The world is going mobile, and the University of Saskatchewan is going mobile with it. In fact, a quick survey of the country’s leading research universities suggests the U of S may be leading the pack when it comes to the mobile accessibility of its homepage, course catalogue, library, events calendar, and more.

Part of the reason for that success is a small team in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that is encouraged to respond to changing demands.

“We’re paying attention to the emerging needs of students,” said Todd Trann, manager of ICT web applications and leader of the team behind the university’s improved mobile accessibility. The team monitors usage carefully and actively solicits feedback through such features as a prominent and easy to use feedback tool in the iUsask smartphone application.

As of April, the main U of S homepage at www.usask.ca, as well as most of the first level pages accessible from there, are now fully functional on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. More U of S sites will soon follow; a new mobile website template that ICT makes available free to any U of S department makes the transition much easier. The PAWS portal will also be much more mobile friendly by July, with all channel content expected to be mobile accessible by 2014.

But mobile websites are not the only way to go mobile. Smartphone applications or “apps” are another option but one that involves a lot less “pinch and zoom, pinch and zoom” when it comes to finding content online.

Use of the iUsask smartphone app, which was the first of its kind at a Canadian university, has exploded; at the start of the term in January 2013, the iUsask app was being opened some 14,500 times a day, almost double September’s usage. Trann expects that upward trend to continue.

So, should the university focus its mobile efforts on websites or apps? Trann said that is not his team’s call to make but he wants to see better choices for users. “Right now, we’re trying to offer people the best possible experience through both mobile-accessible pages and apps,” Trann said, adding that the group now needs to analyze where people go online.

It all comes down to asking, “how do people want to interact with the university?” But the answer to that question can change quickly, especially since the field of mobile technology is still so new.

“Mobile is like the web was ten years ago,” said Kyla Hoffman, who leads the work on the university’s Web Content Management System. “It’s the wild west.”

Originally posted in On Campus News on April 26, 2013.
On Campus News - April 26, 2013 PDF

Posted by jww296 at 11:05 AM | Permalink

Research Computing is an all new team working to coordinate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to better support U of S researchers.

The newly launched unit comprises experienced ICT staff already well known to many researchers: Jason Hlady; Ian MacPhedran; team leader Keith Jeffrey; and Brian Reilkoff.

The Research Computing team will assess the ICT needs of researchers, assist them in using existing services, explore new tools that may be of help to them, and inform researchers of service enhancements. The team will draw on the staff and services of the entire ICT portfolio in its mission to support research success.

ICT already provides many services important to researchers including access to high speed research networks, email, online survey tools, videoconferencing, etc., as well as virtual computer servers, high performance computing facilities, computer system administration services, assistance with grant applications, and more.

In the months ahead, watch for:

• new high performance computing capacity available to researchers

• savings in time and grant money through use of virtual servers

• services to help plan and manage research data — to keep it safe and secure while conducting research, as well as archived and findable after the research is done.

The launch of Research Computing bolsters the university’s position as a member of the U15, the country’s 15 leading research-intensive universities. Strengthening the university’s overall research culture through this initiative also supports the university’s priorities as stated in the Third Integrated Plan, particularly that of fostering knowledge creation.

Be sure to follow the ICT Research Computing blog where the team will continue to share news about everything they’re doing and planning to do to better support U of S researchers and strengthen their success.

Contact the ICT Research Computing team at research_computing@usask.ca

Originally posted in the ICT Research Computing blog on April 11, 2013.

Posted by jww296 at 03:41 PM | Permalink

With assignments due and final exams, we know April is a very busy month for you. So, as we’ve done during previous final exam periods, this month we’re forgoing our regularly scheduled maintenance of most ICT services.

This means PAWS, U of S Course Tools (Blackboard) and many other ICT services will continue to run as usual throughout this month's scheduled maintenance.

We do, however, still need to go ahead with regular maintenance on a number of services which run on Microsoft Windows since they require essential patches and updates that cannot wait for a later date.

This reduced maintenance work will be performed during the evening of Wednesday, April 10th, from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. the next morning.

During that time, the following services will be unavailable:

• Email
• File services (Cabinet, Jade, Bermuda, TangoWeb (SSAM/gsis), WinWeb (FMD), Datashare)
• Print services (Green, CPAS)
• Database hosting (SQLserver only)

PAWS, Sirius, Unifi, U of S Course Tools (Blackboard), etc. will remain uninterrupted during this maintenance.

Please note: The Windows servers associated with email, file storage (Cabinet) and printing (CPAS) will be patched after 11:00 pm -- after the Murray Library has closed for the evening -- in order to accommodate students who may be studying there.

For more information, contact:
ICT Help Desk 966-4817, help.desk@usask.ca

Posted by jww296 at 05:19 PM | Permalink

There’s new support for researchers at the U of S. A new blog featuring news and information about how research can be assisted by computing is now live at http://words.usask.ca/researchcomputing/

Written primarily by Research Computing support staff (including Jason Hlady, pictured above) in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the new ICT Research Computing blog will keep up a steady stream of helpful information about new and evolving computing resources.

For example, the inaugural post announces ICT’s new computing cluster for research and instruction. It explains how the new cluster -- called Zeno -- uses graphics processors (GPUs) to accelerate computing and why that makes it such a powerful new research tool.

Other articles will discuss software that could open up research and scholarly work in exciting ways – such as using programs like MATLAB and Mathematica to analyze images or to plot unusual math functions.

The blog will also present helpful methodologies (such as for the optimum use of a geographic information system (GIS)), tips on visualization techniques, and more.

Written for a diverse audience, this blog aims to deliver valuable information for all those engaged in research, scholarly and artistic work at the U of S.

Bookmark ICT’s new Research Computing blog today: http://words.usask.ca/researchcomputing/

Posted by jww296 at 01:52 PM | Permalink