Learning & Information Technology
2015 Fall
Newsletter
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - STOUT
LIT Retirees
LIT reluctantly bid farewell in August to several exceptional colleagues well known to
the campus. Our friends Jim Guenther, Sali
Mounce, Joe Biron, and Kathy Pattison each
retired with decades of dedicated service to
their credit.
All are missed and their contributions will be
long remembered.
From back and clockwise: Kathy Pattison, Sali Mounce, Jim Guenther, Joe
Biron.
Regardless of the vendor selected, reporting at Stout will
be changing dramatically…. for the better. The most sig-
While this is an exciting opportunity for improvement, the
migration to the new tool set will be a major undertaking.
We will need to:
♦♦ Assess existing queries/reports/jobs for conversion (nearly
complete)
♦♦ Perform workspace clean-up (particularly your local desktop)
♦♦ Create our semantic layer (develop subject areas, combine similar queries, create for reuse, enhance the user
experience)
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT
LEARNING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Inspiring Innovation. Learn more at www.uwstout.edu
Issue #014
UW-Stout has been well-represented in the RFP process,
with CIO Doug Wahl serving on the Executive Steering
Committee and Jen Chapek serving on the Selection
Committee (by number of users or number of queries, we
are a top-three user of Interactive Reporting within the
UW-System). As the implementation proceeds, Doug has
been named Campus Executive Sponsor, along with Provost Patrick Guilfoile, and Jen has been named Campus
Project Coordinator.
nificant change will be the introduction of a ‘semantic layer’,
which abstracts the table structures we’re used to working
with in Hyperion and presents data using data models in
more familiar ‘business fields’ — all with a more intuitive,
point-and-click user interface.
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UW-System is in the midst of an RFP to replace our current Hyperion/Oracle Interactive
Reporting System with a new Business Intelligence solution. At this time, a vendor has not yet been
selected.
LIT Newsletter
Oracle Interactive Reporting
to become Business
Intelligence
♦♦ Train ad hoc query writers
♦♦ Train BI system users
♦♦ Project timeline:
- Early-October 2015 – select vendor
- Mid-November 2015 – purchase software
(selected vendor publicly announced)
- Early-December 2015 – begin install
(in Madison)
- Mid-January 2016 – training and migration begin
- Late-June 2017 – end of UW-System paid
maintenance, IR workspace shutdown
- April 2018 – IR no longer supported by Oracle
LIT Newsletter
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Issue #014
2015 Fall
Newsletter
Stay tuned! Once our vendor has been selected and publicly announced, we’ll have a much better idea of what
we’re moving to, how we’ll get there, and what our training
options are. If you have any questions, please feel free to
contact the Data Warehousing group at:
datawarehousing@uwstout.edu
KnowledgeBase
LIT is excited to offer a new knowledgebase tool for
technical support and self-service. Stout now participates
along with approximately 40 other campuses — including
UW-Platteville and CVTC — in a shared knowledgebase
developed and hosted by UW-Madison. This shared
approach allows campuses to selectively utilize existing
documents from other campuses, as well as compose
new entries. Stout’s knowledgebase already has over
325 active documents that provide how-to’s, definitions,
explanations, and fixes for common problems.
Windows 10
Windows 10 is now available for installation on faculty
and staff computers that meet minimum hardware requirements. Unfortunately, driver incompatibilities are preventing a large-scale upgrade of student laptops at this time.
Windows 10 is available as an update on student laptops,
but it is not yet recommended that students update. Visit
the knowledgebase for updates.
Users of SolidWorks are not able to update to Windows 10
currently.
Whenever possible, help desk staff will reference knowledgebase articles when addressing issues to increase
user’s familiarity and exposure to the tool and provide a
starting point for related documents and resources. Check
out the knowledgebase at:
kb.uwstout.edu
Microsoft Office 365 for Education
UW-Stout’s Microsoft licensing allows students, faculty,
and staff to install Office 365 Education for free on up to
five devices! Office 365 Education includes full versions of
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook*, OneNote, Publisher,
and Access and can be installed on Windows, Apple, Android and iOS devices. Eligibility is based on enrollment
for students and employment for faculty and staff; as long
as a user is active, Office 365 Education can be installed
and used.
Please note that installation on personally-owned devices
and computers is the responsibility of the user and technical support will not be provided through UW-Stout. An
internet connection is required for installation and use, and
users are strongly encouraged to check minimum hardware requirements prior to installation. For more information, visit:
www.office.com/getOffice365
* Note that per the campus’ mobile device policy, all
mobile devices must be secured with a passcode lock in
order to access UW-Stout email. This policy is meant to
lessen the likelihood of sensitive information being compromised via a non-secured mobile device.
Clutter
Clutter is an email filtering option available to Office 365
customers. It is similar to an anti-spam filter as it moves
less important email (based on your reading habits) into
a ‘Clutter’ folder where they can be ignored or reviewed
later. Most of the mail going into the folder should be bulk
mail (advertisements) and messages from mailing lists.
However, you will want to periodically check the Clutter
folder as it may have moved legitimate email into this
folder.
LEARNING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Millennium Hall • Menomonie, WI 54751
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - STOUT
Users can drag messages they deem suitable to the Clutter folder to “train” the tool to spot similar email in the
future. Similarly, you’ll need to drag a message out of the
Clutter folder to the Inbox to mark it not clutter. The tool
gets smarter over time, learning from your prior actions
with similar messages. Visit kb.uwstout.edu and search
“clutter” for more information.
Lynda.com
Lynda.com is integrated with your UW-Stout account;
it can recognize you, maintain a learning transcript and
make certificates available for your professional purposes.
Visit lynda.uwstout.edu to get started!
Help Desk and Knowledgebase
Statistics
This low-cost HD wireless presentation system also supports moderator control through a web browser and is
easily accessible through our network. Instructors control
which students can share content to the projector from
their laptop with this simple interface.
The AirMedia system supports active learning by engaging students, exchanging ideas and collaborative strategic
problem solving. The AirMedia software is available for
free and can be quickly downloaded from Crestron’s web
site or the knowledgebase. More information can be found
in the knowledgebase.
LTS to discontinue printing
Learning Technology Services (LTS) will no longer print
research posters, large format prints or other printing after
June 30, 2016. In the event that printing supplies run out,
they will not be re-stocked.
Issue #014
Campus printing resources exist in Printing Services and
the Student Center. There are also various printing facilities off campus who may be contacted. In this environment it is not longer feasible to provide this service and we
apologize for any inconvenience.
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The Technology Help Desk has recorded over 14,000 tickets in 2015. Of those, more than 2,200 were self-service
tickets. The knowledgebase was visited 14,000 times
in September. The most popular knowledgebase document — besides our hours and location — was “Installing
Campus Network Printers on Windows Computers” with
more than 550 visits!
Learning & Information Technology is excited to announce
that over 40 classrooms have been updated with Crestron
AirMedia units. This new technology will leverage wireless
connections to the classroom projection display from laptops. Crestron AirMedia transmits presentation and content sharing in our classrooms and allows for instructors as
well as students to connect wirelessly to the projector.
LIT Newsletter
UW-Stout subscribes to lynda.com to provide technology training to the campus community. Lynda.com is a
constantly growing library of more than 2,000 self-paced
online courses. This diverse catalog includes software
training, programming lessons and even “concept” tutorials on topics such as design and photography. Popular
Tutorials include OS X Mavericks Essential Training as
well as Windows 8.1 Essential Training and Tips and
Tricks.
Introducing AirMedia
2015 Fall
Newsletter
Issue #014
Our Mission
Learning and Information Technology is UW-Stout’s steward of technology in support of education.
We are committed to providing and maintaining secure, high-quality, reliable, and flexible solution in alignment
with UW-Stout’s mission and vision.
Core Values
We value people, our staff and the people we serve, through:
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►► Customer Service — anticipating and responding to our customer needs
►► Communication — building a collegial and trusting environment through open, honest, and ongoing dialog
LIT Newsletter
►► Collaboration -— creating appropriate solutions, placing decision-making where it belongs
►► Partnership — committing their resources along with ours to use and support information technology
►► Innovation — researching advances in technology and applying them across the university
►► Leadership — guiding the campus as our technology landscape evolves
►► Vision
►► Education and technology serving people
Goals
►► Foster an environment that promotes effective internal and external communication.
►► Create models of collaboration to work with the campus community that leverage resources and address priorities.
►► Provide reliable, secure, customer-focused delivery of services to the campus community.
►► Research, review, and evaluate technology for effectiveness and efficiency to support the goals of the university.
►► Provide leadership, guidance and support to the campus in technology implementation and utilization to effectively
enhance teaching, learning, research and administrative outcomes.
►► Develop inclusive support structures for project management.