UMS Colleagues,

Welcome back to the start of a new academic year.  In this inaugural issue of the IT Connections newsletter, we are pleased to provide you with updates on several projects and initiatives designed to improve access to key services for all students, faculty and staff.  I would like to highlight a few of these efforts here.  

This past summer saw the completion of the upgrade of our MaineStreet Student Information System (Campus Solutions version 9.2).  This project required significant effort from staff across the University of Maine System and would not have been successful without close teamwork and collaboration.  This upgrade has provided substantial improvements in system resiliency, capacity and performance while introducing enhanced navigational elements designed to be more mobile friendly.  The foundation established with this upgrade positions UMS to focus efforts on improving usability and mobile access to critical features and functions within the MaineStreet environment.  You may learn more about these efforts by reviewing the MaineStreet UX Project update in this newsletter. 

Additional enhancements to streamline access to IT systems and services for members of the UMS community are covered in the Microsoft Office 365 and Single-Sign-On Login Page updates.  These initiatives will serve to address known existing barriers that, until recently, US:IT had limited options to resolve.  We are confident these changes will have a positive impact for the entire community.  

Finally, after several months of collecting feedback, reviewing proposals and evaluating options, on behalf of the Educational Technology Advisory Committee (ETAC), we are excited to share the selection of the Brightspace platform from Desire2Learn as the Learning Management System that will succeed Blackboard Learn for the University.  We are looking forward to initiating the implementation of Brightspace this Fall with the goal of full deployment for all UMS courses by Fall 2020. You can read more about this project in the LMS Update section of this newsletter.  We look forward to establishing a long and rewarding partnership between the University and Desire2Learn.

This newsletter represents a key outcome of the US:IT strategic plan in which we identified enhancing internal and external communication as a key area of improvement.  Accordingly, we hope you find the information in this newsletter valuable. On behalf of the entire US:IT team, we wish you a successful start to the Fall semester.

Sincerely,
David M. Demers, Ph.D.,
Chief Information Officer