ACCS2018

Even if you are not a director, manager or supervisor, there are ways in which you can enrich your leadership skills and life through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). This presentation is meant to introduce you to subtle (and not so subtle!) ways to introduce DEI into your work practices.

We will discuss such issues as:
• How do you write Job Descriptions that ensure the diversity, equality and inclusiveness of recruiting processes?
• Why aren’t women applying for your jobs?
• What can you do to improve your work environment to attract and retain staff?
• Why does Accessibility matter and how can it enrich your organization?
• Why do diverse teams matter?
• How can you encourage intergenerational teamwork?

We will review important tips, statistics and information from current research, as well as share our own experiences as champions of DEI.

All things communications!

There is a need to change the perception of the quality of online learning from for-profit universities. Government regulators have become concerned with the retention and graduation rates of perceived unqualified students who choose for-profit universities and the online learning delivery option. There is no standard set of criteria that will measure the effectiveness of education these learning modalities provide. Most studies exam student behavior, preference, or performance and do not compare modality of learning. In order to understand if a correlational relationship exists an Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) was conducted to determine the relationship between learning modality and graduation and retention rates using for-profit universities as selection criteria. This approach tested whether the known hypotheses are consistent with the researcher’s understanding of the perception that the modality of learning influences retention and graduation rates at for-profit universities independent of other elements of the online learning process. The theoretical framework that was used for this study is self-directed learning (SDL).

This presentation will review the process of constructing a modern project management program for AV integration in higher education focusing on our current project portfolio and collaborative project management software solution, Smartsheet. As part of the discussion we will demonstrate custom AV project related documents such as scope of work, construction and AV vendor protocols, risk/issue registers, and staging/commissioning checklists used to aid in ensuring program goals are met, improve organizational performance, as well as maximize project success and overall customer satisfaction.

Rubrik Cloud Data Management is a software-defined platform that unifies backup, instant recovery, replication, search, analytics, archival, compliance, and copy data management in one secure fabric across the data center and cloud. Attend this session to hear live from one of our customers and your peer about how this platform has impacted their business.

In 2009, Shenandoah University implemented the iMLearning initiative, a two to one technology program that has proven to be very successful and very popular with students and their families. Over the nine years of iMLearning’s existence, more than 22,000 devices have been issued to students, faculty and staff.

An important piece of this story is that the equipment is leased for eight semesters and students take these devices with them when they leave campus for all breaks. These assets are constantly in motion. A consistent issue has been asset recovery when students fail to meet the requirements of the equipment lease.

After multiple attempts and mixed success, with JAMF Pro, Shenandoah University has had much improved and more immediate success at asset recovery and resolution. The presentation will explore where iMLearning began and how it has progressed in the nine years of its existence as well as the financial implications of the improved process.

The development of an IT Service Catalog has always been a daunting task for those who attempt to create one. With some planning, VCU Technology Services developed an easy to use IT Catalog that leverages the use of existing web pages and self-service request system to maximize access to our services. The panel will discuss our catalog planning and development process, and share some of the challenges. The IT Catalog provides services categories to guide customers through the maze of services and offers details and support for every service listed. Users gain value by having our services categorized in a central and easy to use tool. Through the success of the VCU IT Catalog, the IT Catalog tool is now being scaled to non-IT units across the university.

[This session will be video Recorded] This session will follow the journey of collecting meaningful statistics from our support team starting with the specific data points of interest such as service call types, user trainings and preventative maintenance as well as a few others that have presented themselves along the way. We’ll then look into the tools we use to collect data and we’ll round out the session with some data use cases.

Discussions relating to Classroom technologies including deployment and long term management.

This session will showcase specific ways that Thomas Nelson Community College has used Microsoft Teams, a chat-centered work space in Office 365 to make communicating one-on-one and with groups effortless. Microsoft Teams is used to create a seamless collaboration between various units on campus, faculty support using instant messaging, built-in access to SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, and Skype for Business and to centralize all content, tools, people, and conversations in one team workspace.

Ransomware continues to be the bane of existence for most IT staff. These attacks have rapidly evolved, and are using multiple vectors to enter networks. The onslaught of DIY ransomware tools available for sale on the Dark Web continue to make this an asymmetrical cyberwar between IT/businesses and cyber-criminals. And now with ransomware-as-a-service proliferating on the Dark Web, any disgruntled employee, student, or hacker with malintent or run of the mill script kiddie can turn into a formidable foe who wants to lock your data for ransom. To combat ransomware attacks, prevention and protection methods must evolve to match these threats, and IT must take a multi-prong approach in protecting their networks and more importantly their data assets.

There are a number of software license management models in use within higher education. Some software vendors provide tracking systems for their licenses, while others rely on the institution to monitor their software entitlements. Many in higher education may not have access to costly license tracking systems and limp through the license management process with available resources. Some institutions use the centralized license management method, while others use the decentralized management approach. Come and share your experiences with license management and how you try to overcome the challenges of license tracking and entitlement reconciliation.