New digital newsletter conveys service transformation progress

Woman typing on a keyboard

Earlier this year, Vice-President Finance and Administration Carol McAulay and Provost and Vice-President Academic Lisa Philipps announced the launch of Service Transformation. This initiative follows Project Benchmark 2017 and 2018, in which two years of data collection and benchmarking the capacity and effectiveness of York University’s administrative services against other Canadian and international universities was conducted.

As part of Service Transformation, faculty and staff were invited to get involved in helping to design and implement more effective and efficient services by joining one of the service transformation teams or participating in the community consultations.

In the four months since the process began, a lot has happened, including:

  • a review of the 2017 and 2018 benchmarking data and Service Effectiveness Survey results;
  • a review of the recommendations from previous institutional initiatives, including the PRASE, AAPR and IIRP working groups and Employee Engagement Surveys;
  • the identification and prioritization of “quick wins” and activities for transformational focus;
  • a current state assessment, validation and one-on-one and group interviews to understand the user experience in the priority areas; and
  • capacity building in human-centred design, shared services, process improvement and customer service.

You can read about all the activities in our new digital newsletter, Service Transformation: Advancing Change Through Community Engagement. The newsletter will be published quarterly to provide up-to-date information on York’s Service Transformation activities, outcomes, upcoming training and capacity building, as well as opportunities to get involved.

To learn more about Service Transformation, visit yu link.

York University community members are invited to provide input into the SHARP budget model

Vari Hall

The following message has been sent to the York University community on behalf of the AVP Finance & CFO, Aldo DiMarcantonio, AVP Institutional Planning & Analysis, Sarah Cantrell, and SEO/Executive Director, Office of the Provost, Richard Ooi:

When the new Shared Accountability and Resource Planning (SHARP) budget model was implemented, there was a commitment to conduct a review within the first few years of its implementation, to identify what was working well and areas for improvement. Over the next few months a review of SHARP, co-sponsored by Provost & Vice President Academic Lisa Philipps and Vice President Finance & Administration Carol McAulay, will be undertaken.

The University has appointed external reviewers with significant experience in university budgets to lead the external review. The focus for this review is to obtain feedback on the principles, concepts and structures of SHARP. The external reviewers are:

  • Alan Harrison, past provost and vice-president (Academic), Queen’s University
  • Scott Mabury, vice-president, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships & vice-provost, Academic Operations, University of Toronto
  • Megan Sheppard, senior vice-president Corporate Services & CFO, Loyalist College

The external reviewers will be on-site for three days – Sept. 30 to Oct. 2– and will be meeting with divisional and Faculty staff across campus who are responsible for budgets, to collect information on their experiences working with the SHARP model. Two town halls open to the York community are also planned and scheduled as follows:

Wednesday, Oct. 2
9 to 10:30 a.m.
Keele Campus
Senate Chamber, Ross Building Room N940
Wednesday, Oct. 2
3 to 4 p.m.
Glendon Campus
York Hall Room A300The town halls offer opportunities for community members to provide feedback on the SHARP budget model to the external reviewers.

For those unable to attend the Town Halls, feedback can be forwarded to the reviewers at sharprv@yorku.ca.

In addition to the external review, there will be opportunities for the University community to provide feedback on the SHARP budget review during the budget consultation sessions, which will occur from September 2019 to January 2020.

To learn more about the SHARP budget model and the review, visit the SHARP website.

York University achieves record high in Moodle usage

Woman typing on a keyboard

Moodle use at York University is hitting new records.

Last September, Moodle usage climbed to a stunning 8,000 users per hour. This fall, the 2019-20 academic year got off to a spectacular start when 8,928 users accessed the system between 11 a.m. and noon on Sept. 10.

This analytics diagram shows the peak usage of Moodle during the first few days of the fall term

Breaking records without breaking the system takes a tremendous effort behind the scenes to keep the online platform robust and working seamlessly. Moodle is an online learning management system and it is one of the cornerstones of technology-enhanced learning at York University.

Educators use Moodle to create lessons, manage course content, and interact online with their students and colleagues. Students use Moodle to review their course syllabi, submit assignments, take quizzes, and interact with course instructors and other students.

To ensure the Moodle system could handle the forecasted load, staff in University Information Technology (UIT) spent the summer preparing for the fall rush. Not only did they upgrade the Moodle application to its latest release, they also upgraded the database application to a high-performing version and installed state-of-the-art virtual servers. Every attribute of the platform was tested and retested to ensure that Moodle would be ready for the September rush.

“We threw everything at it during the summer months to see if it would break,” said Peter Rowley, director of applications and integration in UIT. “[Moodle] handled it beautifully, so we were confident it would hold up well during live usage.” This was certainly the case, as the week of high traffic passed without any service interruptions.

The usage peaks during the September rush are also a reflection of the extent to which Moodle is being adopted by faculty and students. “One year ago, Moodle reached a 100 per cent utilization rate among students, meaning that all York students have at least one Moodle course per year in their schedule,” said Donald Ipperciel, York University’s chief information officer. “That was a milestone! This year, we have further confirmation of the high adoption level of technology-enhanced learning on campus.”

As a result of the high adoption of Moodle, UIT will continue to update and monitor both the performance and resiliency of systems to keep pace with the rising permeation of technology on campus.

While the smooth September start was a great accomplishment for all involved, UIT does not consider its work done with these enhancements. During this academic year, UIT will be testing and implementing new technology to ensure systems remain operational even in the event of a component failure. The goal is to reach a state where component failures go unnoticed by users. Building this sort of seamless redundancy will ensure a far greater student and faculty experience, which is UIT’s ultimate goal.

UIT launches a new service called MyApps

Woman typing on a keyboard

As part of a continued commitment by University Information Technology (UIT) to enriching the community’s experience, a new service called MyApps will make its debut Sept. 16.

The MyApps service will replace the current WebFAS service, and it offers a more modern and convenient solution for delivering software to students, faculty and staff. MyApps  enables University community members to launch software such as Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Acrobat and IBM’s SPSS from any browser either on campus or at home.

Over the past months, UIT staff have been testing and piloting MyApps with much success. Now that the pilot phase is complete, UIT is ready to bring MyApps to the York community. Everyone is encouraged to begin using the new service starting Sept. 16. Access to WebFAS will be continued until Dec. 20, after which it will no longer be available.

Here is a list of what to expect from MyApps:

  • A modern interface:  MyApps provides a modern, one-stop University portal to access software.
  • Better performance:  Applications will run as seamlessly as if they were locally installed on your computer.
  • Consistent user experience:  All applications behave the same, whether launched from a Mac or PC.
  • Seamless authentication:  When using a Windows machine, if you have already authenticated with your Passport York credentials, you will not be prompted to log in to MyApps.

To learn more about MyApps, visit https://staff.computing.yorku.ca/support-services/myapps.

Questions or comments should be sent by email to askit@yorku.ca or by calling 416-736-5800.

Passings: Former comptroller John A. Heber

John A. Heber, long-time York University staff member, died peacefully in his 88th year on Sunday, June 9.

Image of an older couple holding hands, the couple's names are John and Freia Heber
John and Freia Heber

He will be fondly remembered by many faculty and staff as a caring, kind, warm-hearted colleague with a natural gift for financial intelligence and business acumen.

John retired from York University in 1989 after completing 20 years in the University’s Department of Finance. He held the position of Comptroller for eight years.

Even after retirement, he visited campus often to stay connected with friends and colleagues. He enjoyed campus tours and was mesmerized by York’s new buildings, facilities and continuously fascinated by the incredible research taking place on campus. He was always very proud to have been a member of York’s staff and reminisced about many fond memories.

He was especially proud of the reputation of the Schulich School of Business and its increasing recognition within the international academic community, and York’s zealous pursuit of growth to remain in the forefront of rapidly developing research and innovations.

Having always appreciated the value of a higher education, John and his loving wife, Freia, (they were married for more than 55 years) knew that they wanted to give back to the educational institutions that had made the greatest impact on their lives.

Several years ago, the Hebers made a provision in their wills to leave a gift to York University to support scholarships and fellowships for students in Business and Science to encourage and benefit deserving York students to achieve and realize their dreams, which will ultimately benefit society.

John will always be remembered by faculty, staff and the many lives he touched and through the enduring legacy he leaves behind.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, June 15 from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Ward Funeral Home, Woodbridge Chapel, at 4671 Highway 7, Woodbridge. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, June 15 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the same location.

To learn more, visit the Ward Funeral Home tribute page for Mr. Heber.

York University launches service transformation

Vari pond

Vari pond
In 2017, York University launched Project Benchmark, an initiative to identify administrative services that support teaching and research at York. The review looks at where those services are located, the efficiency and effectiveness of the services, and how the University’s results compare to other universities in Canada and internationally.

With help from the community, York University through the UniForum program has completed two years of data collection. The results of the data collection and feedback from community members through the two-part service effectiveness survey, along with benchmarking York’s results against other Canadian and international universities, indicate there are areas to create efficiencies and more effective ways of delivering services to enhance the overall experience for students, faculty and staff. Based on these results, York University is now launching a service transformation, using a holistic approach to transform services and how these services are delivered.

Service transformation is a collaborative partnership between academic and administrative units and uses a human-centred approach to engage University community members in redesigning services and service structures to best meet the needs of users.

The main goal of the project is to collaboratively create user-centred, high-quality, efficient and effective services. By embracing a new way of working, the Service Transformation Steering Committee – chaired by Lyndon Martin, dean of the Faculty of Education, and the service transformation teams – will work with functional and academic co-leads. The aim is a cultural shift that will result in a more agile and innovative University. The service transformation teams will work with stakeholders to create solutions that are centred around the needs of users through collaboration, co-design and collection of ongoing feedback.  

The initial areas of focus for service improvement will be the finance and human resource functions. The steering committee will work with function-specific transformation teams to identify the criteria for the selection of priority areas and confirm the scope of services that will be addressed.

The future vision for York University’s administrative services is a balanced delivery model that meets institutional needs with established service standards, alignment of resources to processes and measured outcomes. Key elements of the future state include, optimal streamlined processes, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, defined and agreed-to process metrics that establish standards and monitor performance, and shared services that are governed by the user. Process improvements will result in released capacity within the units and Faculties to perform higher value work, resulting in improvements to student, faculty and staff experiences, while at the same time freeing up resources to support teaching, research and the academic mission of the University.

Visit the service transformation website to learn more, or to get involved.

New look at York’s UIT Service Desk coming this fall

typing writing computer

As part of the overall strategy for enriching the community’s experience and capacity to act through technology, the University Information Technology (UIT) Service Desk will have a new look.

The new Service Desk will open in September in the Steacie Library building. Over the next few months, there will be a number of important events to note.

The William Small Computing Commons (WSC) will close on Friday, May 3. As a result of its closing, there will be a temporary Service Desk location in the main hall of the Steacie Library building starting on Monday, May 6. This temporary location will offer the same level of service previously available at the WSC.

For those wishing to use one of the lab computers, there will be a temporary lab location set up in 1002B Lassonde Building, at the north end of the building. In addition to that lab location, operations will continue in the Accolade East Building computer lab (ACE 017).

The new location is the first phase of the UIT Service Desk’s two-phase redesign and relocation initiative. Phase two, to be completed in the last quarter of 2019, will include the introduction of new technology learning spaces in the Steacie Library building.

The focus on these upgrades is to increase service. Staff, faculty and students are key service partners to UIT, and all contribute to an enhanced learning and teaching experience. Along with Faculty IT partners, UIT provides an inclusive, technology-based service experience to the York community in support of the University’s goals. The new Service Desk will support this mission by providing superior, efficient and effective support at any of our in-person locations or via the AskIT portal (askit.yorku.ca).

The University’s IT Strategic Plan 2019-24 is now available for community comments

A person is using a computer

The following message to the University community is from Professor Donald Ipperciel, York’s chief information officer:

After several months of consultations with the community, we are now ready to present a final draft version of the IT Strategic Plan 2019-24. For the next two weeks, until May 14, the document will be online for you to comment (IT Strategic Plan).

Feel free to send your comments to cio@yorku.ca. The IT Strategic Plan Steering Committee will be happy to make final edits to the document according to community feedback. This will be the final step to developing the IT Strategic Plan 2019-24.

The next step will be to create a five-year execution road map that will include project prioritization according to relevant criteria, resourcing and costing, timelines aligned with partners’ Integrated Resource Plans, the collection of data on metrics and key performance indicators etc. But that’s for later.

Thanks for your comments so far and we’re looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

New website contains information about the voicemail system upgrade

As a follow-up to the recent notice of the voicemail system upgrade scheduled for May 2, a new information website for the new unified messaging system is now live.

This website contains general information, instructions and FAQs that will be continuously updated as the implementation date approaches. Faculty and staff are encouraged to visit the website to become familiar with the with the changes and features associated with this upgrade.

On April 25, the website will be updated with instructions to be used by subscribers to set up their new unified messaging mailboxes.

Reminder: Upgrades to the current Callpilot voicemail system will be rolled out May 2

UIT-Telecommunications will be upgrading the University’s current Callpilot voicemail system to a new unified messaging platform. The upgrade will take place on Thursday, May 2 at 6 p.m.

This upgrade will elevate the IT infrastructure by adding enhanced security and features to the voicemail system. With the new system, users will have the ability to:

  • receive emailed transcriptions of voicemails, which includes a voice-to-text version of the message and a .wav audio file;
  • access voicemail from anywhere via a mobile application with easy playback options;
  • leverage a new web interface that allows users to modify their mailbox settings, record greetings and update their notification settings.

More information to follow.