http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/ en Copyright 2009 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:45:16 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Critical security patches have been released for our GL Linux systems. The patches have been tested internally with no issues. We will be pushing those out to the GL Lab workstations this morning (Friday 11/6). In order to minimize service impact, we will be taking a small downtime window on Monday 11/9, from 6:30am - 7am to apply the same patches to our GL Login servers. http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/gl_linux_server.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/gl_linux_server.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:45:16 -0500 scheduled downtime. ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/bb_will_be_down.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/bb_will_be_down.html Blackboard Classroom Technology General News Teaching & Learning Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:01:56 -0500 announcement, UMBC's Division of Information Technology (DoIT) will begin working with Presidium Learning to provide basic Blackboard support starting Wednesday, Nov. 11. The DoIT Help Desk and Instructional Technology staff will still provide walk-in and by-appointment Bb support, but all students, faculty and staff will be able to get 24/7 Blackboard support via phone, IM chat or online knowledge base. Based in Lexington, Kentucky, Presidium specializes in answering technical support questions for faculty, staff, and students at more than 700 educational institutions, and provides a 95 percent first call resolution rate.]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/247_blackboard_1.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/247_blackboard_1.html Blackboard Classroom Technology General News Teaching & Learning Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:32:31 -0500 On Saturday 11/14/09 LDAP master will be down 10am-4pm to move to new server hardware. The following services will be unavailable during this time: - Calendar (for the first hour only) - Password changes via Webadmin - Email forward changes (Webadmin) - Changing of campus information (Webadmin) http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/ldap_master_dow_1.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/11/ldap_master_dow_1.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:10:25 -0500 This morning at approximately 1:00AM we suffered a hardware failure that interrupted myUMBC and campus web page (e.g. www.umbc.edu) services. The problem was reported at 6:30AM today and DoIT staff began working on the problem remotely. Our response team arrived on campus by 7:15AM and had all services restored by 8:15AM today. We are currently examining logs and other records to determine what caused this hardware failure to ensure it does not occur again. This outage only affected the web services listed above. Peoplesoft, Blackboard, and E-mail were unaffected by this outage. http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/update_on_web_s.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/update_on_web_s.html News Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:45:26 -0500 prior to August 26, 2009 you MUST login through myUMBC under your personal profile and notifications or directly at: https://my.umbc.edu/personal/notifications/ Users who have not re-registered by October 31, 2009 will no longer receive UMBC alerts. FAQs I already registered for E2Campus, can I migrate my old account? Unfortunately, existing accounts cannot be migrated. All existing users will need to re-register with E2Campus. Since we now know who the person is relative to UMBC's identity management system we will not need to do future re-registrations. How long before my existing E2Campus account is deleted? Existing E2Campus accounts will remain functional through October 31, 2009. UMBC will purge the old accounts after this date, thus leaving the new accounts in place. If I re-register now will I get two text messages sent to my phone? Users that have re-registered but still have an old account (i.e. until Oct 31st) will not receive duplicate text messages. E2campus can tell if the same phone number is in their system for more than one account, and will only send one message to that phone number. After October 31, 2009, old UMBC accounts that have the same phone number as new accounts will be deleted. Why is UMBC changing the system? Background: E2Campus was initially setup to use external, non-UMBC accounts. This meant that users had to create a user name and password that was hosted at E2Campus. This presented a few challenges for UMBC. -There was no way to know a user’s affiliation (Faculty, Staff or Student) -We can't tell if a user is still affiliated with the university (e.g. graduated, quit, terminated etc.) -Users forgot both user name and password but UMBC DoIT Help Desk could not assist. Solution: DoIT worked with E2Campus to be the first campus nationally to use the Shibboleth authentication standard to provide single sign on (SSO) ability. This means that users will no longer need to create an external account with E2campus. Instead UMBC is the identity provider and passes this information to E2Campus. Benefits of New Authentication System: - We know who the person is and their affiliation (e.g. student, staff, faculty, grad student etc.) - We know the person’s status (graduated, quit etc.) - There is no password to remember since the login is done via SSO from myUMBC. - We can purge/delete old accounts of people who have left the University ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/reregister_for.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/reregister_for.html Security Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:19:24 -0500 Windows 7 Microsoft released Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. DoIT staff have been actively testing the Beta versions of Windows 7. Initial results from the testing are promising. The new interface is more streamlined, the boot times are faster and many features that worked just barely under Vista now work flawlessly. While testing has gone reasonably well DoIT will not officially support Windows 7 until February 2010. We encourage waiting a few months before upgrading existing systems to Windows 7. This will allow many of the bugs and lagging application and driver support to catch up thus preventing problems for users. ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/windows_7_is_he.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/windows_7_is_he.html News Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:05:37 -0500 Based on user response to a system-wide announcement in all UMBC Blackboard courses this past week, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has made a permanent link to the self-service "Check My Activity" (CMA) reporting tools for students on the myBlackboard tools menu. ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/umbc_check_my_a_1.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/10/umbc_check_my_a_1.html Blackboard General Hybrid News Reports Teaching & Learning Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:19:29 -0500 http://www.umbc.edu/circ/workshops/]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/circ_software_w_1.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/circ_software_w_1.html News Training Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:53:20 -0500 Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University. ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/peer_instructio_1.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/peer_instructio_1.html Classroom Technology Clickers General Teaching & Learning Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:10:30 -0500 Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University. ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/confessions_of_1.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/confessions_of_1.html General Teaching & Learning Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:04:49 -0500 DoIT would never ask you to send details of your username and password through email or any other means. Occasionally DoIT detect emails sent to staff and students asking them to confirm their username and password. These emails are always fraudulent: the practice is known as "phishing". Despite their appearance, a closer look at the emails will show that they will not have been sent by DoIT but by someone fraudulently posing as DoIT. DoIT would never ask you for your password, for any purpose. Remember, your password is your secret. DoIT do not keep records of passwords. The University's Regulations forbid you from sharing your password with anyone, including DoIT staff. DoIT will not ask you for your password over the phone, by email, or by any other means. If you ever receive a request for your username and password details via email, NEVER RESPOND to it. Instead, just delete the email. Unfortunately, a few individuals have responded to phishing attempts, and in one case the account details were used in an attempt to perpetrate financial fraud.Please protect yourself: 1. If you think you may have responded to a phishing email, change your password immediately using myUMBC. 2. Never disclose your password to anyone. 3. Avoid using the same password on different systems (external to the University). In particular, be very careful with your University password, and with passwords that you use for financial systems, and for email systems. http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/doit_staff_asks.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/doit_staff_asks.html News Security Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:30:37 -0500 Douglas Duncan is a faculty member in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences of the University of Colorado, where he directs the Fiske Planetarium. He began his career at the Carnegie Observatories, where he was part of a project that found sunspot cycles on other stars. Subsequently, he joined the staff of the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1992, he accepted a joint appointment at the University of Chicago and the Adler Planetarium, beginning a trend of modernization of planetariums that has spread to New York, Denver, and Los Angeles.]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/webinar_clicker.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/webinar_clicker.html Classroom Technology Clickers General Teaching & Learning Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:46:52 -0500 A number of students have complained recently that their clicker that works in one class, but does not work in another. More than once it has been found that the student only registered it once, thinking it would apply to all their classes that semester. Students should be aware that a clicker has to be registered separately for each class through that class' Blackboard CPS Connection. They will only be charged a registration fee once per semester (for a maximum of 3 semesters), no matter how many of their classes use clickers that semester. Another common error is entering the serial number incorrectly upon registration. This can be rectified by the student going back to the CPS Connection and updating the serial number. After a student goes through either process, they must contact the instructor so the database can synchronized prior to class. The instructor will then be able to verify that they now appear in the CPS roster. http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/using_a_clicker.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/using_a_clicker.html Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:10:56 -0500 prior to August 26, 2009 you MUST login through myUMBC under your personal profile and notifications or directly at: https://my.umbc.edu/personal/notifications/ Users who have not re-registered by October 31, 2009 will no longer receive UMBC alerts. FAQs I already registered for E2Campus, can I migrate my old account? Unfortunately, existing accounts cannot be migrated. All existing users will need to re-register with E2Campus. Since we now know who the person is relative to UMBC's identity management system we will not need to do future re-registrations. How long before my existing E2Campus account is deleted? Existing E2Campus accounts will remain functional through October 31, 2009. UMBC will purge the old accounts after this date, thus leaving the new accounts in place. If I re-register now will I get two text messages sent to my phone? Users that have re-registered but still have an old account (i.e. until Oct 31st) will not receive duplicate text messages. E2campus can tell if the same phone number is in their system for more than one account, and will only send one message to that phone number. After October 31, 2009, old UMBC accounts that have the same phone number as new accounts will be deleted. Why is UMBC changing the system? Background: E2Campus was initially setup to use external, non-UMBC accounts. This meant that users had to create a user name and password that was hosted at E2Campus. This presented a few challenges for UMBC. -There was no way to know a user’s affiliation (Faculty, Staff or Student) -We can't tell if a user is still affiliated with the university (e.g. graduated, quit, terminated etc.) -Users forgot both user name and password but UMBC DoIT Help Desk could not assist. Solution: DoIT worked with E2Campus to be the first campus nationally to use the Shibboleth authentication standard to provide single sign on (SSO) ability. This means that users will no longer need to create an external account with E2campus. Instead UMBC is the identity provider and passes this information to E2Campus. Benefits of New Authentication System: - We know who the person is and their affiliation (e.g. student, staff, faculty, grad student etc.) - We know the person’s status (graduated, quit etc.) - There is no password to remember since the login is done via SSO from myUMBC. - We can purge/delete old accounts of people who have left the University ]]> http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/a_recent_change.html http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2009/09/a_recent_change.html News Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:59:58 -0500