Hayes and Stuyvesant Testing

On Tuesday evening, we tested signal strength and bandwidth in Hayes and Stuyvesant.  The signal strength was acceptable, but we did experience some slower bandwidth in Stuy.  I'm posting the test results below.  A 1.15 mbps connection is fine for most web activities, but not great for those using Netflix or other bandwidth intensive applications. 

The next step is to contact our vendor to see if they can provide some recommendations.  I'm in the process of scheduling that meeting now.  If you'd like to test your bandwidth and post results in the comments, it would be helpful to our research.  Here is the website you can use - speedtest.net

Hayes Hall: began at 8:33pm in ground floor lounge, northmost table

 

Pingtest:    Pkt loss     Ping(ms)    Jitter(ms)     Grade

                        1%         12                 8                 B

                        3%         68             127                D

                        2%         12                 6                C

                        2%         97             183                D

                        2%       110             167                D

 

Speedtest:    Ping       Download(Mbps)     Upload(Mbps)

                        35               2.57                      13.20

                        45             13.14                      17.24

                        45               7.30                      10.40

                        45             10.30                      13.47

                        45               4.17                      13.67

 

Tests finished at 8:41pm.

 

 

 

Stuyvesant Hall, 9:00pm in 2nd floor northeast lounge

 

Pingtest:     Pkt loss   Ping(ms)     Jitter(ms)   Grade

                        1%        36                54              C

                        2%        11                  7              C

                        1%        89              104              D

                        2%        71              120              D

                        4%        91              182              D

 

Speedtest:    Ping     Download(Mbps)    Upload(Mbps)

                      45                 1.15                      3.25

                      45                 1.65                      4.97

                      45                 1.57                      1.79

                      45                 2.43                      2.57

                      45                 4.65                      2.77

 

Test ended at 9:09pm.

Bishopnet Issues

We have been receiving reports of problems with bishopnet over the past couple of weeks.  The reports are generally from the residence side of campus, and are most frequent during the evening hours.

On Monday afternoon, we setup tests on the ground floor of Hayes.  We were not able to find any problems at that particular time.  Tonight around 9 or 10pm, we are going to conduct additional tests.

If you experience problems, please post a comment below indicating the following: date, time, location, and function (web browsing, netflix, youtube, etc).  This information will help us narrow down the problem and hopefully create a more stable environment.

We realize the importance of a reliable wireless network on a residential campus.  Thank you for your patience while we investigate.

Drag and Drop Programming?

Last night I watched a TED talk given by Mitch Resnick of MIT Media Labs titled "Let's teach kids to code".  The basic premise is that children - the "digital natives" - are good at reading online, but they don't always understand the "why" behind what they've read. 

In order to help with this challenge, he created a free software program called Scratch that allows you to drag and drop commands to build animation.  It took 5 minutes or so to figure out how to make it work, but once you get the hang of it you can quickly create something unique.  It requires just enough understanding of programming logic to make it educational.

Here is a screenshot of some of the commands grouped together in a logical order:

IS Updates

IS continues to make progress on the various ERP systems in collaboration with our user offices.  Student bills are now viewable and payable online through Self Service, and we completed spring registrations and fall grade submissions online.  We are currently putting the final touches on the campus portal and hope to roll it out in the next couple of weeks.  Additionally, we are working with HR to make paychecks available online, and with Purchasing for electronic requisitioning.

In January we worked with our student newspaper, The Transcript, to publish editions online using Wordpress.  Soon we'll add the news feeds to the OWU Mobile app as well.  http://blog.owu.edu/transcript/

Finally, we continue to work with faculty on ways to incorporate technologies into the classroom.  We're developing some strategies around Apple TV devices in the classroom as well as ways to utilize our iTunes U environment.

Adding OWU Events to your Google Calendar

The new OWU Events Calendar brings new functionality to the OWU Community.  If you want to add the upcoming events to your google calendar, just follow these steps:- Go to your google calendar
- Click the drop down arrow next to "Other Calendars"
- Select "Add by URL"
- Paste in this address:  http://owuevents.owu.edu/?&upcoming=upcoming&format=ics&limit=100

You can then show and hide the calendar as you see fit.  Also, you can plug in the events to your blog or any other rss reader using the following URL:  http://owuevents.owu.edu/?&upcoming=upcoming&format=rss&limit=100

Of course, if you want to get specific, you can subscribe to specific search results.  For example, this link shows Lectures and Speakers:  http://owuevents.owu.edu/?&search=search&q=lectures%2Fspeakers&format=rss

For any search query, just click on the .ical or rss icon to get the feed URL, and plug it in!

Fall 2011 Semester Updates

A number of projects have been completed and are in progress as the fall semester starts, please see below for more detail:
- We have completed the launch of the new ERP systems as of July 1st.  Of course, this does not mean that the work is done.  We are currently working on creating efficiencies, developing new functionality, and integrating various systems, both OWU 2.0 and external system.  Many new modules will be deployed over the next 12 months and beyond that will have an impact on the campus.  One of the most exciting is a new campus portal that will serve as a one-stop-shop for many of the most common tasks and information needs.

- IS and Communications have launched OWU Daily and the OWU Events Calendar.  These two new services allow submission of information that is delivered both in email and on the web each business day.  The aim is to reduce the number of messages in your inbox.  The events calendar aims to be a place where you can see many of the university activities on any given day.  See the two links below for more information, and please send us feedback! 

http://owuevents.owu.edu/?&upcoming=upcoming&

http://blogs.owu.edu/daily/

- The printed campus phone book should be here in the next 7 to 10 days.  In the meantime, you can access a searchable, electronic version at the following address:  http://t.co/Wd9Apgk

- We are adding items to OWU Mobile, and soon plan to start actively marketing the app to our various audiences.  Kimberlie Goldsberry, Our Dean of Students, now has her own news feed in the app, and we have a number of others in the queue.  http://m.owu.edu

- Our mailrooms are currently overflowing with books and other items due to the start of the semester.  We are working through the backlog as quickly as we can, and are discussing ways to streamline the process in the future.

Look for more updates in the next couple of weeks as we start to bring new components and services online!

OWU 2.0

Work continues on the OWU 2.0 initiative.  Currently, all new ERP systems are in production at some level with the exception of the finance system, which is scheduled for early July.  StartOWU used data from our new admissions system this year, and we are now working feverishly on getting account synchronization and data integration working across the various systems.  Students were able to register with an adviser directly into the new student system this month, and can view their schedules online.  Additionally, we completed the install of the OWU Portal, which will go live this fall or winter.  The portal will serve as a one-stop shop for the OWU community.

Of course, ERP implementations are never complete.  We will continue to launch new modules for the foreseeable future based on software capabilities and user requests.