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The Office of Information Tecnnology (OIT) was quoted in a Minnesota Daily story on the University's adoption of Turnitin anti-plagiarism software.

Read the story

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All PeopleSoft systems and their associated web applications will be unavailable beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, until 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 4. This outage is occurring so that the Office of Information Technology (OIT) can upgrade both the software and hardware for the Oracle databases that support PeopleSoft, allowing the University to continue to receive support from Oracle.

During this maintenance window, PeopleSoft and all related applications will be unavailable, and batch jobs will not run. Staff will not be able to work in PeopleSoft or related systems during this maintenance window. Once this upgrade is complete, it will have no noticeable impact on your daily work in PeopleSoft.

During this upgrade, the following applications will be unavailable:

• PeopleSoft Financials
• Financials Reporting
• PeopleSoft Campus Solutions/HRMS
• Financial specific UM Reports
• BPEL
• PS Web Extension applications as follows:
• Address Cleaner
• Apply Status
• APAS (Darwin)
• Electronic Course Approval System (ECAS)
• Disaster Recovery document system
• eDegree
• Education Abroad
• Enrollment Appointments
• Enrollment Summary
• Eprom Note
• Parent/Guest Access (eProxy)
• FA Status
• Financial Aid (eFAAN)
• Human Resources Data Correction (HRDC)
• First Report of Injury (FROI)
• Grade Alerts
• Grad Planner
• Health Insurance
• Law Lottery
• MyAccount
• Notice of Appointment
• Program Curriculum Approval System (PCAS)
• Personal Demographics
• Registration
• Request For Information (RFI)
• Student Account
• Truth In Lending Act (TILA)
• Training Registration/History
• Wavier
• View Grades
• View Holds
• W4
• AR Payment
• Class Schedule
• Class Search
• Course Guide
• Job Class
• Section Status
• Self-Service Benefits Enrollment
• Self-Service Benefits Summary
• Self-Service Direct Deposit
• Self-Service Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Self-Service Pay Statement
• Vacation and Sick Leave Balances
• Retirement Account Contributions
• Reimbursements/Payments

For up to date information during this outage, visit the OIT System Status page

Posted 1:13 PM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota is implementing a Business Intelligence (BI) practice to enhance its current measurement and reporting practices. BI is a broad term for data management, analysis practices, and software tools enabling evidence-based decision making. Evidence-based decision making is not new to the University. What is new with this BI practice is a formalized approach fostered throughout the institution.

Added Value

Infrastructure Development and Implementation Pilots

• Office of Information Technology (OIT) and Enterprise Financial Systems (EFS) have piloted financial content
• University Services has piloted building condition analysis, and the
• Office of Planning and Analysis has created a pilot of student survey data in the new toolset.

Timeline

To receive additional information about the BI implementation timeline, training opportunities, and resources to help you determine where and how it can enhance your analysis and decision making, we invite you to subscribe to the BI Implementation listserv. To do so, please enter your name and email address below.

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• Computer and mobile device support
• Software support
• Microsoft software distribution center
• Learning Bytes technology training sessions
• Multimedia workstations
• Collaborative peer research, learning and sharing area

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Dear ITLA collective,

You may remember in 2009 Linda Woock, the director of financial systems support [now the strategic sourcing program manager], came to an ITLA meeting to introduce the Strategic Sourcing Initiative. This was a plan to meet University leadership's charge to reduce costs. We agreed to assist Purchasing with the IT component of this plan and one of the initial areas we looked into (as low hanging fruit) was desktop, laptop, and server purchases.

The attached powerpoint deck given to the Senate Committee on Information Technology (SCIT) in December 2011 shows the success we had in reducing overall computer support costs through standardization of the Dell offerings on Umart. It's important to note that the use of these standard machines is voluntary and yet we are seeing an 80 to 90 percent adoption rate.

On slide 5 you'll see that IT generated the second largest savings after Benefits.

I want to thank Paul Honsey (OIT), Kris Adelmann (OIT), Rex Wheeler (Ext), Simin Hickman (OIT), Linda Woock, Elaine Kelash and Tim Bray for work done on the Dell laptop/desktop standards and Patton Fast (OIT) and Kemal Badur (CLA) for work on the Server standards. If I left anyone out, I apologize in advance. Certainly the CM group's work on OSD task lists and application packages for Dell computers was large part of these savings so we must thank them as well.

One interesting footnote is that we've learned that the University spends more on printers than on computers making this is a potentially new area where we could focus future efforts.

Steve Winckelman

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To support the University of Minnesota’s February 20 rollout of Turnitin, a plagiarism prevention and grading software suite, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has arranged brown bag sessions and webinars for faculty and staff who are interested in learning more about the tool.

Turnitin Basics for Training and Support Professionals

This 2-hour, hands-on course provides an overview of the basic functionality of Turnitin, a plagiarism prevention and grading software suite, available to University of Minnesota faculty and staff beginning in March 2012. Topics include:

OriginalityCheck

• Set-up an assignment.
• Explore submission types and methods.
• Utilize the assignment inbox.
• Read and interpret a report in OriginalityCheck

GradeMark

• Use QuickMarks, comments, highlighting to leave feedback in GradeMark
• Create, save, share and organize your own QuickMarks
• Create, save, share and utilize rubrics for grading and evaluating
• Leave general paper comments
• Explore options for printing, saving and viewing papers

PeerMark

• Setup a PeerMark assignment, including distribution options and discussion questions
• Explore the student view and tools available for reviewing
• Read and score Peer Reviews

Session 1: Monday, Feb 27, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Walter Library 210

enroll to attend in-person, enroll to attend via UMConnect

Session 2: Tuesday, Feb 28, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM, Walter Library 210

enroll to attend in-person, enroll to attend via UMConnect

Turnitin Brown Bag

This one-hour brown bag seminar provides an overview of the basic functionality of Turnitin. Topics include:

• Setting up an assignment
• Viewing and interpreting originality reports
• Editing and grading student papers online
• Using the peer review assignment tool

Session 1: Monday, February 27, noon - 1:00 p.m., Walter Library 101

enroll to attend in-person, enroll to attend via UMConnect

Session 2: Tuesday, February 28, 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., STSS 512A

enroll to attend in-person

Turnitin Webinar: Pushing Past Plagiarism

In this one-hour webinar, Renee Bangerter, a composition instructor for 15 years who currently teaches at Saddleback College, will discuss

• students’ issues with source integration
• intentional versus unintentional plagiarism
• best practices on using Turnitin for reflection assignments, revision assignments, improving writing skills, and encouraging original work

Session 1: Tuesday, February 21, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

enroll to attend public session (by Turnitin Academy)

Session 2: Thursday, March 8, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

enroll in private session (U of MN audience only)

For updated information, visit the Turnitin Training page.

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Turnitin Brown Bag

• Setting up an assignment
• Viewing and interpreting originality reports
• Editing and grading student papers online
• Using the peer review assignment tool

Turnitin Webinar: Pushing Past Plagiarism

• students' issues with source integration
• intentional versus unintentional plagiarism
• best practices on using Turnitin for reflection assignments, and revision assignments, to improve writing skills and encourage original work.

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Dear IT Colleagues,

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It's important, first, to remember that there is a difference between University of Minnesota Google Apps accounts and personal Google/Gmail.com accounts. They are totally separate from each other, and fall under separate and different contractual agreements, as well as different terms of service. Institutions that use Google Apps for their email, calendar and the other core applications, have individual contracts with Google that define how data is handled and stored.

The University of Minnesota has a separate contract with Google, and Google remains in compliance with the confidentiality and security obligations provided to our domains under this contract. The new privacy policy does not change this contractual agreement between Google and the University, University's core suite of applications, including Gmail (email), Google Docs (word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations), Google Calendar, Google Talk (instant messaging), and Google Sites, are not affected by this new privacy policy.

Please refer to the University's Google Apps support site at www.oit.umn.edu/google for the latest and most complete information about Google Apps for the University of Minnesota.

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Want to learn how to find free images, format bibliographies, or edit videos? These and other topics are offered as Technology Learning Bytes--short, concise, 30-minute sessions in a small group environment, targeted to your needs. Sessions are held in the new Tech Stop: learning. support. research, located in Blegen 90. There is no cost and no registration is necessary. Attend, ask questions, and expand your skills!

Check the Technology Learning Bytes calendar for scheduled times. Technology Learning Bytes are sponsored by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and U of MN Libraries.

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Recently, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has received an increasing number of reports of suspicious and nefarious activities by no-name antivirus services, similar to this:

Joe User obtains a new (or newly-installed) computer. With the intention of keeping his computer safe from viruses, Joe installs a lesser known or no-name antivirus software he has found on the Internet. Shortly after that, Joe's computer starts to crash, while messages pop up to "call the antivirus software company help line." Joe makes the call, follows the help line instructions, and one or more of these situations occur:

• Someone takes remote control of the computer and shows the Joe various signs of "hacks" or "intrusions."
• Someone takes remote control of the computer and performs operations of which Joe is unaware.
• The so-called "help line" asks Joe for various other types of information, such as his U of MN Internet ID, password, and/or other personal data.

OIT Recommendations

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Defining Moments 2011: OIT's Year in Review

Shared vision. Shared innovation. Shared leadership. Shared purpose. ONE IT.

During the past year, OIT has continued to work steadily and strategically on the development of "One IT" to advance excellence and efficiency in all IT at the University, and to advance access and innovation systemwide.

Defining Moments 2011: OIT'S Year in Review

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• Someone takes remote control of the computer and shows the Joe various signs of "hacks" or "intrusions."
• Someone takes remote control of the computer and performs operations of which Joe is unaware.
• The so-called "help line" asks Joe for various other types of information, such as his U of MN Internet ID, password, and/or other personal data.

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• iPad project 
• Active learning classrooms (Learning environments research)
• Biology vodcasting project 

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I just wanted to give a shout-out to our IT support and Eric, Jeff and everyone who helped get Morrill Hall and OTC back up and running this week.

I think most of the time they only hear complaints from their clients, so wanted to make sure that they know how much it meant to me that they were on top of the issue and were able to figure out the problem so quickly. Thanks also to Bill for making it a priority. Our set-ups over here and at MAC are different, which make fixing the issues/problems/irritating things harder than the average University computer user.

Thanks Eric and everyone who helped. You did a bang-up job!

Susan

Susan McKinney, CRM

Director, Records & Information Management

502 Morrill Hall

100 Church Street SE

Campus Mail Code 0263D

Minneapolis, MN 55455

(612) 625-3497

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