The ACCS-VA Desktop Support Special Interest Group (SIG) offers an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and communicate with the desktop support community at colleges and universities throughout Virginia. This association of desktop support professionals focuses on issues surrounding the support, delivery, and management of endpoint information technology services for our customers. The Desktop Support SIG offers opportunities to reach out for support on specific desktop support topics as well as gain insight on common issues. The SIG membership can share our experiences and discuss the upcoming trends we have come across as well as how to respond.
Graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Management Science and Information Technology with a concentration in Decision Support Systems. Before coming to VCU, worked 14 years of private sector positions in IT management, computer systems administration, desktop support and networking... Read More →
Our SIG meeting is for people who work for an educational institution whose job description requires them to support, design, and/or maintain some form of presentation technology in classrooms. This includes built in computer support, audio/video routing and control, as well as distance learning, recording, and teleconferencing. Support technicians regularly are required to develop solutions to meet the needs of their end users. We benefit from discussing our progress, problems, and future goals. This meeting will host a topic-based open forum discussion between the groups or individuals who represent different institutions across the commonwealth.
Director, Classroom and Learning Space Technologies, Old Dominion University
Dwayne Smith is the director for Classroom and Learning Space Technologies at Old Dominion University. He's an active member of InfoComm’s Technology Managers Council and the Virginia Classroom Technologies Group. He has worked in the industry for over 25 years.
Tuesday March 10, 2020 10:00am - 5:00pm EDT
Ampitheater
Desktop and Helpdesk Support Technician, Christopher Newport University
I am the lead Customer Service Desk technician and Customer Service Coordinator at Christopher University. Additionally, I am the Knowledgebase Manager for CNU.
Tuesday March 10, 2020 1:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Holley I/II
In Fall of 2019, Virginia Western Community College debuted a brand new 27 classroom STEM building. Building off last year's Cooking with AV presentation, this session will explore taking a previous classroom design and developing it for a new application. We will cover classroom audio visual systems design, digital signage distribution using NVX, and the technology used in student study spaces also known as "STEM Cells."
Interim Head Media Geek, Virginia Western Community College
Originally an aspiring lighting designer, Joe came to us from Longwood University where he received his BFA in Theatre Design and Technology. After deciding he would rather make a career out of watching TV, Joe quickly made the move over to audiovisuals. Joe is the Lead Media Geek... Read More →
Wednesday March 11, 2020 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Ampitheater
Have you ever been tasked with a project that requires buy in from others? Have you wondered how will you get your colleagues to listen to you and complete tasks when you're not their manager? Instead, why not lead vs manage teams and gain buy in from those peers around you when they realize you are not managing, yet you are helping lead them in the right direction. As an IT professional, you are often isolated to certain tasks, projects, and even specific work environments; this creates a challenge for building relationships and rapport, which are key to influencing others. By learning simple techniques and being aware of the need to partner with others, you will gain the skillset that will help you build authority, even when you are not in charge. A leader knows how to lead without a title and how to take charge without being in charge. If you're in a situation where you're not confident in your ability to get buy in and support from your colleagues and peers, join us in this session to build confidence and unlock a toolbox of skills that will benefit you throughout your IT career.
Database Administrator & Office Manager, Old Dominion University
Candace Whitehurst is a Database Administrator & Office Manager, as well as a Research Associate in Old Dominion University, Office of Distance Learning. Old Dominion University is a public doctoral research institution with its main campus in Norfolk, VA, and has been a pioneer in... Read More →
Wednesday March 11, 2020 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Holley IV
The VCU School of Medicine is in the process of switching to a centralized purchasing model for computers. This meant that we had to come up with good ways of managing purchasing and storage of large numbers of computers and monitors. We discovered that if we selected a good USB-C monitor that also had DisplayPort connections, we could use the same monitor for Windows and Mac desktops and laptops. We also found an effective way to use them in place of docking stations saving money and desktop space.
This session will also cover some of the issues we ran into while centralizing purchasing, including from a research perspective, and how we ended up resolving them. We will conclude with a discussion into our strategy to better support and secure Macs and laptops in our environment and whether or not that is even a good idea!
Mason recently changed ticketing systems from EasyVista to TeamDynamix for Incident and Service Request management. We'll discuss how we took went back to the basics using lessons learned, re-established what our base procedures should be, and how we changed our methods to allow us to continue move forward with a better buy-in from our internal customers, completing the rollout of the new ticketing system in less than 5 months.
David, also known as DRob, started at George Mason in 2005 as Manager of Network Engineering. His career path moved him into a Service Delivery Manger role for Network Engineering & Technology, and has since become a Business Process Analyst for Information Technology Services as... Read More →
Director IT Process & Planning, George Mason University
Randy Anderson is the Director of IT Process and Planning at George Mason University. He and his team are leading an IT Service Management program which focuses on service process analysis and improvement.
At a large university, all IT service requests were triaged through the university's information center. While this setup was effective in routing the requests to the correct IT departments, it prevented IT teams at different departments or colleges, known as the distributed IT (DIT), from directly communicating with the IT service providers. To improve efficiency and time to solution, a template was created to facilitate the DIT teams in escalating certain requests directly to IT service providers. A pilot study indicated that this template approach needed improvement as one fifth of the escalations were unnecessary and there was a lack of consistency in utilizing the IT service management platform, including documenting work performed and reason of escalation. The pilot study further suggested training is necessary to improve the effective use of the escalation template.
Design thinking, an iterative process in developing understanding of users, challenging assumptions, redefining problems, and identifying alternative strategies and solutions, has lately been adopted in designing training solutions. In this session, the presenters will introduce the concept of design thinking and how they utilized the design thinking process to design a training solution to improve the effective use of an escalation template among the DIT teams.
Want to be creative when teaching "the weakest link" how to protect data? Are users complaining that the security awareness training they are required to take is boring or a waste of time? Come and learn how to create a Hacker's Hideout Escape Room that promotes information security best practices and team building in a fun and interactive environment.
You've seen the headlines -- organizations with their data held hostage and payouts to perpetrators to restore it. With new strains of ransomware and other malware threats on the rise, your enterprise and customer data is continually at risk despite steps you've taken. You need to ensure your data is always available in an increasingly complex environment. You're managing more endpoints and applications, with more potential points of attack and risk. You also may have moved substantial data to the cloud and need to be able to recover quickly after a breach. Keep your data safe and business moving. Join this session to hear best practices and case studies on * End-user systems: Providing backup protection -- regardless of risk type or source. * Enterprise infrastructure: Ensuring quick, reliable and scalable recovery of data on-premises or wherever it's hosted. * Cloud applications: Controlling data in the cloud -- just the same as on-premises.
We hope you can join us for this session to learn how you can react faster, improve compliance and reduce errors.
With increasing applications moving to cloud and multiple niche products either being developed or procured at universities there is even more need to do data integration and perform analysis to get useful insights. We will use this SIG meeting to discuss how we want to collaborate in coming year to leverage expertise and lessons learned from other institutions.
Accessible content is better content. Blackboard Ally helps institutions build a more inclusive learning environment and improve the student experience by empowering them take control of course content with usability, accessibility, and quality in mind. With a focus on inclusivity, Ally helps faculty create more accessible content with specific in-course feedback, provides students with alternate more accessible formats of an instructor's uploaded content, and gives institutions the power to see where their accessibility challenges are in the LMS and what types of documents create the most common accessibility hurdles. This allows institutions to create a thoughtful approach to an institution-wide accessibility plan.
Lisa Andion is a Sr. Solutions Engineer at Blackboard, Inc. and focuses on working with institutional leadership and faculty on implementing technology solutions that can address the big challenges facing higher education today. She recently completed her EdD in Organizational Leadership... Read More →
Wednesday March 11, 2020 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Holley VII
Capture the flag (CTF) competitions are a great way to assess student learning, foster interest in technical topics, or help your workforce test their skills and develop new ones in a fun, competitive environment. In this interactive session, we will introduce different types of capture-the-flag competitions and describe how to use them in the classroom or the workplace to drive interest and enhance learning in cybersecurity topics. We will give participants the opportunity to register for a CTF hosted by the Virginia Cyber Range, then examine some example challenges and demonstrate tools that you can use to solve them. Finally, we will direct participants to free (and other) CTF frameworks that they can use to upload their own challenges and host their own CTFs. Session participants will be able to continue playing the CTF competition for the duration of the conference and beyond! Bring your laptop and come ready to learn some new skills!
Dr. David Raymond serves as Director of the Virginia Cyber Range and Deputy Director of Virginia Tech’s IT Security Office and Lab. He also teaches courses on networking and cybersecurity in the Virginia Tech Masters of Information Technology program and serves as faculty advisor... Read More →
Wednesday March 11, 2020 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Jefferson
I will show how thanks to standard designs and programming templates, we were are able to save time, and instead of custom programming every single system, we can just configure them.
Open communication between sub-groups and divisions can expedite solutions on all tiers however, many times, that communication is overlooked. Using a newly implemented compromised account procedure, we hope to show how effective communication between groups provides for faster solutions and an overall better user experience.
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
This presentation will cover regulatory requirements, (past, present, and potentially future), strategies to build your program around your operations, and how to engage with the faculty and staff that need to use.
The goal of integrating wireless presentation into classrooms and conference rooms has been a moving target for many years. As a variety of portable devices came into the presentation landscape with their own wireless protocols, an all-in-one, cost-effective and manageable solution has been challenging to track down. Come hear how VCU's Media Support Services approached the topic and the unexpected frontrunner that emerged as their adopted solution.
Follow ODU's ITS Academic Web Support Group through their recent journey of successfully creating and launching 480+ new academic program pages. Learn how the team gathered content from individual stakeholders across the campus while keeping decision makers informed over the course of this year long project. We will explore what communication strategies were used both with their campus clientele as well as how the group tackled internal communication with the ITS web development team.
With 80% of applications still on-premise, CAS Severn, Carahsoft & Nutanix will review Recent Education Client's successes in architecting Hybrid Clouds based on Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) - taking care of all on-prem apps as well as fast growing Cloud app's.
The Division of IT at Virginia Tech began IT strategic planning with a series of mini-retreats and focus groups exploring the topic of core values: 1.Do we want to have (do we need) core values? 2.Why will IT and VT benefit from our having core values? 3.What are we signing up for if we create a set of core values? Is it important that leadership 'model the behavior' of the core values? 4.If the group decides we should have a set of core values, should each value be defined for clarity purposes? 5.How many should we have? What is missing or what should we eliminate? 6.What can we do to reinforce the values in IT and have them truly become part of our culture?
This presentation will share IT's journey to-date in becoming a values-based organization.
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
ODU will highlight the benefits of having a strong partnership between IT and Records Management including the enforcement of an email destruction policy, addressing Banner data and much more. Remainder of SIG session will be open for general discussion and Q&A about records management. Bring your records questions.
University Records Manager, Old Dominion University
University Records Manager and Assistant Director for Records and IT Policy at ODU. Although not a technical person, I see the logic of placing Records Management within IT. Managing data on ODU systems is a current concern. Always happy to pass on even small victories.
Virginia Western Community College (VWCC), along with a number of other colleges in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) had been using Active Data Exchange (ADE), an event manager/calendaring system to request, manage and provision event spaces on campus. Unfortunately the original vendor of the software product stopped developing it and sold it to another vendor (Dude Solutions) who froze the product while they started working on a totally different software solution to replace it. In this presentation we will describe the long and tortuous process of moving from the original, highly customized, ADE product, which by definition had become end-of-life, to the new Event Manager platform from Dude Solutions - while the product was still under active development!!
Powershell is a free tool that can be used to gather data and perform actions across campus in minutes. Mariusz and I learned about this in a training last year, and we want to show you how we have implemented what we learned.
Reporting is a vital function of every Service Desk operation. This session will begin with an overview of operational functionality and reporting capabilities within the Virginia Tech information Center. After the overview of VT's functionality and capabilities, there will be an open discussion among attendees about reporting in their respective universities. This open conversation will allow for cross pollination of reporting techniques and practices. This type of communication can help foster practice improvement and innovation across our organizations and professions. Anyone who practices reporting for their department or those with interest in reporting within their department should attend.
Ensuring Campus Safety and Security is a top priority for college and universities nationwide. Video surveillance systems have long been a critical system for providing situational awareness to campus security personnel and administrators alike. In contrast to older cameras and video recording systems, today's surveillance solutions can address more than just physical security needs -- they can be enhanced by video analytics to greatly improve forensics and to automatically detect & alert on incidents in real-time; extended with other sensors that detect traffic, gunshots, screams and environmental conditions; and integrated with other systems for access control, visitor management and mass notification & alerting. Join CDW for this presentation to learn how Enhanced Video Surveillance systems can serve as the foundation of your campus safety and security strategy.
CDW Account Executive covering DC, MD and VA. Based out of Reston,VA.From classrooms to warehouses, boardrooms to battlefields, CDW’s architects and advanced technology engineers have been designing, implementing and managing technology, communication and security solutions for... Read More →
Your dedicated CDW-G account team is here to learn the ins and outs of your business and connect you with the best IT experts in your industry. Get personalized IT advice, products, and services designed to help your organization grow.
Wednesday March 11, 2020 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Holley III
Consider the sensitivity of GPS coordinates of your driving for the last two years. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has petabytes of human subject research data with personally identifying information, while at the same time being Virginia Tech's largest research program. We will discuss the design of VTTI's research computing and storage environment, enabling data intensive science.
Director Research Technology Services, George Washington University
Mr. Clark Gaylord is the Director of Research Technology Services at The George Washington University where he leads a team of High Performance Computing and Research Cyber Infrastructure professionals supporting GW's diverse research portfolio. In this capacity he is also director... Read More →
Communications strategy, IT news & information, client relationships, media relations, customer service, making things easy for average folks to understand. SIG chair for Marketing & Communications.
Wednesday March 11, 2020 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Holley I/II
The primary purpose of Continual Service Improvement is to better align your IT services in order to meet the changing business needs. How do you do this if you are unclear on what your services are? In the Spring of 2019, VCU Technology Services underwent a Service Review initiative in order to better document and define our services, review our dependencies, bottlenecks and resource constraints, and document who our customers are and how they interact with us. This presentation will specifically address the Service Review methodology/approach, it's challenges and the lessons learned.
Today we live in an "everything as a service" world - Netflix, Pandora, Uber, Office 365 - just to name a few examples. Why should PC's be any different? Organizations should be able to consume technology in the same way, so you are better able to get the end-to-end device, support, and IT services you need while having more predictable spend and fleet refreshes. Industry analysts predict this service economy in the business world will continue to grow. Find out who is leading the way with this new, modern, consumption model.
During this session, you will learn how to improve end user experience and streamline IT service delivery through a complete service solution that delivers hardware, insightful analytics, proactive management, and cradle to grave lifecycle services - all under a simplified purchasing and budget optimization program.
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
We'll take you through our journey in creating a rewards program centered around phishing reports. We'll discuss how we entice our users to report phishing and how successful we've been in our campaign. We'll also talk about the challenges we faced and lessons learned.
Education IT teams are tasked with not only keeping the network secure, but also with protecting end user devices and ensuring physical safety. Find out how you and your team can easily protect endpoints, networks, and students, all while saving time and providing better support
Sponsored by Dell. Music, activities and decorations will be reflective of ACCS’ 30th Anniversary, 1990-2020. All higher ed attendees and vendors are welcome to attend.
Wednesday March 11, 2020 5:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
Portsmouth I-IV
VCU Technology Services has made the decision to move from Echo360 to Kaltura for lecture capture. We'll discuss lessons learned and challenges involved when converting to different hardware for large lecture hall capture, as well as deploying software capture to all centrally-supported podium PCs. The deployment of a "hybrid" servers leveraging Kaltura's eCDN technology now plays a role in delivering med school captures at VCU.
Join CTSI & Mersive Technologies CTO/Co-founder Chris Jaynes for an interactive, thought-provoking session on the growing utilization of Active Learning Environments in higher education. Chris will discuss the evolution of Active Learning and demonstrate the latest in Mersive Solstice technology which enables Active Learning Spaces to reach their full potential. CTSI, the leading Audiovisual and Education Technology Systems Integrator in the Mid-Atlantic and will demonstrate the future of Technology as a Service for higher education.
We are witnessing a new evolution in traditional Research Computing and High-Performance Computing (HPC). With augmented speed and capacity of CPU and GPU computing and more mature frameworks, the ideas of training a complex model and having a mechanism to provide inference resources at lower cost is a reality today. In this talk, we will discuss emerging technologies in Machine Learning, Artificial intelligence, and how they relate to existing HPC architectures. We will also discuss how higher education institutions are leveraging the appropriate infrastructure to provide cutting edge resources to PI's, graduate and undergraduate research teams.
Director Life Sciences and Research Computing, Cambridge Computer Services
Jose L. Alvarez has over 20 years of experience in life sciences, healthcare, R&D, high-performance computing (HPC) and IT.Since he joined Cambridge Computer in 2015, Jose is responsible for developing and successfully integrating Cambridge’s business strategy within healthcare... Read More →
Thursday March 12, 2020 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Jefferson
Join a Birds of a Feather session facilitated by Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech for a round table discussion on what you are doing at your institution to support women in IT, including mentoring programs. We welcome all women, and potential allies, to join us! Several of us have recently attended Educause and Women Advance IT conferences and can share some great ideas and resources! Some topic for discussion include: - Why is mentoring important? A look at some data and a sneak peek at Harvard's model. - How mentoring can support women in IT. - How mentoring can support professional development and career advancement. Next steps: Discussion of interest in submitting a request to create a SIG for Supporting Women in IT and Mentoring.
Deputy Executive Director, IT Experience and Engagement, Virginia Tech
Joyce Reish Landreth has over 30 years experience in Information Technology. She has held positions of increasing responsibility in both the private sector and academia. In her current position, she is responsible for providing strategic management, planning and direction to the Virginia... Read More →
Anne Sheppard has over 30 years’ experience working in Higher Education with ~20 years developing and managing strategic IT initiatives as part the Division of Information Technology at Virginia Tech. She currently serves as the Director for Services and Knowledge Management in... Read More →
Thursday March 12, 2020 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Holley I/II
Last year we vowed to "tame the documentation beast" - or at least brainstorm some methods to kick-start meaningful documentation in our departments. So how's that working out? Join us for a brutally honest discussion of our documentation initiatives, how we have dealt with technical and cultural challenges, and what lies ahead as we persevere in our documentation journey.
As business frameworks expand, we have found ourselves in a new world where IT Frameworks are extending beyond IT. In this Birds of a Feather discussion, we will discuss Service Management Frameworks and how universities are extending their Service Management Offerings to other units outside of IT.
I work as the ITSM Program Manager at VCU and have a passion for IT Service Management. I am an ITIL v3 Expert and ITIL4 Managing Professional as well as having certification in LeanIT, ISM, and BRM. Outside of being an ITSM geek, I love to travel, collecting whiskey, and spending... Read More →
Thursday March 12, 2020 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Commodore
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
Today, higher education is at a pivotal moment. Colleges and universities are in the middle of a significant shift in educational models, delivering both unique learning models and student campus experiences through digital transformation. Students are increasingly taking advantage of technology on demand to meet their own learning needs and chart their own path to workforce readiness. This change around why, how and when students are learning is a driving force behind the growing need for advanced technology in higher education on campuses.
Higher Education and Public Sector Initiatives, Intel
Erin Moseley is a part of Intel’s U.S. strategic public sector team which supports the efforts of educators, advocacy and non-profit groups, policy makers, and public sector IT professionals to craft and implement high impact programs using technology solutions. She focuses on current... Read More →
When was the last time you looked at the way your training was designed and survyed its effectiveness? We thought it was time to throw 'what we had always done' out the door and start from scratch. At ODU, we took at a look at what the data said about how students today like to learn and are applying those principles to our IT Help Desk student worker training. We will share how we are updating our training to align with the preferences of our students which is part of our plan to train our student workers faster and better.
Successfully managing the relationships between IT and university stakeholders is a key indicator of the strategic value IT adds to the institution. Business Relationship Management (BRM) is well established in the private sector. Its importance is growing higher education and other public segments is growing as the blending of IT and business practices, and digital transformation continue. Even without a formalized BRM role within IT, BRM-associated responsibilities can be performed and add strategic value to IT and careers. Progression towards a BRM role may come from various areas within IT: business analysts, project managers, training, instructional designers, service desk, etc. This presentation will provide examples of BRM work products and an approach to determining and measuring IT value. It will engage participants by having them share examples of performing BRM-type activities or describing situations that could have benefitted from having a BRM role, and how IT value is determined, captured and measured in their IT organization.
We will have a three speaker session. UiPath/WWT will open up with a quick introduction of ourselves and RPA Then, W&M Assoc. Dean Kurt Carlson will discuss the Mason School of Business Partnership with UiPath to teach their students how to manage both a human and digital workforce of the future. Then, a representative from VT's Vice President for Finance division will present on how they are deploying RPA in production and why.
Are you a current or prospective Jamf Pro user? Please join us to learn about the latest feature releases of Jamf Pro and how they can benefit your institution's Apple device deployment. We will also touch on how Jamf Connect can streamline Mac authentication and identity management--leveraging a single cloud identity on any Mac to gain immediate access to the resources you need.
Do you have a problem with institutional knowledge? Whether or not you are aware of it, your team is gaining and losing institutional knowledge at a rapid pace. As other organizational divisions change and members of your team retire or move on to other jobs, your team's collective knowledge is like a leaky dam. Without a strategy to seal the leaks, you will soon find yourself holding onto misinformation or have no knowledge at all. In this presentation, we'll cover the transience of institutional knowledge, effective strategies for managing that knowledge, and the solutions the VCU IT Support Center explored and implemented for success.
Operations Lead, IT Support Center, Virginia Commonwealth University
Will Conn is a musician and IT professional who lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. He is a System Admin and IT Service Desk Supervisor with Technology Services at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he provides technical support, develops web applications, and manages a small... Read More →
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
Every security team has its own set of security tools, competencies, common use cases and compliance requirements. One of the few common threads that weaves through all these elements is the steps for responding to a security incident. Palo Alto Network's Demisto's security orchestration, automation and response solution enables security teams to ingest alerts across sources and execute standardized, automatable playbooks for accelerated incident response. Demisto's playbooks are powered by hundreds of integrations and thousands of security actions, striking the right balance between rapid machine execution and nuanced human oversight. Come learn more about our SOAR technology at ACCS in March!
Today's students hunger for new educational approaches. Today's faculty have more demands on their time than ever before and are more willing than ever before to teach with technology. That technology, however, must be both powerful AND easy to use. Blackboard's Ultra environment and course experiences allow students and faculty to quickly and easily stay on top of their courses with efficiency via a simple to use and understand interface. Designed to be accessible and responsive from the ground up- Blackboard Ultra presents users with a sleek and intuitive environment to manage courses and participate in learning. Learn Ultra provides anywhere, anytime access with our unmatched experience that's fresh, and works on multiple mobile devices. Built in collaborative tools spark engagement, interaction, and make the learning experience fun.
Lisa Andion is a Sr. Solutions Engineer at Blackboard, Inc. and focuses on working with institutional leadership and faculty on implementing technology solutions that can address the big challenges facing higher education today. She recently completed her EdD in Organizational Leadership... Read More →
Thursday March 12, 2020 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Commodore
Policies are requirements for all regulatory compliance frameworks but not all policies are equal. This presentation will walk the audience through what is required and tips and tricks on developing a policy that works for your school and will be approved by auditors.
In April of 2019, the IT Help Desk, in partnership with our internal ITSM business analyst team, was given the go ahead to investigate Cherwell's two knowledge-base tools for possible implementation with an IT self-service portal. We will present the fast-paced steps the IT Help Desk staff took to prepare, select, design, pilot, adopt, and implement the KCS methodology for the start of the academic year and the IT Services portal. We will discuss the benefits and pitfalls to this fast-paced implementation, where we are today in the process, and how we hope to grow and evolve the knowledge-base in the future.
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
Limited budgets, classrooms busting at the seams, high-stakes standardized tests, and ever-increasing expectations from both the student and parents are just a few of the challenges educational institutions face today. If that wasn't enough, the demand to incorporate new and exciting technologies weighs on you as educators even more than that of corporate America with less staff and money to boot. So this begs the question. Can you, as an educational institution, successfully identify, manage, secure, and evolve despite the proliferation of devices being introduced into your environment? We believe here at KACE, the answer is undoubtedly yes! Why can we say that with confidence? Well, as a premier end to end unified endpoint management and security tool, we work diligently to ensure that our customers are provided the tools needed to be successful. KACE understands the unique needs of educational institutions during regular months versus that of the summertime when you are expected with a limited staff, to turn around projects that would typically take large teams in the corporate world multiple quarters to complete. In this session, you will hear from resources that have specialized in overcoming these same challenges as an IT admin using KACE both in a corporate setting but also an employee of a large educational institution.
Learning how to use software and implement technology in the classroom can be a challenging task. In order to effectively apply the content learned during training, facilitators have to ensure that participants follow certain principles, so knowledge retention and transfer takes place. This session will compile a list of best practices, based on research and anecdotal data, that are key to succeed when facilitating technology training in higher education. Using demonstration-based training as a framework, this presentation will teach participants how to effectively design, facilitate, and evaluate technology training for faculty and staff to implement in their classrooms. In addition, presenters will provide a wide variety of resources that participants can use as checklists and rubrics to ensure that their classroom technology training has all the necessary elements for success.
Putting technology in the hands of those who need it. Everyone needs a computer to get through college, but not every student can afford it. Using resources available to us, we've been able to allow check outs of laptops, all-in-one desktops, and hotspots for 48 hour or semester check out that allow students to get the support they need to succeed in school. Learn how we made it work through the efforts of the Library, IT department, faculty, staff and students.
Lead Technology Learning Specialist, Thomas Nelson Community College
I am the Lead Technology Learning Specialist at TNCC. We are making big strides here with our Laptop and Hotspot check out program! I also am working on two startups for cybersecurity and training. Ask me about them!
AI Practitioners spend 80-90%of their time on data processing & preparation. This labor-intensive period is where powerful edge computing can provide the greatest contribution to data science through GPU processing. Learn how Z by HP allows for data scientists to maximize their workflow output and move from analyzing data in hours and cycles to milliseconds per click.
Z by HP data science workstations deliver a high performance, enterprise-class solution that dramatically boosts productivity, speeds up time to insight, and helps lower the cost of data science project. Have confidence in your data science investment with a secure, expandable solution that is ready to go where your data takes you. If you are NOT experiencing the following benefits from your solutions as listed below, then this is THE session for YOU:
*High-level solution with the power needed to increase speed & efficiency *The ability to do data preparation, cleaning, exploration, visualization, modeling, training and testing all in one, local, secure device. *Increased responsiveness when doing data exploration. *Freely interact with your data and create business insights more frequently.
So often in IT, plans are developed for recovering from equipment fault to natural disasters, however do you have plans for Critical Employee loss at your institution. This presentation is how Germanna Community College survived having one quarter of IT positions vacant, which included the CTO and two of the three manager/supervisor positions. Presentation will include lessons learned through this experience.
Ever wonder how to deal with the retention of data in Banner? What is the difference between active and inactive records in systems? This session will deal with using successful techniques for remaining in compliance with the Virginia Public Records Act across all Higher Ed systems and applications.
University Records Manager, Old Dominion University
University Records Manager and Assistant Director for Records and IT Policy at ODU. Although not a technical person, I see the logic of placing Records Management within IT. Managing data on ODU systems is a current concern. Always happy to pass on even small victories.
Thursday March 12, 2020 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Holley V/VI
ACCS-VA Special Interest Groups (SIGs) allow members to interact and discuss things of interest all year long. SIGs stay connected through a Google Group that you are added to when you join. If you want to learn more about the Service Desk SIG, please join us!
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
There are more than 35 merchants that receive and process payments for a large university. Although there are protocols in place to protect sensitive, protected, or confidential data a plan should be in place to report a breach that allows for a quick response from the IT Security Office and Bursar's Office to minimize the exposure of the data. Collaboration between departments is paramount for the best results in case of a breach. To ensure everyone is familiar with the procedure for a Payment Card Industry Security Incident a tabletop exercise is used to learn where the procedure is strong and where it could be improved.
Multiple institutions are implementing or exploring esports programs. Come share your insights, questions, and concerns as we explore the administrative, academic, and student life & leadership implications. Based on interest, we may explore the formation of an ACCS Special Interest Group to collaborate throughout the year.
Director of Academic Innovation, Mason School of Business, William & Mary
Karen is Director of Academic Innovation for the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at William & Mary and has 15 years' experience in higher education. She received her PhD In Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership specializing in Higher Education from William & Mary. She holds... Read More →
In July of 2019 Microsoft announced that Skype for Business Online will retire on July 31, 2019. For Old Dominion University Skype for Business is available today to faculty and staff, and is primarily used as a chat, IM, and presence application as part of our Office 365. Microsoft Teams, which is Microsoft's replacement for Skype, presents many new opportunities for collaboration as well as many challenges in managing these new capabilities. During this presentation we will go over our migration plan to take ODU to Teams, as well as our plan for group management, Teams governance and user communication.
Reflecting on six years worth of experience supporting the technology, faculty, and students in active learning classrooms, we explore the effectiveness of the AV, the expansion of design considerations and the faculty response over the years. We will review Mason's current design standard for active learning spaces and highlight the iterative processes that were used. We will finish with a preview of the new classrooms opening in Core Campus/Fairfax, and Johnson Annex/SciTech in the next three years.
Crystal Clemons has been Director of Classroom and Lab Technologies in the Information Technology Services organization at George Mason University (GMU) since 2018. She is primarily responsible for the support and design of academic technologies for learning spaces and computer labs... Read More →
Manager - ITS/CaLT/Learning Space Design, George Mason University
Hometown: Columbia, SCHow I got started: I have always like seeing how things work When I was 8 years old, I broke the battery wires on my radio, which I loved. I fixed it. I've been loving technology ever since!I have been working in the Audio Visual industry for 25 years, as a technician... Read More →
What a typical day consists of for an Area Information Technologist (AIT), challenges, working with College Help Desk, working with each site, working with other AITs. What are the similarities and differences between the AITs.
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has continued to implement new procedures to our centralized IT Governance process to promote compliance with state and federal regulations, mitigate risk, and align technology investments with institutional strategy. Decentralized IT Governance structures result in decreased regulation and localized investments at the departmental level that may or may not be aligned with the overall institutional strategy. On the other hand, a formal centralized IT Governance structure promotes better value investments at the institutional level by decreasing duplicative investments, ensuring regulatory compliance and mitigating risk related to data protection. As with most organizational changes, centralizing the IT Governance process is daunting and is not accomplished overnight. Ultimately, the keys to implementing a successful centralized IT Governance structure is procedural design, support, acceptance, and adherence.
This presentation discusses a strategic university-wide approach to pivot from a decentralized structure to a formal centralized IT Governance process, why it matters, and the challenges faced when traversing the technology acquisition landscape at the institutional level.
In higher education there is no shortage of collaboration tools that are available to our customers. Join this interactive session where we'll cover topics like selection, support, and integration. We'll share what has worked for us and invite you to share experiences from your institution.
Manager, Service Design Enterprise Collaboration Information Technology Services, GMU
Tracy Holt is currently the manager of Service Design at Mason. Tracy leads projects related to the implementation of new services that integrate with Office365 and/or Mason's central authentication services.
Interim Director, Project Management Office, George Mason University
John Prette is a business and technology leader with over 25 years of IT experience in IT Governance, Portfolio Management, Project Management, Business Analysis, Communications, process development, and software development. As the Senior IT Portfolio and Project Manager in George... Read More →
Information Security SIG, James Madison University
Darlene leads JMU’s information security program in the areas of security planning, risk and contingency management, and incident response. She also facilitates information technology policy development, strategic planning, and audit processes for JMU's Information Technology department... Read More →
Thursday March 12, 2020 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT
Holley I/II
ACCS Networking Reception, sponsored by UiPath – craft beers, local wines. Mocktail and food stations will also be available. eSports and gaming stations available for participants, AND an exhibition eSports competition provided by Shenandoah University. Pick your team and cheer them on! All higher ed attendees and vendors are welcome to attend.
As more institutions of higher education look to move workloads to the cloud, many are looking at various models to provide simplicity and scalable data services. Learn industry best practices on the latest public and private cloud solutions and use cases and hear firsthand how the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) embraced NetApp hybrid cloud infrastructure (HCI) to support a service provider model to its extended campuses.
In this session you will learn: * How NetApp HCI can provide frictionless consumption, self-service and automation * What drove VCCS to embrace a private cloud model and the business impacts they are seeing * How VCCS is building out a service provider model using NetApp HCI
Colleges and universities around Virginia are developing plans to respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. From notifying stakeholders and keeping the lights on with people out sick to converting an entire campus to work and teach at a distance, IT departments are part of those plans. Join us for a group discussion on your plans for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak and what we can learn for future emergencies.
Campuses are always changing. What was right for Mason's Project Management Office (PMO) in 2010 needed to be updated to meet our current and future needs. Join us and learn from Mason's Project Managers and our customers as we share our refreshed framework, how we updated it, and the benefits to key user communities. Customers will share focus and insight on the changes and how we ultimately simplified the process to ensure we focused on value at each step along the project lifecycle.
We'll take time to walk through how we took a 120+ page framework and boiled it down to 20 pages of direct, value-added steps for our project teams. You'll see training materials and templates, and learn how our approach as what's now the Portfolio and Project Management Office helps ensure our project teams are set up for success.
Interim Director, Project Management Office, George Mason University
John Prette is a business and technology leader with over 25 years of IT experience in IT Governance, Portfolio Management, Project Management, Business Analysis, Communications, process development, and software development. As the Senior IT Portfolio and Project Manager in George... Read More →
Escape the Hacker’s Hideout: Enjoy an interactive experience where you work as a team to escape the Hacker's Hideout while learning how to keep sensitive data safe! (only 15 admitted per session)
Passwords. While we all use them daily, IT professionals can lean towards the hate end of everyone's love/hate relationship with them. In this Birds of a Feather, we'll briefly review some current best practices around password use including 2FA, discuss password managers, examine and discuss potential flaws in these 'solutions' and wrap up with a discourse on future trends.
In response to a 2017 APA audit, Virginia Commonwealth University was required to shore up its Risk Management and Continuity Planning documentation. Under the guidance of the Director of Emergency Preparedness, an initiative took place to perform Business Continuity Planning University wide. As a result, Technology Services played the role of IT Strategic Partner, meeting with individual units to better determine their mission critical IT needs. Additionally, Technology Services was required to revamp and revitalize its approach to Disaster Recovery Planning. This panel discussion will focus on the approach VCU took to Business Continuity Planning, the IT Disaster Recovery Planning steps taken by VCU TS, and discuss with the audience challenges, successes and lessons learned.
Despite a multi-decade, worldwide movement to increase awareness, low retention of qualified employees, especially women, prevents the IT industry from achieving a diverse and inclusive workforce. We see this discrepancy among those entering the field, staying in the field, and advancing into leadership positions. While we have been asking why those differences exist for some time now, the conversation is shifting towards what we can do about it. Women in IT programs are emerging around the world and Old Dominion University has joined that effort.
Join us as we present a foundation of why we started a Women in IT program, the goals that drive us, and how we put it together. We will share our insights into gaining momentum, garnering support from leadership, incorporating allies in the effort, and moving beyond understanding to action. We would like to share our story thus far and have a discussion on what your institution is doing and can do to support women in IT.
At VCU, the retirement of an endpoint patching technology and its replacement technology stack provided the opportunity to modify the service structure by which departments and centralized IT interacted. This case study looks at the choices in service design that the Endpoint Management Team studied when rolling out a new patching service.
Join us for an open discussion around current issues and implementations related to Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Share lessons learned on topics such as: 1. Overall implementation approach - how much is "just enough" 2. Getting Students enrolled - especially when they are getting accounts long before they are actually students 3. Minimizing or eliminating use of Telephony (voice callback / SMS text) for cost and security concerns 4. Attaching 2FA to services such as Office 365 that have many "points of entry" 5. Tips and tricks for balancing security, convenience, and ease of use 6. Communicating and managing a knowledge base 7. and more... Come prepared to share your stories, and we can learn from each other!
Interim Director, Project Management Office, George Mason University
John Prette is a business and technology leader with over 25 years of IT experience in IT Governance, Portfolio Management, Project Management, Business Analysis, Communications, process development, and software development. As the Senior IT Portfolio and Project Manager in George... Read More →
The ACCS-VA Unified Communications and Collaboration Special Interest Group is an opportunity for those in the Unified Communications and Collaboration community to connect and collaborate. Over the last several years Unified Communications and Collaboration marked has grown beyond email and telecommunications to encompass numerous tools and platforms that enable communication and collaboration including cloud collaboration platforms, web meeting tools, persistent chat, cloud telecommunications. This group offers those UCC community to discuss and share ideas, challenges, common issues, industry trends, and lessons learned with others.
Many first and second generation digital signage systems have become outdated, are clunky to use, or face sundown issues in 'helper' apps that were integrated into them. There are many new programs out there now, including some built right into televisions. This presentation will follow our process in looking at options, costs, and the fun (and not so fun) aspects of changing our digital signage.
Academic Computing Technology Coordinator, Shenandoah University
Many years of experience with classroom technology like projectors, document and web cameras and televisions. Also have experience with video formats, desktop layout, and explaining technology to users of different backgrounds and technical aptitudes.
Mark Kawanaka and Amber Shaffer are together again, but not as co-workers this time! Mark left VCU PD to support ODU PD. Amber wants to know, how do their public safety agencies differ? If you support a Public Safety department or are interested in learning more about supporting a Public Safety department, please come join us for our BoF!
Customer service can't always be approached the same with every customer. How do you build a rapport with someone who may get a different agent every time they call the service desk? What are your strategies when your customers get the same desktop analyst with each support call? We are going to discuss these questions and more. We will talk about what we have found to work at VCU and share some stories. We would also like to hear about your successes and struggles as well.
IT Support Center Manager, Virginia Commonwealth University
Scottie has been a dedicated member of the IT Support Center staff for the past 10 years. His passion is working in the higher education environment and hopes to continue doing so for many years to come.
I just got my Masters of Public Administration. Employee engagement is an area I am passionate about. I just got a 13 week old puppy if anyone wants to see the photos.
Friday March 13, 2020 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Holley I/II
Secure, mobile and IoT ready - over 2,600 universities deploy Aruba solutions to provide faculty, staff, students and guests with a great and safe networking experience in the most challenging environments - from offices and dorm rooms, to lecture halls, research labs and sports venues. Join Aruba to discuss how to deliver the edge network for the smart digital campus in 2020 and beyond. We will review functional and operational efficiencies that allow central IT to manage, while empowering ease of use by the end user, and at the same time fortifying security.
The purpose of this session is to share the journey of the Desktop Support Group at Old Dominion University through many different productivity tools and communications methods before we settled onto Microsoft Teams and never looked back. We'll talk about how we structure our Microsoft Teams, how we use it, some tips and tricks, as well as what we see in the future.
Supervisor, Desktop Support Group, Old Dominion University
I currently supervise the Desktop Support staff for four colleges at Old Dominion University. I'd like to share ideas on how to track productivity outside of the ticketing system, how to better survey our customers on the service provided, how to improve the tracking of state assets... Read More →
Friday March 13, 2020 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Jefferson
Get the latest information about the status of ITIL 4 training. Hear about the Managing Professional Transition program and the ITIL 4 intermediate courses and certifications. Let's discuss what the next steps are on your ITIL journey.
Take aways: Better understanding of ITIL 4 and recent updates
Edward is currently a Systems Integration and Support Specialist at the University of Mary Washington. He has served in IT at UMW for over 20 years. He holds a number of certifications, including CompTIA, Microsoft, ITIL, Prince2, HDI, VeriSM, and Lean IT. He is a member of several... Read More →
In any university, one of the key support systems for faculty and staff is the knowledge base, where key information or tutorials regarding university systems and tools can be stored, edited, and read. When properly implemented using an easily accessible platform, such a knowledge base can significantly reduce the occurrence of certain tickets that require direct support, as well as reduce the time needed to resolve other types of technical issues. In this presentation, we discuss Christopher Newport University's decision to transfer their knowledge base from LANDesk to Confluence, and the ongoing processes being used to complete this transition smoothly and promote the new base to faculty and staff at large.
Desktop and Helpdesk Support Technician, Christopher Newport University
I am the lead Customer Service Desk technician and Customer Service Coordinator at Christopher University. Additionally, I am the Knowledgebase Manager for CNU.
