January 2020 IT Highlights

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IT RUS Grant

The University of Maine System was awarded a USDA Rural Utilities Service Distance Education and Telemedicine grant.  The project, 21st Century Education: Modernizing Distance Education for Rural Maine, will convert both it’s video conferencing and instructional television 20th century distance education systems to a new 21st century web conferencing solution. Sixty two sites, centers and campuses across the State of Maine will receive upgraded equipment as a result of this award.

Image of State of Maine with starred locations of campuses and centers across the state.

The grant allows for the conversion to web conferencing equipment and will provide an opportunity for the University of Maine System to meet the growing demand for shared programming through increased cross-campus collaboration.  The project will enable students at smaller institutions and outreach centers to benefit from a broader availability of classes in such areas as the STEM disciplines, foreign languages, and nursing. Rural entrepreneurs, teachers and other professionals may also benefit as the added system capacity allows for educational programming that meets their needs while linking them to peer and professional networks. 

The solution will provide a unified teaching and learning experience combined with remote services and support that is ideally suited for rural Maine students.

MaineStreet Improvement – Phase II: ERP Assessment

In May 2018, a 4-step plan to address the shortcomings and improve the MaineStreet Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environment was presented to the Board of Trustees. This plan included:

  1. Facilitate systematic course cross-listing across UMS campuses through a pilot program
  2. Implement Campus Solutions (Student Information System) Enhancements
  3. Conduct a full ERP Functional Assessment
  4. Pursue future-state ERP environment

We are pleased to share that we have completed step 1 and are nearing completion of step 2 (with work in progress on the MaineStreet Improvements: UX Project) and are ready to embark on step 3. For the full ERP functional assessment, US:IT will lead the effort to identify a consultant/partner to help coordinate the analysis of our current ERP (MaineStreet) environment and complete a fit-gap analysis based on current challenges we face in supporting One University and Unified Accreditation within the system. A significant focus will be placed on identifying opportunities for greater data consistency and standards across all all campuses. This will enable future capabilities such as a shared course catalog that will greatly enhance student access to courses required for their degree program thereby increasing ability for all campuses to promote and foster degree attainment and student success. Additional focus will be placed on analysis of the several thousand customizations that are currently supported in the MaineStreet environment. In many cases, these customizations have been deployed to support unique data standards and business process needs for individual campuses. As we continue to pursue opportunities to standardize and provide consistent user experiences across the University, we expect many of these customizations should no longer be required.

We anticipate the full functional assessment of the MaineStreet environment to occur throughout the Spring 2020 term with final recommendations on requirements and desired functionality in a future-state ERP environment available later in the Summer.

New maine.edu Website Launch

We are pleased to announce that a brand new www.maine.edu website will be launched on February 4, 2020!

A project team including content owners from many departments and web developers from UMS:IT have been working for the past several months to build a new site that meets the following criteria:

  • Improved accessibility for all users and increased ADA compliance
  • Improved site flow and ease of use
  • Improved responsive design for mobile devices

The team is also developing a business process to make future updates easier for content owners in order to maintain current information and site relevancy.

We look forward to sharing this work with all of you and enhancing the public web presence for the University of Maine System and hope you find the new website informative and easy to navigate.

Training Request Information

Did you know that US:IT has an IT Technical Training Coordinator to assist you with increasing your skills and helping you find the training you’re looking for?  To request training for your office or campus, please submit this request or email ittraining@maine.edu.

Trainings are designed to meet individual, group or departmental, and institutional needs and objectives.

For a collection of quick answers and training options, visit the IT Training Resource page.  Faculty, staff and students also can access training topics via UMS Academy, using their UMS credentials to log in.

UMS OneCard Update

As announced to the University community in December 2019, UMS has launched an initiative to deploy a true OneCard experience for students, faculty and staff as part of the ongoing effort to offer more consistent and valuable services. The UMS OneCard provides any student, faculty or staff who possess a campus ID card and who take courses on multiple campuses or travel frequently between campuses with numerous benefits, including:

  • All campus cards will be accepted at any campus for dining purchases, including meal plans, and “campus bucks”
  • “Campus bucks” are now available at all campuses (a new option for UMF, UMFK & UMPI)
  • Enhanced web portal for managing accounts and adding funds
  • Mobile app for Android devices (available now) and iOS devices (coming soon)
  • Ability to pay using Apple Wallet
  • Continued access to all of the services existing campus cards provide (e.g. library services, copying, printing, events, door access, etc.)
  • Ability for future integrations to further enhance the student experience, including online photo submission

Students returning for spring classes now have direct access to their eAccounts through the MyCampus portal and are able to utilize their current ID card across all seven UMS campuses.

Image shows OneCard six month timeline

To learn more about the UMS OneCard, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.

UMS Single-Sign On Update

This is a sleeker version of the UMS single sign-on page with added links to accountability information.

As of December 2019, the UMS Single Sign-On Service is providing authentication for 125 services used throughout the University of Maine System. 

In 2019, we updated the Single Sign-On Login page to a more modern, accessible, and mobile-friendly version.

During the months of October and November, 2019, we handled more than 5.5 million authentication requests for  48,000 different UMS user accounts. The “Top 10” services by distinct users during this period can be seen in the table below.

Service Distinct Users Total Logins
Google 43,901 631,961*
MyCampus Portal 36,738 2,830,369
Blackboard 29,836 1,534,999
MaineStreet 24,065 262,645
Library Resources 13,399 190,449
UMS Academy 4,068 10,900
Box 3,304 29,892
Concur 2,687 19,822
Student Success Collaborative 2,622 8,625
Transact 2,205 15,181

*Google sessions can last up to a week

US:IT Strategic Plan Update

US:IT teams have been partnering with University of Maine System leadership and campuses to implement solutions and systems that support uniformity and transparency across all campuses. Examples include:

  • Implementing a unified active directory (UAD)  across all campuses enabling all faculty, staff, and lab/classroom devices to be managed centrally.
  • Issuing standard computing devices with standard images at all campuses ensuring that any helpdesk agent or campus technician at any location can assist with University-owned devices. 
  • Implementing a new and modern Learning Management System. 
  • Implementing a unified OneCard experience for students, faculty, and staff across all campuses that will support the ability to use campus card funds for multiple services on any campus.
  • Installing uniform classroom technology equipment across all campuses to ensure ease of use for faculty and students, allowing support issues to be handled from any location.
  • Installing standard and uniform wireless infrastructure at all campuses.
  • Assisting campuses to migrate from out-dated telephony to modern Voice over IP (VoIP).
  • Assisting campuses to migrate from out-dated expensive video conferencing hardware to modern web conferencing software.