Program

5-year Efforts and Operational Results of Virtual Computer Classroom in TUAT

Takahiro Nemoto (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), Kazuhiro Mishima (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) and Shigeyoshi Aoyama (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) has provided a university information system based on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment since April 2016. This university information system has provided a brand-new computer system for the classroom, called TUAT Virtual Computer Classroom (TUAT-VCCR), replacing old computer rooms and terminals. The unique feature of this system is to provide a platform-independent computer exercise environment by constructing a TUAT-VCCR that can be accessed via a web browser on an off-campus cloud. In this system, over the past five years, more than 100,000 Virtual Computers have been used for about 100 courses or about 1,500 lectures. This article shares our 5-year efforts and operational reports of TUAT-VCCR and the knowledge gained from the operation.

At present, many universities and schools are restricting the use of conventional physical terminal classrooms to prevent contact infections caused by COVID-19 through such as keyboards and mice and prevent dense environments in classrooms. At the TUAT, an online course using web conferencing tools has been implemented since April 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. In response to these changes in the place where classes are taken, TUAT-VCCR, which can be used as long as network accessibility is ensured, can be said to be one of the ways to facilitate computer exercises in the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we also discuss the usage of TUAT-VCCR before and under the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article will provide valuable information to other organizations planning similar BYOD initiatives, and we would like to discuss together with the SIGUCCS community how the system should be designed for an unusual situation like the COVID-19 pandemic.


A + B = C: How the Effective License Position Calculation for Software Isn’t That Simple

Dan R. Herrick (University of Colorado Boulder)

A foundation of effective software asset management, the Effective License Position (ELP) is a seemingly straightforward calculation: What software is deployed in your organization versus what your organization is entitled to use. This is simple in theory, but more complicated in practice. Software deployment and entitlement datasets have multiple sources which must be collected and processed to provide useful information to IT operational, financial, and compliance activities. This talk will introduce the Effective License Position, why it is important, how to calculate it, and what to do with it.


Actual Practice of Short Time Period Implementation of Multiple Web Conferencing Systems for Online Classes

Kazuhiro Mishima (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), Takahiro Nemoto (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) and Shigeyoshi Aoyama (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)

With the expansion of COVID-19 outbreaks, the lecture environment has changed dramatically. Various activities have been held for distance learning, however, the style of online learning and hybrid learning is also being popular. The key to these lectures is the web conferencing tool. The key factor to success in new age lectures is how the web conferencing tool can be adapted to the existing information system. Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) has developed full online courses from the first semester in 2020. However, the increase of the infection has remained constant, and TUAT will continue to provide online courses using the web conferencing tool from the second semester, and also hybrid courses that combine face-to-face teaching. According to this, a campus-wide license was purchased that enables the use of three different web conferencing tool including Zoom Meeting, Cisco Webex, and Google Meet in the suitable applications. For the start of the second semester, the Information Media Center (IMC) has developed a system to integrate with the existing authentication system to enable use of the these three tools. Since we were not able to prepare enough time to implement the system, it only takes less than a month (about 3 weeks) from the contract to the start of service. In this presentation, we explain in detail how we designed the system and how it was actually implemented in order to deploy these systems in a very short time period. We will also mention the actual implementation issues we faced. By explaining the ideal and reality of the system, we would like to discuss together with the SIGUCCS community how the system should be designed for the unusual situation.


An Introduction to the Special Interest Group on Internet and Operation Technology (SIG-IOT) of Information Processing Society of Japan (Ver.2021)

Hiroki Kashiwazaki (National Institute of Informatics)

This paper introduces the Special Interest Group on the Internet and Operation Technology (SIG-IOT) of the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ). IPSJ SIG-IOT is a similar association to ACM SIGUCCS in Japan. It retains about four hundred members who are mainly managers and operators of ICT infrastructures in universities and colleges, and staff members of companies. The activity of IPSJ SIG-IOT focuses on the technologies for the Internet in general and the techniques for the construction, operation, and administration of the distributed computer/network systems.

IPSJ SIG-IOT organizes regularly four workshops and one symposium once a year and also issues a special section in the IPSJ journal every year. All papers submitted for the symposiums and journals are reviewed. IPSJ SIG-IOT participates in the Multimedia, Distributed, Cooperative, and Mobile Symposium (DICOMO) every year, as one of the organizing SIGs. It also hosts the Architecture, Design, Deployment & Management of Networks & Applications (ADMNET) every year. ADMNET is a workshop of COMPSAC which is the signature conference on computers, software, and applications and is sponsored by IEEE Computer Society.

The fields of operational technologies may look modest and tend to be shunned, especially by young people. However, it must be an important portion of the fundamentals of the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructures that continue to grow. We are encouraging the research activities and preparing academic papers for young people and hope the activities of IPSJ SIG-IOT help to convey the importance of the field.


Building a secure network during the COVID-19

Tsuyoshi Akiyama (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Ayumu Haruta (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Keisuke Tamai (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Tetsuji Okada (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Hiromi Yamaoka (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY) and Hideo Masuda (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)

In our university updated its network to improve security and network stability in 2021.

The new network has introduced a UTM with the necessary licenses and bandwidth to allow all members to make VPN connections from off-campus for telework and remote lectures.

UTM is equipped with security functions such as DLP in addition to access control by IP address.

In order to support high-flex lessons, we added wireless APs to each lecture room, but it did not work well because the channel was not adjusted, and in a classroom where many devices were connected, a situation occurred where it could not be connected temporarily.

However, by adjusting the channel and output, the wireless AP can be used comfortably.

In addition, as the opportunities to use the network for classes and on-campus events increased, it was difficult to adjust the schedule for stopping the network and replacing equipment, and it was difficult to update the network.

In this report, we will report what kind of design was done to build a highly secure and highly available network within a limited budget, and what kind of difficulties were encountered in the construction work.


Experience of Digital Transformation in a Small University, 2021

Kouji Watanabe (Fukuyama University), Takashi Yamanoue (Fukuyama University) and Motoo Tanaka (Fukuyama University)

In Fukuyama University, we have an educational affairs system and a course management system for education for more correct work and increasing efficiency of educational affairs and education. However we do not have a common computer system for our office work except Office 365. Most of procedures for applications of office work are processed using pieces of paper and stamps currently. They are time consuming and annoying. There is a tendency to promote digital transformation in Japan around 2020s. For example, Japanese government is going to establish the digital agency to promote digital transformation in Japan, September 2021[1]. However it is not easy to transform previous paperwork to effective digitalized work in a small university.

This paper discusses experience of digital transformation in Fukuyama University. The president of our university asked us to digitalized one of our paperwork. We made a prototype system for the work using the Office 365, discussing with officers who is in charge of the work. The system is going to deploy shortly.

Our educational affairs system is not perfect. There are many things to deal with them by faculties’ hands. In order to reduce such chores, we showed some example python programs using Selenium, which is a tool for automatizing handling of a web page, to a group of the faculty.

[1] “Japan to speed up work to launch digital agency”, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/09/18/national/japan-speeds-digital-agency/


Five Things to [try to] Include in Every Presentation

Julio Appling (Lewis & Clark College)

You have essential information to share and a limited time to connect with your listeners. So how do you ensure you’re making the most of that time? I’ll share five foundational elements that help ensure you’re getting your message across and your audience is getting the information they need—whether you’re teaching a ninety-minute class, a half-hour workshop, or a seven-minute lightning talk.


How I Spent My Summer Vacation: MacGyvering The Last Of The Intel iMacs For Lab Use

Travis Freudenberg (Carleton College)

In the spring of 2021, Apple unveiled the M1 iMacs.  At Carleton, our public labs use Boot Camp to dual boot OS X and Windows, which Apple’s new iMacs no longer support.  Faced with the options of creating a new lab build and having some of our labs being “Mac Only”, delaying the replacement of machines until the next year, or making my summer very complex, we naturally went with the third option.  In this Lightning Talk I’ll discuss how we sourced every available iMac we could find, as well as the necessary spare parts required to create the lab hardware we needed to give us more time to develop a new lab image for the following summer.


How USD not only survived the pandemic, but thrived

Shahra Meshkaty (University of San Diego), Deon Kula (University of San Diego) and Scott Lundergan (University of San Diego)

How USD not only survived the pandemic, but thrived! A timeline of success

March 21, 2020, the pandemic hit and we were all ordered to stay at home. The University of San Diego gave us one week to go from a vibrant on ground learning center to a fully remote on-line resource center. The campus became a ghost town. Faculty were panicking and all eyes were on IT and looking for us to figure out how we were going to get the classes up and running.

We didn’t panic. We didn’t have to. We already had everything we needed in place to keep the University rolling. I’d like to share with you how we did that and where we went from there.


 It’s Better to Be Lucky Than Good: Reflections On Technical Decisions in the Wake of a Pandemic

Nick Pistentis (MSU Denver), Truong Nguyen (MSU Denver) and Viann Ha (MSU Denver)

In March and April 2020, virtually every institution found themselves scrambling to adapt to the tectonic shift in campus life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fortunately, MSU Denver Information Technology Services found that the department was better positioned than some peers due to a range of strategic and technical decisions that positioned the organization for scalable adaptability.

Ranging from service delivery model and client asset management to enterprise systems and information security, this presentation will discuss these topics, analyze the root of the decisions that were made and evaluate areas where the team did not anticipate the needs that arose.


Lessons Learned from Pandemic Teaching

Lisa Brown (University of Rochester)

As an educational technology specialist, I help faculty create and deliver online classes all the time. However, online classes are a small part of our offerings at the University of Rochester. During the pandemic, there was a move to remote teaching in Spring 2020, and then hybrid/online teaching in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. Providing access to technology tools, and information about best practices in online course delivery was easy. But having everything online was different. This provided us with some lessons learned for future online delivery methods that will be shared in this short lightning talk.


Mental Health in the Workplace: A Continuing Conversation

R Kevin Chapman (Carleton College)

We have continued to receive positive feedback on this panel, and as positive mental wellbeing it is something of a timeless topic (for better or for worse), we are once again offering a panel presentation and discussion on the subject of mental health in the workplace.

Everyone has their own personal struggles; many of us have diagnosed mental health issues; and still too many have genuine health issues that remain undiagnosed. The good news is that there seems to be more open conversation around the issue of mental health. In fact, a potentially and unexpectedly positive outcome of the pandemic was a global increase in the awareness and conversations around mental health issues. Some people with previously existing mental health struggles had those struggles exaggerated as a result. Some people found that a more isolated or remote lifestyle actually helped them to better manage their mental health struggles. And many people, thousands, perhaps even millions, may have experienced mental health difficulties for the first time.

Regardless of the reasons, these conversations are happening and there is still a way to before we fully normalize discussions of mental health, and provide fully supportive working environments.

My hope is, once again, to have a panel of fellow SIGUCCS members speaking to their own situations. I will be asking within the community for people willing to speak, with perhaps a focus on how 2020 impacted their condition/situation, and whether they see things changing (for better or for worse) as the world returns to the new norm.


My SIGUCCS Book Report – 2022 Edition

Laurie Fox (SUNY Geneseo)

The SIGUCCS Book Club reads six books each year on topics ranging from leadership to personal productivity. This lightning talk will cover the books from 2020 and 2021.


Operationalizing Transparency: Putting the What, How, Who, and Why Into Decision Making

Kristen Dietiker (Santa Clara University)

Is decision-making a black hole at your university? Are colleagues left wondering why they didn’t find out about a crucial technical change until after the fact? Is there a lack of accountability, or do your fellow employees complain about a “lack of transparency”? Learn about concrete steps you can take to improve operational transparency and ensure teams and organizations understand the What, How, Who, and Why of decisions, projects, and services.


Our Design and Implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication Deployment for Microsoft 365 in Kyushu University

Yoshiaki Kasahara (Kyushu University) and Takao Shimayoshi (Kyushu University)

In Kyushu University, Information Infrastructure Initiative maintains Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) service for our university members (both staff members and students).  We started offering Office 365 in 2016 and migrated our university-wide email service (called Kyushu University Primary Mail Service) in 2018. Additionally, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, we had to promote remote-working, and more users started to use OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams outside the campus network.  We are more concerned about account security due to the high utilization of Microsoft 365 and discussed how to deploy Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to protect our users. Microsoft 365 comes with Azure Active Directory, and it includes built-in MFA functionality.  With the basic Azure AD MFA, individual users can register MFA information anytime but have no control to enable or disable MFA.  Tenant administrators need to enable MFA for each account.  We wanted to allow each user to enroll in MFA and register information at their convenient time.  Also, we wanted to prevent malicious attackers from registering their MFA information if an account should be already compromised.  Such control was difficult with the basic Azure AD MFA.  From 2020 we added Azure AD Premium P2 license to our tenant, which provides “Azure AD Conditional Access.”  With the Conditional Access, we can finely control MFA and other sign-in behavior of Microsoft 365 with security groups. We designed an MFA self-enrolling and setting system, and we implemented it with Microsoft Forms, Power Automate, Conditional Access, and in-house web applications.  We designed our system to prohibit MFA registration until a user self-enrolled in MFA.  Also, we requested the user to register MFA information upon the next sign-in after the self-enrollment.  By doing this, we expected to reduce the possible unauthorized registration of MFA information.  We discussed extensively to implement various measures and prepare documents to counter users’ troubles and complaints.  Technically we were ready to deploy MFA in April 2021, but we needed to reevaluate the deployment strategy because there was a push back from some executives expressing concern about the adverse effects of introducing MFA.  In this paper, we’d like to share the design, implementation, and experience of our MFA deployment.


Refurbished Computer Giveaway

Viann Ha (Metropolitan State University of Denver), Truong Nguyen (Metropolitan State University of Denver) and Nick Pistentis (Metropolitan State University of Denver)

Metropolitan State University of Denver serves a diverse student population, with significant percentages of enrolled students experiencing housing insecurity and food insecurity during the academic year. A percentage of students also lack reliable access to technology resources, preventing them from completing coursework at home and causing them to fall behind.

The Information Technology Services department strives to provide our students the technology they need in order to become successful during their time at the MSU Denver. With this is mind and in hopes of providing the best educational experience for our students, the ITS department identified an opportunity to refurbish and distribute out of service laptops and desktops to the student population rather than disposition these devices. As such, ITS designed and hosted their first lottery-based refurbished computer giveaway in April 2019 for students, issuing 160 devices to students selected from over 2,600 initial reservations.

This poster session will provide an overview of the program developed, challenges faced and the results of the first year of the initiative, as well as goals for future years of the service offering.


Supporting Faculty in a Pandemic

John Duncan (Indiana University Bloomington), Beth Lynn Nolen (Indiana University Bloomington) and Kasi Spyker-Duncan (Indiana University Bloomington)

When in-person classes at Indiana University were canceled in March 2020 due to the pandemic, something most only thought of as a “worst-case scenario” became the new normal. Faculty faced the daunting task of moving their classes online quickly, and academic departments dealt with shifting to remote operations. Instructional designers and technology trainers were invaluable to faculty members as they moved their classes to a new teaching modality, as well as staff adapting to a new work environment. Beth (Senior IT Training Specialist with IT Training) worked closely with John (Associate Chair of Informatics in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering) as he transitioned three classes and 220 students to an asynchronous online format. Because IT Training was willing to invest resources in developing needed technology training ahead of the pandemic, John was able to use these resources to take his classes online, as well as share materials with his students to assist in learning how to use new technologies for distance learning. Beth also worked with Kasi (Assistant Director of Grant Administration, School of Public Health – Bloomington) as she moved a major research-oriented event typically held in person to an entirely online format. Together, John, Kasi, and Beth will share their perspectives on moving academic operations online with short notice.


Team Building for Employee Morale and Productivity

Laurie Fox 

Team building produces more engaged employees, and engaged employees are more productive and more enjoyable to work with. This paper will present an overview of employee morale, how morale links to productivity, and the effects of team building exercises on these factors.

One of our goals as managers is to ensure the morale of each of our individual employees is positive. We are also interested in encouraging high productivity levels. Individual employee development includes transparency, communication, recognition, feedback, and clear objectives. Creating a strong team environment includes the same techniques, and we will demonstrate that team building activities can strengthen the relationship between employees and raise the morale of the entire group.


Technical Design of Computer Hoteling Stations for a Hybrid Work Modality

Dan R. Herrick (University of Colorado Boulder) and Jeremy B. Diaz (University of Colorado Boulder)

In response to the changing work modalities of a large portion of its new hybrid workforce, the CU Boulder Office of Information Technology (OIT) team developed a plan and a technical design for computer hoteling stations. In this paper, we will describe the overall development plan for hoteling stations, how we designed and deployed the stations, challenges and constraints, impact and effectiveness of the stations, and general recommendations for hoteling stations. While the focus in this paper is on the technical design, supporting factors such as business needs and controls, user experience, and impact to employees will be discussed.


The Art of the Blameless Retrospective

Shawn Plummer (SUNY Geneseo)

Retrospectives after incidents, sprints, and projects are a powerful tool to gather information about how things went and improve. Does everyone feel safe to contribute? Conducting retrospectives in a blameless fashion is important so that everyone feels safe. If people do not feel safe they will not fully contribute you will miss critical information to prevent your next outage or make your next project more successful. This lightning talk will cover why blameless retrospectives are so important and some tips to making everyone feel safe.


The COVID-19 Pandemic and Retooling Application Delivery: The Transformation From Physical to Cloud-Based Infrastructure

Shadi Beidas (Illinois Tech) and Louis McHugh IV (Illinois Tech)

The shift of primary university application delivery from locally-hosted Apache-based technology and physical computer labs to a cloud-based virtual computer lab during the global COVID-19 pandemic is presented. The method utilized had the following components: evaluation of different levels of conversion to cloud-based application delivery; evaluation of vendor capability; methodology for application deployment; methods of faculty engagement with software selection; methods of monitoring the user experience; quantitative assessment of total sessions, total usage hours, and maximum concurrent user usage; quantitative comparison of

those fields to the previously used Apache iteration; quantitative and qualitative evaluation of support incidents generated; and qualitative assessment of the user experience. Overall sessions increased nearly threefold, and maximum concurrent users quadrupled, hours spent on the platform per capita decreased from increased performance, engagement with faculty in the application delivery process increased, and improved overall user experience.


The Journey to Hybrid Meetings

Crague Cook (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Once the economic shut down of the COVID-19 pandemic began to reverse and people started returning to work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there was a pressing and urgent need for meeting spaces that support hybridized meetings. Since there was very little expertise on hybridizing meetings on campus and a surge of fully remote workers, expertise had to be quickly generated. This was done by implementing various web conferencing systems and solutions in meeting rooms, performing rigorous testing, and creating fast feedback loops so rapid iteration could occur. Additionally, the inevitable and unpredictable shift in meeting culture had to be closely observed and managed. As a result, the entire project involved a very agile approach paired with cross-organizational collaboration and organizational change management.


The lecture in our university during COVID-19 pandemic

Hiromi Yamaoka (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Keisuke Tamai (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Tetsuji Okada (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY), Tsuyoshi Akiyama (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY) and Hideo Masuda (KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)

Approximately two years after the emergence of COVID-19, it has not yet return to normal, activities like before still be difficult. The society is gradually changing to live with COVID-19, and the same is true at universities. At our university, all classes started online, but now some of them have restarted face-to-face and the others have been changing to high flex class. In particular, the e-Learning system is important part of classes.

First of all, the Students log in to the e-Learning system to check their schedule. They download educational materials, watch video materials, and also submit assignments. We have operated the e-Learning system for a long time, but it had been to assist face-to-face classes and used only in some classes.

After the pandemic, we decided to use the e-Learning system mainly, and its use expanded rapidly. It was unexpected that to be used all together in all classes, so we faced various problems when the classes started. Regarding the face-to-face classes, we had to refurbish the practice rooms and review the operation rules for safe use.

We are still working to enable various forms of classes with limited resources and budget. In this report, we will introduce the changing classes and report on the problems and responses we faced.


The Use of Learning Management Systems and Covid-19: Student Perception in the Past Year

Ajayi Ekuase-Anwansedo (Southern University and A&M)

Learning management systems is a software designed to manage learning processes in schools.However, over the last year has seen an increase in the use of various learning management systems. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic institutions of higher learning have had to rely heavily on the use of learning management systems for learning and instruction. As a result, there has been a number of research on the use of various learning management systems. The challenge is before the pandemic most faculty have not had to rely solely on online learning and thus some struggle to use the technology which can affect student’s learning outcomes. Moving forward, considering that learning management systems has become a staple in our institutions of higher learning, it is important that faculty have access to resources to help them navigate this new space. One of such resources are the accounts of student’s perception of the use of learning management systems in the past year.

Therefore, this paper will present a synthesis of literature on student’s perception of the use of learning management systems in the past year. It is hoped that this study will serve as a resource for faculty and institutions in their use of learning management systems. Additionally, findings from this study will have practical implications for not only faculty but for students and schools


What learning to practice taught me about the practice of learning

Julio Appling (Lewis & Clark College)

As a full-time educational technologist of ten years and a part-time performing musician of fifteen, the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 presented me with my dream: a work-from-home schedule with wide-open afternoons and weekends. It was time to develop a serious, regular practice regimen…or it would have been if I’d known how. A year into the pandemic, I was still working from home, still practicing intermittently, and still looking for answers. In March 2021, I started from scratch, re-framing my problem through a training and professional development lens. Before I could tackle what to practice and how much, I needed to answer a more important question: why don’t I want to practice and what would make me want to?

Beginning with a re-examination of what it means to ‘practice,’ I’ll reflect on the steps I took to develop a daily practice routine for the first time in my life, and illustrate how these helped address personal productivity and focus issues at work. Recommended for anyone—musician or otherwise—struggling to find time and motivation for professional development.


Yet Another Wearable LED Matrix Sign System for Campus Guiding

Takashi Yamanoue (Fukuyama University)

Yet another wearable LED Matrix sign system, sign system 2020, is presented. We have shown a wearable LED Matrix sign system, sign system 2015, which shows tweets of Twitter, in SIGUCCS 2015. The sign system 2015 could not change the color of the sign. The sign system could not display pictures and animations either. The sign system 2020 can show color pictures and color animation. The contents can be controlled by a script on a wiki page on the internet. Superimposing of a text on a picture or an animation is also possible.