Out with the Old, In with the Leading-Edge–Center for Clinical Education and Research (CCER)

The phrase “unprecedented times” doesn’t begin to capture the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on virtually every aspect of life. For UMass Boston (UMB), the pivot, literally overnight, from an on-campus environment to a remote workforce, challenged each of us—professionally and personally. With no warning and little time to prepare, IT shifted into high gear to ensure business and instructional continuity for all students, faculty, and staff at UMass Boston.

“The UMass Boston COVID-19 journey began a little earlier than many others,” said Raymond Lefebvre, vice chancellor and CIO. “It was Thursday, January 30, to be exact, when UMB experienced the first-ever reported case of the virus In Massachusetts and, at the time, the eighth reported case in the nation.”

The UMass Boston senior leadership team lost no time in quickly activating the institution’s crisis management team to deal with the initial reported case, which turned out to be an isolated off-site incident that did not impact the campus.

In response, IT established a COVID-19 call center in less than three hours to field calls from concerned members of the university community. The call center remains in place today, ready to be reactivated if necessary. “A lot has changed since January 30 and, like so many other institutions of higher education, UMass Boston has transitioned to remote teaching, learning, and working. Now more than ever, our students, faculty, and staff are dependent on IT services,” said Lefebvre. “We quickly pulled together our remote IT workforce—92 people strong—to engage everyone, collectively, to chart a course forward.

To that end, IT staff, together, identified the many and complex tasks needed to meet the needs of faculty and staff across the institution and, importantly, said Lefebvre, “our students, who deserve no less. Collectively, our thought process was straightforward. Of necessity, IT staff would be working from multiple locations and, thus, would be physically divided for an undetermined amount of time. However, with a cohesive plan, we were confident that this physical distance need not impact our ability to meet any challenges we would face. Hence, we defined and implemented ‘Operation Divide & Conquer.'”

To accomplish this Herculean undertaking, Lefebvre developed a six-phase strategy: pre-lockdown, impending lockdown, lockdown, stabilization, standard operations, and reentry. Strategies focused on communications, security, ticket management, loaner devices, remote access, and live person chat support.

“Our IT infrastructure, our remote teaching and learning, our working capabilities, and our ability to work cohesively as an IT team OPERATION DIVIDE & CONQUER INSTRUCTIONAL AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY remotely have not been a challenge,” said Lefebvre. “What was a challenge, during the first four phases of the rollout, was the necessity to put previously active projects on hold, while concentrating on ensuring a stable remote learning and work environment.”

As of this writing, Lefebvre said that IT has moved into the “standard operations” phase, meaning staff have resumed other projects, are advancing still more, and are keeping an eye to future needs. Due to the severity of the virus and the unknowns as to the future, the “reentry” phase, adhering to Massachusetts COVID-19 regulations, has brought 25 percent of the IT workforce back to campus in order to provide essential services and support on campus. “Remote leadership benefits from having a plan and an engaged leadership team and staff,” said Lefebvre. “I would like to believe that Operation Divide & Conquer has helped the UMass Boston IT team navigate and respond to the COVID-19 crisis, while greatly minimizing the potential negative impact on members of the UMass Boston community.

As a direct consequence of engaging leaders at every level of the organization, said Lefebvre, several unforeseen positives have emerged. “We have experienced improved communication across the IT division, between both leadership and staff; increased crossdivisional teamwork and camaraderie with a customer service focus; realized budgetary savings that will help to offset the overall financial impact of COVID-19; and adopted new IT services and technologies.

“The creativity, focus, work ethic, and accomplishments demonstrated by each member of IT, and the positive responses from members of the UMB community, are highlighted in the pages that follow.”

Instructional and Business Continuity

Flip Side of the Same Coin

As far as the challenges facing members of the IT staff go, instructional continuity and business continuity go hand-inhand— you can’t have one without the other. The former is a simplified way of referring to basically anything and everything related to creating a smooth and efficient remote teaching and learning environment. The latter demands the same efficiencies for all administrative and managerial functions.

When given the opportunity to appoint a staff member to remain on campus during the lockdown, to serve as the eyes, ears, and boots-on-the-ground for IT, Lefebvre assigned Jamie Soule, director of Network Services. Soule became the sole onsite support not only for IT teams, but also for any member of the UMass Boston community needing support. He either provided the assistance himself or delegated it to a member of one of the IT teams for remote assistance. As the person on- campus charged with helping to keep the wheels turning, he did it all—even watered plants weekly.”

Soule was the perfect person for the job. His background is eclectic: a longtime licensed electrician, he has performed over a dozen roles in IT infrastructure from electrical to security. Which is to say—he knows his stuff.

Our Lockdown Story Begins on March 20, 2020

One day, campus life hums along. Students rush between classes or stroll leisurely across campus in twos and threes; colleagues meet in the cafeteria, sharing stories over lunch. In the evenings, students relax in the residence hall or, perhaps, gather in study groups in the library. The atmosphere is charged with curiosity, meaningful discussions, friendly debates, camaraderie, and thoughts on how to spend the weekend.

Next day, nothing. No students rushing, strolling, or relaxing; no colleagues meeting. No camaraderie. No one to be seen. Overnight, 100 percent remote teaching, learning, and working became the unprecedented order of the day.

UMB’s IT team stepped up. Carrying on the business of higher education is dependent on fully functioning technologies to support the new-normal world.

The reality is, you can’t walk away from a technology infrastructure on a campus like ours; things break, alarms go off, equipment needs fixing, circuits need resetting, the reliability of equipment must be ensured. The list is endless. My job was to react to any requests that required onsite activity and, if I couldn’t solve it, to delegate the issue to someone who could.

IT went from 92 staff members on campus to one. Me. I am so incredibly grateful to my team and all the IT professionals, all our many colleagues across campus, our faculty, and our researchers. We all got caught on our heels. We were making up the rules as we went along, but it all went well—and continues to go—smoothly.

Jamie Soule, Director of Network Services

Alison Murray is senior information security specialist in IT’s Information Security Office. Murray’s team works very closely with Soule and his team to manage network equipment like firewalls and VPNs (virtual private networks), which allow users to send data over a public network securely. The two teams also collaborate as they work toward securing devices across campus.

As you can imagine, the use of VPN became a high-demand core service at the start of the lockdown, but many people didn’t get to take the necessary setup steps to prepare their campus machines for remote connectivity or to move their data to a secure cloud solution for remote access before the campus shutdown. Things happened very quickly, and part of IT’s focus was to get everyone into a good working state so we could help them move forward with improvements to services.

Jamie and his teams were instrumental in helping us physically locate machines and power them on so the rest of the process could take place with other IT groups helping the UMass Boston community get back to normal operations in new remote settings.

Many people across campus are working on various research projects, grants, or other scholarly works and need to continue to meet deadlines despite a pandemic.

Jamie and his team helped us to help others at a moment’s notice as issues arose within the first few weeks of working from home, and we are very grateful for their support and expertise.

Alison Murray, Senior Information Security Specialist

IT’s Virtual “Walk-Up” Service: LiveChat

In times of crisis, innovation often saves the day. While Soule acted as sole onsite IT support, others staffed IT’s new LiveChat, an option that is similar to the live chats many companies offer online.

“On campus, IT’s walk-up service is quick. People rely on it and, more often than not, the services rendered result in a quick solution to an issue. Of course, the pandemic put an abrupt end to this. We needed a virtual “Walk-Up” service.

So, we leveraged an existing piece of technology called LivePerson, an industry-leading chat support app. It’s a text-based web interface offering a real-time chat with an agent. We put it up quickly, and it was promptly accessed by members of the UMass Boston community.”

Maxwell Razdow, Manager of IT Lab Operations

Luci Nguyen, IT Lab Ops student supervisor, was tasked with the scheduling and training side for LiveChat, the purpose of which is to provide remote assistance to the Service Desk.

“Before LiveChat, the service desk was overwhelmed with tickets submitted by voicemail and emails. Emails were easy to respond to, but the voice messages were hard to understand, with lots of missing information, all of which required time-consuming follow-up. With LiveChat, we can assist our clients almost immediately. In the first couple of months, we have responded to over 3,750 chats with an 80 to 90 percent resolution rate on first point of contact.”

Luci Nguyen, IT Lab Ops Student Supervisor Opportunities

Instructional Continuity: The Challenges, the Rewards

“As can be imagined,” said Apurva Mehta, associate chief information officer, “with this all happening so quickly, there was a lot of anxiety. A vast majority of our faculty have not taught online or used Blackboard and related tools to manage their courses; hence the work to get them all up to speed in a few short weeks would be an enormous task.”

Members of the Educational Technology team—instructional designers and technologists, Blackboard administrators, and classroom technicians—put together a plan in a hurry, created a lot of group training sessions for faculty, and offered to meet one-on-one if needed. Approximately 1,200 faculty teach over 2,500 face-to-face classes plus 350 online courses, so it’s clear there was a lot of heavy lifting to get everyone onto and comfortable with a common set of online teaching tools— Blackboard, Collaborate, VoiceThread, and Zoom.

The speed with which the lockdown happened and the need for extensive training were two of the biggest challenges for everyone involved. The rewards were the ways in which faculty embraced the challenges, made time for the trainings, and transformed their face-to-face courses to engaging remote learning classes.

A handful of the many responses from grateful members of the UMass Boston community follow:

Dear Apurva, I would be in the dark without the consistent and thoughtful tutorials from Jouliana Bosneva [instructional designer in IT Ed Tech & Learning Commons]. Truly, she has been a godsend to me. She helped me reconceptualize my course during spring break; introduced me to using Zoom as a host; attended a couple of classes with me in order to serve as my backup just in case there were glitches; and spent time after class to debrief and help me perfect my skills in both Zoom and Blackboard. I cannot express enough how truly thankful and impressed I am working with the overall IT team at UMB.

Denise Patmon, Associate Professor of Education

Dear Paula [Thorsland, manager of eLearning and instructional support], I am writing to notify you that your team is doing an excellent job during this unprecedented situation. The culture of providing quality service and prompt responses is impressive.

Davood Golmohammadi, Associate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems

I cannot even begin to tell you how incredibly grateful I am for the support, instruction, and inspiration you have offered to our community. What you have done is nothing short of miraculous. I am techno-challenged, and even I have managed to successfully conduct meaningful online courses. This is all exclusively due to the extensive instructions and support you have provided. When this is all over, your department deserves a parade in its honor! Just knowing you are all in the background to help has increased my own confidence beyond words.

Joan Struzziero, Counseling and School Psychology

On the other hand, while a crisis can stifle action with feelings of overwhelming powerlessness, in the case of UMB’s IT teams, the crisis inspired innovative solutions. Take Honorlock, for example.

On-Demand Proctor Services: Honorlock

One of the many issues facing faculty when teaching and learning went remote was academic integrity. “With students taking exams and tests online via Blackboard or other systems,” said Mehta, “we needed a good system in place to ensure the integrity of the tests.” One challenge: Respondus, UMB’s existing system, does not work with Chromebooks, which are being used extensively during the lockdown.

After speaking with our sister campuses, we learned about Honorlock, which works as an extension to the Chrome browser. Hence, no software needs to be downloaded. Honorlock records each student’s activity and uses AI and/or a “human” to flag students that may have done something out of the ordinary.

Apurva Mehta, Associate Chief Information Officer

As of this writing, Honorlock is being piloted with a few math courses. The initial feedback has been positive, and Mehta said that IT will likely expand its subscription to this service. So, between Respondus and Honorlock, faculty should be able to administer tests and exams in a secure manner.

Lectures-To-Go: Echo360

Then there is Echo360, a game-changer for faculty teaching in a remote-teach-a-day world. Echo360 is a lecture capture recording tool, allowing faculty to record lectures in Echo and post them on Blackboard. Students can then access and listen to the lecture when convenient. In the beginning, however, the whole concept of “convenient” was fodder for debate, although quickly resolved.

In-person classes happen at specific times. However, remote classes compete with at-home schedules. Parents might be home, maybe younger siblings too; perhaps internet connections are not-so-great. Accommodations had to be made. Echo360 was a great solution, allowing students to “attend” class when their at-home environment permits.

Apurva Mehta, Associate Chief Information Officer

Echo360 video views in March 2019 were around 14,000. In March 2020, Echo360 views increased to 26,000; April 2019, 17,000 compared to April 2020, 36,000; and May 2019, 15,000 compared to May 2020, 22,000. IT plans to install additional Echo360 classroom appliances to better prepare for the future if needed. 

Instructional Continuity Meets Business Continuity: eSignature to the Rescue

It is a colossal understatement to say that COVID-19 affected every aspect of day-to-day business operations, the need to sign a document being high on the list of challenges. Of course, there’s always snail mail if you have the time or inclination. But the solution was simple and quick: DocuSign’s eSignature offers the capability to sign documents online.

In early 2020, we had maybe 20 eSignature users. Everyone wanted an actual signature, otherwise known as a wet signature. The prior slow adoption of eSignature experienced a rapid uptick. Today, we have over 3,000 users.

Linda Modiste, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services

eSignature has allowed us to easily adapt many business processes for remote working. We constantly need signatures to accomplish things like authorizing spending money in particular ways, bookkeeping, and reimbursements. Additionally, we are required to obtain informed consent from individuals participating in UMass Boston research and assessment programs, which means they are briefed about the study before agreeing to participate. Without this tool, these things would have been difficult, if not impossible.

Eric Berry, Director of Labs in Psychology 

Faculty and Staff: Get IT Loaner Program

When faculty and staff were sent home to work remotely due to COVID-19, many had to use their own personal computers to do their jobs. This was okay for the first couple of months, but when the campus announced that it would be remote for the foreseeable future, it became clear in June 2020 that something would need to be done to provide faculty and staff with the technology they need to be successful. Which is when the Get IT technology loaner program was born.

Get IT is all about providing faculty and staff with the tools they need to perform their jobs from home seamlessly. To that end, IT readied approximately 400 pieces of equipment for the Get IT loaner program. Equipment included laptops, PCs, MACs, desktops, monitors, webcams, etc., as well as workstations, which are geared toward heavier applications like those needing more memory and processing power.

COVID-19 caught everyone off guard, with no time to prepare. Working from home, many faculty and staff found they didn’t have the right machines to do their jobs efficiently. And with the university’s decision to extend the lockdown through the fall semester, the need to get the right machines to the right people became even more urgent.

Mike Lyons, Assistant Vice Chancellor for IT Client Services

The Get IT portal allows faculty and staff to sign up to request a loaner device. A service desk ticket is automatically opened, and the request is sent for manager approval. Once granted, curbside pick-up is arranged outside the Integrated Sciences Complex.

Loaner Laptops and Chromebooks

In response to COVID-19, IT procured 200 Chromebooks with the intent of making them available to students in need. The lockdown sped up the process, and IT immediately put the loaner program in high gear.

Within two days, IT set up all 200 Chromebooks so students could use them securely and access UMass Boston remotely. On the third day, I worked with campus police to make sure they had an ample supply of devices in the police station so they could schedule students to come pick up a Chromebook at socially distanced intervals of time. The role of the campus police was to schedule pickup, check ID’s, and distribute the devices.

Jamie Soule, Director of Network Services

The Loaner Chromebook Initiative was so successful that IT procured an additional 200 devices and partnered with Library Services to provide access to loaner Chromebooks via the Circulation Desk. Students simply reserve the device online as they would a library book. Curbside pickup outside the Integrated Sciences Complex is then arranged. University Advancement is assisting with the financing by fundraising to cover the Chromebook purchases.

During lockdown, my laptop stopped working, and I was not ready to buy another, and furthermore there was no place open to buy one. I turned to UMass Boston’s loaner program and borrowed a Chromebook. That made things a lot easier for me, because without your program I would probably have had to use my phone. That was the only option I had. Thanks again for your help.

Daniel PetitFrere, ‘22

Getting Together

We’ve heard enough times that “We’re all in this together,” but what about getting together? As effective as remote teaching, learning, and working can be, nothing beats meeting with colleagues face-to-face. And while that’s not possible in the middle of a pandemic, several ways do exist in which colleagues can meet virtually to discuss projects, brainstorm, ask and answer questions, and socialize.

And when it comes to virtual socializing, no one plans it better than Salina Allen-Sharpp, executive assistant to Raymond Lefebvre, vice chancellor and CIO. The success of this past summer’s event, a virtual BBQ, says it all. IT’s VIBE (Virtual IT Bbq Event) was a huge success, well “attended,” complete with backyard grilling, a VIBE playlist, prizes, and so much more.

I was skeptical at first, but once I got into it and started thinking creatively, it all came together. We made it fun for the whole family.

Salina Allen-Sharpp, Executive Assistant to Raymond Lefebvre, Vice Chancellor and CIO

The irrefutable fact is that not only socializing, but also both instructional and business continuities thrive on meaningful human interactions. Of course, two people can accomplish a lot using good old-fashioned email, but email lacks the human element and is impractical when several colleagues need to get together.

Enter Zoom and Microsoft Teams

Used minimally prior to lockdown, Zoom became the go-to technology for meetings and conferences post-lockdown. Faculty meet with students; students meet with students; staff meet with colleagues. 22 n Information Technology Outcomes | 2020 Zoom, an easy-to-use videoconferencing software, has been widely adopted during the lockdown. Prior to March 6, the university had approximately 370 Zoom licenses. By the end of July, that number had mushroomed to 1,850. Apurva Mehta, Associate Chief Information Officer

Zoom has become so popular that as of September 2020, it has been expanded to a Zoom Enterprise License, which translates into Zoom for all students, faculty, and staff.

Zoom Webinar is yet another tool in the remote worker’s toolbox. It is different from a Zoom meeting where attendees can be seen and heard. A Webinar is a virtual “event,” with a host who chairs the event and invites panelists or presenters to share information via voice alone or PowerPoint, and/or video presentations. Up to 5,000 people can “attend” a Webinar, making it impractical, in most cases, for attendees to participate.

The Chancellor’s Office wanted a virtual town hall last spring. The Webinar tool was perfect. We ended up with about 1,000 attendees. Panelists from administration and finance, enrollment management, the budgeting office, and others presented departmental plans for the future. IT functioned in the background, syncing up slides in unison with each speaker as needed. At the close of the event, attendees were encouraged to send questions via email.

John Jessoe, Manager of Classroom Technology and AV Services

Webinars also have been used on a regular basis for orientation sessions, virtual faculty meetings, virtual events such as Earth Day, as well as College of Nursing and the Office of Alumni/University Advancements events. Then there’s Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that includes videoconferencing but adds document sharing, calendar management, and shared communications. Teams is much more focused on teamwork collaboration, whereas Zoom is more about meeting via videoconferencing only.

Terrence Phalen, Director of the Project Management Office

Immersive Reality Changes the Landscape—Literally

Like many things in life, how we do things is based on individual preference. Remote teaching, learning, and working is no exception. One person may prefer zooming into a conference; another might want to join a Microsoft Team. Well, how about this next option—the recently introduced immersive reality that adds neat visuals and, to be honest, a little playfulness to the equation. Young or older, Immersive Reality is sure to delight the “gamer” in each of us.

Immersive Reality and Business Continuity

Simply said, immersive reality uses a gaming platform to provide a 3-D virtual reality world with the added benefit that it renders this world on a regular monitor—no 3D headset required. Just join your world; create your individualized avatar—hair color, clothing, skin tone, and those little details that let your personality shine through. Then invite your colleagues to join you.

In a business context, your “world” might consist of virtual offices and conference rooms. Avatars can move freely; speak to colleagues in real time; upload PDFs, PowerPoints; share files and computer screens; annotate on whiteboards. Avatars can even wave, point, and clap.

When avatars approach others, they can speak with each other. All that is needed is a PC with a microphone, whereas with Zoom, for example, you need both a camera and a microphone. “Immersive reality offers an opportunity to socially engage with colleagues in a more involved way,” said Lefebvre.

To that end, IT set up a virtual team suite, which consists of four conference rooms and 36 virtual offices. Staff members, represented by their individualized avatars, can attend a conference or arrange to meet colleagues in one of the virtual offices or conference rooms. The system also allows for dropins just as an in-person, open-door policy offers colleagues the same opportunity.

Presently Immersive Reality is utilized mainly by IT for business administration purposes. But when Peter Bonitatibus, director of Student Affairs Technology Services, got wind of the technology, he was intrigued. As of this writing, about 10 student affairs professionals have created virtual offices allowing for more engaging virtual collaboration between their office and IT.

Immersive Reality and Instructional Continuity

“Immersive Reality from a social perspective has a lot of potential,” said Lefebvre. “Not being on campus is tougher for students, but in an immersive reality world, they can engage with friends and classmates in a more interactive and, importantly, entertaining way.” Enter Frame VR, a web-based immersive reality platform that runs directly in a web browser—no software to install. Frame VR is designed from the ground up to promote social engagement.

In its early exploratory stage, Frame VR does not have an official team tasked with implementing it. However, to tease out the potential of the new technology, Lefebvre formed a small working group, including Zack Ronald, AV Services; John Mazzarella, IT Communications; Lisa Link, Web Services; and IT student employee Donna Kimmel. This approach is flexible and agile and paves the way to its potential transition into becoming a more formal official service in the future.

Over the years, Link has done a lot of work with photography students and has always been interested in getting students involved in projects. She, Kimmel, and sophomore Ssam Samidinov teamed up to produce a 3D immersive reality art gallery using Frame VR, complete with individual art galleries, student photography exhibits, display tables, and more. The 3D space helps visitors learn because—although they are avatars— they are moving around, exploring the environment

Frame provides the background of our gallery space. Our job was to plan it, decide what to include and how to make the gallery an engaging space where students might meet, learn, or display their own work … I love working with the students— their creativity and work ethic. I’m so grateful, and I give a huge thank-you to Ray for supporting this project.

Lisa Link, Senior Web Designer

An open framework supported by all browsers and devices, Frame VR uses WebGL technology to create the 3D graphics. Daniel Haehn, assistant professor of computer science, is a fan and has incorporated the technology into his CS460 graphics course.

For me, an important part of remote teaching is exploring different environments to engage the students. One environment is Frame VR, which allows users to create their own avatars and interact with others. I am offering CS460 to students of all levels of experience.

Daniel Haehn, Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Rolling Out the Virtual Red Carpet

Our story to this point focuses on the existing UMass Boston community. However, lest we forget, incoming freshmen and transfer students have needs too. And as challenging as the lockdown is for us all in the know, students new to the ways of UMass Boston face much greater anxieties and unknowns. This latest challenge involved IT finding remote-friendly ways to introduce new students to the UMass Boston community of learners. The solution: Beacon Preview.

Online Orientation

The online orientation project known as Beacon Preview was a monumental cross-divisional endeavor involving expertise and knowhow from IT and representatives from Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management, Financial Aid, Public Safety, Residence Life—everything an incoming student would need to know in advance before registering for classes. The project was so complex, the initial decision was made to launch Beacon Preview first to transfer students only.

We partnered with a vendor, ADG Advantage Design Group, to help us with the overall design concept, a kind of modern presentation written with a specific voice chosen by our partners in Student Affairs. Students navigate through the site, and at the end of the orientation, we supply them with a list of URL’s that are most relevant for each individual student and provide them with next steps to meet with an advisor and register for classes. It’s as personal as you can get without meeting in person.

Mary Ryan, Data Integration Specialist

The story here is like so many stories during the lockdown. Whereas the launch of Beacon Preview originally focused on transfer students, the continued lockdown for the fall 2020 semester required the team to fast-track the same online orientation rollout to incoming freshman students.

There is no way we could have managed a project of this scope and with these technical requirements without IT’s support and expertise. They developed a timeline, helped us negotiate technical issues with the vendor, and is a major reason that we received the product in time for our re-imagined virtual orientation this summer.

Since our project was already near completion when the pandemic hit, we were able to move our transfer orientation process completely online and create a separate online module for freshman students. This was a game changer given the move to remote orientations due to COVID-19.

I honestly don’t know how we would have made it through this spring and summer without the Beacon Preview being ready to go in May, and I give much of the credit to Mary [Ryan] and Terry [Phalen] for keeping us on task!

Shelby J. Harris, PhD, Associate Dean of Students

Covid-19 changed everything. What we thought we were going to do regarding orientation needed to be expanded. We had to shorten our timeline, go back and review all content for suitability, and add content when needed. And then we had to test. I’m so proud of our team and how things came together. Mary Ryan, Data Integration Specialist

IT CARES

Community Assistance Raises Everyone’s Spirits Whether we’re talking student orientation, meeting with business associates, teaching, or attending classes—so much of what typically happens in a university environment comes down to human interactions. A university is a community of various groups of like-minded people feeding off each other not only in terms of conducting the business of higher education, but also in growing and communicating socially.

Salina Allen-Sharpp, executive assistant to Vice Chancellor and CIO Ray Lefebvre, was acutely aware of the isolation some folks might be experiencing as a result of being cut off from their colleagues. She proposed to Lefebvre, who agreed, that she initiate a 6 a.m. “Early Riser” drop-in coffee hour for staff inclined to join.

Allen-Sharpp also initiated “Lunch & Learn” virtual sessions, which became yet another way for colleagues to check in with colleagues and share knowledge during lockdown.

We all try to connect with each other as much as possible. We’re just catching up, sharing funny stories, and engaging in team building activities. It keeps people interested and engaged. Lunch & Learn is a great way to keep our spirits up and participate in activities that are fun.

Salina Allen-Sharpp, Executive Assistant

I love the whole concept of “Lunch & Learn.” It gives us all a chance to learn about something new, something that may or may not have anything to do with the job. We can get to know each other a bit better at the same time. And the presenter has a chance to show off something they think is worth sharing. My topic was digital scrapbooking with Photoshop, and it’s something I’m passionate about. Scrapping is my artistic outlet and my therapy when life gets too stressful. It was wonderful that I was able to bring that to work and share.

Marlo Filoso, Systems Administrator

Procurement and Communications

Of course, for all things IT to happen, two more critical components are needed: financing to support each of the projects; and a good communication plan to let folks know the latest happenings.

Procuring Technology

Technology can be expensive. Very expensive. But so is not having the right technologies to do the right job at the right time. And right now, the times demand the right technology, not regardless of expense but uncompromised by it. Neil Rosenburg, IT’s assistant vice chancellor for business operations, has been instrumental in moving financing forward quickly, soliciting quotes, and processing purchase orders for critical technology needs.

We try to be as efficient and responsive as possible, working with application services, infrastructure services, and other departments to determine the best way to move forward. In the first 120 days of lockdown, half or more of all purchase orders were COVID-needs related. The goal always is to make it easier to teach, learn, and work remotely.

We’ve purchased a lot of equipment and software products to support a remote environment. And I want to say that this would not have been possible without the relationships and trust that Ray [vice chancellor and CIO] has developed with colleagues over the last year. So, when expenditures arise, some quite large, they move through the campus procurement process pretty quickly. Ray’s knowledge, energy, and enthusiasm are very much appreciated.

Neil Rosenburg, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Business Operations

Keeping UMass Boston Community Members Informed

John Mazzarella, manager of training, communication, and marketing for IT, is responsible for communicating all things IT: reminders of existing services; notices regarding new services; alerts if something is offline for one reason or another, etc. This task is straightforward in the on-campus scheme of things—emails, flyers, computer screen messages, digital on-campus signage. One method or another gets the message across when you are on campus.

Since the lockdown, however, Mazzarella has been limited to communicating IT initiatives and changes via email only. Given the number of daily emails each person receives, it can be a challenge to attract a recipient’s attention.

In the course of a day on campus, we would post the same message in different places. On-campus messages are hard to miss. Since lockdown, the email messaging is the same, but more frequent. We’re so much more reliant on this one method to get the message out. We’ve almost tripled the number of emails we send each week. Many are paired to the website with links to additional information.

John Mazzarella, Manager of Training, Communication, and Marketing for IT

Our Story Continues…

Operation Divide & Conquer has entered its sixth, and final, phase: “Reentry.” While the reentry phase was initially intended to return all students, faculty, and staff to campus, sadly, continued progression of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced UMass Boston to remain remote through the fall semester 2020, with no end in sight as of this writing.

The reentry phase has returned 25 percent of the UMass Boston IT workforce to campus, while the remainder of the IT staff will continue to work remotely until further notice. This workforce split has proven to be effective with the majority of students, faculty, and staff being remote as well.

To help guide a similar campus-wide faculty and staff reentry planning process, IT procured “Safe Campus,” a suite of modules available through UMass Boston’s ServiceNow platform, which is currently used for incident tracking, administration, and oversight.

Safe Campus modules allow the university to oversee, manage, and administer the various activities and data collection that will be utilized to track return-to-campus activities. Modules include PPE Inventory Management, Employee Readiness Survey, Health Screening, Workplace Safety, and Contact Tracing. The modules will be configured to best fit the needs of the Boston campus and will be implemented in a phased-in approach which began in August.

Linda Modiste Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services

When All Is Said and Done…

Let’s cut to the chase: when a challenge surfaced, a solution was found. Remote workspaces are up and running; lines of communication between students, faculty, staff, and IT hum right along. Innovative technologies, group trainings, LiveChat, Zoom, Cloud PC etc. etc. etc. ensure instructional and business continuity. Anita Miller, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, summed it all up.

The UMass Boston IT staff are normally a terrific, reliable bunch. However, when we moved to working remotely in March 2020, they became superheroes. Three examples are:

For years, we have been asking faculty to create Blackboard shells for their courses “just in case” they were needed. Lots of faculty did so…. but some did not. Nevertheless, when we went remote and they had to move their courses to online platforms, IT “helped the helpless” migrate smoothly and easily and provided backup support whenever needed.

Many UMass Boston students (and some faculty and staff) did not have technology available at home, relying on UMass Boston resources in the computer labs (or their offices) for computers, printers, and internet access. IT worked with the central offices to buy and loan Chromebooks to students and employees so they could continue working or taking classes remotely.

For those employees who did have home technology, IT stepped up and enabled seamless transitioning from work to home, including mundane tasks such as when a VPN connection went down, IT would go to that person’s office and power up or fiddle with the computer to reconnect it. They also used their remote-control ability to upload needed software, install virus protection, or trouble-shoot computer problems for employees working from home or students needing help.

I’m thinking of issuing superhero capes to all IT employees when I return … assuming we have the budget to do that and they don’t get in the way of their IT operations.

Anita Miller, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs