Web Mail | LearnJCU | Contacts | Bulletins | Campus Maps
   Information For > Prospective Students | International Students | Current Students | Visitors | Staff | Jobs at JCU
Information About > The University | Research | Teaching | Courses & Degrees | Faculties & Divisions | Library & Computing

Annual Report 2003

Kent Adams, Director, Information Technology and Resources

Information Technology and Resources (ITR) is a program of the Academic Support Division (ASD) and reports to the Pro Vice Chancellor, Information Services and Technologies (IST), Professor Eric Wainwright.

Australian Research and Education Network

In 2002 I reported that as a result of the Federal Government's announcement of $5.5m funding for broadband communications, we expected an infrastructure rollout to deliver broadband communications services to Australian regional universities during 2003. This funding was provided to JCU as the lead site. JCU and CQU are shareholders in AARNet Pty Ltd (APL), the Australian Research and Education Network (AREN) management company who have acted on our behalf. APL have successfully negotiated a contract with Powerlink Queensland (PL) for Stage 1 of the Queensland Research and Education Network (QREN), a 2.5Gb backbone network to connect Townsville to Rockhampton to Brisbane and thus the AREN and this has been deployed. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, APL failed to reach agreement in separate negotiations for the fibre tails required for the "last mile" connectivity from each campus to the APL/PL Point of Presence (PoP) in that city. As a result, APL has tendered and selected Leighton's Visionstream to complete the fibre tails in each city. The has delayed the delivery for QREN Stage 1 until April, 2004. It is both a JCU and APL/PL goal to successfully gain funding to complete QREN Stage 2 and extend the backbone to include other regional centres including JCU's Cairns campus by early 2005. AIMS, CSIRO and TAFE can benefit by negotiating the necessary connectivity to the APL/PL PoP and thus the AREN.

Government Funding Applications

In 2003, JCU has been successful in its bid for $2m from the 2006 Commonwealth Development Pool (CDP) for The 3Rs Project, Extending the Reach, Resilience and Redundancy of the JCU Local Area Network (LAN) known as JCUNet. The aims of The 3Rs Project are to: build on the wireless network pilot project undertaken during 2003 and extend the Reach of the University’s wireless delivery network; provide Resiliency on the university network by building a ring fibre topology supplementing the existing star fibre topology; review the client delivery environment to address the needs of various client groups by developing portals to enable the efficient delivery and discovery of information and services. This follows on from the $1.5m JCU gained in the 2005 CDP round for investments in advanced teaching systems involving online, video capture and delivery and contemporary video and conference systems. Planning for these developments is underway to ensure minimal delay when the funding becomes available for these projects in 2005 and 2006.

These projects will neatly complement the backbone network by providing wireless access as well as improving the overall reliability of JCUnet by provision of a self-healing network infrastructure. This recognises and supports the requirement for 24x7 service for research, flexible learning and international marketing.

Deployment of wireless access points will change and improve the utilisation of existing University teaching, research and administration space by extending the reach of the JCUNet. This will inherently change the way spaces on campus are used. Existing social and meeting spaces will have network access and this connectivity will facilitate change in the modes of interaction between researchers, teachers, students and administrators resulting in improvements in teaching and their management of day to day activities.

Additionally, it will extend the range of use of learning spaces such as the library, and improve the efficiency of use of teaching rooms. Advantages will also flow to students and other members of the University community by enabling the use of wireless devices such as laptops and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) anywhere, anytime, anyplace on campus.

A joint application with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to the Large Equipment Infrastructure Fund (LEIF) for grid computing infrastructure will improve existing High Performance and Research Computing provision in 2004. The JCU allocation of $406,000 from this grant matches the $240,000 commitment by the University to ensure JCU remains at the forefront of High Performance and Research Computing.

Annual Schools Visits

Schools were invited to participate in the annual ITR School Visits program to discuss their Information Technology and Resources requirements for 2003/4 and any aspects of the ITR service. There was particular emphasis on planning for 2003/2004 and the Schools were invited to scan reports prior to the meeting.

This improves ITR's awareness of School issues and concerns and in many cases allows the implementation of measures or change procedures to prevent, or at least minimise the impact of service changes on the Schools as our clients. System and service changes may be required to address our own changing university environment or as a result of external influences imposed either by changing social, technological or governmental audit, compliance and reporting requirements.

These visits were scheduled mornings 9am to 12pm, 14th to 21st July and afternoons 12pm to 5pm, 22nd to 25th July. Videoconferencing was offered to include Cairns staff to ensure a wide representation and response and to cover School services and issues on all campuses.

ITR has a broad representation of staff from Information Technology & Resources present and has found these meetings an invaluable aid for planning. In 2003 we were particularly interested to discuss:

Schools were invited to raise any specific issues in advance to assist in ensuring that the appropriate ITR staff could be present.

These meetings were minuted, returned to the Schools for comment and actions were assigned. These will be followed up in the next round scheduled for 2004.

University Budget - University IT Infrastructure Upgrade and Replacement Program

University Bids - Strategic Initiative and Minor Works and Fabric Maintenance

As a result of forward planning and funding provided by the University IT Infrastructure Upgrade and Replacement Program and the University Strategic Initiative process four tenders have been written, responses evaluated and, in some cases, orders placed for equipment delivery and deployment during 2004. These tenders were for: Communication and Collaborative Services (Email, Webmail and Calendaring); Communications and Collaborative Storage Consolidation (Storage Area Network (SAN) to meet increasing data storage and disaster recovery requirements); Web Content Management (System to better manage documents to be delivered to the Web); Library Management System (Replacement system to better manage, categorise and deliver information resources) and are described further under Major Projects.

Environmental Projects to improve physical security, facilities and network infrastructure will be undertaken in 2004. The Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS) will be removed from the machine rooms in Townsville and Cairns to decrease the risk associated with UPS malfunction and loss of business function. New Firewall and Virtual Private Network (VPN) equipment will be deployed to enhance the logical security of the JCU network and some physical security changes will be made to reduce the risk of damage.

These projects underpin JCU's ability to meet increasing demand for IT services, maintain security and deliver the capacity required to achieve our goal to provide the University community secure web-based access to the information they require anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

This report details some of the major new and ongoing projects for functional ITR Units but recognises that a significant proportion of staff time and effort is required for the ongoing maintenance and support of existing systems.

Major Projects

During 2003 ITR staff reviewed requirements and developed separate tenders for:

Additionally ITR staff were involved with other Programs in reviewing requirements and developing tenders or expressions of interest for:

For most tenders of this size, Steering Groups, Selection Committees and Working Groups were formed comprising ITR staff and university clients. Requirements were developed for the tender document and proposals were evaluated against selection criteria stated in the tender documents. Shortlisted respondents were invited to give presentations and the presentations evaluated by a selection committee. Final selection reports are presented to the Pro Vice Chancellor, Information Services and Technologies and the Director, ITR. All responses must meet the requirements, terms and conditions of the Queensland Government Information Technology Contract.

Communications and Collaborative Computing Services Infrastructure

Email, Webmail, Integrated Spam and Virus and Calendar Services

The Communication and Collaborative Computing Services tender was advertised on September 30th, 2003. The main focus of this tender was the provision of a robust, highly functional and scaleable Email and calendaring solution for the University with a focus on minimising administrative overhead and cost.

Early in 2004, ITR plans an upgrade of our existing Email service and infrastructure. After an open tender process the University has chosen to purchase Mirapoint Message and Director servers to manage the university's future Email server requirements and to provide a Webmail solution replacement for current Internet Mail Program (IMP). Additionally Mirapoint provides integrated Spam and Virus scanning, support for foreign languages and mobile computing devices. Following the development of expertise, training and documentation, calendar services will be transitioned from CorporateTime and delivered to all staff and students in the latter half of 2004.

The Mirapoint hardware and software solution is used by many organisations world-wide and in the Australian Higher Education sector, Wollongong, Edith Cowan and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are Mirapoint customers. ITR believes that this new Email system will provide the capacity, performance and scalability required to support JCU's activities well into the foreseeable future.

Communications and Collaborative Computing Storage Infrastructure

Storage Area Network and Disaster Recovery Services

The Communications and Collaborative Computing Storage tender was advertised on September 30th, 2003. The main focus of this tender was the provision of a storage infrastructure to maximise return on investment and provide the flexibility and scalability required to meeting the continuing growth in storage requirements. This growth is as a result of continued growth in teaching, research and administration requirements and as a result of other ICT developments eg the storage requirements associated with the High Performance and Research Computing project. Additionally respondents who addressed the university need to provide Disaster Recovery were viewed favourably.

After an open tender process the University has chosen to purchase storage infrastructure from StorageTek. The final solution provides a total of 12TB of raw storage with a maximum configurable capacity of 103TB. This solution provides both high speed, high availability fibre channel storage and cheaper lower speed departmental storage. The former will meet Corporate Information Systems requirements and the latter an identified School and Office need for Network Accessible Storage (NAS), secure and managed storage capacity.

JCU Directory Service and Organisational Roles Management

The Directory Service, Roles and Maintenance

This system has been planned and developed since late 2002. During 2003 it was deployed and procedures implemented for the collection and maintenance of Organisational Roles for the JCU Directory Service. Some examples of roles are Head, PersonalAssistant, AcademicAdvisor, LibraryLiaisonOfficer, TravelOfficer, LeaveApprover and RoleAdmin. Information about the management and reporting for Organisational Roles is Organisational Roles in StaffOnline www.jcu.edu.au/staffonline.

There are several projects, that while quite independent in terms of their ownership, planning and desired outcomes are reliant on the Directory Service information:

The JCU Directory Service underpins authentication, authorisation and access for these systems. It stores Organisational Unit (ORGUs) information and individual organisational roles for use in workflow systems, alias and group creation and other online processes. The information is used for the creation and ongoing maintenance of various groups for access control, and the production of email and contact lists for communications, many of which are currently maintained manually.

There is a role set for the individual/s who maintain roles for their ORGU level. This is called RoleAdmin.

For security purposes, the RoleAdmin for top level ORGUs ie Faculties and Divisions will be controlled by Human Resources. The security and control cascades from the Faculty/Division RoleAdmin, who have authority to set the second level ORGUs ie School/Office RoleAdmin, who in turn have authority to set the third level ORGUs ie Discipline/Unit RoleAdmin. The overarching rule is that a RoleAdmin has authority to modify roles within and below their ORGU but cannot alter the RoleAdmin at their own ORGU level.

As systems (new and existing) are built to rely on data stored in the JCU Directory Service, it is extremely important that the Role information is up to date and well maintained. These maintenance procedures will improve the quality of our data, define Organisational Roles and thus extend our ability to improve the range and quality of services offered.

In the planning of Role Definitions, Human Resources staff noted that many ORGUs used the now discontinued JCU-Heads and JCU-Secs lists as general email contacts. The new JCU.Heads email list is populated from information stored in the Head role ONLY and the JCU-Secs email list has been replaced by the JCU.PersonalAssistants email list.

JCU.Contacts delivers to Head, PersonalAssistant, OfficeManager roles and additionally to those with the EmailContact role. JCU.Contacts replaces JCU-Heads and JCU-Secs for general university announcements. As a result of this data collection, many new lists eg JCU.SafetyOfficers, JCU.WebManagers and JCU.ITSupport will be automatically created and published in 2004.

To ensure system functionality, access and security, it is very important that the role information contains valid data or exceptions will occur. While safeguards and escalation procedures will be programmed, it is a requirement that Human Resources, Faculty and Divisional Executive Officers and designated RoleAdmins maintain information as staff changes occur to ensure the workflow and communications systems remain highly functional.

Assistance and Help

Clients can report Organisational Roles usage problems and suggestions for new roles to JCUDS@jcu.edu.au or call Simon Baird or Lynn Alford. Simon and Lynn will initially provide assistance with an eventual transition to InfoHelp.

Directory Enabled Door (DED) Project

The DED project, a joint project of Central Services Office and ITR, is being implemented to address the following limitations of the current JCU de-facto door access solution, Ascent Door Access.

Ascent has a maximum key value of 60,000 and this maximum value will be exceeded in 2004. At JCU all staff and student door access codes are generated from a range of numbers administered centrally by ITR.

The network infrastructure required by the Ascent system requires the installation of modems between the central server location and the remote doors controlled by Ascent. These modems have, over time, proven susceptible to lightning damage and are expensive to replace. JCU needs a door access system that uses the existing TCP/IP-CAT5 based ethernet network infrastructure, which is not susceptible to lightning damage and is easily administered with existing staff.

Finally the Ascent system has significant limitations in terms of its internal directory service and the software is non-standard requiring a level of support not commensurate with the systems importance.

A prototype installation has been in place in GATCF room A204 since June 2003. All necessary directory service synchronisation has been developed and deployed. The conversion of existing Ascent system is proceeding throughout January 2004. This will provide a means to synchronise directory services between the door access system user database and University Directory Service that has a real-time event driven system and is running on a modern supportable architecture.

In summary, the Directory Enabled Door Project addresses the following issues:

Supported Software

The current supported software suite comprises:

All available licensing agreements and offers are maintained on the web and Conditions for Use of Computing and Communications Facilities are available on the web under Computer Usage Guidelines.

Of particular note in 2003 are:

IT Support staff have been advised of ordering, licensing, access and installation procedures. Given that site audits of Australian universities are now becoming more commonplace this is an important step to ensure compliance. Clients should have appropriate licenses for all software installed on their workstations.

Proposed developments for 2004 are:

Microsoft Software Update Service and Sophos Enterprise Manager

As part of ITR’s ongoing security initiatives, a new system for critical software updates and antivirus updates has been adopted and is currently being pressed into production.

This system will enable Faculty, Divisional and College IT Support staff to keep desktops for which they are responsible updated with the latest antivirus and Microsoft software updates. The first step in October was the installation of two servers, one in Townsville and one in Cairns. Each of these servers is running two software packages, the Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) and Sophos Enterprise Manager.

The Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) software is available as a result of the latest CAUDIT negotiated Microsoft Academic Custom Agreement. The deployment of SUS will reduce the costs for individuals downloading Microsoft critical updates and additionally provide a centrally accessible repository to keep JCU servers and desktops up to date. Keeping abreast of critical updates helps to avoid those vulnerabilities exploited by viruses and worms eg the Blaster and Nachi worms. The loss of time and information associated with remedial action when servers and desktops are infected is a significant business risk and impact.

The following table (Available SUS Updates) shows the number of patches available on the SUS server, December 2003, each patch for a different vulnerability in Microsoft Software.

ITR have reviewed the level of protection afforded by the Sophos anti-virus system as a result of the ever present virus activity and the increase in sophistication of newly emerging viruses. New software from Sophos known as Enterprise Manager was recently added as part of the Sophos site-license. Enterprise Manager was chosen as it provides JCU with a far more structured and reliable method of delivering antivirus solutions. Enterprise Manager provides continuous updates via the web and the ability to publish antivirus updates from a central location on campus. This will enable Faculty and Divisional IT Support staff to ensure that the systems for which they are responsible have the most recent distribution of virus definitions.

The major benefits of these two new systems are that we are able to give far more control, reduce costs and enhance benefits to Faculties and Divisions. IT Support staff can use the central service or deploy their own SUS and Sophos servers to replicate from the ITR primary servers, thus distributing machine and network load. IT Support staff have participated in information sessions run by ITR regarding the new services, and complete installation guides and software have been provided via website

With the continued co-operation of IT Support staff, deployment of these services should be completed in early 2004, providing improved security for desktop clients and servers.

Memory Cache

Number of Updates

Internet Explorer 5.0X

223 items

Internet Explorer 5.5X

99 items

Internet Explorer 6.X

326 items

Windows 2000

1651 items

Windows XP

1379 items

Windows Server 2003 family

250 items

Available SUS Updates

General Access and Teaching Computer Facilities (GATCF)

2003 has been a very busy year in the GATCF Labs. The lease on the Compaq computers that were installed in the Cairns Library and the Townsville GATCF labs BH149, EA001 and ES001 expired in January 2003. An RFP was published in local and instate newspapers inviting tenders for the replacement of these units. The successful tenderer was Rosh Tech Computers, a Queensland-wide computer company with branches in Townsville and Cairns. The computer model that they tendered with was an Acer Veriton 5500.

The new computer units were rolled out into the Cairns Library and the GATCF labs BH149, EA001 and ES001 in January 2003. A new GATCF lab was established on the Townsville Western Campus precinct in Education A Block, additional units were added to the Library buildings in Townsville and Cairns and a new GATCF lab was also established in Cairns, E1-017. All 312 new computers were imaged and available for use by the start of O-Week 2003.

The GATCF Labs located in the Townsville TESAG precinct were ceded to the School of IT during 2003 to address lab availability issues that faced the school as a result of significant growth.

Wall ports and wireless access was provided in the HX Lab precinct on the Townsville campus and in the Libraries in Cairns and Townsville to enable students to access their email, web browsing, StudentsOnline and LearnJCU from their laptops.

Currently, ITR staff maintains 29 labs across the Townsville, Cairns and Vincent campuses managing a total of 618 workstations, 7 Netware servers and 2 storage arrays. The JCU Novell Directory Service now contains over 18,665 user and user policy objects, and 705 workstation and workstation policy objects. ITR staff also maintains the computer units that are located in the lecture theatres and larger video-conference facilities across the University campuses. These computer units are set up with the standard GATCF computer image and have the standard suite of software delivered to the desktops.

A total of 37 Applications and Utility Software packages are made available on each workstation to all JCU students/staff using the GATCF labs. Additionally, a total of 150 specialist School teaching software packages are made available to students who are members of defined subject groups via the computers in the GATCF facilities.

These software packages are either installed locally on the desktops or run from the Netware servers that service the GATCF labs.

Lab Usage

 GATCF Lab Usage for the period 1/1/2003 to 17/12/2003

Cairns Facilities

Lab Name

Number of Workstations

Hours Available

Total Teaching Hours Booked

Total Student/Staff Logins

A2-017

18

24 x 7

309.5

3000

A2-018

18

24 x 7

563.1

23044

A4-008

20

Library Hours

380

23388

A4-222

18

Library Hours

699.1

3000

B1-003

1

Library Hours

Not Bookable

203

B1-004

6

Library Hours

Not Bookable

1094

B1-005

9

Library Hours

Not Bookable

9350

B1-104

21

Library Hours

622.3

4430

B1-105

9

Library Hours

283.2

5056

E1-017

25

24 x 7

777

7928

B1-030

29

24 x 7

80

34319

B1-L01

30

Library Hours

Not Bookable

49489

B1-L02

28

Library Hours

Not Bookable

33104

TOTALS

3715

197405

Lab Name

Number of Workstations

Hours Available

Total Teaching Hours Booked

Total Student/Staff Logins

Townsville Facilities

A2-204

24

24 X 7

710

8187

BH149

24

9-5 Mon to Fri

1202

7025

BX003

24

24 x 7

1372

22516

EA001

24

24 x 7

1205

19206

EM008

12

24 x 7

802

7000

ES001

32

24 x 7

1198

27707

HX101

24

24 X 7

1293

42068

HX102

20

24 x 7

1365

40243

HX103

24

24 x 7

1651

53669

HX104

24

24 x 7

747

11000

HX107

24

24 x 7

1226

39033

TG023

34

24 x 7

1054

11459

VA026

24

24 x 7

907

7565

WE024

24

24 X 7

1031

28476

LIB1

6

Library Hours

Not Bookable

12354

LIB2

24

Library Hours

Not Bookable

120131

LIB2a

48

Library Hours

Not Bookable

77818

TOTALS

15763

535457

Bookings for 2003

Hours booked into the GATCF Labs for teaching purposes has remained high. There was a total of 15,763 hours booked into the Townsville GATCF labs from 1/1/03 to 31/10/03 and 3715 hours into the Cairns GATCF labs for the same period

Lab Logins for 2003

There were a total of 535,457 logins by students/staff in the GATCF Labs on the Townsville and Vincent campuses, and 197405 in the Cairns GATCF labs.

The GATCF labs ran at 99.99% uptime for the 2003 Academic year.

Nachi and Blaster Virus Attack - Remedial Action

Unfortunately the GATCF labs in Townsville and Cairns were victims of the Blaster and Nachi Viruses in August 2003. The action taken by the dedicated staff that maintain the GATCF facilities ensured there was no down time in the delivery of teaching hours in the labs. All the GATCF labs are now using the ITR SUS server for automatic downloads of the Microsoft critical patches and automatic updates of the Sophos IDE updates.

Ongoing GATCF Projects

The provision of printing services and an associated printer accounting system in the GATCF labs is currently under review. The current version of the pCounter software used to account for printing in the GATCF labs along with the queue-based printing technology to service pCounter is legacy software and a review of the printing management model is underway.

There are two products under evaluation SmartPrint Central and Portal Printing. SmartPrint Central is a commercial product that is distributed by Bermel in Australia. Portal Printing is an in-house development utilising the Portal Infranet software that is the accounting engine for JCU's Internet Access management. It is intended to pilot the Portal Printing solution at the beginning of first semester 2004. An evaluation of SmartPrint Central will also be undertaken in January 2004.

At the end of 2004 the lease on the Dell Optiplex GX150’s installed in the GATCF labs will expire. This lease also includes the backend servers and the storage arrays located in Townsville and Cairns. Development of RFP documentation will commence around August of 2004. A Change Management model will also be developed and initiated towards the end of 2004 to ensure the smooth transition from the existing GATCF infrastructure to the new.

Voice and Dial in Services

Voice services have seen a steady growth in usage and number of services, most notably the increase in mobile services and international traffic. The Fixed Voice Contract is under review.

Telephone equipped ends

2001

2002

2003

Douglas

2736

2794

2815

Cairns

499

596

716

Vincent

92

92

92

Anton Brienl

102

20

 

University Halls

902

902

916

Other Services

 

 

 

DialIP Users Registered

 

153

262

Mobile Phones

188

205

238

Videoconferencing and Audio Visual Services

Facility support

Support is provided for the following Common Teaching and Videoconferencing Rooms (CTRs) on the Cairns, and Townsville campuses, including regular room checks and on call technical support:

9 x Level-1 CTR

6 x Level-2 CTR

22 x Level-3 CTR

33 x Level-4 CTR

Six of the above CTRs are videoconference capable. ITR also provide support for 9 dedicated videoconference rooms which are not on the CTR list. These venues are exclusively booked through ITR. Total of 15 x Videoconferencing capable venues with a new Lecture theatre NS002 due to come online in February 2004. A grand total of 79 rooms are supported.

Common Teaching Room Usage

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

Total hours

3145

3432

3889

4035

4144

No of rooms

54

59

63

67

70

Average hrs

58.2

58.2

61.7

60.2

59.2

% Usage

44.8

44.7

47.5

46.3

45.5

Note: Totals for room usage are the number of hours booked based on repeat scheduled lectures & tutorials for typical weeks in both Semesters 1 & 2.

% Usage is calculated as a percentage of possible booked hours between 8am and 9pm,

5 days per week for Semesters 1 & 2.

Support was provided for 70 Common teaching rooms that were booked for over 2000 hours per week during lecture periods each semester. Demand for higher resolution display devices and the merging of IT, Communications and Audio Visual technologies continues to make support issues more complex however increased remote control capabilities (networked projectors and control systems) are very beneficial in the provision of technical support.

The provision of GATCF computers in Level-1 lecture theatres and larger videoconferencing rooms has been extremely successful and has facilitated the popularity of USB drives amongst presenters. Having “house computers” in heavily used venues has reduced support issues involved when laptops are used and permits speedy changeovers of classes on the hour thus reducing valuable lost lecture time. Thanks go to staff in the Computing Infrastructure unit at both Cairns and Townsville for their excellent support.

Videoconferencing

Summary Annual Statistics - Total hours

 

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

JCU Internal Videoconferences

 

Cairns - Townsville

 

Teaching, Lectures & tutorials

44

113

278

908

1974

2500

2667

Non Teaching, Meetings, interviews and seminars

86

233

809

942

1020

1485

1773

 

JCU Videoconferences to External Sites

 

(Lectures, meetings, interviews and seminars)

 

From Townsville

 

155

106

193

154

From Cairns

 

79

85

121

84

 

Commercial Videoconferences

 

To & from Townsville

26

28

60

130

147

132

187

To & from Cairns

3

24

54

94

107

102

147

 

Grand Total Usage

159

398

1201

2308

3439

4533

5012

Our thanks go to the staff in the Communications Infrastructure Unit for providing us with an extremely solid network infrastructure and excellent timely support this year. This has allowed us to conduct almost all of our internal videoconferences between Cairns and Townsville on the JCU network at 768kbps. On the rare occasions that service has not been available (less than 1% of the time) we reverted to Telstra ISDN services. Although Telstra 128kbps OnRamp services were not used heavily for internal videoconferencing traffic they were held as a contingency in the case of network problems and also used extensively for off campus connections.

Increased involvement with Access Grid support, particularly at Cairns. One member from Cairns and one from Townsville will be undergoing Linux training early in 2004 to allow us to become more effective with Access Grid support and future development in this area.

The Unit continued to offer and expand on 3 basic models for videoconferencing set-ups:

  1. 768kbps connection with choice of a single input such as main or auxilliary camera, document camera, computer or vcr. Using cif, 4cif and SVGA controlled by users.

  2. Duo-video 2 x 384kbps connection typically with the presenter at 4cif resolution and computer at SVGA or document camera at 4cif. Very minimal user control required.

  3. Multipoint connections using built in bridge capability combining any 4 IP or ISDN capable sites in continuous presence or voice switched mode. Usually at cif resolution. This mode of connection is becoming increasing popular to service sites such as Mt Isa by linking them into a Cairns – Townsville videoconference.

Users are becoming more familiar with the videoconferencing systems capabilities, this is leading to increased utilization of features and generally more suitable user behavior which creates a better environment for students and remote participants.

Although a number of new commercial providers of videoconferencing facilities have emerged in both Cairns and Townsville we have continued to grow in this area. This can be contributed to a number of factors including:-

Credit is due to the work of Lyn Newson and the units technical staff who have built up very good working relationships with customers, this has enabled many repeat bookings and consolidated regular clients including, Appeals Tribunals, local legal firms, courts and corporate organizations such as Woolworths. 

Support and advice was provided to non common type videoconferencing venues including systems at the School of Nursing Townsville, JCU Medical School Atherton and the Cairns Base Hospital. The units at these remote sites often connect to JCUs common videoconferencing facilites and it is therefore in the overall interests of the university to promote compatibility and reliability.

Ongoing Projects

2004 will be the first year that JCU will reap the benefits of a 3 year review and upgrade plan that was instigated in 2000. All CTRs that have equipment reaching the age of 3 years will be reviewed and upgraded accordingly. NEC MT830 LCD projectors with SVGA capabilities will be replaced with NEC LT260 DLP units that have network, audio and native XGA support. Control systems and other equipment that have usable lives longer than 3 years will be reprogrammed and reused.

Installation and upgrades are scheduled to commence in January 2004. Rooms to be upgraded include:

Future Projects & Issues

With JCU having 16 videoconferencing systems in 2004 it is necessary that we implement a management system to more efficiently control these units and with this in mind funding has been provided to purchase the Tandberg Management Suite and Scheduler. This system will enable us to monitor and schedule calls more efficiently and allow us to upload new software releases efficiently. The Scheduler part of this software will allow us to conduct trials that give preferred clients who are heavy bookers of videoconferencing rooms a direct link to our timetabling system without the need to go through a bookings desk.

A gradual phasing out of 16mm film, 35mm slide projectors and audio cassette players is occurring as users convert to digital media such as computers, USB drives and DVDs. It is a requirement of some users that we continue to support both legacy and newer technologies in the short to medium term. Rather than simply ceasing to support legacy systems we intend not to purchase any further 16mm, 35mm projectors or audio cassette players. By the start of Semester 1 2005 we will have replaced all existing VHS players with DVD/VHS combination units.

The popularity and success of “House Computers” in level-1 CTR and larger videoconferencing venues suggests that an expansion of these computers to level 2 and 3

CTRs would be a major improvement for teaching an learning and will occur in 2004.

An Electroboard Smart Sympodium will be trialed as an exemplar in the HLT in Semester 1

2004. This unit enables annotations over computer images and introduces a range of tools that can be utilized by lecturing staff to enhance learning experiences. The unit can be moved

into other lecture theatres to gauge its worth on a trial basis.

The development of “Micro campuses” at Mt Isa, Atherton and Thursday island which will utilize videoconferencing will provide challenges in the area of technical and user support. IP remote control capabilities will assist with developing efficient support models to manage these campuses.

Student System Developments

International Fees System (IFP)

This system was implemented in March 2003 following extensive consultations with the International Student Centre (ISC), Student Administration and Resources Office. The system uploads offer information and fee tables from the ISC's SPYDER system; it maintains groupings (categories) of sponsored and non-sponsored students; it automatically uploads IFP fee liability to the Finance System via batch imports; and it issues invoices to students and to sponsors.

The system also includes a comprehensive inquiry and reporting system.

Fee Systems Integration (FLOAD)


2003 saw the integration of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), Domestic Fee Paying (DFP) and International Fee Paying (IFP) fee systems into what has become known as FLOAD. There is now a single fee calculation module which is used for all fee calculations, and the FLOAD files now form a single source of fee information which is in turn fed into inquiries, invoices and fee liability uploads into the Finance System. It has also made possible fee inquiries in StudentsOnline.

InfoWeb Conversion

The InfoWeb application was originally implemented in 1998 as the University's first web front-end to the Student Database. It was written in PL/SQL and provided staff with class lists, academic histories and enrolment numbers. However, since that time the development of StudentsOnline, StaffOnline and other ColdFusion applications have left InfoWeb out on a limb in terms of technology and integration. Very little further development occurred and InfoWeb passwords were not synchronised with JCU unix passwords.

All the original programs have now been rewritten in ColdFusion and incorporated into StaffOnline. Authentication is now via the LDAP directory service and staff no longer need to remember a seperate InfoWeb password. InfoWeb roles have been reorganised into a more granular system, giving Student Administration more flexibility in the granting of access to different programs. Additional programs have been added, including a current enrolment view and historical class lists, degree lists and enrolment numbers. The FLU correspondence inquiries have been significantly enhanced.

Courses and Subjects Database (CSDB)

The Courses and Subjects Database is due to go live in March 2004. This implementation will have a significant impact on the Student System in that the Master Schedule, including subject quota information, will no longer be maintained on Ripper. All the necessary programming adjustments have been made in preparation for this implementation. This involves the upload of the Master Schedule from the CSDB into the Ripper database, including extensive testing. The management of subject quotas has been significantly affected as the maintenance of this data is now split across the two systems.

Server Replacement and Upgrade LIPPER to RIPPER

RIPPER replaced LIPPER as the Student System machine in 2002. This was a significant upgrade in terms of processing power and disk space and resulted in immediate performance improvements. However the Telephone, Timetable and Room Bookings Systems remained on LIPPER due to lack of staff availablity to effect the move. This was rectified in 2003 and the remaining LIPPER applications have now been moved to RIPPER. Apart from improved performance, this has also allowed better communication between the different systems.

Show Cause

2003 saw a number of significant changes to the Show Cause sub-system, including new reports and improving the availability of the reports to the faculties. These changes will continue in 2004.

LearnJCU: Online Course Management and Delivery System

Background

Features

An online learning management system (LMS) manages access to study, teaching and development of learning materials. The LMS software LearnJCU at JCU is based in Blackboard. In LearnJCU, all subjects can be accessed from a single ‘launchpad’.

This single site enables access to all online teaching and learning materials and services.

Infrastucture

The Blackboard software runs on two servers, a development and an operational server, as updates are tested and the current system configured.

Software

Front-End Server

Back-End Server

BB Level 3, Version 5.5.1 Build 139

Oracle 8i v8.1.7

Solaris 8 on each server

SunFire 280R

2 x 900Mhz UltraSparc III Processors

4gig RAM

1 x gigabit network interface

1 x 100Mbit backup network interface

Mirrored Local systems disks

Connected to a Sun 6910 SAN - full fibre channel connectivity

SunFire 280R

2 x 900Mhz UltraSparc III Processors

4gig RAM

1 x gigabit network interface

1 x 100Mbit backup network interface

Mirrored Local systems disks

Connected to a Sun 6910 SAN - full fibre channel connectivity

Data snapshot

Student and staff records are automatically drawn from HR systems. All JCU staff and students (including JCUS staff) have access to LearnJCU

LearnJCU’s records are updated nightly and automatically linked, teacher to subject, student to subject. Staff self register online, automatically ensuring HOS approval.

Content

All subjects have, as a minimum

As of 2004 each subject contains in addition some common information, the last three of which can be edited by the lecturer if desired:

If the subject is taught online course materials are added by the lecturer, or there may be a link to another website or to the School’s Subject home page.

Uptake of LearnJCU 2000-2003

Year

SYSTEM STATUS

Data source

Number of Courses

Number of informal community sites (informal sites, created on lecturer request)

Total Number student users

Total Number staff users

Feb 2001

TRIAL

BBReport28/02/01

65

0

320

65

Mar 2002

- S1 PILOT

- S2 Launch of full system

Bb_Status_Report_21/03/02

115

20

2550

115

Feb 2003

Full system

System stats

2571

70

12000

1500

NOTE

Since 2002, all official subject offerings listed in Handbook are in LJCU.

Approximately 35% are in actual use in online delivery.

Approximately 35% use some or all aspects of LJCU for online delivery.

With the new templating this figure is expected to rise in 2004.

Report 2003

LearnJCU Usage

In Semester 2 2003 all JCU staff and enrolled students are able to access LearnJCU.

All subjects in the Master Schedule (approximately 1200) have a presence in LearnJCU.

Approximately one third of these are being actively used to distribute study materials to students and as the hub of subject-based discussion forums. (August 2003.)

Home access to LearnJCU

Approximately one third of students are accessing their study through LearnJCU (source: user poll, July-August 2003).

The high proportion of learners accessing their study from home has implications for provision of support to off-campus learners. It reinforces the case for increasing strategic commitment to online teaching and learning.

Quality Management

In preparation for JCU’s quality audit a draft Learning Management System Policy is in development and available for comment.

In addition

Quality of Teaching & Learning in LearnJCU

In August 2003 the Teaching and Learning Quality Development Group approved the LearnJCU Site Usability Checklist developed by Teaching and Learning Development. The purpose of the checklist is to make LearnJCU more consistent, functional and accessible for students. This checklist will be forwarded to the relevant university committee for endorsement as a minimum standard for online learning material.

IT&R Training

The first Blackboard Building Blocks training workshop was held in July 2003 for IT&R, teaching skills necessary for in house creation of additional functionality in LearnJCU.

Teaching & Learning Development Workshops

Since Jan 2003, 130 staff have attended TLD workshops. Introduction to LearnJCU workshops attracted the highest number of participants.

There has been a growth of workshops tailored to particular schools or faculties. Interest in LearnJCU was a common discussion point in IT&R’s mid-year visits to schools and TLD is working with Schools and faculties on the LearnJCU curriculum.

Teaching and learning rather than technical skills remains the focus of TLD academic development activities.

Provision of Email aliases in LearnJCU

In January 2003 a new procedure was adopted for emailing class aliases in LearnJCU, streamlining the process of enabling access to subjects in LearnJCU while maintaining secure access to other information including SFS scores. Adoption of LearnJCU as corporate email tool reduced abuse of email aliases almost to zero. In response to requests from faculties LearnJCU email has been supplemented by parallel provision of aliases for other than subject based emails

Community outreach

In 2003 LearnJCU has hosted over 50 informal and lively learning communities, focusing on postgraduate research and online seminars. Diverse groups such as the School of Medicine Homegroup Tutor Forum, the Megina Kazil Teachers Network, the Mt Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health, the Public Health Medicine Training network, the RACGP Exam Preparation Course, Career Development, the English Language Centre Network, the Far North Early Childhood Network, the AUSAid community, a thriving online International Student Network and a Web portfolio trial have established online presences in LearnJCU.

Ongoing LearnJCU Projects

2004 Enhancements to LearnJCU

Software Upgrade Postponed

An upgrade from v. 5.5.1 to v. 6.1 was scheduled for commencement 2004. The upgrade would allow more user roles, greater flexibility and more teaching and learning enhancements.

Due to serious doubts about the stability of the upgrade, it has been postponed until the robustness of v. 6 is proven, anticipated mid 2004.

An interim upgrade has been achieved with new graphics and new portal modules.

The upgrade when it occurs will be accompanied by updating of documentation and Staff Development in conjunction with Teaching and Learning Development.

Challenges / Directions for LearnJCU

Although the current level of usage (one third) could be regarded as solid for the first year of full operation, the remaining LearnJCU subject sites remain empty because either

Closer sampling (IT&R project, August 2003) reveals that site development quality ranges from basic content distribution to full ICT-mediated teaching and learning online.

LearnJCU is JCU’s chosen and supported system, reflecting JCU’s teaching and learning standards; it is secure and consistent and, according to feedback, is widely appreciated and enjoyed by students who use it. It is therefore preferable that all staff come to use it as their online teaching tool, and that the quality of each subject site is high.

LearnJCU relies on the support of Teaching and Learning Development

Online Systems - StudentsOnline, StaffOnline and GraduatesOnline

These systems continue to provide the gateway for students and staff to their personal information. The Internet Payment System(IPS) was reviewed by the Queensland Audit Office during 2003. While the report included recommendations to review security in other areas it was positive in terms of the IPS security and implementation and the ability of the system to cope with existing load and expected growth as a result of increasing client numbers and additional applications.

Particular points of note for the Online systems are:

High Performance Computing (HPC)

General

As usual progress has been made in the provisioning of HPC services to the JCU research community. The Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC) and the Queensland Parallel Supercomputing Foundation (QPSF) support officers Dominique Morel and Dr Wayne Mallet as QPSF/APAC HPC support officers at JCU from 2002 to 2004. The SGI Origin 3800 server has worked at high load throughout 2003 . JCU and QUT jointly submitted a successful ARC-LIEF application for developing a combined set of HPC resources. This funding ($406,000 for JCU) will fund the development of a computational cluster one of the most powerful in Australia during 2004.The JCU access grid was extended by the addition of an access grid in Cairns in March 2003.

APAC & QPSF Matters

JCU¹s involvement with APAC and QPSF has resulted in a significant cash injection towards HPC support staff of more than $170,000 in 2003. This level of funding has now been confirmed from APAC to continue from 2004-2006. Noelene Vass spent 6 weeks in mid 2003 working with the University of Wales, Swansea on the joint development of HPC/Computational Engineering related teaching materials. The School of Engineering will be using this material of a masters by coursework program commencing in 2004. QPSF also sponsored a Finite Element Workshop at JCU in November 2003 ($13,500) and an Earth Sciences ralate pilot project ($50,000 across 2003-2004).

Structural Change

After due consideration, Professor Wainwright has decided to move the Information Resources Unit report from ITR to Information Services (Library) as of 1st January 2004. It has been a pleasure working with Carolyn Tredrea, Manager, Information Resources and her team and this Unit has a number of achievements of note during their time within ITR.

The EZProxy system has been deployed and provides a workable authentication mechanism for the various online journals and materials now available as a result of significant increases in the Library Materials and Networked Resources Budget allocations. A Bindery Review has been completed and with some staff rationalisation, the Bindery Manager is working to a business plan to achieve full cost recovery by 2005. The Information Resources Working Group (IRWG) has provided Information Resources with a vehicle to propose policy changes and as a result the allocation model and the electronic journal policies have been reviewed and accepted for 2004. Last the move of the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) from the Resources Office Statistics Unit has seen major improvements in recoveries given the professional library skills brought to this process by Information Resources.

Information Resources

General

The library materials budget for 2003 was $3.450M, an increase of $618,000 from the previous year. This represented 3% of the University’s operating fund income, and the final tranche in the planned increase over three years in information resources funding for the University.

This increase in funding for library materials, lower cover-price inflation on overseas subscriptions, and the Australian dollar trading during 2003 at the highest level in six years, have combined to improve information resources availability for staff and students in 2003. The improved financial situation has meant a number of important serials subscriptions, cancelled during times of financial constraint, have now been re-established. The increase in funds has also enabled a number of new networked information resources purchases in 2003, including the American Chemical Society’s SciFinder Scholar and other titles listed below.

A standard international code of practice for recording use statistics for networked resources was adopted in December 2002. These standards were developed by Project COUNTER. During 2003 Information Resources has undertaken a project to record all available use for networked resources at dataset and title level for the period 2001-2003. A summary of this usage is provided here in this report. More detailed breakdown at the dataset and title level is available on request.

The Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) bibliographic verification of JCU research publications was transferred to Information Resources from Corporate and Commercial (Statistics) in 2003.

The Review of University Binding Services was completed in 2003. Following the Review the Bindery will operate on a full cost recovery basis from 2004.

New Subscriptions

Major new networked resources acquired in 2003 include Elsevier ScienceDirect (JCU Collection), Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, Kluwer Online journals, Oxford Journals Online, SciFinder Scholar, SpringerLink (Springer online journals), Standards Australia (full text of standards), Xrefer (online reference collection) and Zoological Record Plus. The first major acquisition of eBooks (218 titles from NetLibrary ) was made late 2003 in preparation for first semester 2004.

The annual statistics for 1999-2003 indicate the growth in resources available.

Networked Resources 1999 - 2003

Networked resources

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

Number of online titles

2998

3464

5820

9034

10961

Number of datasets

43

48

60

74

149

Usage statistics

A measure of the benefit derived from these databases and electronic journals and the growing acceptance of online formats (in preference to print) is provided in the following cumulation of the usage statistics supplied by the online services. The Academic Support Advisory Committee has endorsed recommendations for a policy on Print and Online Serials. This policy will be implemented from 2004.

Resource use 2002 - 2003

Resource type

Activity

2002

2003

Indexes & abstracts

Sessions

271186

374912

Indexes & abstracts

Searches

512840

672305

Online journals

Articles viewed or downloaded

2712193

2691661

Online reference works

Pages viewed or downloaded

505

2257

(Source: Information Resources Online Statistics Project 2003)

Elibrary (EZProxy)

Another measure of the benefit derived from these resources is the use by off- campus staff and students of Elibrary, the remote access server utilizing EZProxy software to provide authorised access to licensed resources from their home and workplace. This service has been in production since the beginning of 2002.

Elibrary busiest month for 2002 and 2003

Year

Busiest month

Individual staff and student users

Unique resource providers used

Web pages viewed

Daily Average of hits

2002

August

1201

182

75125

22816

2003

April

2210

315

97727

33650

Summary of Elibrary use for 2002 - 2003 as at 30th November, 2003

Elibrary use by semester

Web sites accessed

KiloBytes (Volume of data obtained)

Web pages viewed

Total hits

Daily Average of hits

Semester 2, 2003

18958

35514517

298980

4019422

26269.8

Semester 1, 2003

19072

27494101

337510

3347349

20758.8

Semester 2, 2002

14279

18262437

286093

2736220

19174.8

Semester 1, 2002

9318

10756854

220564

1704386

19044.7

Total

N/A

92027909

1143147

11807377

N/A

Report on research publication reporting to DEST 2003 (2002 collection year)

This year’s process

As in previous years, the bibliographic database was available for data entry throughout the year. Schools were reminded of the need to enter data by a letter from Professor Norman Palmer early in the year, by various informative emails from Floris van der Leest, by a statement in the minutes of the Senior Management Group meeting of March 24th and by an email from me on April 10th. Despite these reminders, some Schools did not start to enter data until very late in the cycle.

The deadline for data entry was May 23rd and the database closed for further new 2002 entries on June 20th. The database was frozen against further change on June 26th.

This year’s results

There were 1156 entries in the database for the collection year 2002 and almost all of these represented documents that were examined during this project. This included both publications that qualified for DEST points and those entered for internal JCU use. The publications that were eligible for DEST points were:

Books

4

Book chapters

44

Articles in journals

484

Conference papers

83

This represented a DEST point score of 370.45 points, which compares favorably with the last two years, 334.70 for 2001, and 346.28 for 2000

Changes from 2002

This year, for the first time, Information Resources undertook the project and the communication between the Schools and the project officer was in some ways easier. Because of the ready access to the Library Building over a longer part of the day and week some Schools’ staff found it easier to deliver and collect materials.

A bibliography was prepared of references that might be eligible for inclusion in the database and this was used as a check against submitted material. As a consequence of this, it was possible to identify a number of publications that the Schools had missed reporting. The bibliography created this year was by no means exhaustive but was undertaken as a test of its feasibility and possible utility. It is intended that a more thorough bibliography will be created in 2004 with a view to further improving this service.

In previous years an ad hoc ‘Panel of Experts’ has been convened to provide academic advice about submissions that were not clear to the project officer. From this year the existing Information Resources Working Group will perform this function. A meeting of this Group held on June 24th fulfilled the task for this year.

DEST had made some changes to its specifications from previous years. Most significantly, patents and art exhibitions were not counted by DEST this year (although the data was still collected for internal allocations). There was also a number of minor changes to definitions and to verification requirements.

This year there was a debriefing session for staff involved in preparing submissions with a view to identifying ways of improving the process for next year. Consideration was given to methods of

Staff Additions and Changes

Collaborative Projects

Several Student Affairs staff have worked within ITR during 2003 for the Student Information System project and the associated Courses and Subjects Database Project.

Paul Callinan  Student Systems Manager, Student Affairs

Janet Dearden  Project Officer, Student Affairs

Lyn Derbyshire  Project Officer, Student Affairs

Mark Newton  Computing Systems Officer, Student Affairs

Restructuring

As a result of university structural changes Lynn Alford has joined Information Systems.

Lynn Alford  Computing Systems Officer, Web Development

Fran Frew, long serving Secretary in the ITR Office has chosen to reduce her hours to half-time employment and as a result ITR have employed Ms Deidre Sillis half time. Deidre started with ITR in 2002 on a Queensland Government Traineeship.

Deidre Sillis  Administrative Officer (50%), ITR Office

There have been few other changes in 2003 apart from the resignations of two Information Resources staff, Robyn Prictor and Alan Williams and the part-time appointment of Jenny Jensen who completed work on the COUNTER Project.