October 21st, 2005 by Dana Roode
Faculty and staff often find it necessary to conduct research or other University business from off campus. NACS has been providing tools for this class of use for many years.
In particular, certain network resources (such as electronic journals licensed by the UCI Libraries) can only be accessed by authorized users, and that determination is based on whether the request for access comes from a computer on campus. So, the trick to getting to these resources from off campus is to appear to actually be on campus.
NACS has installed and configured a special server, the VPN (Virtual Private Network) which — once you have established your identity with your UCInetID and password — will take your network connection and make it appear to be a local UCI connection.
NACS provides a Web page which allows off-campus users to take advantage of the VPN server simply and conveniently, if the resource you wish to access is a Web site. Information on how to use the WebVPN can be found at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/vpn/webvpn.html
If the resource you need access to is not a Web site, NACS offers the Cisco VPN client, a program to download and run on your local computer which makes any or all of your Internet activity seem to originate from on campus. More information can be found at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/vpn/
October 21st, 2005 by Dana Roode
When it comes to course evaluations, a growing number of schools and departments will be canceling their Scantron orders this coming academic year, opting for pixels instead of paper. They are making the switch thanks to EEE’s new online course evaluation tool.
Previously a means for instructors and teaching assistants to assess the progress of learning in a class, EEE’s online evaluation tool can now be used for the formal course evaluation process, when authorized by the Dean or Associate Dean.
“This project has saved the School of Physical Sciences staff many hours,” asserts Cindy Fern, Academic Counselor, Physical Sciences.
One advantage of online course evaluations is that results are available immediately after final grade submission. Dr. Rudi Berkelhamer, Associate Dean, Division of Undergraduate Education used the online evaluation system in her University Studies class. She appreciates not only that the data was available much more quickly than in the previous paper-format, but also in a concise form easily imported into a database program for analysis.
Online evaluations conserve resources and reduce expenses. “This project has saved the School of Physical Sciences staff many hours,” asserts Cindy Fern, Academic Counselor, Physical Sciences. “Each of our departments had staff members who spent anywhere from 10 to 40 hours per quarter managing the paper process. With the on-line forms, the time spent each quarter has dropped to about one hour or less for each of the five staff members involved in the process.”
The online form also allows students more time to fill out the form, and in many cases they are more responsive. Bob Cassidy, School of Engineering observed: “This quarter we had 5,600 evaluations completed, so that’s almost twice the volume of what we did on paper.”
Dr. Robert Doedens, Chemistry Professor and Associate Dean, Physical Sciences recognizes that “the proportion of students providing free form comments is larger, the comments tend to be longer, and their overall quality is notably higher.” Dr. Doedens believes that “these changes are largely a result of the absence of time constraints during the completion of the evaluations.”
As of spring, 2005, 21 departments have migrated to the online tool. These include all departments in the schools of Engineering, Biological Sciences, Social Ecology, and Physical Sciences. The EEE Web development team works directly with faculty and staff to ensure that all evaluation needs are met. To find out more about EEE’s new department evaluations process, contact eee@uci.edu.
October 21st, 2005 by Dana Roode
There are many ways for departments and researchers to create and maintain Web sites at UCI. NACS has one solution which affordably meets a variety of potential needs.
NACS offers a Linux-based service which provides the Apache server, MySQL for simple databases, and programming in Perl, PHP, and Python. Subscribers are given 1 GB of storage space and shell access to the web server via SSH to setup content for their Web site. NACS provides server maintenance, system administration, file system backups, and web server configuration.
NACS also offers the standard Microsoft web suite of IIS and ASP on a Windows Server.
If you want help creating content, NACS can work with you to design and develop your site, or to enhance an existing site. An initial consultation will be needed to define the scope of the work and to provide a estimate of the time required to complete the project.
If you have a server and want a 24-hour supervised, secure, climate controlled environment in which to house it, NACS can host web servers in ourAcademic Data Center.
Additional services will be offered either as a standard hourly rate or a flat monthly charge depending on the nature of the services being requested. Seehttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/webhost.html for more information.
These services can be combined or provided independently of each other. Please contact us to discuss your specific needs or any questions you may have.