What universities need to know about the Heartbleed bug

Heartbleed security flaw, university data breaches have administrators on edge

heartbleed-campus-securityThe Heartbleed bug, a serious security flaw found earlier this month in the encryption software used by most secure websites, has many organizations scrambling to fix the issue — including universities.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln announced that it was scanning all of the university’s networks for any Heartbleed vulnerabilities. Vanderbilt University announced it was doing the same, as did Stony Brook University, and the University of Texas, among others.

Speaking with a student newspaper last week, Cam Beasley, chief information security officer at the University of Texas, sought to calm student nerves.…Read More

10 new, free campus leadership MOOCs for April

These April MOOCs cater to faculty, IT admin, and campus leaders

MOOC-April-campus
Copyright: Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock.

With all the MOOCs available today, including the number of platforms and higher-ed institutions offering courses, it’s sometimes difficult to navigate the most credible—and most interesting—MOOCs that can cater to your institution.

In the interest of saving you time, the editors of eCampus News have aggregated 10 new, free (and often generating a lot of buzz) MOOCs that apply to not only students interested in topics such as programming, but to IT staff looking to better manage hacking risks, faculty looking to develop their blended learning teaching skills, and campus leaders interested in how to categorize decision-making.

For example, this list includes MOOCs, all either available in April or have been newly listed in April, that range from “Tech and the Future” which helps manage change and innovation on campus in a strategic way, to “Performance Assessment in a Virtual Classroom,” which explores the myths and challenges of assessing performance virtually.  Look for other courses on blender course design, understanding the brain’s basic behavior, and much more.…Read More

How to save lives with social media

Campus emergency expert discusses the importance of social media, text messaging

social-media-campusThe night before Byron Piatt was scheduled to speak about campus emergencies at the 2014 ACUTA conference in Dallas, Texas, his campus was experiencing an emergency of its own.

Protestors clashed with Albuquerque police on March 30 following days of demonstrations over a series of deadly police shootings. The University of New Mexico, where Piatt works as an emergency manager, lies at the heart of the city, and the confrontation spilled onto campus.

At 9 p.m., the university’s Twitter account sent out a tweet to its 19,000 followers.…Read More

Are campuses really mobile ready? And what does that mean?

New national survey reports on IT trends for campuses in 2014

campuses-mobile-resnet It’s not news to say that the IT demands placed on campuses across the country are skyrocketing, thanks to student, and administrator, need for mobile devices and communications access. But with the economy still in recovery, and technology use increasing at a beyond-rapid rate, are campuses really IT-ready? And how do you gauge readiness?

In a new report, “2014 ACUTA/NACUBO/ACUHO-I State of ResNet Report: ResNet Trends & Practices Across Higher Education,” more than 400 higher education institutions were surveyed to help admins and chief business officers address issues as the unprecedented growth in bandwidth and connectivity demands, budget restrictions, planning, policy considerations, staffing, and support.

The report is the third installment of a five year tracking study, and this year includes a wider scope, representing nearly twice as many stakeholders, with over three times the number of chief business officers responding compared to last year.…Read More

4 new April tools for your campus arsenal

Tools include open access journals, job tool for graduating students

tools-April-campusAn influx of new technologies and resources for higher education have just landed, making this spring/summer 2014 one of the busiest seasons for innovation—and eCampus News (eCN) is highlighting four tools for April with the most potential.

From the an open source website that provides free online training for beginner level web developers to a free tool that helps IT departments measure their performance, these four noteworthy technologies could help your institution improve in efficiency and be on the forefront of higher-ed innovation.

This resource tool roundup is part of eCN’s ongoing mission to provide readers with the most current news and information available in higher-ed. Know of any tools or resources coming to market or recently available for postsecondary learning? Are these tools you’d recommend to other institutions, faculty or admin? Please leave your suggestions in the comment section on this page, or email me at mstansbury@ecampusnews.com.…Read More

Campus emergency alerts, simplified

One emergency app tries to eliminate student confusion during a campus crisis

campus-emergency-appIt might take days for a college student to gather every piece of information on how to respond to a campus emergency–from assaults, to fires, to shootings and extreme weather.

Detailed on various college sites, brochures, and other campus literature, instructions for how to respond to an emergency are often scattered and disorganized, if not thorough.

That’s why colleges and universities have condensed their emergency notification and response protocol into a single, easy-to-use mobile app called In Case of Crisis, designed to serve as a sort of one-stop shop for students’ emergency needs (and instructions).…Read More

The business of ed-tech: From blue lights to mobile apps

Once ridiculed, mobile technology is bolstering campus safety through innovative apps

mobile-appsIt was in a 2009 safety committee meeting with University of Florida (UF) officials that Jordan Johnson first mentioned the potential impact of mobile technology in bolstering campus safety.

Johnson, then the UF student body president, was met with blank stares and quizzical looks. He acknowledged web-connected smartphones would need to be more ubiquitous on campus before they became a vital part of safety and security measures, but the reaction was less than welcoming.

“It was mainly making a forwarding-thinking comment,” said Johnson, who proposed the use of mobile technology to boost security after a rash of attacks on UF students. “I know they didn’t really take me seriously though. It was pretty clear the idea was seen as ridiculous.”…Read More

The wifi challenge campuses dread

At ACUTA, Aruba’s Jeffrey Weaver discusses the logistics of overcoming campuses biggest wifi nightmare

wifi-stadium-campusDallas, Texas — Massive college sporting events like the NCAA tournament — which concludes here with the Final Four this week — can be a strain on campus wifi networks and IT officials.

But it’s not just times like March Madness that can be a nightmare for campus wifi networks. Officials scramble to make sure university networks can handle all the traffic at basketball arenas and football stadiums all season.

Jeffrey Weaver, manager of large public venue system engineers at Aruba Networks, spoke Monday at the 2014 ACUTA conference about the logistics behind stadium and arena wifi networks.…Read More

Universities now have a shiny, new campus publishing platform

Next-level resource brings to life campus blogs, newspaper and a variety of websites

campus-press-publishingEdublogs, one of the most popular WordPress-based blogging resources for K-12, has just announced Campus Press, an entirely different online platform designed specifically for colleges and universities.

When Edublogs began almost ten years ago, its primary mission was to provide a safe, easy-to-use and professional blogging resource to K-12 classrooms.

Now, Campus Press, the next evolution of Edublogs, builds on existing services, using the WordPress platform, to bring higher-ed web publishing into the 21st Century.…Read More

Researcher: College CIO shortage on the horizon

Forty-five percent of college CIOs plan to retire by 2020, according to a recent study.
Forty-five percent of college CIOs plan to retire by 2020, according to a recent study.

Wayne Brown’s seven years of research has identified a wide swath of campus technology officials eager to become chief information officers someday. They’re just not quite sure how.

Excelsior College, an online school based in Albany, N.Y., unveiled this month the Center for Technology Leadership (CTL), which will open next October in Silver Spring, Md., and host week-long courses designed to plug the “readiness gap” for computer experts who strive to head their college’s technology office, but need extensive training on how to translate techno-speak for campus higher-ups and allocate responsibilities to staff members.

The lack of guidance for aspiring CIOs, coupled with projections that show nearly half of higher-education technology chiefs plan to retire in the next decade, translates to a potential CIO shortfall for college campuses of every size, said Brown, head of the Center for Higher Education Chief Information Officer Studies and Excelsior’s vice president of technology.…Read More

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