Fake Phishing Results, Banner Modernization, and Generative AI Faculty Resource LibGuide

 

Fake Phishing Results

In the last edition of The Hyperlink, we noted that we are beginning fake phishing exercises. This has become a standard exercise to help us all be vigilant when opening emails and links in emails.

The first fake phish was sent to 940 Harding employees on June 6 at 4:07 pm. The email asked the user to verify their Amazon account.

Below is a summary of the results.

While a 4 % 'submitted data' is not outrageously high, it potentially provided some bad actors information that could be used to subject our systems to attacks. Even just clicking on the link could expose the user to malicious activity on their Harding account. Remember, if an organization is asking that you verify your account, don't click on the link in the email. Go to their site directly.

Banner Modernization

We want to provide you with more information about the Banner Modernization Project. Implementation of Ellucian Experience has commenced, and we can expect to see it and use it later this year.

In order to find out more about this, I interviewed Mike Chalenburg.

Keith: We are currently embarking on a project that has become known as the Banner modernization project. Tell us how this project got started and when it might end.

Mike: It began when Ellucian (the company that owns and markets Banner) approached us asking to work with us to produce a Strategic Alignment Plan to discover how well we were using Banner functionality and identify gaps that could help us in our work.  

Part of the reason for that plan is that Ellucian is moving all of their products to the cloud as a Software as a Service (SaaS) product and, as we plan to stay with Ellucian and Banner for several years at least, the ultimate goal of this project is to move to that environment.  At this point, our estimate to move is 5 years.

Keith: This sounds like a major shift in how we have done things in the past, both from the end user and IT perspective. Can you highlight some of the changes you can see coming down the road from this project?

Mike: The main difference for the end user will be Ellucian Experience (more below) which will replace Pipeline with a more modern  interface as well as a seamless integration with Banner.  One of the advantages for IS&T in a SaaS platform is a significant reduction in time our people will spend installing upgrades and fixes which are already being  provided more often.

Keith: We read a lot lately about digital transformation. Would you see this as one of the significant digital transformations at Harding?

Mike: While we have a culture of adding and using transformative digital tools, I believe these tools will provide a more consistent user experience as well as providing the opportunity to better automate business processes.

Keith: As you noted earlier, this is a 5 year project. Where are we starting with our modernization?

Mike: Similar to our use of Pipeline, Ellucian plans to use Experience as the “front door” to all of their products in a way that will be more friendly than it is now.  Ellucian has also dramatically improved their SSB (Self-service Banner) products.  We will be deploying those along with Experience.  

Keith: It seems like Banner Experience will replace Pipeline. As you know, Pipeline is used extensively by all of us in the Harding community. Tell us what we can expect from this new portal system. When will I be able to see and use this new system? Can we still call it Pipeline?

Mike: We plan to provide all of the tools that Pipeline provides within Experience plus some that are new or enhanced.  Some of the blocks in Pipeline are dated and need to be rewritten.  Along with that, Ellucian has provided additional tools that we can use to ease the flow of work.

At this time, we hope to have a pilot group use Experience near the end of 2023.  However the time could change as we are still learning about its capabilities and requirements.  When we think it’s ready, we plan to open it up for people to “opt-in” for about 4 months. 

And yes, we plan to call it Pipeline.  It’s too easy to say “go to Pipeline and…” so during the opt-in period, we’ll talk about Old Pipeline and New Pipeline before we end the opt-in period by shutting down Old Pipeline.  

Experience also has the ability to be deployed as an app in both the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store, so soon after that, we plan to replace the HardingU app with the Experience version and have a consistent user experience (pun wasn’t intended but is now) across platforms.

Keith: Is there anything else you would like to add about Banner Modernization?

Mike: We believe it will bring us to currency with the Ellucian platforms and allow us to better keep up with the new functionality that is regularly being provided for Banner and its related products.

Generative AI Faculty Resource LibGuide (eg ChatGPT)

Brackett Library has created a living guide that will be continually updated as ChatGPT and AI are rapidly evolving technologies.  The purpose is to have a resource available for faculty that contains helpful information and resources that are easy to understand.  Bookmark this link and check back regularly for updates!

https://library.harding.edu/GenerativeAI/facultyresourceguide

Generative AI is quickly maturing and moving into many areas. For example check out how Generative AI imagines what Barbie's dreamhouse would look like in each state of the USA!
Barbies Dreamhouse in each US State