Panther Degree Audit to Replace SASS As part of the University’s continuing effort to provide improvements and enhancements to MyFIU, students will be able to get real-time status of their academic career progress at my.fiu.edu using Panther Degree Audit. Panther Degree Audit provides students with a record of their academic progress toward completion of their academic degree program. This new feature allows students to review the courses they have taken, including in progress courses, and how many more courses they will need to complete their degree. Panther Degree Audit will assist students and their advisors by illustrating the steps needed to complete a degree. The PantherSoft team has worked diligently to make this a smooth transition for all students. They first piloted

the College of Law where all law students admitted beginning fall 2009 were transitioned to Panther Degree Audit. The Panther Degree Audit for Academic Advisors went live on February 14, 2011. The Academic Advisors will run parallel audits with SASS until the go live date for students. This will allow the project team to receive feedback to better assist our students. Once Academic Advisors go live on Panther Degree Audit, they will have their students’ academic transcripts and degree audits in one source via PantherSoft Student-Campus Solutions. PantherSoft Degree Audit will be available to all students

in May 2011. To learn more about the Panther Degree

Audit, visit http://degreeaudit.fiu.edu.

FIVE WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR

SMARTPHONE ………..…….......2

CIARA RECEIVES $5.4M GRANT

FOR FIU……………….………...3

DETECT PLAGIARISM WITH

TURNITIN………………………...4

DoIT now

FIU’s Division of IT Newsletter

Dear Readers,

As the Interim Vice President and CIO for the Division of Information Technology, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the spring 2011 issue of DoIT Now. I hope that your holidays were safe and enjoyable. Effective communication is the key to the introduction and support of new technologies. The editorial staff and I hope that this newsletter will contribute to that process.

The Division of Information Technology has made significant progress towards the realization of its vision – advancing FIU as a leader in using technology for learning,

teaching, research and administration. It is my mission to ensure that during this transition period, the Division will continue to strive to keep FIU in its position of leading the University in new technologies that enhance our services and are cost-efficient. In this issue of the IT newsletter, you will find informative articles on major projects the Division is currently engaged in, including Panther Degree Audit, the Human Resources and Payroll Implementation, new research grants, eLabs, and much more.

Thank you for reading this issue of our newsletter. I hope that you will find this newsletter useful and informative.

Robert Grillo, Interim Vice President and CIO

Spring 2011

A Message from The Interim Vice President & CIO

Are you protecting your Smartphone as intensely as your computer? If you stop to think about it, you’ll realize that some of your most sensitive information is stored on your Smartphone. The smartest thing you can do is get accustomed to using your Smartphone safely and securely. Here’s a list of the top 5 tips we gathered (courtesy of The SANS Institute) to help protect you and your information.

1. Passwords: Use a strong PIN, password, or passphrase to unlock your Smartphone. This is the first line of defense and arguably the most important.

2. Applications: Only install applications you need and can trust. Attackers can create malicious applications that seem legitimate, but are designed to gain access to your information. A good idea is to wait until the application and/or developer has established a positive reputation before downloading it onto your device.

3. Software Updates: Keeping up with the latest software updates for both your phone

and applications will protect you from known vulnerabilities in previous versions.

4. Wireless Networks: When you are connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot, you are sharing that network with other users. With the right resources, someone could eaves-drop on your connection. Try to connect to encrypted networks whenever possible and keep optional network connections (e.g., Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) turned off except when you are using them.

5. Wiping: In the event you lose your Smart-phone, remotely wiping your device will guarantee your information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. The only caveat to this is your Smartphone will not receive the wipe command unless it’s connected to the Internet. Also, if you are disposing of your Smartphone or trading it in, be sure to wipe the device clean before doing so.

Finally, here is an extra tip: make regular backups. A Smartphone could easily be replaced, but the contacts, email, and other information it stores may never be.

FIU is in the process of transitioning its payroll system from ADP’s Comprehens ive Ou tsourc ing Solutions to PeopleSoft’s Human Capital Management System (HCM). The transition to PeopleSoft HCM will offer end users fully integrated and seamless business processes, a standardized interface to increase user productivity, and an overall friendlier user experience that will be easier to support. The PeopleSoft Human Capital Management system will improve efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity in the workforce. The implementation of PeopleSoft HCM will also allow FIU to leverage existing resources and knowledge of PeopleSoft’s applications and provide a seamless integration to our PantherSoft Student Campus Solutions and PantherSoft Financials Management systems.

The PeopleSoft Human Capital M a n a g e m e n t a n d P a y r o l l implementation project is scheduled

to go live in January 2012. The transition will affect all FIU employees and retirees. Once we go live, all FIU employees will have the ability to log-on through the MyFIU portal, my.fiu.edu.“The integration with MyFIU portal will eliminate the various different systems we visit today and facilitate users with having one set of username and password for all of our enterprise information systems,” said Carlos Varona, Associate Director for the Technical & PantherSoft Human Resources project.

The project team has already

completed the first of five necessary

milestones to complete the transition

on time and within budget. As the

project moves forward more

information will be forthcoming.

Implementation of the PeopleSoft Human Capital Management System

Five Smart Ways to Protect Your Smartphone

Learn Technology skills online via eTraining

eTraining offers faculty, staff,

and students online narrated

QuickTime screen movie

training and tutorials provided

by Atomic Learning. eTraining

offers a collection of nearly

40,000 tutorials on more than

120 software applications for

both Macintosh and Windows

platforms. You can find tutorials

on major software applications,

such as:

Microsoft Office

Adobe Photoshop

Dreamweaver

And much more…

Try out eTraining today at

etraining.fiu.edu

Disposing of Old Computers & Storage Devices

Getting rid of your old computer or storage device is not as simple as throwing it in the trash. There may be sensitive data stored on that device, which you wouldn’t want getting into the wrong hands. For this reason, FIU has a procedure in place to help protect its data from inadvertent or unauthorized use through a media sanitation process. A University department or unit disposing of equipment with storage devices must ensure that the storage devices are erased using “a repeated overwrite operation, purged, degaussed, or destroyed” before being sent to Surplus, donated, or discarded. Storage devices can also include jump drives and PDA’s in addition to notebook and desktop computers. The good thing is that you’re not required to sanitize the computer on your own - the IT Security Office will take care of that for you. Before donating, transferring, discarding or sending your device to Surplus, simply email dkitrell@fiu.edu to schedule an appointment to have your storage device picked up and sanitized. You will be given an MSCID number for proof of sanitation compliance, which is required. Should you have any questions, you can contact the IT Security Office via the email above.

Access Your Online Courses by Using MyLMS

CIARA Receives $5.4M Grant for FIU

Working in conjunction with FIU Online, the Operations and Enterprise Systems department within the Division of IT, introduced MyLMS in the spring 2011 semester. MyLMS is an online service that makes it easy for both faculty and students to locate their Web-assisted and online courses. Using MyLMS, students and faculty no longer need to look for courses on multiple learning management systems like Blackboard and Moodle. Instead, MyLMS gives students and faculty the ability to access their online courses from one portal. To find your online courses, go to http://mylms.fiu.edu. You will need your PantherID to sign-on to the portal.

FIU has been awarded $5.4 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to lead the project to enhance network infrastructure for science research and education between the U.S. and Latin America. The Center f o r I n t e r ne t Res ea r c h and Assessment (CIARA) will manage the project on behalf of FIU. The project, Amer icas L ightpaths, named A m L i g h t , b u i l d s u p o n t h e achievements of FIU’s previous NSF awards in international research network connections. With the support of the NSF and the contribut ions of national and international partnerships, the AmLight project establishes lightpaths between the U.S. and Latin America from four geographical locations. “Lightpaths” refers to physical network connections between two or more networks based upon photonic technologies. “The U.S. research and education community wil l be connected to 18 countries and an estimated 100 million students, faculty, and researchers through these lightpaths”, says Julio Ibarra, Ass is tant VP and Pr inc ipa l Investigator of AmLight. The AmLight award will have an

immediate impact on several FIU research projects of international scope. One of these projects is PrimoGENI which implements a real-time network simulation for the NSF Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI). “PrimoGENI coupled with AmLight network resources extends the GENI infrastructure to partnership programs in Brazil to prototype future Internet network architectures”, says Jason Liu, Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator of PrimoGENI. CIARA, in close cooperation with its national and international partners, will lead the AmLight initiative to connect research and education communities in the U.S. with their counterparts in Latin America. Experience in the implementation and operation of large-scale international network infrastructure by CIARA was a key reason why FIU was awarded to lead this project on behalf of the NSF.

Thus far, for the spring 2011 term, the UTS Service Desk has handled 18,726 requests. This number includes 14,395 calls answered, 1,419 live-person service interactions via the "chat" feature, and 2,912 walk-in library service center interactions.

Our Mission:

To support FIU in its pursuit to become a leading student-

centered urban public research uni-versity that is locally and globally engaged by providing leadership, consultation, service and secure access for the use of technology.

Our Vision:

To advance FIU as a leader in using technologies for learning, teaching,

research and administration.

Our Core Values: Teamwork: We work together cooperatively to accomplish our mission. Excellence: We pursue excellence in all we do. Innovativeness: We promote new ideas and change. Service: We listen to our customers and instill in our staff a culture that promotes the best possible service.

WEBSITES:

Division of Information Technology: it.fiu.edu

University Technology Services: uts.fiu.edu

IT Security Office: security.fiu.edu

CIARA: ciara.fiu.edu

PantherSoft: panthersoft.fiu.edu

TECHNICAL SUPPORT:

Telephone: (305)348-2284 Online: uts.fiu.edu Walk-in Support: GL 249 (MMC) LIB InfoCommons (BBC)

HOURS OF OPERATION:

Please click on About Us located on the homepage of the UTS web-

site.

DoIT Now Editing Staff:

utsfyi@fiu.edu

Division of Information Technology Contact

Information

Detect Plagiarism with Turnitin

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool available to all faculty at Florida International University via an institutional license.

Turnitin works by creating an originality report of the content within the assignments that students upload to the site. By using Turnitin, faculty should see an improvement in students’ research techniques and writing, in addition to providing faculty with a paperless format for grading assignments.

Faculty members can access and use Turinitin directly through Turnitin.com, or through the Learning Management Systems - Blackboard CE6, Moodle and Learn 9.

Turnitin workshops are available through the Division of IT’s Resource Center for Educational Technology. For more information about Turnitin, contact the Resource Center at 305.348.2814.

eLabs: Virtual Labs Made Possible by the Technology Fee

Last December, the Division of Information Technology introduced eLabs, a virtual computer lab service available to students, faculty, and staff.

With eLabs, users can access software programs found in FIU’s computer labs on campus without any installation required. eLabs offers the user the ability to access software programs online anytime and anywhere through their Web browser.

Students, faculty, and staff can access software programs like the Microsoft Office Suit, SPSS, Mathematica, and many more in eLabs today. Soon, more software programs such as AutoCAD and Adobe Photoshop will be available

as well.

“I look forward to being able to use Photoshop from my laptop,” says Stephanie Araujo, a third-year student majoring in fine arts. “I spend a lot of time in the labs for my photography classes; I would like to work from home”.

eLabs was made possible by the student technology fee, which allows users to use the programs made available through eLabs for free.

To learn more, or to begin using software programs in eLabs, please visit http://elabs.fiu.edu.