Spring is Here; Change is in the air!

Banner Modernization Project

In November last year, a Strategic Alignment Planning exercise was conducted to help plan the digital future for Harding. This exercise was focused on our main systems from Ellucian, which is primarily Banner. We want to ensure that we are maximizing the value of our investments in the Ellucian solutions and that we have a clear roadmap to keep our Ellucian products and services aligned with modern technology and operation efficiencies.


The major deliverable from this exercise is the Banner Modernization Project. There are many items in this project, but the overall objective is to ensure that our deployment of Banner is always aligned with the latest updates and features. As is common with most vendors in the higher education space, there is a concerted move to have products like Banner be implemented in the cloud as Software as a Service (SaaS). While this is some time away from being fully implemented, we want you to be aware that a SaaS implementation will bring changes to what we can and cannot do ourselves and will lead to business process changes.

The first steps in the project will be to implement Ellucian Experience and the Intelligent Learning Platform.

Ellucian Experience is a platform that ties all the operation elements of Banner (and other services) into one place. Experience is a centralized and secure information hub. It can be tailored to fit the roles that we fulfill. One major outcome we see is that Experience would replace Pipeline! The intention is to make this a ‘soft’ rollout where we will have a pilot group use and stress test Experience and from there enter an opt-in period where we can choose to opt-in to using Experience. During this opt-in time we should be able to switch back and forth between Pipeline and Experience. Following the opt-in period, there would be a hard cutover time.

We are planning for the opt-in period to begin in the first quarter of 2024.

The Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP) provides a tight integration between Banner and Canvas. Currently we are using homegrown software to provide this integration. As we move forward, it is better to use the platform that comes with Banner. ILP works seamlessly with Experience to the point where it can send reminders to students of upcoming assignments (if of course all this information is in Canvas). ILP implementation is planned to be in place by the Summer of 2024.

Cyber Security Update

One of the key requirements of our Cyber Insurance policy is to have fake phishing exercises and any follow-up training that may be needed! I can only guess what we are all thinking about this! Please don’t look down on the folks in IS&T because of this.

However, because those bad actors that send out the phishing emails and so forth keep getting ‘better’ and looking more and more legitimate, we are about to start sending out fake phishing emails and invite some who may be hooked by the fake phishing bait to undertake some online training. The training will be in the form of 3-5 minute videos, most of which are animated. The video is followed by a simple quiz. Here is a sample video (our videos will be more suited to a higher education institution) - https://player.vimeo.com/video/344657894
The fake phishing emails will be sent out randomly. Some will focus on particular groups and others will be to the general community.

Changes in Google's Agreement

Google is changing the way they handle storage. Because of this, it was necessary for us to purchase Google licenses instead of using the “free” version of Google. The licenses we purchased are called Google Plus Licenses and are available for current employees and current students.

Our new licenses come with some nice features. Most of them are administrative, but there are some enhancements to Google Meet that we think will be helpful to you.  

• Q&A – allows anyone in the Meeting to ask questions. The moderator can filter the questions, mark them as answered or hide them.

• Breakout Rooms – moderators can divide participants into smaller groups during the Meet.

• Record a Meeting – recordings are saved in your Google Drive.

• Transcripts – Captures a transcription of the Meet that is saved in your Google Drive.

• Noise Cancellation – helps to limit distractions in the Meet and filter out background noise.

• Attendance Reports – track Meeting attendance automatically.

You don’t need to do anything to use your new Google license. It has already been applied to your account. Licenses for students with similar features will be added soon.

New Telephone system coming...

If you haven’t already, please complete the survey that will help us determine the features of the future telephone system that will be installed.


We have had 354 people respond so far. That is a great response to the survey. Here are some of the early results:

In the charts below, 5 - strongly agree and 1 - strongly disagree.

The survey closes this Friday, March 24, 2023.
Here is a link to the survey: https://forms.gle/1tsRJ4graSDScp4n6.

Hyperlink out of quarantine!

The Hyperlink is back.

We are very pleased to have The Hyperlink back out of quarantine. The pandemic seemed to have put a solid hold on the production of The Hyperlink. However, it is back and we will get back into sending you regular updates and information from IS&T.

We hope you find the content informative and helpful.

Cybersecurity

The storage and transmission of digital information has a profound positive impact on how we serve our students, faculty, staff and alumni. It also comes with some serious repercussions if not properly protected against unauthorized access. The IS&T department at Harding is taking deliberate steps toward bolstering the security of our data in the ever-increasing world of data risks and breaches. Security-related projects and reviews have been completed with several more currently being implemented or are being planned. A recent example would be the implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Harding-owned web logins.

It is rather difficult to identify all of the ways an attacker would use to breach Harding’s infrastructure. To combat that, IS&T uses security industry standards and cyber security insurance guidelines to scope the areas that might be overlooked or undervalued but are key to an attacker’s success. Harding is capitalizing on the relationships with long-term partners to bring their information security offerings to bear.

Nothing will completely block the bad guys. There is no magic point at which Harding can say we are fully secured as long as human beings create and implement technology. Flaws in the various systems are discovered with regularity, and patching is among the primary responses IT has for shoring up potential holes. Scanning for viruses is done at network layers as well as most computing devices.

Recently we contracted an outside organisation to conduct pentration and vulnerabilty testing of our systems.

However, everyone has a part to play in helping to secure and protect our digital assets. Each user should develop an information security-savvy approach to emails received, websites visited and attachments sent their way. If a computer is not behaving in an expected way, it is always good to report the behavior rather than ignore it.

If you suspect questionable computer activity, Students can contact DormNet at 501-279-4545 or for faculty and staff, contact Client Support at 501-279-4440.

Library Renovations

Brackett Library is excited to announce renovations done on the second floor. After listening to students, four more study rooms were added. The most significant undertaking was replacing the carpet which required using stack movers. The shelves of books in the general collection needed to be moved so that the old carpet could be ripped out and the new carpet laid down.

When using stack movers, all the books can stay on the shelves as they use machinery with hydraulic lifts to pick up the shelves and then move them over to one side of the library while the carpet work is done. There were a few collections that had to be moved by hand, such as the Best Sellers and Christian Fiction since they are on wooden bookcases. Also, the Brewer Book collection and the Williams-Miles Chemistry collection all had to be moved as well. Most of these books were moved to the first floor while the work was being done upstairs. The whole process took several weeks.

The mauve endcaps on the bookshelves were also replaced with a wood finish making a significant change to the look and feel of the library. There are still a few things that need to be completed such as doors in the study rooms and painting the staircase. These should be finished in the upcoming weeks.





The library has had a lot of questions about the construction behind the building. This is not added space for the library but the new East Plant for Physical Resources that will house equipment for the air systems on the east side of campus.

Course Design Workshop

Today’s learners often seek a dynamic learning environment that engages them in a variety of learning experiences. An important aspect of providing this dynamic learning space is having the proper design elements in place. This is where the Course Design Workshop can be helpful.

The Course Design Workshop aims to prepare instructors to develop quality online courses. This is done through collaborating with the design team, using quality standards (best practices) in teaching and learning, and streamlined course design procedures. At the completion of each phase (phases are detailed below), a badge is awarded as a token for successfully completing that section. After completing all 6 phases, instructors will have the first draft of their unit/module 1 in place, which sets the tone for the remaining design.


The Course Design Workshop consists of the following 6 Phases:

Phase 1: Introduction - Quality Standards and Streamlining the Process

Phase 2: Course Mapping - Creating Learning Objectives

Phase 3: Course Mapping - Syllabus Creation

Phase 4: Course Building - Instructional Materials and Assessments

Phase 5: Course Building - Learning Activities and Engagement

Phase 6: Improvement and Next Steps


To learn more, please email the Center for Learning with Technology at hulearn@harding.edu or call 501-279-5211.