Completed Initiatives for 2018-2019

UTEP TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT

Accessible Course Content
Ally was turned on for UTEP’s Learning Management System (LMS) on March 15, 2018.

STUDENT FEEDBACK

"I learn better when hearing and reading at the same time, and being an online student means that our lectures/ lessons are mostly reading. This has been a tremendous help for me and has saved me so much time rereading! Thank you!!"

"This idea is great because it allows us to have documents in different forms that accommodate to the different needs or programs that our computers, laptops, tablets and phones may have. Great job!"

"Being able to download a file in more formats makes things much more convenient for me since PDF, PowerPoint, and Word all have their different purposes, and it used to upset me when only PDF format was available. PDF is the worst, in my opinion, because it's the most limited when it comes to editing. So thanks for the options!"

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF THIS INITIATIVE

*These activities were a collaboration with the Center for Instructional Design

GOAL MET

Our institution’s accessibility score in Ally increased 15% one year after its implementation.

NEXT STEPS

Continue with the facilitation of accessibility workshops and create an institutional accessibility dashboard by departments.

Tracking Student Success with Learning Outcomes
Align Bb Learn course content items to goals and report coverage. More information at Learning Outcomes .

NEXT STEPS

Create awareness of Bb Goals with academic departments or programs that require accreditation.

Blackboard Learn Upgrade to SaaS
UTEP's Learning Management System (LMS), Blackboard (Bb) Learn was upgraded to a SaaS environment on June 6, 2019. Project activities included identification/communication of the best migration window, data migration, testing and verifying integrations.

With this migration, Bb Learn gets continuous updates (new features, fixes, etc.) with zero or minimal downtime.

UTEP is now closer to enable the Ultra Experience (simplified workflows, modern look, and fully responsive). For a look at Bb Learn Ultra, visit blackboard.coursesites.com .

Increase Adoption of Technologies
In general, we are seeing an annual 8% adoption increase of Blackboard Learn.

In Spring 2018, there were 6 out of 10 courses using Blackboard Learn. The adoption of Blackboard in large enrollment courses is higher with 8 out of 10 courses. We believe that this behavior is due to the adoption of technologies such as Retention Center and e-Exams where their features have a greater impact in large enrollment courses.

RETENTION CENTER

*Access to RC dashboard within a course. Eesysoft data

E-EXAMS USING RESPONDUS LOCKDOWN BROWSER

*Data obtained from Respondus.

CLOUD STORAGE

Microsoft OneDrive replaced mSpace in spring 2018 (@ 9TB) with a storage growth rate of 57% during the first half of 2018. During the last 6 months, we are seeing a storage growth rate of 75% (@35TB).

BLACKBOARD COLLABORATE ULTRA

Video conferencing tool in support of teaching and learning.

*Data obtained from BbCollab.com

IMPROVE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

iClicker’s student response system promotes active learning in the classrooms.

• About 6,500 unique students use this tool in one or more courses per spring/fall semester (Academic years 2017-2018 & 2018-2019).

New Survey Software for UTEP
Qualtrics migration to Question Pro.

UTEP successfully moved from Qualtrics to QuestionPro (QP) in January 2019. A pilot of QP during the fall 2018 semester gave us the confidence to switch our centrally supported survey platform to QP on January 2, 2019. For more information, go to QUESTION PRO .

This migration was supported with regular monthly training sessions since November 2018 and data migration support for our users.

*Usage Dashboard from January to May 2019

Open Access Makerspace
AA new multi-purpose makerspace lab at the UGLC. This new space opened its doors on February 20, 2019. Open to all students, faculty, and staff that are interested in learning about, or using the tools available. This new space features not only 3D Design and Printing, but also Raspberry Pi Programming, 3D Scanning, Augmented & Virtual Reality, Arduino Programming, and much more. This makerspace is specifically designed for collaboration, learning, designing, and creating, by everyone. Workshops are published on the website , so that anyone can come in and learn.

Improved Support for Microsoft Windows institutionally owned computers
The core of this project was the implementation of Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to facilitate the management and deployment of Windows computers. Here are a few highlights of what has been accomplished so far.

Information Security Office (ISO) has transitioned from Ivanti to SCCM as their computer inventory resource. SCCM is now managing about five thousand computers operating Microsoft Windows.

Any institutionally owned computer that is to be sent to surplus requires that its hard drive is wiped. Hard drive wipes have traditionally been a manual and labor-intensive process. With SCCM, hard drive wipes are automatic with completion status available to the Surplus department. This new automated process is most efficient and has freed up time from our technicians.

UTEP software is available to our faculty and staff for self-installs. This new software store provides users with faster access to UTEP licensed software they may need.

ROADMAP WITH SCCM

Integrate with Microsoft Intune to deploy new computers. This project will replace the paid for custom factory services by Dell for all UTEP new desktops and laptops.

Enable Endpoint Protection in SCCM to manage Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection on Miners domain computers.

Deliver updates of Microsoft products and third-party apps, for desktops and laptops.