Office of Information Technology and Learning Experience

HACC Tutoring at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association

The Learning Commons is excited to announce that two of our Tutoring Coordinators, Robin Edwards and Kim Mong, presented at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association (MAWCA). Their presentation titled “HOWLing for Student Success: Leveraging LibWizard and Structured Feedback Forms to Enhance Asynchronous Writing Tutoring” showcased HACC's Online Writing Lab (HOWL) and how our structured approach has benefited HACC students during the pandemic. HOWL offers students the ability to submit their papers for generative, meaningful feedback from HACC tutors, allowing students the flexibility to receive support when they need it. To learn more about HOWL or to submit a paper yourself, please visit: https://libguides.hacc.edu/learningcommons/tutoring/HOWL.

More information about MAWCA can be found here: https://mawca.org/CFP-2022.

Congratulations, Kim and Robin!

Replacing Desk Phones with Soft Phones to assist with Remote Work and Mobility

The department for information technology would like your help in retiring as many IP Desk Phones as possible. The Covid-19 pandemic, our current state of working remotely, and the ongoing need to social distance has created a new mobile workforce that has changed the way we work and do business. Many of you have already switched, and are experiencing the flexibility of softphone technology. In a previous update, we told you that this platform was embraced because of a number of contributing factors that will provide additional value to the college. The following are reasons why we should continue to adopt softphone technology:

1. Eighty-five percent of HACC desk phones are at end-of-life status with regards to their warranty.

2. Softphone technology has provided HACC with the telephonic services required to continue to function in an office-type setting while working remotely.

3. Softphones are an anytime, anywhere technology that has been widely adopted by over 400,00 businesses across the country in the federal, private, and educational sectors.

4. Softphone software updates eliminate HACC’s need for outdated hardware replacement, as well as the need for re-purchasing new phone equipment.

5. Removing the physical phone from your work area will save the college a significant amount of money, reduce equipment costs and associated licensing fees.

While this platform provides the institution with all of the above benefits and more, there are still some offices that may require a hard phone on their desk. The criteria for keeping a desk phone within your work environment is as follows:

• Multi-line phones, with some exceptions

• Office Bays – as an emergency option

• HACC Security Department – due to special notification purposes

• Special circumstances - where a physical desk phone might be required

Telephone services undoubtedly will continue to evolve with new and more improved advancements in technology. We are committed to embracing the benefits of these technology tools to effectively communicate while working from home or in the office. Telephone users who have a single extension on their phones are highly encouraged to convert to a softphone solution. As we look to increase our mobility and decrease our physical equipment costs, softphone technology is the platform that makes this intent a reality. Please be advised that a headset is required during softphone usage to keep conversations private and for video conferencing. Headsets are available from the Office of Information Technology using the Equipment Request Form.

Email Forwarding

Automatic email forwarding in both the student and faculty/staff environments will be disabled in the near future. This will impact all users in that they will no longer be allowed to create rules to automatically forward email outside of HAWKMail (@hawkmail.hacc.edu) and HACC (@hacc.edu) email environments. Any existing rules that are currently in place to automatically forward email outside of those environments will no longer work. This will not impact the ability to manually forward emails, individually, outside of these environments. The purpose of this is to prevent those with malicious intent from intercepting password reset messages by creating these automatic forwarding rules that often go unnoticed after an account has been compromised.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is being implemented to add an additional layer of security and protection for our students, faculty and staff. Like many other institutions or businesses, we have seen a significant uptick in the number of phishing attacks that we receive. By implementing MFA, we anticipate a significant reduction in the number of these attacks.

MFA is an industry-standard that you may recognize from signing into your online banking, various websites or apps on your phone. It follows the principle that your login credentials consist of something you know (username/password), something you have (phone, email address, authenticator app) and something you are (facial recognition, fingerprint). MFA will prompt users who are attempting to sign in to systems with a username and password to also supply a second form of authentication such as a code that was sent to your phone via text or emailed to your personal email account. In this scenario, the user is providing two factors of authentication; a username/password and a code that was sent via text to their phone or emailed to their personal account. This will be a similar experience that our students, faculty and staff can expect once MFA is implemented. This requirement will be enforced only when accessing HACC resources externally. Further details and information will be provided as the system is implemented.

Printer and Print Services Project

This summer we will begin the implementation of a comprehensive Printer and Print Services Project that will increase print efficiencies, eliminate desk jet and office jet printers that are not conducive to a business work environment, systematically and strategically locate multi-functional printers to support all of our students and employees, and ultimately reduce the number of printers currently in use at all of our campuses. Replacing/upgrading our print environment will standardize our print fleet as well as dramatically reduce the number of models. This will simplify managing the devices and further reduce print and paper costs incurred by the college. A great many of our printers have surpassed their service life and so this will be a comprehensive effort that will allow us to realize huge dividends. More information is forthcoming as we continue to plan and develop this very important project.