IT Outcomes 2021
Raymond Lefebvre
Vice Chancellor and CIO
Welcome Back—On-Campus or Remote!
Welcome back Beacons! No really, welcome back to campus after nearly a year and a half of teaching, learning, and working remotely. 2020 may have been the year of “Operation Divide & Conquer” brought on by COVID-19, but 2021 has been the year of “unITy.”
We closed out 2020 with tangible results as described in last year’s IT Outcomes—
Mission, Vision, and Values, Strategic Plan,Technology Roadmap, Project Portfolio, Learn IT, and Review IT being among them—and ushered in 2021 with the theme of “unITy”—a time for all of us to pull together, support each other and simply do our best.
Well, 2021 has been a remarkable year with many twists and turns along the way. Summer 2021 saw the return to campus for staff across the board, while faculty and students came back to in-person teaching and learning for the Fall semester.
Upon returning, the entire UMass Boston communitysaw how through “unITy” and resiliency the IT team rose to the occasion, not only keeping the lights on throughout 2021 but exceeding expectations and achieving what can only be called amazing results.
This publication captures the essence of “unITy” we experienced in 2021 and every story makes me beam with pride. As we look ahead and aspire to a year of normalcy and simplicity in 2022, we can see in these pages the ways in which people, process, and technology intersected to improve the lives of students, faculty, and staff. I truly hope thatyou enjoy every story as much as the UMass Boston IT team has enjoyed—through “unITy”—being a trusted partner in advancing the UMass Boston mission. We are committed to establishing even greater trust in IT in 2022 as we strive to achieve our vision through continuous improvement focused on “SimplicITy”.
Welcome back Beacons!
Raymond Lefebvre
Vice Chancellor and CIO
In Memoriam
We would like to dedicate the 2021 edition of IT Outcomes to the memory of our colleague Jonathan Crawford, who passed away this year. You are missed by all your friends in the IT Department.
Year of Unity
Saving Three Semesters–eLearning Excels in Fully Remote Classes
It was March 2020 when it first became apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic would have a meteoric impact on virtually every aspect of American public and private life, and the education sector was impacted at least as hard as any.
Student Support in the Virtual Classroom—Virtual Digital Assistants
All things consider ed, the transition from in-person lecturehall teaching to virtual classroom teaching went as smoothly as could be expected for UMass Boston faculty in Spring 2020.
Pronto Instant Messaging Software–A Quicker Way to Collaborate
All things considered, the transition from in-person lecture hall teaching to virtual classroom teaching went as smoothly as could be expected for UMass Boston faculty in Spring 2020, when the pandemic’s impact was first being felt on campus.
UMB Goes Online and Crushes It–teachonline.umb.edu
Over the past several years, online courses and degree programs have been achieving more and more popularity. Today, most institutions offer programs in both online and on-campus modalities, UMass Boston included..
Microsoft Teams & Teams Rooms–A New Level of Collaboration
Even before the pandemic forced all work at UMass Boston to be done remotely in March 2020, Associate CIO Apurva Mehta wanted to find a way for people to collaborate that improved upon simply using email, in-person meetings, and file shares.
BeaconFlex Expands the Classroom–Hybrid Teaching & Learning in the COVID-19 Era
Whoever first said that “Necessity is the mother of invention”would no doubt have been very impressed by HyFlex.
Technovation
Technovation Tales– Virtual Reality 5K Running and Photo Exhibits
Technology can bring innovation to our lives but its role in a large institution must be regimented for it to be fully utilized. Sometimes this comes at the expense of further, more serendipitous innovations that may otherwise arise. “Technovation” (technology + innovation) is a strategy to bring back some of those free-forming serendipitous connections.
IT Cares
Women in IT
In 1980, Jimmy Carter was the first US president to designate theweek of March 8th as National Women’s History Week. Seven years later Congress passed a law pronouncing March “Women’s History Month.”
Aira–Helping the Vision Impaired to See
For people who are blind or have low vision, navigating life on a university campus can be quite challenging. Throw in a global pandemic with its social distancing and other regulations, and the task becomes even harder. Enter Aira: a “visual interpreting” app and service introduced to UMass Boston in 2021.
Diversity Inclusion Potluck Social
As UMass Boston began its first fully remote semester in the Fall of 2020, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion searched for events to sponsor across the university. One idea that caught their eye came from Salina Allen-Sharpp, Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for IT and CIO. Allen-Sharpp pitched the Diversity Inclusion Potluck Social, or “DIPS,” to celebrate UMass Boston’s remarkable diversity.
Increasing Efficiencies
Network Upgrades
UMass Boston can function at the highest level only if its faculty, staff, and students have a computer network that works as well as they do. So, the university is planning a complete, campuswide network upgrade. A more secure wired and wireless network will be designed and installed, leading to greater availability across the campus. It will also be easier to maintain and have
much higher bandwidth for its users.
World Class Research Gets IT Support
As Boston’s only public research university, having the proper equipment and services to conduct research is essential to UMass Boston’s operation. That is why the university’s Research Computing department provides high performance computing (HPC), specialized storage and software, analytical applications,and other related services.
Campus Center Ballroom Upgrades
OK, so it’s not a “ballroom” in the way that word is typically used. It hasn’t held any events in which people dressed informal wear could be seen gracefully gliding across a dance floor with an orchestra playing in the background. But it could if someone wanted it to. In fact, there are few rooms in GreaterBoston that could host an event for up to 600 people as elegantly as the UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom.
Self Service Portal and Knowledge Base–A Gateway to Tech Solutions
Looking for help with a technological problem? Well, thanks to the recent introduction of a brand-new UMass Boston IT Self Service portal, the solution is near!
Secure IT–Cybersecurity in a Zero Trust World Class
One of the constants in the computer age has been the continuing need to protect sensitive and valuable information from cyber criminals. That’s why at UMass Boston, cybersecurity is an ongoing effort covering an entire spectrum of threats.
New UMass Boston Mobile App–For Students, By Students
It’s not news to say that most college students rely on their phones for a lot of their daily activities. The UMass Boston IT department has known this for a long time, which is why about six years ago some forward-thinking people in IT realized that the university needed a mobile app of its own and set about making their vision a reality.
Star Performers
Apprenticeships that Matter–PACE Students Serving the Community
At UMass Boston, teaching students the skills necessary to help them start their careers is essential. That’s why in 2020, the university initiated the Professional Apprenticeship and Career Experience (PACE) program. PACE is a subset of student employment which allows students to gain job skills they can take with them after they graduate.
Partnerships
Recreation Fit for the Modern Era–Fusion Recreation Management Software
Historically, UMass Boston’s recreation services have been managed through manual, time-intensive processes. Many dayto- day operations of the campus gym and their various classes were conducted using homemade Excel spreadsheets. However, with the implementation of Fusion Recreation Management Software, UMass Boston’s recreation management systems have been brought to a whole new level.
The Journey of 100 Chromebooks–Empowering Students Through Technology
They say that “A journey of a hundred Chromebooks begins with a single creative solution.” OK, no one has actually said that, but it does describe a recent occurrence at UMass Boston. It came in the form of 100 Chromebook laptops which had been purchased by IT for use at an upcoming New Student Orientation event. However, when COVID-19 struck and campus remained locked down much longer than expected, student orientation was instead held remotely, and the Chromebooks were at risk of sitting unneeded and unused.
SimCapture Cloud Migration–Bringing the Nursing Lab Home
SimCapture Cloud Migration–Bringing the Nursing Lab Home The opening story in IT Outcomes 2020 described the launch of a state-of-the-art “Nursing Simulation Lab,” a space containing lifelike, computerized mannequins used by nursing students to get hands-on experience performing healthcare procedures. One of the Sim Lab’s student-friendly features is called “SimCapture,” which sends a video stream of lab activities to be viewed by facultyand students for evaluation.
IT Briefs
Blackboard Migration to the Cloud
In life, you can’t have the ups without the downs. For UMass Boston’s online course management system Blackboard, this meant you couldn’t run upgrades without downtime. The work neededto keep Blackboard updated had to be done regularly, but the problem was it required a few days of taking the system offline. Most recently this occurred this past winter, but the good news is it won’t happen again.
Chosen Names
The names people are given at birth become deeply personal to them, and on occasion a person will have a desire to change theirs. UMass Boston believes that all students, staff, and facult have the right to represent their identities as they choose, so a collaborative team from multiple campus units recently initiated the “Chosen Names” project. Students can now update their records at UMass Boston, and make a name change, by adding a chosen name into WISER on the school website.
Learn IT
At many universities, or organizations of any kind, there is often a stated commitment to the professional development of its employees. But many of these organizations fall short of that commitment or just don’t deliver what they promise. Not so for the Information Technology (IT) department at UMass Boston. Starting with the arrival of Ray Lefebvre as Vice Chancellor and CIO of Information Technology Services in June 2019, the department has made an extraordinary commitment to the professional development of its staff.
