Category Archives: TechNews

Simmons Moodle Is on Its Way!

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If you read last month’s TechNews, you know that Simmons is engaged in a project to replace Blackboard-based Simmons eLearning as the College learning management system (LMS). Because this project will affect most of the Simmons Community, we want to keep you informed of its progress while highlighting some of the exciting things it will make possible.

The new LMS, currently called Simmons Moodle, has been made available this semester to a pilot group of professors who have volunteered to use it in their classes and to provide feedback. During spring semester, there will be ten courses and more than 250 students using Simmons Moodle and sharing their experiences with us. In preparation for these courses, the Simmons Moodle Team has created tutorials, videos, and FAQs for both faculty and students. We will use what we learn from the pilot to help us plan and prepare for the campus-wide roll out.

We are very excited about Simmons Moodle and the capabilities and improvements it will bring to a technologically integrated learning experience. Among these are more customizable features and increased communication between students and professors. In the coming months, we’ll provide updates on our progress and share with you the experiences of some of the students and faculty using Simmons Moodle.

As we integrate our experiences from the pilot into a plan for campus-wide roll out, you can expect to hear more about this project. Additionally, you are welcome to visit lmsproject.simmons.edu, to read our blog and stay on top of updates as they occur.

IT Knowledge at a Discount: Join NERCOMP Today!

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Are you interested in learning more about the impact of technology on higher education? If so, Simmons College would like to make you aware of our institutional membership in the NorthEast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP). As an organization, NERCOMP strives to disseminate the latest technology information of interest to administrators, faculty, staff, and students at schools in the northeastern U.S.

So what does all this mean for you? Among other things, when you sign up as a member, you’ll receive discounts on all workshops and the NERCOMP Annual Meeting of at least $130 per event! Upcoming events include workshops on social media strategy and the future of library and IT integration. Members can also choose to receive an email newsletter from NERCOMP that will keep you up to date on events and deals available to you.

To sign up, click here. Once you’re there, click “Join with your school” and complete the registration form. You’ll receive a confirmation email from NERCOMP with a user name and temporary password. After that, you can browse upcoming events and sign up at the discounted rate!

Passwords Getting out of Hand? Try KeePass.

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In a world where we have usernames and passwords for many online services, it is important to have a secure way to organize and remember your passwords. To help solve this problem, Simmons currently provides software called KeePass for all faculty and staff computers running Windows. KeePass is an open source password manager that helps you to create and store a database of your passwords and only allows access with a master password.

To get started using KeePass, check out this FAQ on the Service Desk website.

KeePass is automatically installed on all new faculty and staff computers running Windows. There is also a version for Mac that we can install for you. If you do not currently have KeePass installed and would like to get it, please contact the Service Desk x2222 or servicedesk.simmons.edu for a quick and easy installation.

Making Admissions Easier with Intelliworks.

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At Simmons, one of our most important goals is to maintain open lines of communication
with students. Most current students probably recognize the many ways we reach out
to them: email, the Simmons website, Facebook, Twitter, electronic message boards on
campus, and more. What you might not know is that this process starts well before you’ve
applied to Simmons.

Applying to college or graduate school can be a stressful time and Simmons has a dedicated staff to help you navigate learning about Simmons, visiting, applying, and enrolling. Unfortunately, the process of managing prospective student data and communicating with you throughout the application process has long been a manual and time consuming process. Over the last year and a half, Technology has been helping the undergraduate and graduate Admissions Offices integrate and automate many of these functions by migrating to a new enrollment management system called Intelliworks.

Using Intelliworks has helped our admissions teams simplify and tailor the Simmons College online inquiry and application process, giving prospective students the ability to track the components of their applications, and increasing the effectiveness of communication we have with them. This project is just one of many that we are working on to make interaction between students, faculty, and staff a highlight of the Simmons experience.

Behind the Scenes: Simmons College Data Center Tours

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Cloud computing. Virtualization. Servers.

You probably hear these terms frequently, but you might not know what they mean or how they relate to the services you use every day. If you’d like to learn more about how data is stored and transmitted at Simmons, you can be part of a Data Center tour, hosted by David Bruce, Director of Infrastructure & Online Services.

These tours provide an inside look at the Simmons Technology infrastructure and help you to understand how data moves at Simmons. Tours are scheduled as needed and are a great opportunity for students in computer science, GLSIS, and anyone interested in computing.

If you’d like to be part of an upcoming tour or to schedule a tour for a class, please contact David Bruce at [email protected].

TechKnow: Organizing Our Knowledge, Sharing Our Expertise

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If you’ve been at Simmons for even a short time, you probably recognize that our campus is home to some of the best and brightest in many academic and administrative areas. While it is fortunate to have so much skill and knowledge in one location, it can also be challenging to preserve and share that information so it serves the needs of the entire College.

In Technology, we are striving to solve this challenge by creating a database of information that can be used by everyone to improve service and support. This specialized database, called TechKnow, allows us to collect and organize information and then share it internally and with our customers.

Within Technology, we use TechKnow for gathering solutions to common issues and documenting standardized processes for guiding customers through these solutions when you contact the Service Desk. TechKnow is also the guiding force behind the searchable self-service FAQs available on the Service Desk website.

Doug Anderson, Senior Director of Technology Services, spearheaded the creation of TechKnow in early 2011 with the goals of, “strengthening the group culture, documenting most of our repeat issues, and creating self-service.” Throughout the spring semester, TechKnow was installed, tested, and populated with a base of information. During the summer, many solutions for frequent issues were gathered and incorporated into the Service Desk website. We are aware that the majority of students prefer self-service when dealing with technology questions and we are striving to provide as much information as possible in this way.

To date, TechKnow has been a significant factor in improving service and support and changing the way we share knowledge in Technology. The knowledge base that we use internally has more than 1,300 articles and there are more than 120 self-service FAQs available to the Simmons Community, which have been viewed more than 130,000 times. In addition, using TechKnow has allowed us to improve the rate of resolution on service requests and to more quickly train new employees.

Going forward, Technology will continue adding more FAQs for our customers, creating specialized solutions for providing information to partners, and sharing the experiences we have had with other departments at Simmons that might want to organize and share their knowledge.