Charlie Simon
Staff writer
- The IT Department here at Colorado College is rebranding – starting with its name. The department has a new acronym – ITS. The ITS website will also be redesigned, and the department is also pushing for a larger social media presence, particularly on Twitter and Facebook, along with sites such as Tumblr and Pinterest.
- The new ITS has also made revamping Tigernet2 one of its main goals. “Right now we’re working on the design for a new network,” says Schonewill. Although plans have not been completely finalized, and significant work is still being done, the ITS department hopes that much of the new network infrastructure will be in place by this fall. Schonewill emphasizes the importance of the new network, saying the first priority of the ITS department in upgrading Tigernet is to “make sure that first and foremost we have a stable and reliable and fast network.” The upgrades to Tigernet are being targeted specifically at many of the connectivity issues that students and staff face, the hope being that the planned upgrade will fix the issues.
- After a year-long process, the ITS department has decided on a replacement for Prowl. Canvas, by Instructure will begin to replace Prowl beginning this coming semester. In fact, several professors are even already using the system. The ITS department plans on making a bigger push for professors to migrate over to the new system in preparation for classes next fall. The hope of the ITS department is to move all classes over to Canvas and stop using Prowl “as soon as we reasonably can,” says Schonewill. The new system has a variety of new tools for both faculty and students, including apps and integration with programs such as Dropbox.
- Also falling under the ITS departments purveyance is the new course evaluation system. For all regular block classes, students will have to fill out an online course evaluation to see their grade; until then, they will only see a GW, for grade withheld. The ITS department hopes that the new system streamlines the evaluation process and makes it easier for students to complete evaluations. Schonewill says, “It’s online, and it’s one standard platform. Professors can add questions specific for the class, but before, there were as many different course evaluation systems as there were departments.” The course evaluations can be found on the self-service banner.