U-M to retire Philo Internet TV
Low usage, limited options, ongoing costs, and readily available streaming services informed the decision to discontinue the service.
Author Archives: Rita Girardi, ITS Communications
BlueJeans usage continues to drop as U-M prepares for May 1 service retirement
This past fall, Information and Technology Services announced that U-M will retire BlueJeans effective May 1, 2021 due to a significant drop in usage that began with the launch of Zoom last March. For example, in November there were just under 3,000 BlueJeans users across all campuses compared to 16,000 during peak usage in April. “ITS is committed… Read More »
Access to BlueJeans in Canvas ends Jan. 12
Last month, ITS announced that the university will retire BlueJeans effective May 1, 2021. To prepare for this change, ITS has begun work on the steps needed to replace BlueJeans with Zoom in ITS-supported applications, including Canvas. As part of this process, BlueJeans integrations in Canvas will no longer be available starting Tuesday, January 12, 2021. Users will… Read More »
U-M to retire BlueJeans in 2021
In spring 2020, ITS deployed Zoom videoconferencing to campus and later added large event support, captioning, and PHI-compliant Zoom for Health. Since then, adoption of Zoom has grown exponentially, while the use of BlueJeans has fallen significantly. Additionally, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are available as part of the U-M academic collaboration suite at no additional cost and… Read More »
ITS offers online Canvas workshops
ITS Teaching & Learning is hosting a series of live Canvas workshops called “Teaching Online with Canvas Workshops: From Good to Great.” Sessions are held daily at noon. Topics will change based on need and interest. Please share this information with faculty and staff in your units who might be interested. Visit the Canvas training page to register. All sessions are… Read More »
Google Meet: Integration with Gmail, features extended
Google has announced they will integrate Google Meet into Gmail, making it easier to create a session and stay connected right from your inbox. This feature is currently only available in Gmail on the web but is coming soon to the Gmail mobile app. According to Google, this feature should begin showing up in U-M Google on April 30 and… Read More »
Reminder: Best practices for sharing safely in U-M Box and Google
When you share files or folders from Google Drive or Box, you can control the level of permissions granted to others. The U-M Collaboration Services team recommends using caution when you choose permissions for your files and folders to ensure the privacy and security of university data. This is especially true when collaborating with people outside of U-M.… Read More »
Start your (software) engines! CAEN provides XR support to MRacing team
What do you get when you combine race cars and extended reality (XR)? If you said a modded version of “Grand Theft Auto” you’d be wrong. The correct answer is: U-M’s award-winning Michigan Electric Racing Team (and CAEN’s John Hufnagel). Hufnagel is the lead MCAD applications analyst for CAEN, the IT services department for Michigan Engineering. (MCAD is… Read More »
Hangouts Meet: Premium features, expanded audio options
At the beginning of March, Google announced they would extend temporary access to some premium Hangouts Meet features until July 1, 2020. These features are now available within the U-M domain: Increased participant limit of 250 participants per video call Livestream a video call (up to 100,000 viewers) Record a video call Important: U-M Google is not HIPAA-compliant. Review the Sensitive Data Guide for types of data permitted… Read More »
Hangouts Chat now available
To better accommodate the need for team-based chat and collaboration, Google Hangouts Chat is now available for use at U-M. Hangouts Chat is a G Suite for Education core service. It is free and covered under U-M’s agreement with Google and also can be used for certain kinds of sensitive data. It should not be used for protected… Read More »
ITS to replace ServiceNow with TeamDynamix as part of service management improvements
In 2013, ITS adopted ServiceNow as part of a multi-phase initiative to provide consistent and effective IT service management (ITSM). Since then, ITS has been steadily raising its level of service excellence by establishing several ITSM processes and customizing ServiceNow to meet service management needs. But there was still room for growth and improvement. User-centric, laser-focused customer service… Read More »
MCWT names ITS’s Diane Jones “Woman of the Year in Technology”
The Michigan Council of Women in Technology Foundation named Diane Jones its “Woman of the Year in Technology.” Jones is executive director of administration for Information and Technology Services and the Office of the CIO. The award recognizes women in Michigan leading or driving change for other women in information technology careers or fields of study. Jones has… Read More »
U-M takes top prize in cloud leadership award at Educause
At this year’s annual Educause conference in Chicago Oct. 14-17, the University of Michigan was honored with the E&I National Cloud Leadership Award for its lead role in the development and strategic guidance of the Unizin Data Platform (UDP). John Johnston, ITS program manager for analytics & data services, accepted the award on behalf of the university. Johnston… Read More »
NSF awards almost $3 million in grants to MIDAS, ITS
The National Science Foundation recently recognized the Michigan Institute for Data Science and Information and Technology Services with grants totaling almost $3 million to support research in data equity, security, and privacy. Data science is an important tool that can help researchers tackle important societal challenges ranging from mobility and health to public safety and education. But data… Read More »
ITS completes launch of new Microsoft 365 platform
Despite some last-minute challenges and unexpected bumps in the road, ITS Collaboration Services has successfully launched the new Microsoft 365 platform, completing a process that began over six months ago. U-M’s re-negotiated licensing agreement with Microsoft will provide an expanded set of tools and services to faculty, staff, and students, including both online and desktop versions of the… Read More »
Microsoft 365 coming June 28: Here’s what you need to know
Read the FAQ and review the User Impacts and Data Migration page for a complete list of tools and applications affected by this change, as well as details on user impacts, migration paths, and actions needed. As previously announced, under Microsoft’s new licensing model, U-M will have access to Microsoft 365, including the Office 365 suite and potentially… Read More »
Women in IT CoP reaches out to local students
Monica Hickson of ITS Infrastructure presented on behalf of the Women in IT Community of Practice as part of the Career Exploration Speaker Series at Pioneer High School on Friday, April 5. Hickson, who is an instructional designer, spoke to a group of 23 students about Instructional Design as a career path. She described what it takes… Read More »
Microsoft 365 project update for academic campuses
As previously announced, U-M recently re-negotiated the licensing agreement with Microsoft, which will provide an expanded set of tools and services to faculty, staff, and students. Late last week, the team discovered a set of issues that requires a delay of the targeted release date for academic campuses from early May to late June/early July. As part of… Read More »
Important: Some U-M Google+ content is going away
As communicated in December 2018, Google stated that Google+ would remain available in U-M Google after Google retires its consumer version of G+. However, the ITS Collaboration Services team has recently become aware that there are important exceptions that could affect some campus accounts in Google+. (Be sure to read Google’s documentation for details and the most recent… Read More »
CTools retirement set for July 1, 2019
ITS has announced that the final step in the multi-year process to decommission CTools will take place on July 1, 2019 when the platform will be retired and content will no longer be accessible. For more than a decade, the U-M community had used CTools for learning management, file sharing and storage, project collaboration, and research support. The… Read More »