Information Technology

Update enterprise platforms

1. Evaluate, select, and implement new enterprise system(s) as needed.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Implemented numerous information systems to support Reed’s COVID-19 response, including the Daily Health Check, testing, contact tracing, public COVID-19 Dashboard, and vaccination tracking.
   • 2020 - Collaborated with Human Resources to create online Personnel Action forms & workflow for new hires and job changes, using new Etrieve Forms platform.
   • 2020 - Supported College Relations in the selection of Affinaquest advancement system.
   • 2021 - Collaborated with the Business Office to create digital disbursement forms and workflow process.
   • 2021 - Supported College Relations in implementing Affinaquest advancement system and planning integrations between Affinaquest and other campus systems.
   • 2022 - Collaborated with leaders across the administration and with Tambellini consulting to evaluate and adjust our plans for an overall enterprise systems upgrade.
   • 2021 - Collaborated with the Business Office to convert TMS to Flywire for student billing.
   • 2021-2022 - In collaboration with Community Safety, Facilities Services, & Bon Appetit, modernized Transact "onecard" and food services system: updated software and hardware across campus to provide safe access to food, keep systems up-to-date, and increase security.
   • 2022 - Helped Mail Services implement a new cloud system as well as developed an in-house mail recipient management system.
   • 2022 - Upgraded the Employee module of Banner Self-Service to version 9.
   • 2022 - Major upgrade of the Events Management System.

2. Investigate, select, and implement an enterprise integration layer tool.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Selected SnapLogic, cloud-based integration platform.
   • 2021 - Completed initial SnapLogic implementation and created first production integration for tracking sexual harassment training.
   • 2022 - Added integrations for new systems, moved older integrations to this central platform, decommissioned older technologies/solutions.
   • 2022 - Moved Slate-to-Banner integrations to this central, modern system.

3. Expand and improve enterprise data reporting, visualization, and analysis capabilities.

4. Minimize technical debt so that we are not running out-of-date, vulnerable, non-compliant software.

   Accomplishments
   • 2022 - Maintained technical currency across all Banner modules and components, including security patches, server updates, etc.

Promote student access and success

1. Provide better data resources for student success analytics.

   Accomplishments
   • 2022 - Collaborated with Student Life and Institutional Research to complete Student Data Inventory project and create resources for community members who use this data about our student data.

2. Expand student access to technology resources.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Transformed the Lottery Mac program to the Student Technology Equipment Program (STEP) making computers and other technology resources available to more students in need.
   • 2020 - Implemented Virtual Computer Labs, making specialized software accessible to students anytime and anywhere.
   • 2020 - Overhauled our campus wireless networks in dorm locations to provide more access to on campus student population.
   • 2022 - Increased short-term student laptop loaner pool provided by the IMC in the Library.

3. Improve ADA accessibility of IT systems and resources.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Established Digital Accessibility Collaborative with IT, Disability & Accessibility Resources, and the Library to facilitate cross-department collaboration.
   • 2020 - Implemented SensusAccess for self-service document conversion and accessibility remediation.
   • 2020 - Developed captioning workflows to improve efficiency and speed of delivering a substantially increased volume of captioned audio and video material for courses.
   • 2022 - Further streamlined captioning workflows for lecture capture to take advantage of Panopto’s automated integration with third-party captioning services.
   • 2022 - Improved accessibility of MALS and Young Scholars online applications.
   • 2022 - Collaborated with Library and Disability & Accessibility Resources to add accessibility tracking features to the E-reserves system to streamline providing accessible versions of print course materials to students.
   • 2022 - Modernized assisted listening systems in auditoriums and performance spaces.

4. Evaluate and equitably distribute costs for printing and other course resources.

   Accomplishments
   • 2021 - Reviewed departmental printing practices for student workers to reduce excess printing.
   • 2021 - Began collaboration with the Office of Financial Aid to distribute additional printing funds to students in need.
   • 2022 - Reduced printing costs from $.35 to $.30 for color and $.08 to $.05 for monochrome.

5. Improve student access to information about the curriculum.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Worked with the Dean of the Faculty to create consistent “learning outcomes” web pages for all majors.
   • 2022 - Working with the registrar’s office and Student Life to create consistent, transparent practices for administering placement exams and providing results to students.

Expand and improve support for instruction, research, and scholarship

1. Expand infrastructure and resources to support cloud-based technology, including computation, storage, bandwidth, and collaboration tools.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Collaborated with faculty and student researchers to evaluate and benchmark cloud platforms for research computing, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBEST, and XSEDE.
   • 2020 - Adopted cloud-based collaboration tools for social annotation (Hypothesis) and LaTeX editing (Overleaf).
   • 2021 - Collaborated with faculty to develop a successful grant proposal for a new lightsheet microscope system, which will integrate on-campus infrastructure with cloud services for large-scale storage and analysis.
   • 2021 - Collaborated with the Library to transition to a Zotero site license and cloud storage for bibliography and citation management.
   • 2021 - Worked with departmental associates to improve functionality of the Data Collector application for collecting biology lab data and explore expansion to other areas of the curriculum.
   • 2022 - Replaced our previous on-premises media server, Ensemble, with a new cloud-based media streaming platform, Panopto, with improved recording, playback, and analytics functionality, to support increased use of recorded lectures and other video-based course materials in the curriculum. Migrated content, updated Moodle integration, and provided Panopto documentation and training to faculty, students, and staff.
   • 2022 - Adopted Gradescope and its integration with Moodle to enable faculty to provide consistent, equitable, timely feedback to students on handwritten work and coding assignments.
   • 2022 - Added permanent hybrid classroom camera and microphone system to ETC 2nd floor classrooms.

2. Collaborate with faculty and the library to develop strategies for introducing students to new curricular technologies and resources in sustainable and scalable ways.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Worked with faculty and the Center for Teaching and Learning to develop and document strategies for remote and hybrid teaching and learning across the curriculum.
   • 2022 - Working with departmental associates to redesign introductory biology labs to use R/RStudio for statistical analysis, improving alignment with statistical analysis in other areas of the curriculum and reducing the number of statistical packages that students are required to learn.

3. Expand support for student research.

   Accomplishments
   • 2021 - Developing data equity resources to augment the Data@Reed website, with assistance from Social Justice Research and Education Fund Intern.
   • 2021 - Expanded and updated online resources to support students’ data analysis using R and RStudio on the Data@Reed website.
   • 2022 - Added field to HireEm program to track student workers who are doing research.

4. Support implementation of an institutional repository for collecting and preserving scholarly work of students and faculty.

5. Implement "eduroam roaming wireless" network for shared wireless access at participating colleges and other institutions worldwide.

Improve campus communication systems

1. Enhance the user experience on reed.edu by improving website design, content, and navigation.

   Accomplishments
   • 2021 - Developed new tools for advanced content creation and layout selection in Cascade CMS website editing system.
   • 2021 - Developed new tools for advanced content creation and layout selection in Cascade CMS website editing system.
   • 2022 - Created a streamlined Cascade CMS training website to educate content creators on best practices and new features.

2. Cloud source or upgrade the campus telephone system (VoIP).

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Upgraded the campus telephone system to Zoom Phone cloud-based system.

3. Support selection and implementation of software and protocols to improve campus communications.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Developed a system for the Dean of the Faculty to collect and analyze learning outcomes and course information sheets for assessment and accreditation.
   • 2022 - Created a student form in IRIS to collect information about move-in dates and times, allowing residence Life to create a smoother move-in experience for all.

Document and implement IT business continuity and response (BC&R) plan

1. Host (or mirror) enterprise data in the cloud.

2. Substantially increase Internet bandwidth.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Expanded internet bandwidth to 5GB total with two independent providers.

3. Cloud source or upgrade the Reed web site and content management system infrastructure.

4. Deploy environmental monitoring and controls in campus machine rooms.

   Accomplishments
   • 2021 - Deployed environmental monitoring sensors to campus machine rooms.
   • 2021 - Set up real time and historical graphing of HVAC trends for campus machine rooms and provided access to this information to our facilities department.
   • 2021 - Set up text based alerts for high/low temperature conditions for campus machine rooms and expanded notifications to include Facilities and Campus Safety with improved planning for after hours response to emergency conditions.
   • 2021 - Set up real time and historical graphing for utility, UPS, and generator power for multiple locations on campus including campus machine rooms and provided access to this information to Facilities.

5. Upgrade and expand information security measures.

   Accomplishments
   • 2020 - Expanded VPN for secure access to information systems for remote work, including for student workers needing to work remotely for the first time.
   • 2021 - Implemented Oracle wallets to improve the efficiency and security of access to critical systems for Community Safety staff.
   • 2021 - Established more secure student access to Student Health Portal with single sign-on and two-factor authentication.
   • 2021 - Launched KnowBe4 security training for all employees.
   • 2021 - Updated processes for onboarding & offboarding affiliates to the college in order to have more consistent, clean information and access to campus spaces, systems, etc.
   • 2022 - Responded quickly to emerging security threats such as log4j, Grails vulnerability, WSO2 vulnerability, etc.
   • 2022 - Developed a policy and process for disabling underutilized Cascade CMS user accounts.

6. Increase sustainability and security of our systems and data infrastructure.

   Accomplishments
   • 2022 - Moved source code for ReedCo identity management system to Git; creating documentation and cross-training.
   • 2022 - Updated account-tools.reed.edu to improve security and the user experience by synchronizing logins and passwords across our traditionally divided academic and administrative systems.

7. Provide continuous access to critical campus systems by transitioning more systems to the Cloud and focusing on Cloud-based solutions as new needs are identified.

   Accomplishments
   • 2022 - Worked with Residence Life to move StarRez housing system to the Cloud, improving documentation, training, and integrations in the process.
   • 2022 - Moved Moodle from physical servers on campus to cloud hosting through Amazon Web Services, improving resilience, file storage capacity, and responsiveness during times of heavy usage by students and faculty.