Fall 2020 Safe Return to Campus Classroom Preparation

Team Members

Raymund Cabahug, Christine Cho, John Clark, Crystal Clemons, Chris Galvan, Trong Ho, Jeff Kling, Saied Miremadi, Ben Patton, Zane Phipps, Eric Potter, Troy Powers, Nick Smith, and Doug Whetzel

Description

As the pandemic moved from spring to summer to fall, the university was actively planning for the possibility that some in-person courses would be available in the fall 2020 semester. The list included 200+ spaces across Mason’s three campuses and included rooms that were maintained by ITS (45%) with the rest being maintained by academic and administrative departments. To do the work required, a cadre of CaLT staff members took on the task, amid the pandemic.

Working together to help the university offer in-person courses, safely and using social distancing, this team of committed individuals exemplified what it means to collaborate and their work played a major role in helping to keep the university supporting the needs of its students.

TeamDynamix Implementation Team

Team Members:

Kathy Adcock, Randy Anderson, Steve Broaddus, Christina Crockett, Jed Frye, Teresa Gibbons, Kristen Jennette, John Kettlewell, Stephanie Klare, Jing Lu, Jan Macario, Bates Nunamaker, Kate Orf, Andie Powell, Elizabeth Redwine, Lauren Reese, David Robertson, Umer Shahzad

Description

This project was chartered to plan and execute the Phase I implementation of the TeamDynamix IT Service Management system.

Two of the core team's application administrators were out on scheduled leave for multiple weeks during a portion of the project, and another was hired more than halfway through the project, just seven weeks before the launch. In spite of this non-optimal staffing, the project was completed in just five months from the starting Kick-Off to Go-Live, with very good reviews from end users.

There is rarely, if ever, one "best" solution for all stakeholders. TeamDynamix does not offer the depth and breadth of the more complex and expensive ITSM tools. However, the initial implementation has resulted in a high level of user satisfaction with basic ticketing and reporting functions, and this was accomplished in a short time frame at a very reasonable cost.

Banner 9 Admin Upgrade Team

Team Members:

Kathy Adcock, Jeanette Blanchard, Liz Boyen, Brian Davidson, Nikki Dinh, Mary Lulis, Nian Ma, Khoi Nguyen, Lori Polnow (lead), Abdur Razzak, Allen Santora, Belinda Taylor, Tian Wang

Description

This project focused on implementing the Banner 9 Administrative Applications to replace Banner INB. These are mission critical back office applications used to run the university, including the management of Financial Aid, Student Records, Payroll, Accounts Payable and Receivable, Student Accounts, and Human Resources. The team had a deadline of December 31, 2018 to implement the upgrade or Mason would have been out of the compliance for regulatory patches for a number of functions including Financial Aid and Payroll. The upgrade was also needed to keep Banner on a supported version of underlying Oracle software. All Mason functional units (Registrar, HR/Payroll, Financial Aid, Finance, etc.) were involved in testing the upgrade. New servers were required along with extensive integration with the central authentication service (CAS) and other applications.

The team made extensive use of the Enterprise Project Management Online (EPMO) tools, the Banner Governance committees (PEC and PCS) to manage ITS project-related tasks, and Mason unit coordination and related activities.

Communications with Mason business units during testing was crucial to the success of the project along with timely coordination with Ellucian (vendor) to assess and fix problems. The Database Support team worked extensively with Systems Engineering to develop solutions that were Mason specific, most notably for CAS. The Banner support team kept the project moving while simultaneously supporting the Banner 8 application to provide users with the ability to readily fall back to the previous release as needed while the Banner support team and Ellucian worked various issues.

The upgrade to Banner 9 Admin along with upgrades to underlying Oracle and operating system software kept Mason compliant with the regulatory needs of the functional office. The upgrade also kept Mason up to date on software (Banner) that is at the core of Mason's business.

Peterson Hall ITS Move Team

Team Members:

Rodrigo Alva, David Bellinghoven, Mike Benedict, Devin Bist, Mohammed Boukhira, Shawn Blackwell, Cassie Carter, Crystal Clemons, Matt Cloutier, Tommy Dang, Tom Deike, Rob Faber, Kevin Gibson, John Hanks, Aly Lo, Greg Luce, Sophia Luu, Michael Mauck, Habtu Mesfen, Leann Pittman, Alex Seals, Rebecca Stone, Patrick Tam, Leon Truong, Tuan Vu, Anthony Wilson, Andrew Witham

Description

The ITS move team is involved in every major relocation and in the IT infrastructure design of new spaces. In the case of Peterson Hall, this team has been working for years planning and overseeing the implementation of technology in this building. The culmination of these efforts involved the setup and testing of all computers, phones, and technology, both new and any equipment brought over with the new tenants. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of this team to plan, oversee, execute and ensure the IT components are installed and meet the IT requirements and policies.

An integral piece of the Move team is the ITS Move Coordinator. This role coordinates all the ITS departments involved and ensures integration and coordination with other groups involved (Facilities and the Tenants in particular). When long time ITS Move Coordinator Jean Callahan retired from Mason, a great deal of experience and knowledge about moves (particularly to new buildings) was lost. Rob Faber took over as ITS move coordinator very late in the Peterson Hall project and was overwhelmed with the complexity and coordination already taking place. The team, particularly the principal members (Mike Mauck, Tom Deike, Cassie Carter, John Hanks, and Kevin Gibson), had already stepped up and taken on the responsibility of coordination. This involved crossing over lines to understand more than just their part of the process. The team worked with Rob, focusing him on where he could be of most use, continuing to shoulder coordination activities until he could come up to speed and wrap his head around this immense undertaking. Moreover, as the team came together to understand what needed to be done, they went further and re-evaluated traditional processes and procedures. This effort lead to changes that resulted in a more efficient process.

The move into Peterson Hall was smooth and without major incident. The extraordinary efforts of the ITS Move Team facilitated an opportunity to show the College of Health and Human Services and others how, despite the loss of a valued resource, the skills, experience, and dedication of the ITS teams involved came together and accomplished the mission and improved the overall process.

Team Members:

Carlos Blandon, Mike Briggs, Steve Broaddus, Casey Campbell, Brandon Capes, Dmitri Chebotarov, Mohammad Fallah Asl, Karen Gardner, Sarah Hamilton, John Hanks, Tracy Holt, Tony Houdek, Richard Jackson, Kristen Jennette, Mary Lulis, Larry Marca, Sean McNair, Curtis McNay, Lori Polnow, John Prette, Mike Rothgeb, Ryan Sakai, Umer Shahzad, Kenny Stewart, Ahmad Taheri, Amir Tofighi, Tian Wang, Sandy Winter

Description

The Admissions Migration team was tasked to analyze the existing Admissions server environment from the ground up and devise a plan to identify and upgrade legacy systems, and migrate the department into the MESA Domain, where they would be supported and secured by central ITS using the latest Windows operating systems and best practices.

During the data migration, the team was faced with many obstacles and had to reach out to several ITS groups to resolve them. The team was extremely flexible in solving the many difficult challenges throughout the engagement.

The successful result of this project's completion is that a department that is critical to Mason will have up-to-date and fully supported centralized IT services.

Business Intelligence Team

Team Members:

Francesca Brunner-Kennedy, Judy Fortin, Christopher Gay, Roopa Hemanth, Lakshmi Maruwada, Sowjanya Ramsetty, Asawari Raut, Karen M Savell, Alexander Yun

Description

This team was charged with implementing a reporting and data infrastructure to replace Mason's legacy reporting with a state of the art reporting application that enables Mason business and academic units to use data for operational, planning, and strategic purposes to fulfill the mission of the university. This is a multi-year project involving not only ITS but units and schools across Mason. The goal is to make Mason more efficient and competitive through the use of data analytics and advanced reporting and data management.

The team has demonstrated resourcefulness throughout the BI implementation. Chris has adeptly moved staff to deal with issues arising from the migration without a serious disruption to any project activities related to the implementation of MicroStrategy. When faced with scheduling challenges Chris and his team have reached out to stakeholders to expedite work or negotiate time frames more suitable for increased workloads.

BI (Business Intelligence) will have a positive effect on Mason for a number of high profile initiatives, among them responsibility-based budgeting, enrollment management, sponsored programs and research and student retention. Advanced reporting and analytics will have a positive impact on Mason's competitiveness, growth and efficiency.

Two Factor Authentication Implementation Team

Team Members:

Ben Allen, Karen Bates, Steve Broaddus, Dmitri Chebotarov, Ying Dang, Brian Davidson, Karen Gardner, Ann Gerwitz, Teresa Gibbons, Tony Houdek, Stephanie Klare, Andrew Krell, David Landry, Larry Marca, Curtis McNay, Bob Peraino, John Prette, Elizabeth Redwine, Lauren Reese, Mike Rothgeb, Ryon Saenz, Kerin Seward, Erik Sundstrom, Belinda Taylor

Description

This cross-ITS team was charged with developing the framework for and implementing two-factor authentication for Mason's VPN for all faculty and staff. The work included development of the requirements, processes, tools, training, and communications needed to implement this new service.

The team developed an initial plan of action and coordinated across nearly every group in ITS, each with its own focus and expertise to form a cohesive, high-performing team that delivered a strong product that was well received from the time of launch. Together, they outlined the required development and used meeting times to not only discuss, but to design and make decisions for the project - keeping both engagement and productivity high from start to finish.

There were many challenges presented by this project. Team members worked extra hours to deal with resource constraints, collaborated to find innovative solutions to complex problems across technical and functional areas, and went above and beyond their job descriptions to produce a business and technical process that exceeded expectations.

Most security solutions create significant backlash from the affected customers. This solution did not, because it put the customer needs first and developed a solution with those needs in mind. Everyone kept the customer at the center of everything they did, and it resulted in a superb product and process.

PCI Compliance Team

Team Members:

Juan Carlos Blandon, Mike Briggs, John Hanks, Tony Houdek, Kristen Jennette, Derek Kan, Larry Marca, Curtis McNay, Michael Richardson, and Ryon Saenz

Description

Congratulations to the winners of the fall 2016 Extraordinary Achievement Award, the Payment Card Industry Compliance Team (PCI).

Over the course of 18 months, the PCI team worked with Fiscal Services to achieve the difficult task of consolidating security reviews of different Mason departments and vendors into one comprehensive compliance document.

The PCI team was extremely flexible in solving difficult challenges. Their work hardened Mason's cardholder data environment and revamped policies, standards, and procedures that provide a baseline for future PCI reviews.

Instructional Design Team

Team Members:

Susan Campbell, Connie Harris, Katrina Joseph, Ying-Ying Kuo, Larisa Olesova, and Rick Reo

Description

Congratulations to the winners of the spring 2016 Extraordinary Achievement Award, the Online Course Development Institute (OCDI).

Over the course of the spring 2015 semester, the instructional design team designed, tested, and piloted the OCDI. During the OCDI, faculty members create a course following an instructional design process and examine technological tools that support their course design. They also learn how to present content in an online environment; design and develop for faculty-student, student-student, and student-content interactions; and assess student learning. The team piloted OCDI during the spring 2015 semester. Twenty-seven faculty members have successfully completed OCDI. Twelve faculty members are enrolled in the current cohort.

Evidence of the outstanding work of the instructional design team can be seen in the OCDI video highlighting the faculty experience. Here is the video link: https://vimeo.com/137621539. The success of Online Course Development Institute can be directly attributed to the great design and facilitation of the faculty member experience by the instructional design team.

The team provides outstanding service to the GMU teaching community through their consultation efforts and helping GMU faculty members build exemplary online learning experiences for their students.