IT Services Support for T&L

Danny Tang
15 October 2014
The University of Hong Kong

2
University Population Profile 2013/14
Student Enrollment Male Female Total % International
Postgraduate (Research and Taught) 5,621 6259 11,880 49.5%
Undergraduate 7,265 8,295 15,560 24.0%
Total 12,886 14,554 27,440 35.0%

Staff Type (excluding visiting and honorary staff) Count % International

Professoriate 1,098 57.9%
Research and Academic Support 2,238
Administrative and Support 2,578
Technical 1,086
Total 7,000

Source: http://www.cpao.hku.hk/qstats/ 3
 3 University Strategic Themes
for 2009-2014
• Enhancing the student learning experience
• Advancing research and innovation
• Promoting knowledge exchange and
demonstrating leadership in communities
across the region
Source: http://www.sppoweb.hku.hk/sdplan/eng/

4
Enhancing Student Learning
Experience

5
 The Enabling Platforms for
“Enhancing Student Learning Experience”

A powerful IT infrastructure

A sophisticated Student Information System

An integrated and vibrant learning environment

6
HKU Campus Network

7
 JUCC (Joint Universities Computer Centre) and
HARNET (Hong Kong Academic & Research NETwork)

4G

3.5G

8
 IT Infrastructure Environment
• 10-Gigabit Ethernet backbone network
– IPV6 enabled
– ~3,000 network devices
– ~45,000 Gigabit Ethernet data points
Network Services – ~4,000 802.11n wifi AP
– HARNET/Internet/Research Networks
• Server and Private cloud infrastructure
Information
– ~ 1,000 physical and virtual servers
Security
– > 1,600 TB raw SAN storage Infrastructure
Campus Server and • Multi-media network services
Network/ Cloud – Basic network services
Internet Platform – Unified communication
– Multi-party video conferencing
– Lecture recording/broadcasting
• Information security architecture 9
3,000
No. of Network Switches
2,805 2,886
2,680

2,500
2,177

2,000 1,852
1,720

1,500

1,083 1,125
1,046
942 979
1,000

500

-
 No. of WiFi APs and Login Sessions
4,500 80,000,000
75,976,930
3,994
4,000 3,888 70,000,000
No. of WiFi Access Points
3,500 3,286
No. of WiFi Login Session 60,000,000
3,000
48,332,561
50,000,000
2,500
40,000,000
2,000
1,737 31,092,995
1,625 30,000,000
1,500
20,000,000
1,000 840
537 570 587
500 10,000,000
2,314,099 2,740,632
947,452 1,349,726 1,872,223 4,333,930
0 -
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
 Peak Internet Traffic (Mbps)
1200

1,000
1000
920

800

600
600
520

400
320
250
200
200 136 150
108
74

0
No. of Centrally Managed Servers
1200

1000

Virtual Servers Physical Servers

800
753

600 559
481

400
40 160
32 110
16
200
311 330 341 341 339
273 270 261 274 284 286

0
Central SAN Raw Storage (TeraBytes)
1,800.0
1,604
1,600.0

1,400.0

1,200.0
1,014.6
993
1,000.0

800.0

600.0
380
400.0 310

200.0 113.7
51.8 78
23.3 31.3
0.0
 The Enabling Platforms for
“Enhancing Student Learning Experience”

A powerful IT infrastructure

A sophisticated Student Information System

An integrated and vibrant learning environment

15
 Administrative Applications
Research
Smart Card
Administrative
Systems
Systems

Student
Financial
Information
Systems
Systems
Knowledge (Oracle)
(PeopleSoft) Alumni Affairs
Exchange
Systems Facilities Human Capital Systems
Management Management
Systems Systems
(Archibus) (PeopleSoft)

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 Student Information Systems
Student Life Cycle
Admission Curriculum Alumni
Registration
Graduation
/Enrolment 1st Year …. Final Year
JUPAS and - Master - Course information - Diploma - Data
non-JUPAS registration - Course enrollment exchange
admission - Student - Adviser/Advisee with
smart card - Data exchange with Moodle alumni
Student - Tuition fee systems
Information - Grade release
System
Services - Degree audit
- Transcript
- Academic
attainment
profile

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 The Enabling Platforms for
“Enhancing Student Learning Experience”

A powerful IT infrastructure

A sophisticated Student Information System

An integrated and vibrant learning environment

18
 Evolution of eLearning
2013-2014
2012-2013

• Launched Panopto Lecture

Capture Service
2011-2012 • Retired WebCT • Integrated Panopto with
• Integrated Moodle with Moodle
Student Information System
• Established eLearning Strategy • Joined edX to offer Massive
• Formed eLearning Committee Open Online Courses
(MOOC) (May 2013)
• Established eLearning
1998 Pedagogical Support Unit in CETL
• Established eLearning support
• Launched WebCT as team in ITS
Learning
Management System • Launched Moodle as central LMS
(LMS) to replace WebCT
• Released bi-monthly eLearning
News (April 2012)
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 Evolution of eLearning
2014-2015
2013-2014

2012-2013

• Release Moodle mobile

theme
2011-2012
• Launch an integrated one-
stop eLearning platform
• Make Panopto available to
1998 students for recording

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 ITS Support for T&L
Student Life Cycle
Admission Curriculum Alumni
Registration
Graduation
/Enrolment 1st Year …. Final Year
- Network Connectivity and Mobility
General - Graduate
- Student Portal; Student Email; Mobile App
Services Email
- Orientation; Training and Support Services

- Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or

Teaching & eLearning Environment: Learning Mgmt
System, Lecture Capture
Learning
Services - Physical Learning Environment (PLE):
AV, classrooms, Learning Commons

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Integrated Virtual Learning Environment

Student Information System

Central
Authentication Course, student and Course outline,
teacher information reading list eLearning
reports
Learning Lecture
Management Capture
(Moodle) (Panopto)

IT Infrastructure
22
 Number of Courses
Created/Activated in Moodle
2500 2398
2173 2173
2023
Number of Moodle courses

2000 1886
1675
1569 1603
1500
1224 70%
1099 72% 79%
Created
1000
56%
58% Activated
571
500 431 419
350
217 239
61%
50% 57%
0

2012/13 2013/14 2014/15

(as of 22/09/2014) 23
 5 Most Popular Moodle Features
• Adding a Folder (for organizing uploaded files)
• Uploading a Resource (e.g., PPT, PDF, URL, etc.)
• Forum (General discussion forum)
• Assignment (for submitting assignments)
• Turnitin (Online plagiarism checker)

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 Lecture Capture Services
Adoption in 2013/14
Number of pancasts created 368
Total number of pancast views 6748
Total duration of pancasts 676 hours
Average pancast length 1.8 hours
Maximum pancast length 5.6 hours
Major users Engineering and Law

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 Physical Learning Environment
• Teaching and Learning spaces
– 192 classrooms/lecture theatres
– Classroom clusters
– Main Campus vs Centennial Campus
• 900-seat performance-level acoustics Grand Hall
• Video conferencing/Broadcasting capabilities

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 Collaborative Physical Learning Environment
(Chi Wah Learning Commons)
• 6,000 m2 on two floors
• ~ 1,000 seats
• A variety of spaces
– Individual stations
– flexible group work tables
– 25 group study rooms
– 2 quiet reading rooms
• 2 video walls
• ~ 180 PC’s/Mac’s
• ~ 1,200 data points; ~ 100 wifi devices
• Anywhere printing
• Student advisory services 27
HKU Mobile App

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HKU App Entry Page

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HKU App (Staff Corner)

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HKU App (Student Corner)

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The University Libraries

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Student Timetable

33
PC Availability

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Moodle Mobile Theme

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Management of IT Services

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 Organization Chart
Information Technology
Services

Administrative HPC, Security and IT Infrastructure Learning & User Services

Application Section Quality Section Section Section

Student Information High Performance Learning Environment

Network Team
Systems Team Computing Team Services Team

Finance Systems Information Security Systems Team eServices & DBA Team
Team Team
Human Capital
Management Quality Management Operation Team eLearning Team
Systems Team Team

Estates Systems Unified

User Services Team
Team Communication Team

Research Services
Office Administration
Systems Team
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End