the decision making process. After an extensive review and evaluation, Carleton has selected Moodle as the replacement for WebCT. After the trial of three popular systems, when surveyed, both the student and instructor data indicate that the Moodle participants were the most satisfied group with their new LMS by preferring Moodle over WebCT." Carleton Moodle

Shared Services in British Columbia: There is strong government shift towards emphasizing IT shared services in British Columbia and across Canada. From Oliver's blog, "In BC the recent budget showed an effective 2-3% reduction in government core funding, in addition to the disappearance of millions of dollars in capital renewal funding in prior years.  In addition, government authorities are applying greater constraints on institutions about the way they are run, in return for funding.  Research projects are directed increasingly explicitly toward resource sharing, especially in the high performance computing disciplines.  And very specific questions are being asked about sharing of support services not only within institutions but between them: in BC as well as other provinces Ministries recently engaged their university representatives in explicit conversations about sharing of administration functions, in the same way that this topic has been pushed for several years already in the K-12 and healthcare sectors." Changing Times for Universities

Dalhousie Hosts Data Privacy Day: On January 25, 2012, Dalhousie University hosted its 5th annual Data Privacy Day. The day is intended to be a global initiative recognized around the world to raise awareness and promote privacy education. There were over 220 participants and the keynote speaker, Michael Power, a Toronto-based lawyer and consultant, addressed “eHealth & Privacy:  Issues & Implications for Society.”  Data Privacy Day

WiFi access to McGill network from MUHC: Linking university and hospital networks has always been a difficult issue for a number of reasons. According to the McGill website "One of the IT challenges over the past years has been providing access to McGill resources to students, faculty and staff working at the MUHC (McGill University Health Centre). The Ministry of Health regulations concerning the interconnection of networks are extremely restrictive and complex. Now, as of March 1, 2012, there is finally a viable solution. During the fall, MUHC worked closely with McGill’s Network and Communications Services (NCS) piloting a solution that uses both institutions' wireless networks. After the successful pilot, they are ready to deploy this solution." McGill Health Centre WiFi

UofA has Gone Google: The University of Alberta is the #1 customer for Google in Canada in terms of both the number of users and volume of data. At the end of 2011, 128,084 users on campus have gone Google. A total of 21 departments had migrated migrated to Google and several more are scheduled to move. Gone Google