Information
Technology Activity
Contact Information
Technology
Anytime Support Desk
Available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week
(310) 506-HELP (4357)
Tech Central
Payson Library, 2nd Floor
Mon. - Fri. 9am - 9pm
Sat. 10am - 4pm
(310) 506-4811
Office of the Chief
Information Officer
(310) 506-4056
Request IT Services
http://services.pepperdine.edu/it
/forms
and Status Report
April 2009
Announcements for Faculty and Staff Meetings
Personal Storage. This fall, one Gigabyte (GB) of personal storage
space will be available to all faculty, students, and staff through Xythos—an
online storage drive. If you want to use the system now as part of the beta
test, go to http://storage.pepperdine.edu and log on with your Pepperdine
user name. Xythos is fully backed up, so your materials will be securely
stored. For more information, call Gerard Flynn, Director, Technology and
Learning Group, at extension 7264.
Student Support Activities and Projects
Enhanced Information Security. Information Security upgraded
the Malibu student housing wireless network to a new operating system
called WavesConnect2. This software identifies the name of the owner of
any infected computer in the residence halls. Now IT can contact the indi-
vidual and resolve the issue. In the past, the system would automatically
block an infected computer, but IT had to wait to address the issue until the
owner called the Help Desk to request reinstatement of access to the sys-
tem. The upgrade allows for quicker resolution of security issues and pro-
vides better service to students.
SGA Elections. It was a privilege to pitch in at the last minute to help
the Student Government Association find an affordable solution for elec-
tronically running their annual elections. Until this year, the University pro-
vided this service without charge, so SGA was not prepared for the $5,000
bid they were given to use an outside vendor. Working closely with SGA,
Timothy Chester did the programming required for them to use a $200
online program from Survey Monkey.
Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2009
Student Support Activities and Projects
Enhanced Information Security. Information Security upgraded the Malibu student housing
wireless network to a new operating system called WavesConnect2. This software identifies the name
of the owner of any infected computer in the residence halls. Now IT can contact the individual and
resolve the issue. In the past, the system would automatically block an infected computer, but IT had to
wait to address the issue until the owner called the Help Desk to request reinstatement of access to
the system. The upgrade allows for quicker resolution of security issues and provides better service to
students.

SGA Elections. It was a privilege to pitch in at the last minute to help the Student Government As-
sociation find an affordable solution for electronically running their annual elections. Until this year, the
University provided this service without charge, so SGA was not prepared for the $5,000 bid they were
given to use an outside vendor. Working closely with SGA, Timothy Chester did the programming re-
quired for them to use a $200 online program from Survey Monkey.

Faculty Support Projects, Training, and Activities

Wiki Upgrade. The Confluence Wiki, a collaboration tool used by faculty and students, has been
upgraded. The tool can now embed widgets from the Web, has a smarter and faster search function and
allows users to “skin your space,” meaning one can give one’s pages a custom look. The new Widget
Connector embeds videos, slideshows, documents and updates from popular sites like YouTube, Flickr,
Google and Twitter. Instructors commonly use wikis for class discussion, student collaboration and as a
collection point for course papers.

The Confluence Wiki is managed by University Libraries. For more information, contact Michael Dula,
Director of Digital Initiatives, University Libraries, at extension 4965.

Faculty Meetings. The Institutional Technology Support team presented at two faculty meetings in
March. GSEP faculty were shown TurnItIn, an anti-plagiarism tool. And the GSBM faculty were provide
an overview of Elluminate and videoconferencing. Elluminate is a Web conferencing software. It pro-
vides students and instructors the capability to speak to each other via the Internet in real-time. The
software also provides a text messaging system, application sharing, a whiteboard and session recorder.

1:1 Support. The Institutional Technology Support team continues to meet with faculty individually
to help them optimize their use of the University’s instructional support tools. This past month individ-
ual training sessions were provided for Seaver, GSEP and GSBM faculty in the following areas: Lecture
capture, videoconferencing, distance learning, podcasting and iTunes integration. For more information,
or to schedule an appointment, contact Gerard Flynn, Director of Institutional Technology Support, at
extension 7264.

Consulting Services. The Technology and Learning Group is helping a Seaver College professor
research best practices for a proposal submission process for a conference on undergraduate research
Seaver is interested in hosting.

LMS Review. The University supports two learning management systems (LMS): Blackboard and
TWEN. To ensure faculty and students are getting the most from these programs, the Technology and
Learning Group is reviewing usage statistics and customer satisfaction while concurrently pursuing test
environments for two other LMS’: Sakai and Moodle.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2009

Administrative Support - Schools
Enrollment Management. For the first time ever, Seaver sent out its offer letters before April 1,
due to the new capabilities of our PeopleSoft system. In March, the Connections to Community (C2C)
team worked diligently to address any support needs required by the schools and prospects for fall ad-
mission. The new system has also made it easier for applicants to review and accept their Pepperdine
offers, because they can now log into Pepperdine’s Applicant Center to see their offer, enroll and pay
their deposits. It is a top priority for C2C team members to quickly resolve any issues applicants report
regarding access to their Applicant Center accounts.

In the past, applicants only had access to their admission information online after they had paid their
deposits and numerous paper forms had been sent out and returned. Now this is all done electroni-
cally, which allows Pepperdine to be more competitive, provide greater service to our students and re-
duce the resource consumption and inefficiencies of paper-based processes.

Online Course Evaluations. This past fall, the University experimented with online course evalua-
tions. Some of the schools will continue testing the software in the spring semester. Specifically, the
School of Law and the School of Public Policy will conduct all their course evaluations online. GSEP and
Seaver will use the online program for select courses. GSBM will not pilot the online evaluations in the
spring, but is considering a pilot in the summer semester. IT is working with the vendor to ensure
school specifications are met and students are provided access to the appropriate courses.

Graduate Facilities. A project was completed this month that increases the Encino Campus’ Wide
Area Network (WAN) connection from 1.54 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 10 Mbps. The upgrade
greatly improves connectivity for virtual classroom and videoconferencing initiatives.

Administrative Support - Management Notes

Information Security. The mainstream press recently covered a malicious computer virus called
Conficker or Downadup that has attacked many prominent corporations. So far, the University’s secu-
rity programs have effectively warded off the so-called “worm” and its variants. Due to the number of
inquiries regarding Pepperdine’s readiness to respond to Conficker, Information Security sent out a
University-wide e-mail regarding the virus and reminded users of the steps they can take to ensure their
computers do not threaten the security of Pepperdine’s network.

Service Level Adjustments. IT Client Services continues to work with major areas affected by
the February reduction in force. By necessity, there will be changes in some service levels such as
weekend technology support at graduate campuses. IT is working with the impacted areas. As changes
are implemented, please contact Timothy Chester or Jonathan See to discuss any concerns.

Administrative Support - New Services

Cost Savings for Desktop Computers. Instructional Technology Support continues to en-
courage the use of NComputing clients (smaller computing devices) across the University. NComputing
uses one hard drive to support multiple workstations. Not only does this reduce hardware costs by
approximately 60%, it reduces power usage by 82%. So far, over 50 units have been installed. There are
16 in the Malibu Sandbar Café and 26 units in the ISL Lab. Demonstration units are available on the

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2009

Malibu and West Los Angeles campuses. For more information, contact Tom Hoover, Director for In-
structional Technology Support, at ext. 5547.

Online Technology Request Forms. Custom Web forms were created to assist faculty, staff
and students request IT assistance. To request everything from a network wall jack to audio visual or
copier service requests, visit the new online forms located at http://services.pepperdine.edu/it/forms/

PeopleSoft Upgrades. The Peopletools upgrade to version 8.49 is underway. When complete at
the end of May, the University community will have access to Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BI
Publisher, formerly XML Publisher). This is an enterprise reporting tool to author, manage and deliver
all types of highly formatted documents. Users can easily design report layouts using familiar desktop
tools, which will reduce the time and cost needed to develop and maintain reports. Reports can be
viewed online or scheduled for delivery to a wide range of destinations. This program will be used the
most by staff that need reports from the PeopleSoft modules for Finance, Human Resources and Stu-
dent Administration.

Built on open standards, IT staff and developers can create data models against practically any data
source and use BI Publisher to build custom applications leveraging existing data sources and infrastruc-
ture. In addition, this program can generate tens of thousands of documents per hour with minimal im-
pact to transactional systems.

Peopletools is targeted to go-live Tuesday, May 26, so WaveNet will not be available Memorial Day
weekend. During this period, an alternative method to log into Webmail and Blackboard will be pro-
vided.

Mainframe Decommissioning. On July 31, 2009, the University mainframe will be turned off.
Information previously stored in the mainframe will be accessible by a PeopleSoft query. The C2C team
is pushing hard to get the programming done to ensure University departments can access SIS archived
data through PeopleSoft. This is a critical project and a huge undertaking.

Increased Wireless Coverage. The Aruba Wireless Controllers with adaptive radio manage-
ment (ARM) 2.0 have been upgraded.
This enables load-balancing features on many of our Aruba wire-
less access points and will be applied to a growing number of academic areas in the coming months.

This upgrade increases coverage within the building and enhances network signal strength. This month
students and faculty should have noticed increased signal strength and reliability in the Payson Library
and the Center for Communication and Business (CCB).

Additional Projects and Accomplishments

Life Safety Systems. IT is working with Public Safety on a variety of facility issues including prepa-
ration for an important fire code inspection and improvements to the guard shack cameras.

Nolij. The imaging conversion to the new University-wide imaging platform, Nolij (pronounced
knowledge), is underway. Nolij converts paper files to electronic images so that documents can be elec-
tronically filed, easily retrieved, and preserved. This project includes helping departments adopt Nolij
and converting documents from the Stellant system, which total 5.5 million pages. So far, more than 3
million pages have been converted and encrypted. Full migration is expected by May 30, 2009.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2009

Assessment & Strategic Planning. Pepperdine is currently participating in two national sur-
veys, ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology and TechQual+. ECAR is run by EDU-
CAUSE on behalf of a group of colleges and universities that are concerned with improving under-
graduate use of IT. Freshmen and seniors are the target population for this study. For the third year in
a row, Pepperdine is conducting the TechQual+ survey, which was released in March this year. Tech-
Qual+ is a national survey that measures faculty, student, and staff satisfaction with their institutions’
technology services. At Pepperdine, the survey results are discussed within the IT Division, shared with
key constituents and used during the development of the division’s annual and long-term goals.

External Activities
Mike Ebbs was voted Vice-Chair of the Higher Education User Group Technical Advisory Group
(HEUG TAG).

Timothy Chester is completing an article on competency development for IT professionals that will
be published by the Educause Center for Applied Research.

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2009

Benchmarks and Accountability
Anytime Support Desk. During March 2009, there were 2,428 requests for support managed through the
Anytime Support Desk, formerly known as the Help Desk. Of these requests, 2,148 (88%) were resolved within
one day and 2,321 (96%) were resolved in fewer than five days. The average wait time for individuals calling the
Anytime Support Desk was 48 seconds. The first call resolution rate was 77%. This is the percentage of requests
that are resolved by the Anytime Support Desk on the first call.

Online Requests. There were 175 additional requests for support managed through online Web request forms
that were directed to the appropriate Information Technology departments without involving the Anytime Support
Desk. The top two types of online requests were audio-visual (65) and departmental telephone service (32). Sun-
Gard does not charge the University for support requests that are made directly via the Web request forms. The
online forms can be accessed at <http://services.pepperdine.edu/it/forms/>.

Anytime Support User Survey. Through an automated feedback process, all Anytime Support Desk callers
are provided the opportunity to complete a Web-based feedback survey. Of 2,456 survey requests sent to cus-
tomers, 246 (10%) were completed in March 2009. The five-question survey uses a “1 to 9” sliding scale with
“7.00-9.00” equal to Excellent.

Response Overall Response Skill Communica- Resolution

Month
Rate Satisfaction Timeliness Set tion Timeliness

March 10% 7.77 7.81 8.05 7.82 7.90

February 11% 7.99 7.99 8.06 7.76 7.99

Staff Support by Major Area. All IT Division employees are allocating their day-to-day efforts using client,
project, and task codes. Using this data, total division-wide staff effort for March 2009 was distributed as follows:

Administration Support 1,147 hours 7.37% $59,308.62

Colleges, Academic Affairs 3, 996 hours 25.67% $139,510.12

University-Wide, Common Services 5,358 hours 34.42% $241,877.63

IT Administration and Management 2,818 hours 18.11% $127,384.91

General Overhead (Leave, Holiday) 2,247 hours 14.43% $81,578.60

Total: 15,566 hours 100% $649,659.88

Support for Schools. Of the effort provided to Pepperdine Schools, the breakdown is as follows:

Month Seaver GSBM GSEP SOL SPP

March 46.75% 30.35% 21.12% 0.78% 1.00%

February 46.61% 27.16% 23.54% 0.63% 2.06%

Information Technology Activity and Status Report, April 2009