xxx.my.vccs.edu for College Information Technology Staff

Transcription

1 xxx.my.vccs.edu for College Information Technology Staff Introduction Directory Services is the component in the VCCS information technology architecture that stores name, system log in identification, and password information for the VCCS enterprise applications including the Student Information System (SIS), the Blackboard Course Management System, and Student . VCCS Information Technology Services (ITS) will deploy Directory Services 2 (DS2) in March 2005 in conjunction with the deployment of SIS Version 8. One of the major enhancements in DS2 is the capability to provide single sign-on to the enterprise applications. The web interface for DS2 will be located at where xxx represents the college abbreviation. College specific URLs are being incorporated now to allow for future branding and college specific information to be presented to users down the road, either via enhancements to my.vccs.edu or by use of a portal. Putting the infrastructure in place from the start should make the transition much smoother for both colleges and ITS and allow students to begin using the college branded URL immediately. DS2 provides students, faculty, and staff with a common point of entry, username and password to enterprise applications (SIS, Blackboard, and Student ) and a separate Personal Identification Number (PIN) for access to the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System. The user s password and PIN will default to the user s date of birth in MMDDYY format, but users will be able to change these via the web. Once updated by the user, passwords and PINs are no longer required to be the same as was the case with Directory Services 1. Students The username for all current students will be their /VIVA/Blackboard ID. The initial password in DS2 will be the student s current password in Directory Services 1 and SIS. New students, whose applications are processed in the SIS V8, will be assigned a username as soon as their application is processed and they are entered into the Bio/Demo screen in SIS. They will not be able to access SIS themselves until they are term-activated. The default password for new students will be their date of birth in MMDDYY format. Through students will have single sign-on access to SIS, Blackboard, and Student , although they can also access these services directly as well. There will be no interruption of student access to these systems when DS2 is deployed. Faculty The college Blackboard Administrators are working with ITS to populate current faculty member s Blackboard username into DS2 as their username for xxx.my.vccs.edu. The faculty member s initial passwords at my.vccs.edu will be their current password in 1

2 Directory Services 1 and SIS. If faculty members log in to my.vccs.edu but find that the single sign on is not working for Blackboard, it may be that your college s Blackboard administrator has not yet provided ITS with the appropriate information to map the faculty member s emplid to his/her Blackboard account. IssueTrak can be used to resolve these issues. Usernames for new faculty members, who join the college after SIS V8 has been deployed, will be created as soon as their record is created in the SIS. Their password and PIN will default to their date of birth in MMDDYY format. These faculty members will also have a Blackboard account created for them by DS2. All faculty members will now have a Student account created for them by DS2. This will allow them to see the Student interface as well as provide a back up system in the event of an outage impacting the faculty and staff system. Colleges should notify faculty of this account. DS2 will use whatever address is entered in the VCCS Employee field in SIS to be the user s primary address. If this field is blank, Directory Service 2 will consider the user s Student account to be his/her primary address. A user s primary address within DS2 is important because that is the address that will be entered into Blackboard. It is therefore essential that this information be entered correctly in SIS for all new faculty members. ITS staff will be sure that existing faculty addresses are retained within Blackboard but it will be helpful to have this information in SIS nonetheless. 2

3 Below are screen shots showing the VCCS Employee field in PeopleSoft. Staff Staff member s initial password in DS2 will be their current password in the SIS. A username for new staff members, who join the college after SIS V8 is deployed, will be created as soon as their record is added to the SIS. It will use the new DS2 naming convention. Their password and PIN will default to their date of birth in MMDDYY format. 3

4 The college will need to inform staff of the changes in directory services. Looking Up the Username Online Faculty, staff, and students can look up their username at my.vccs.edu by providing their first name, last name, birth date, and Emplid. If they do not know their Emplid, they can also look it up online by providing their first name, last name, birth date, and social security number. The look-up process is simple and intuitive. Users with duplicate information in the SIS, e.g. multiple Emplids, duplicate SSNs, will be required to contact their college. User Support Tools my.vccs.edu has three tools that may be provided to appropriate staff to support my.vccs.edu users. Person Info/Lookup is a read only tool which allows staff to search for users by Emplid, address, name, social security number, user id or username. If the data exists, this tool presents a user s directory information, class registrations, Blackboard classes, Student data, and online application data. Passwords and social security numbers are not made available via this tool. It is recommended that college support personnel, including Learning System Administrators, be given access to this tool. Directory Manager allows authorized personnel to reset a user s password to their date of birth in MMDDYY format. Directory Manager also allows authorized personnel to set a user s access for other systems (SIS, VIVA and VOIP). Web Security Manager is the tool used to assign access to Person Info/Lookup and Directory Manager. Password Assistance my.vccs.edu also provides the capability for faculty, staff, and students to contact their college via an electronic form in the event that they forget their password. This form was originally created for Blackboard support and may not be pointed to the correct address for other issues like password resets. Colleges may wish to provide ITS with a different address than the one currently used, so support requests are routed to a group of support staff rather than just the Learning System Administrators. Alternatively, colleges could provide ITS with a URL to the college s support web page. This would ideally give users the option of calling for support (please include the hours when telephone support is available), in addition to support via . To see how support requests are currently handled for your college, please go to the following URL. Policies and procedures for authenticating students who request password assistance should also be updated to reflect DS2. ITS does not currently recommend that colleges 4

5 allow requests for password resets via the web or . Users should request changes in person or, if over the phone, should be asked to provide at least three pieces of crossreferenced information. Password Management Current passwords are never presented via the my.vccs.edu support tools to any personnel. They may only be reset by authorized personnel to a user s date of birth. Existing passwords will not be affected by the deployment of DS2, but my.vccs.edu provides a user-friendly mechanism for users to change their password. SIS V8 and DS2 provide new capabilities to potentially better manage security for VCCS enterprise applications, such as automatic expiration of passwords and the absence of a default password. The new capabilities have not been activated but may be considered in future planning. Interactive Voice Response System The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System allows students to use either their Emplid or social security number to access their records in SIS. The personal identification number (PIN) for the IVR system is a numeric string which is initially set to the student s date of birth in the format MMDDYY. These conventions will not change when DS2 is deployed. my.vccs.edu includes a capability for students to change their PIN to any 6 numerical digits VIVA DS2 is also being integrated with VIVA so that the same username and password may be used to access online library resources. DS2 Test System A DS2 test system is available at College Specific URLs ITS is planning to use the same college abbreviations that are currently used to create URLs for PeopleSoft. If colleges do not want these URLs, they may request that a different abbreviation be used by having their Technology Council representative contact Ralph Lucia (rlucia@vccs.edu). Changes should be requested no later than Wednesday, February 16 at 5:00 p.m. The deadline is necessary due to the need to purchase digital certificates to support SSL. Planned College Specific URLs: br.my.vccs.edu 5

6 cvcc.my.vccs.edu dl.my.vccs.edu dcc.my.vccs.edu es.my.vccs.edu gcc.my.vccs.edu jsr.my.vccs.edu jt.my.vccs.edu lf.my.vccs.edu me.my.vccs.edu nr.my.vccs.edu nvcc.my.vccs.edu ph.my.vccs.edu pc.my.vccs.edu pv.my.vccs.edu rcc.my.vccs.edu sv.my.vccs.edu sw.my.vccs.edu tncc.my.vccs.edu tcc.my.vccs.edu vh.my.vccs.edu vw.my.vccs.edu wcc.my.vccs.edu Feedback Welcome DS2 was designed to provide opportunities to better serve the students, faculty and staff of the Virginia Community College System. ITS is committed to continual improvement of the services offered. IT staff at the colleges are strongly encouraged to provide 6

7 feedback and suggestions for improvement to my.vccs.edu and directory services. An online survey has been created to facilitate this. Input from this survey will be used to improve my.vccs.edu and to provide questions that will be used create a my.vccs.edu Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). 7