March 29, 2019 Newsletter

Did you know that UCCS Faculty, Staff, and Students all have access to Qualtrics? Qualtrics is a robust online survey platform for advanced research/survey projects. Currently, licensing provides the basics for reporting, meaning there is still some manual data mining to be done once the information has been collected. However, the team is currently evaluating adding two key features to Qualtrics: the ability to upload attachments in a survey, and API integration to analytical software such as Power BI and Tableau. Support is currently limited but can be found by emailing helpdesk@uccs.edu or using the Qualtrics Support page.

Using your UCCS credentials you can log into https://surveyuccs.co1.qualtrics.com/ and begin creating your survey. A few words of caution as you are undoubtedly excited for this powerful survey tool:

• Proceed with caution with FERPA or HIPPA related information and questions as there is no Business Associate Agreement in place to protect the information.
• Students who are conducting a large survey need to go through the Institutional Research process.
• In an effort to make Qualtrics more accessible, OIT has restricted the available questions to those that are favorable to ADA accessibility tools. This is in line with the best practices suggested by CU-Boulder’s Qualtrics team. Examples of question types that have been restricted are drop-down menus, sliders, and order rankings. 

Faculty and Staff are encouraged to join OIT on September 3, 2019, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., for Bytes. This particular session will provide training on Qualtrics and allow for question and answers. More information about this particular Byte will be released at a later date.

Users are encouraged to explore Microsoft Forms (Forms) as another survey tool. Forms is offered through Office 365 and can be found by logging into Office 365 Email. While Forms is not as abundant as Qualtrics, it is a fierce competitor. Forms tends to be more user-friendly and is a well-balanced tool for surveys. 

A compare and contrast document has been provided to assist in deciding which survey platform might be beneficial for your survey. 

The Assistive Technology (AT) lab continues to make positive strides in helping our campus community with assistive technology. Under Leyna's supervision, one student employee, Helaina, has been shaking up processes to improve efficiencies. Helaina is currently working on moving some of the AT tasks into the Cherwell ticketing system which will allow for better customer service and for metrics of what is being requested. Helaina has successfully partnered with Norm and his team to create the equipment loaner system in Cherwell, which we will be tested this summer. In addition, she is in the process of creating a more complex Cherwell presence for technology requests made by the Testing Center.  These include purchase consults as well as installs, configurations, and troubleshooting. 

Eighty-five classrooms were upgraded to Cisco 7841 phones throughout this past week. These new phones feature two-speed dials (one to Academic Support and the other to Public Safety), meet ADA standards once properly wall mounted and will be more energy efficient by using only 3.7 watts of power versus the 12 watts the current phones are using. 

Users in these rooms will notice a screen similar to the picture to the right, displayed on the corresponding classroom and lab podiums once logged in.

Thank you to the three different teams and multiple people who made this project possible!

On Monday, April 8, users can expect new requirements for their UCCS password, once their password comes up for renewal.

What is changing?  

• This is an opportunity to switch from “passwords” to “pass-phrases” making them easy to type and remember. Think of it as a series of words or phrases rather than one word.
• Starting April 8th, the next time you are prompted to change your password, your new passphrase will need to be at least 12 characters long. 
• There will no longer be a special characters requirement.
• 12 character passphrases will not have to be changed for 12 months!

Note: You will not need to change your password on April 8th.  Simply change your password when it comes up for expiration and follow the new requirements.  All passwords that are required to be changed between today and April 8th will still follow the existing rules.

Contact the OIT Security Team if you have any questions or would like to learn more.