ITS Summary Report 2005

This Report summarises the contribution made by the Information Technology Services Division to the University's strategic objectives in the year 2005. The services and projects delivered are underpinned by comprehensive planning and a process of engagement with key stakeholder groups. In addition to the service improvements noted, the ITS Division completed an Internal Self Review, as part of the Monash Quality Cycle framework. The summary below highlights the significant role that information technology plays in the operations of the University.

IT Support for Students

ITS Student computing facilities have been maintained and improved following a computer lab usability survey, revealing that most students are satisfied with the ITS computer labs and resources.

The Berwick Library and Learning Commons , will bring together the library, campus IT computer labs and the Service Desk. Housing 70 computers with separate areas for quiet and group work, a training room, and a combined service desk that provides answers to both library and IT questions, students will also have access to printing services, email, telephone help, online chat, and staff will ‘roam’ the space, providing on-the-spot assistance. The campus joint project is due for completion in February 2006.

Student messaging services have been improved with the enabling of SPAM filtering on all new student email accounts, and the introduction of a "Services News" section on the my.monash student portal, providing vital information regarding changes to, or the introduction of, services.

Student printing has been made more accessible through the introduction of online payment methods via the my.monash portal.

Campus Development – A review was conducted, providing recommendations on the re-alignment of the campus operational structure to enhance campus capability to improve local service delivery and adaptability to local needs.

Staff IT Work Environment

A major review of workgroup collaboration tools was commenced in 2005. A report on findings from the review is due in 2006 with implementation of approved workgroup collaboration tools planned for 2006/07.

The Information Management Programme has developed a comprehensive overarching information management strategy for the university based on a process of requirements analysis, investigating relevant overseas sites, interviews with senior stakeholders and iterative strategy development. The implementation plan is being developed for 2006 and a number of successful project bids have been funded.

The Teaching Facilities Support Unit refurbished more than 40 centrally supported lecture theatres across five Victorian campuses, as well as assisting in updating more than 30 faculty or division-owned teaching or meeting spaces. Planning has begun for the development of teaching spaces at the new Malaysia campus, and the implementation and fit-out of educational technology equipment into the new "H" building at the Caulfield campus which is due for completion in time for semester 1, 2006.

A Data Storage Facility has been implemented and running for the past 15 months. Services migrated to this facility include Library services, Arrow, Student Email, Callista, CMS, LMS, Oracle Teaching and Backup.

The Data Backup and Restore Facility project has seen steady progress to date with 320 of 353 servers migrated. A feasibility study has concluded and funding has been allocated to build a Data Centre.

Opterm , the switchboard directory and PABX interface application, was rewritten and put into operation late 2005.  This removed all dependencies on the unsupported MNT telephone database and enabled the decommissioning of that application.

Support for Research

The Monash eResearch Centre was established during 2005, with Professor Ah Chung Tsoi appointed as the Inaugural Director.

A Grid Computing System was implemented after a successful grant application to Sun Microsystems. Several other universities also applied for this grant. We were successful in being granted 16 nodes (32 CPUs) and Monash topped this up to 32 nodes (64 CPUs). Grid computing uses the resources of many separate computers connected by a network (usually the internet) to solve large-scale computation problems.

TARDIS , a multi-dimensional research activity reporting system, was launched mid-year and has proved a great success.

The Animal Ethics module of ResearchMaster was implemented to record and monitor applications for Animal Ethics Clearances.

Working with the Research Office an extensive program of data cleansing and mapping is underway to ensure a complete picture of Monash research activity is available, such as applications for grants, research being undertaken and research completed and published.

Data Network Support

The Next Generation Network Upgrade (NGNU) was completed in October 2005. It consisted of the upgrade of the core university network and the Ethernet edge network in all of the buildings in every campus. The project has transitioned the University's enterprise network to an all Ethernet connected state-of-the-art network across all campuses. The new network connects almost 30,000 devices.

The Australian Synchrotron , located at Monash’s Clayton campus, was connected to the internet via the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet), providing it with vital communications infrastructure. Communications work conducted by ITS will also see the synchrotron linked to the Victorian Education Research Network (VERNet), which is emerging as a major network initiative for ITS.

VERNet Monash is a lead contributor toVERNet which is deploying optical fibre network infrastructure across Victoria. The goal is to implement an advanced broadband network for education and research. VERN is a collaborative investment by the Victorian universities, the CSIRO, and the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments. As VERN rolls out, it will provision optical fibre WAN links to various Monash sites including, Berwick, Gippsland and Frankston campuses and other smaller sites across Victoria. Fibre links to Berwick and Gippsland are expected to be completed by June of 2006.

University Applications for Faculties

Course and Unit Publication and Information Database (CUPID) business and functionality improvements have resulted in increased process efficiencies, data quality, and ad hoc reporting capabilities. A review and needs identification was commenced on course and unit approval processes.

Monash University Studies Online (MUSO) has proved to be a robust production service since semester one 2005, providing a range of online teaching and learning resources. A faculty administration tool for the service, MUSOM (Monash University Studies Online Manager) was developed and provides an interface for staff to manage users and learning materials.

The my.monash portal continued to grow in 2005 with the integration of core university services such as CUPID, ask.monash, and InterLearn.  Peak usage approached a record 35,000 unique users per day, up by nearly 15% over last year.  A user needs analysis was conducted involving interviews, focus groups and a web survey with over 6500 respondents. This will contribute to the implementation of both the Web Strategy and the Information Management Strategy.

The TeamSite Content Management System (CMS) has been implemented in 6 faculties, 10 administrative groups and 12 centres, with training provided to over 530 Monash Staff. The CMS is publishing over 165,000 files to the web and managing 400 changes per day, providing benefits in terms of web site governance, consistency, timeliness, currency, security, and ease of website publishing.

A Survey Evaluation System (Teleform) has been successfully implemented with the front end developed by Monash ITS and backend reporting published on the web to fulfil DEST requirements for the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund and for faculty benchmarking. This reporting functionality far exceeds what was previously available, providing aggregates at various levels such as university, department, faculty, campus, and the mode in which the unit is offered. In 2006 all other university wide and legislatively required surveys will be migrated to the new system.

University Applications for Divisions

The Load Planning and Monitoring project commenced in 2005 with agreement to establish a planning tool with a central, shared repository of planning related statistical data. In 2005, the project successfully delivered the expansion and data validation of the Callista extracts and replaced the load monitoring functionality previously delivered by Stats On Line with a more sophisticated set of tools to be known as Kronos, the university’s Load Planning and Monitoring System.

A Prospective Students Website has been developed drawing together the broad array of information resources for prospective students into one focal point, maintained by a range of business units via the web content management system. The project also delivered improvements to the first version of the Course Finder application, adding a much-needed keyword search option.

SAP R/3 is being updated to mySAP ERP during a two year project beginning in 2005. Business experts from SAP Australia were engaged to undertake an upgrade readiness review and recommend a technical and resource plan for the major upgrade which will commence early in 2006. New hardware was installed in 2005 in preparation for the mySAP software upgrade where new functionality will be delivered, supported by new training courses and on-line tutorials.

Callista continued to deliver business improvements to Monash operational, reporting and planning services during 2005. The Callista hardware was replaced and there were 3 significant upgrades to the Callista software to support the implementation of HESA 2003 legislative requirements.

A three-year agreement with Microsoft (the CAUDIT agreement) was successfully negotiated by the Council of Australian University Directors of IT (CAUDIT) with assistance from Monash IT staff. The agreement covers the use of software on all desktop computers in more than 30 participating Australian universities. The negotiated price was significantly lower than the price for the preceding 3-year period.