News

Laptop Return FAQs

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 16:01:06

Q: I received an email telling me I had to return a laptop lent to me by the university during the period we have been working remotely. Where do I return it?

A: Return laptops to Bouillon Hall Room 128, which is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Q: When is the deadline for returning the laptop?

A: the university is asking that you please return the laptop that was loaned to you by July 1, 2021. You do not need to wait until July 1 to return a laptop but can do so immediately.

Q: What if I am continuing to work remotely? Do I still have to return the laptop?

A: Yes, all borrowed laptops must be returned by July 1, 2021. If you are continuing to telework, please work with your supervisor to arrange for a new laptop or to be permitted to take your desktop computer home.

Q: Do I need to clean my borrowed laptop before returning it?

A: No, you do not need to clean your borrowed laptop; all laptops will be cleaned by Information Services (IS) staff and returned to the appropriate department.

Q: If I have university files that need to be backed-up or I need to preserve institutional data, what should I do?

A: You should upload the data onto shared storage (e.g. G, N or S Drive), or university cloud storage (MS OneDrive) and transfer it to your regular university computer. Make an appointment with IS Service Desk staff if you need help transferring the data.

Q: I received my loaner laptop via mail, how do I return it?

A: Please contact the IS Computer Support Services at (509) 963-3376 for next steps.

Q: I brought home computer equipment from my office. Do I have to do anything special to return it?

A: If you borrowed computer equipment from your office, you can return it in the same manner you used to take it home. If you need help reconnecting the computer onsite, please complete a ticket request with IS.

New Associate Vice President/Chief Information Officer

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 07:28:25

Virginia (Ginny) Tomlinson will begin her role as CWU’s new associate vice president and chief information officer (AVP/CIO) on January 2, 2020.

The CIO serves as the university’s senior technology executive and is responsible for delivering secure and high-availability systems to support day-to-day university operations while also developing long-term technology strategies in collaboration with technology stakeholders across campus.

“Technology has already changed our university in many positive ways and the CIO role is a natural center of gravity to realize and support the future of technology at Central,” said Andreas Bohman, CWU’s vice president of Operations. “Ginny comes to us with decades of senior technology leadership in higher education and I am very excited to have her join the Operations team.”

Since 2014, Tomlinson has served as the chief technology officer at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, where she provided strategic leadership and management for all aspects of the institution’s information technology.

“I like being able to provide technology that brings value and makes peoples’ jobs or lives easier,” she said. “That makes me feel personally empowered and my job enjoyable.”

Tomlinson’s two decades of higher-education experience include work as the CIO at Reinhardt University, in Waleska, Georgia, and director of Information Technology Services at Oglethorpe University, in Atlanta.

She is also on the Board of Directors for the NorthWest Academic Computing Consortium. Comprised of universities, colleges, and other Pacific Northwest non-profit organizations, the association aids communication and collaboration among its members on development and use of advanced technology for administrative operations, instruction, and research.

“Ginny’s credentials speak for themselves,” Bohman said. “She is an active and respected member of higher education technology consortiums and boards across the Pacific Northwest. Ginny has extensive experience building strong technology teams in higher education, leading technology innovation to support student success, and delivering secure high-availability systems. That made her an exceptional choice for this position.”

Tomlinson said there have been significant changes in university information technology departments during the past decade, as schools have moved away from offering physical services—such as hardware, networks, and servers—to reliance on cloud-based systems.

“It’s a different type of role—coordinating vendors, overseeing security, and developing process improvements,” she explained. “Looking to the future, I expect there will be even more focus on data privacy and security, and managing those issues. We will also need to find ways to be innovative to adapt to the rapid changes that are now taking place in higher education.”

Tomlinson earned her Master of Science in Information Systems from Georgia State University, in Atlanta, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Oglethorpe University.

She will replace Joe Deck, CWU’s interim CIO, who will leave on January 8, 2020 after assisting with the departmental transition, according to Bohman.

Media contact: Robert Lowery, Department of Public Affairs, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu

Information Services wins state award for developing CAPS+ system

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 15:19:41

Washington Technology Solutions presented the CWU Information Services department with a Best of Washington award Thursday for developing and implementing the Central's Academic Planning System Plus, also known as CAPS+.

The online-based, mobile-friendly academic planning tool, developed on Oracle’s PeopleSoft platform, allows CWU students to map out their path to a degree by identifying course availability, potential requisite conflicts, and registration requirements for each year of enrollment.

CAPS+ is the only system of its kind currently being used in Washington’s higher education institutions, and it has become an indispensable tool for CWU students and advisers since it was introduced to incoming freshmen in the fall of 2017.

The number of users increased by 60 percent during its first year, and the system is now used by more than 2,000 CWU students. CAPS+ version 2.0 was released in September 2018 and is available to all students. Earlier this year, CWU secured a copyright from the federal government for the system code — one of only five copyrights the university has received over the past 40 years.

“Winning a statewide award like this just goes to show how much talent we have in our computer science and ITAM (information technology administrative management) departments,” said Jill Scott, director of enterprise applications. “Our students and staff are very skilled in PeopleSoft, and they have been able to develop solutions that no one else has.”

Scott accepted the Best of Washington award along with Robert Kempel, enterprise solutions integration manager; and Joseph Deck, associate vice president of information services and information security. Thursday’s award ceremony, hosted by Washington Technology Solutions, was part of the 20th annual Washington Digital Government Summit at the Hotel RL in Olympia.

The CAPS+ project’s success can be traced back to a university-wide effort that started in June 2016, involving CWU students, staff, and administrators at every step of the process. A steering committee was formed early on to ensure that CAPS+ would not only benefit students but the university as a whole.

“It wasn’t just us,” Kempel said. “There were people across campus who gave their input and helped us make a better product. We had a lot of support from the highest levels, and they really encouraged us to keep going.”

Another reason for the success of CAPS+ is that the development team’s work is never done. Kempel and Scott credited the work of staff members Nicole Burk, Zane Irvine, and Charlene Bane for helping make the system what it is today.

“We’re not just going to put out the system and say ‘we’re done,’” Kempel said. “We want to make sure people are happy with it.”

“It’s all about continuous improvement,” Scott added. “We want people to give us their feedback because that’s the only way we can make the product better.”

The results have been nothing short of life-changing for many CWU students. Now, instead of finding out at the last minute that a required course isn’t being offered during a specific term, students can juggle their schedules with a more long-term outlook.

In addition to helping facilitate student/adviser degree-planning sessions, CAPS+ also has improved the degree program selection process, increased student satisfaction by streamlining the path to graduation, eliminated redundancy, and supported course and enrollment forecasting.

The student technology fee even helped pay for a new full-time position in Information Services so the department can continue to improve the system.

“Our students really believe in CAPS+ because they can get immediate feedback on their degree plans and they can manipulate their schedules to meet their needs,” Scott said. “It’s something that’s never been done before, and we’re very proud of what we have accomplished.”

CWU students and advisers aren’t the only ones who have noticed the revolutionary possibilities of CAPS+. Scott and her team recently presented their findings to Washington State University and have been in contact with some community colleges in California.

Now, their work has been recognized by the Washington Digital Government Summit, which highlights IT innovations in the public sector. The CWU Information Services team is pleased to have earned recognition from their peers, but the end goal is serving the student body.

“We have a team of incredibly talented technologists who want what’s best for CWU and our students,” Scott said. “When everyone supports one another and works as a team, you end up with a one-of-a-kind product like CAPS+.”

Media contact: David Leder, Department of Public Affairs, 509-963-1518, David.Leder@cwu.edu.

CWU Receives US Copyright for Computer Software Application

Mon, 22 Oct 2018 13:24:15

Nearly three years ago, the CWU administration decided streamlining was needed for the student academic planning process system. The result was the development of Central’s Academic Planning System, known as CAPS+.

CAPS+ is a customized application that seamlessly integrates with the university’s student information system. It’s an application that is so efficient and unique, that it has now received a copyright from the United States Copyright Office. It’s one of only five copyrights that CWU has received over the past 40 years.

“Since it was developed on site and was a large investment of staff time and resources, it was important that it remains the property of Central Washington University,” said Robert Kempel, CWU Information Services (IS) enterprise integration manager.

He added, “We looked at other planning tools, but an analysis showed that if we moved forward with a product from an outside vendor, we would likely need to either heavily customize it to meet our unique needs, or maintain a second system with a robust set-up. Keeping two robust systems in sync is a tall order and, eventually, the decision was made to develop an application in-house which could leverage our existing system.”

That’s important since it mitigates risks associated with erroneous data duplication or entry errors. CAPS+ allows students to have online access to review the classes that they have taken and those they need to earn a degree in a specific discipline, along with the most up-to-date class schedules. It’s all presented in a user-friendly manner, that can be saved or printed, and can even be reviewed on a mobile device.

“We like to say it was developed for Wildcats by Wildcats, as most of the members of the [development] team were internal and many were alumni. So, it was important to protect the interests of CWU,” said Charlene Bane, IS project manager.

CWU’s Ellensburg students first had access to CAPS+ in fall 2017, though, at that time, it was specifically introduced to incoming freshmen.

“This fall we were able to make it available to students at our University Centers and instructional sites, and also to our graduate students,” Kempel pointed out. “CAPS+ is also an easy way for departments to review the accuracy of their course information. It supports the data integrity of the class schedule that is presented to students.”

While the atypical—and, now copyrighted—functionality of the system is unique to Central, other institutions have expressed interest in it. Because of that CWU is exploring the commercialization of CAPS+.

Media contact: Robert Lowery, CWU Department of Public Affairs, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

100 Testing Volunteers Needed!

Mon, 07 May 2018 10:16:11

Are you looking for volunteer opportunities? Information Services needs 100 volunteers to test CAPS+ 2.0. The latest updates allow graduate and post-baccalaureate students to utilize CWU's academic planning tool as well as other usability improvements. To sign up for testing, please click the link below:

CWU represented in international classroom video-technology study

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 10:30:31

Staples of the “old school,” chalk boards and white boards have been replaced by video display screens in thousands of elementary, middle-and-junior high, high school, and college classrooms across the nation.

However, research determined that many students, in traditional 900-square-foot classrooms, were not able to decipher all of content shown on flat panels, even as big as nearly six feet in size, a fact found to put student learning at risk.

Central Washington University was represented on a select group of the international leaders convened to develop recommendations to overcome the issue.

InfoComm International, a worldwide trade association that represents the professional audiovisual and information communications industries, selected qualified field professionals to come up with strategies.

Steve Douglas, recently retired after 33 years at CWU, was one of just two university media systems engineers selected for the nine-member international panel.

“In larger classrooms we determined the problem was even worse,” noted Douglas, “as more students are placed farther away from even 12-foot-wide projection screens.”

The group concluded that current display size recommendations—which were not research based—were no longer adequate. In response, Douglas and his counterparts crafted a new “Display Image Size for 2D Content in Audiovisual Systems” (DISCAS), which has been published as a proposed requirement by the American National Standards Institute.

As interactive classroom systems become the norm, they may need to offer images much larger than 70 inches. The good news is that cost estimates indicate that, for schools now in the midst of changing their technology, projection systems can actually be less costly than flat-panel video displays, Douglas noted.

Media contact: Robert Lowery, director of radio services and integrated communications, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu

October 19, 2016