Online@UT Now Hosted Locally

OIT has completed the transition of Online@UT (Blackboard) servers from a managed hosting solution in Virginia to locally hosted servers in our UT campus data centers. The move proves to be a substantial cost saver and allows OIT to manage the environment to desirable service standards. Load testing of our new servers indicates that our local environment will be more robust and reliable.

Beginning 2013 mid-spring semester, the new server environment was made available to the university community and will remain available through summer sessions. Courses that resided on the retired servers are now archived on our local servers. If, for any reason, you cannot find a Fall 2012 – Summer 2013 course, please complete a request for support, and OIT will be happy to restore it for you.

OIT will begin carefully planning a series of Blackboard software upgrades in the coming year or two, and will continue to expand the hardware environment as necessary. Currently, OIT performs scheduled maintenance each Friday from 5-10 pm. In addition to weekly maintenance, OIT will perform periodic preventive maintenance to keep the system running smoothly. Scheduled outages will be communicated in advance via the OIT Traffic Center and the Blackboard users listserv.

Fall 2013 course sites have been available to faculty for some time now, and will be available to students two weeks prior to the start of fall semester classes on August 7, 2013.

And let’s not forget our Community/Organization sites! Although our transition of course sites is complete, we continue to restore Community/Organization sites by request. The transition to our locally hosted servers provided an opportunity for us to clean up the storage footprint allocated to these sites, and to eliminate sites no longer needed. Additionally, we are encouraging users with very specific needs to consider using the Microsoft SharePoint solution.

NOTE: In this case, “very specific needs” refers to document sharing, version control, special permissions, and access for those external to UTK.

Click here for additional information: SharePoint solution and Community/Organization sites. If you require that an old Community/Organization site be restored from the old system, please complete a request for support, and we will be happy to restore it for you within 24 hours.

MATLAB Site License Renewed

OIT has renewed the Campus Option and Student Option of the UT Total Academic Headcount (TAH) Academic Site license with MathWorks, Inc. for the period of July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014. The renewal includes a 30-day grace period allowing licenses to be used through July 31, 2014.

MATLAB, Simulink, and several add-on products are free to faculty and staff who use the Campus Option for installation on UT-owned and personally-owned computers at UT Knoxville (UTK), UT Chattanooga (UTC), UT Health Sciences Center (UTHSC) at Memphis, and at UT Space Institute (UTSI) at Tullahoma.

The same products, with the exception of the MATLAB Distributed Computing Server (MDCS), are also free to students who use the Student Option at UTK, UTC, UTHSC, and UTSI for installation on personally-owned computers.

Changes in the licensed products for this renewal are listed below.

• The MATLAB Distributed Computing Server (MDCS) has been added to the TAH Campus Option of the site license.
• The 32-worker MDCS add-on can be used to execute MATLAB algorithms or Simulink models on up to 32 remote MATLAB sessions. (For more information, visit MathWorks).
• The HDL Coder, HDL Verifier and SimEvents MATLAB toolboxes were removed from both the TAH Campus Option and the Student Option of the site license.
• With the latest release of MATLAB R2013a, the Fixed Point Toolbox and the Simulink Fixed Point Toolbox were merged and renamed “Fixed Point Designer”.
• All other MATLAB and Simulink add-ons, except the new MDCS, are available for the Campus Option and the Student Option. Click to find more information on MATLAB and Simulink.

Deadline: GTA@OIT Grant Proposals

OIT’s Instructional Development and Training is seeking proposals from Graduate Teaching Assistants and Associates (GTA) with sole responsibility for teaching a course. The GTA@OIT grant provides consulting, training, and support to GTAs interested in redesigning a course or course component for Web-based delivery in [log in to unmask]

GTA@OIT Fall 2013 grant proposals are due Friday, September 20, 2013 by 5pm.

For more information, visit GTA@OIT, or contact Christina Goode at [log in to unmask] or 974-6470.

SAS: New Release for Windows 8

SAS is one of the most popular applications for data processing and analysis, but the current version cannot be installed on the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. This problem has been resolved with the release of SAS 9.3, Revision 13w18. The 32bit and 64bit versions of the revision were tested and are available on the OIT software distribution page.

A free single-user license for academic use of SAS is available to students, faculty and staff at all University of Tennessee campuses, and can be installed on personally-owned and UT-owned computers. SAS academic licenses expire each May. The 2013 renewal license for SAS products can be downloaded from the OIT software distribution page. An SAS license for campus administrative use is available to staff for a fee. All licenses for administrative use can be ordered through the UT Bookstore Technology Center.

Due to an increasing demand for SAS training, OIT began teaching an SAS programming workshop this summer. The course includes SAS programming basics as well as a few advanced topics, such as SAS macro language. The class helps users build an SAS programming foundation to manipulate data, generate basic reports and graphics, and produce simple analyses. It will be taught each semester by a certified SAS programmer.

Register at Researcher-Focused Workshops.

IT Community of Practice Meetings

Plan to Attend OIT’s Fall IT Community of Practice Meetings

OIT's IT Community of Practice (ITCoP) is a Faculty Fellow initiative that provides an opportunity for faculty to bring lunch and join colleagues in conversation about trends and issues in instructional technology.

Save a date for the following sessions:

• August 28: Implementing Classroom Engagement Strategies
• September 25: Social Media and Education
• October 23: Assessment and Evaluation Apps
• November 27: Online Communication, Collaboration and Community Building

For more information, or to be added to the IT CoP mailing list, contact Christina Goode at 974-6470 or email [log in to unmask].

OIT's Instructor-Led Workshops

Workshops for August 1, 2013 through August 31, 2013 

Browse our new onine registration system for August workshops.

Instructor Focused Topics Include:

• iPad 1:  Introduction to the iPad

• iPad 2:  Mobile Learning in the Classroom

• LiveOnline@UT: Introduction

• LiveOnline@UT: Engagement in the Online Classroom

• LiveOnline@UT 3 – Plan and Publish
  (Applications that compliment Blackboard Collaborate)

• Online@UT: Introduction

• Online@UT: Assessment Tools

• Online@UT: Blogs And Wikis

• Online@UT: Assignment Tools
  (SafeAssign)

• Online@UT: Grade Center

• PowerPoint for Instruction
  (Develop Narrated Presentations on Windows PC)

• SharePoint Designer

• SharePoint Documents

• SharePoint Lists

• SharePoint Overview

• SharePoint Permissions (Handling Confidential Data)

• SMARTBOARD/Sympodium

• Turning Point Clickers
  

July 2013 Uptime:
Blackboard 99.1%
Collaborate 99.1%

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The flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System