Yearly Archives: 2018

‘Smart’ online courses closing the gender gap

By | July 19, 2018
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"Devices displaying online learning"

School of Information researchers Christopher Brooks, Joshua Gardner, and Kaifeng Cheng, presented findings at the London Festival of Learning that showed that replacing images of men with women in online courses encouraged female students to engage more with the course. These researchers are also working toward supporting the development of online courses with tailored content for the learners. The U-M research team conducted… Read More »

Work remains for digital badges in college admissions

By | July 19, 2018
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screen capture of Mozilla Backpack user page

The use of digital credentials in college admissions holds the promise of helping universities assemble a class of more diverse and prepared students, but more work needs to be done to make them useful across higher education. To understand the potential for using digital badges for admissions and what is needed to get colleges and universities to a… Read More »

Winners of MOOC dropout prediction challenge

By | July 18, 2018
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Kyle Schulz, data scientist, Yuanru Tan, learning design and accessibility fellow, and Rebecca Quintana, learning experience designer, won the Academic Innovation at Michigan (AIM) Analytics Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Dropout Prediction Challenge. The team members were given a random subset of learner data from the first four weeks of courses and the challenge was to predict a… Read More »

Origin Stories showcases M-Write

By | July 18, 2018
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What happens when an English faculty and a Chemistry faculty partner to create a writing-to-learn program? You get M-Write. Listen to the latest episode in the Origin Stories podcast as English professor Anne Ruggles Gere, director of the Sweetland Writing Center, and Ginger Schultz, assistant professor of chemistry, discuss how they came together, from disparate fields, to create the… Read More »

ITS hosts summer interns from Wolverine Pathways program

By | July 17, 2018
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Wolverine Pathways is an academic program that began in 2015. Up to 60 6th grade and 9th grade students are selected from Detroit, Southfield Public, or Ypsilanti Community school districts. Once these students are admitted into the program, they participate in fall, winter, and summer sessions each year through their senior year of high school. The program offers… Read More »

Protect your UMICH account with two-factor

By | July 12, 2018
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screenshot of Account Management interface to turn on two-factor

You can add protection for additional U-M systems, and for your personal information in Wolverine Access Employee Self-Service, by turning on two-factor for Weblogin. Two-factor provides additional security in case your UMICH (Level-1) password is stolen. The U-M Information Assurance team strongly recommends that you turn on two-factor to better protect your UMICH account and U-M systems and… Read More »

Users to be prompted for UMICH account recovery info

By | July 11, 2018
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account recovery interface

Resetting a forgotten UMICH (Level-1) password can be easy—but only if you’ve set up account recovery information ahead of time. When you save your account recovery information—a non-university email account and/or your mobile phone—we then know where to send your password-reset code in case you ever forget your password. To make this process easier, ITS will begin gradually… Read More »

Cloud Infrastructure Transformation Program launches new website

By | July 11, 2018
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illustration of climber on a mountain

The Cloud Infrastructure Transformation Program now has a new website—http://its.umich.edu/projects/cloud-program/ The website is designed to provide information to campus about the Cloud Program, the various projects that are currently running under the program, as well as provide the latest updates and news. The site offers information in six areas: Why Cloud?: U-M is expanding our use of cloud services. Learn… Read More »

Shared threat intelligence saves the day

By | July 10, 2018
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A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack took down a residence hall network switch at the University of Maryland (UMD) over spring break 2018, but it could have been a lot worse without the collaborative threat information sharing partnership of U-M and other universities. 90% of attack traffic blocked “If we hadn’t been using our shared threat intelligence,… Read More »

Changes to Office 365 Education for U-M alumni & retirees

By | July 9, 2018
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devices showing Office 365 apps

Previously, Microsoft allowed anyone affiliated with an educational institution to sign up for a free, personally-provisioned Office 365 Education account by using their .edu email. Due to a shift in the way that Microsoft licenses their products to the university, alumni and retiree Office 365 accounts will be decommissioned by July 31, 2018. The new licensing approach by… Read More »

Tips for writing emails that don’t look phishy

By | July 9, 2018
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You have an important university email to send, but how do you craft it so it looks like the official, trustworthy, communication it is? In other words, how do you keep people from thinking it is a phish? Email users are rightfully suspicious of unsolicited email, but that can sometimes cause them to ignore or delete your important,… Read More »

Arbor Lakes: A longstanding hub of tech innovation

By | July 6, 2018
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Long before Arbor Lakes became the residence of U-M Information and Technology Services and Health Information Technology and Services, it was owned by Manufacturing Data Systems, Inc. (MDSI), a pioneer of computer-aided manufacturing. On Friday, June 15, 2018, MDSI returned to Arbor Lakes for their 50-year reunion. For co-founders Charles (Chuck) Hutchins (U-M class of ’57), Ken Stephanz,… Read More »

Campus WiFi upgrades near completion as WiFi on the Diag breaks ground

By | July 5, 2018
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Man kneeling on ground as backhoe removes dirt.

For the past three years, a dedicated team within ITS Infrastructure has been working hard with Facilities and Operations (F&O) staff, to improve WiFi in 275 buildings that make up the heart of the Ann Arbor campus. The Campus WiFi Upgrade project is scheduled to complete on-time at the end of August, 2018, and has vastly improved connectivity… Read More »

Call for proposals for the 2018 Michigan IT Symposium

By | July 5, 2018
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How does your work move U-M forward in its mission to provide world-class teaching, research, and patient care? How is your work changing with the evolution of technology? Showcase your most innovative, IT-related project, service, or process improvement at the fifth annual Michigan IT Symposium, November 28 & 29, 2018 Submit your application before August 10. Important dates… Read More »

Pendse: Collaboration, diversity & innovation key to successful IT strategy

By | July 4, 2018
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A headshot of Ravi Pendse, U-M VPIT-CIO

In a short interview with “EducationTIMES,” U-M’s newly appointed VPIT-CIO Ravi Pendse discusses his new role and his vision for the future. “I see a teacher in every person I interact with,” says Pendse when asked how he would draw upon his past experience as a collaborative university leader. “So, I expect to listen, learn, adapt, and collaboratively lead. If… Read More »

U-M researchers create world’s smallest computer

By | July 4, 2018
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"Device next to a grain of rice"

A team of researchers from U-M have created a computing device that is 0.3 mm, many times smaller than a grain of rice. That beats IBM’s March claim of creating the world’s smallest computer. However, unlike most existing devices—which retain their programming and data even when they are not externally powered—these new microdevices from IBM and now Michigan lose all… Read More »