Accomplishments
Media Services webcast “Wildlife Ecosystem Resilience in the Context of Climate Change: A Kootenay Case Study with Rod Davis” on September 21. For the Video on Demand (VoD), we used our new HTML5 with flash fallback player, that delivers an HTTP Live Stream (HLS) instead of a flash RTMP stream. We also delivered the VoD in HD, using adaptive bitrate and a tuned, low bitrate encode to present a true 720p HD stream. This is our best delivery yet on VoD and the results are stunningly clear.
We were involved in the setup and operation of the technology in support of announcement of the UVIC, ONC, and Canarie partnership on Sept 13. Went without a hitch!
Our support team has worked with a number of instructors in the Gustavson School of Business to roll out CourseSpaces (PC0531). Tammy Ruffolo held sessions on Assignments and Grading, Quizzes, Groups and Group Activities, and provided demos to both incoming Exchange students and MGB students. We had a very successful first month with CourseSpaces!
CLTE and DCS worked together to test increasing the frequency of Active Directory synchronization with Connect (SharePoint). This will allow much faster provisioning and deprovisioning via AD groups on Connect; the current setting of 24 hours is too infrequent.
Patrick Frisby with his Frisby Frisbee at the Computer Help Desk (a gift from Allison Edwards and Will Clarke). Photo Credit: Nav Bassi
Going Live!
A new system which prompts UVic faculty, staff and students to ensure that their personal contact information is up-to-date as they sign in to UVic went live in September (PC0612). In just a few weeks, more than 12,000 people updated their contact information! This updated contact information ensures that faculty, staff and students receive the most up-to-date information that is relevant to their role at UVic, that they can reset their login credentials via self-service, and that they are reachable in the event of an emergency via the Emergency Notification System.
We worked with the Department of Student Recruitment and Global Engagement (SRGE) to implement the Ellucian Recruiter customer relationship management system, which went live in September (PC0497). The goal of this new system is to provide targeted and timely recruitment communication and engagement with prospective student audience, which in turn is expected to increase applications from targeted regions, as well as to simplify event registration activities for prospective students.
The Enhanced Planning Tools (EPT) Report for 2016 was opened for editing on September 1 (PC0643). This tool provides a consistent interface for collecting data from Units across the institution to highlight Unit activities, metrics, and budgets, and assist with annual planning activities. The September 2016 release includes a number enhancements over the previous version, including a new unit type for hybrid units, and the ability to easily print reports for paper-based distribution. Qualitative answers from the previous release have been included, and the new reports must be completed by October 17.
Service Excellence
On September 28, University Systems staff attended a “Meet the Team” event for Facilities Management. We learned more about the services that Facilities provides to all areas of campus and had some fun too! More photos and information about the VPFO Service Excellence initiative can be found on the VPFO website.
Ivan Petrovic and David Street at the Electrical Shop
Jane Godfrey and Nadeem Javeri at the Electrical Shop
Marcus Greenshields, Kayla Smith, and dea Kearns at the Carpentry Shop