Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Upgrade

On March 3^rd 2020, the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) application will be upgraded to version 6.5.  This upgrade does not impact any content that is live in production on Villanova.edu.  The upgrade will include new and exciting features:   

• Icon driven navigation
• New terminology (i.e. Sites instead of Website, Assets instead of Digital Asset Manager)
• Navigation of how to manage/edit pages

There will be training sessions and open office hours leading up to and past the upgrade date.  Stay tuned for upcoming dates in the new year and look forward sharing more information about this upgrade. 

Mendel Hall Renovations

On the evening of July 3^rd, 2018, the lower level of the East wing in Mendel Hall flooded due to excessive rainfall, Lab 087's window gave way to the water pressure. Results of the flooding was the loss of 3 research labs, UNIT hardware offices, storage, receiving areas and equipment. Villanova's Facilities Maintenance office (FMO) took on the task of cleanup, demo, and renovations. Classes resumed in the East wing on January 13^th, 2020.

Various UNIT departments worked collaboratively alongside FMO and the Center of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) to complete the renovations.

UNIT 's hardware team was relocated to different areas across the University until their space was renovated, first in priority. The hardware team functioned to the best of their ability and did so without interruption to services. Impressive given their circumstances, once their area was renovated it was back to business as usual.

NetCom facilitated the task of having to do a complete reworking of the entire network structure for the affected areas. This would include all new wiring for wired and wireless networks, new access points, new Juniper network switches at the IT closet, desk phones and phones in the labs for emergencies.

Classroom Technologies worked cross functionally with FMO & CLAS to design, install, and setup new AV systems in 4 labs and a Seminar room. The teaching labs AV consisted of a combination of projectors, screens, display monitors, wired and wireless AV. The seminar room is based on a hybrid functionality design, to be used as a large conference room, small break out areas, and the ability to teach classes.

Blackboard Winter Upgrade to SaaS

Over the 2019 Winter Holiday break, Blackboard was migrated from managed hosted to SaaS continuous delivery model. SaaS continuous delivery will provide more frequent releases, on a monthly basis.  This will create more opportunities for bug fixes and enhancements made available in Blackboard throughout the year, while eliminating Blackboard downtime for these updates. 

Here are two new enhancements made to Blackboard over the last month:

• New Originality Report available for SafeAssign integration (includes updated look and feel, some new information about a submission's overall risk for being copied from another source and it new report interface is also more responsive for mobile devices and more accessible to screen readers than the old design.

• E-Portfolio submissions display within the Inline Grader Tool (Starting in December 2018, Blackboard did not support E-Portfolio submission displaying within inline grader tool, which meant that instructors had to download zip files to their computers.  This has now been fixed, and e-Portfolio submission will display natively within Blackboard).

For Blackboard SaaS monthly releases for enhancements and bug fixes, please visit our Blackboard SaaS Updates website. 

Student office 365 licensing Update New Microsoft Office365 Offerings to Students

Office 365 suite is the cloud-based version of the Microsoft Office desktop suite and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and much more. In mid-October UNIT upgraded the Office 365 Student Licenses to offer a higher-level of increasing student functionality.

When logging in, students now have access to:

• Full use of Skype for Business, including "Join by Phone" for meetings, using your O365 account credentials, uid@villanova.edu.
• Access to PowerBI, Stream and MyAnalytics tiles in the Office 365 Portal
• Availability of multiple Excel plugs ins
• Welcome email to MyAnalytics as well as a weekly digest

TechZone @ Commons: Features, Events and Activities

Students, Staff and Faculty can visit the TechZone@theCommons to print, study, collaborate, host an event and check out new technology!  Room and resources can be conveniently reserved online, using Bookings via Microsoft Office 365.  Click HERE to book a room.  

Features:

• VR headsets (Oculus Rift and Valve Index) are available and offer a truly immersive experience.  
• 3D Printing services offered along with quick tutorial session with our 3D printer specialist 
•  2 Microsoft Studio Touch screens available and 2 Apple iMacs 
• 86" touch screen display with informal group seating 
• Teleconference capable 20-person conference room is available for a group meeting with dial in and an 86" touch screen display
• Student VPrint Station and TechZone Support Services