Datatel is now available.

We are currently experiencing some issues with our Datatel system. Datatel will be unavailable until this issue is resolved. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause. Please contact the Help Desk at x1000 if you have any questions.

Administrative Interface changes

This morning I’ve put in place some administrative interface changes in Reason. You will notice icons and, more significantly, a change in the layout for Add/Editing and Borrowing of content types. The change results on saved screen real estate. Instead of vertically listing the content types twice — once for Add/Edit, once for Borrow. The list of content types is listed once and the Add/Edit and Borrow functions are split into tabs.

Credit goes to Matt Ryan at Carleton College for the changes.

LIS has added a new menu item on my.luther called “Textbook Information” to provide
students information about the textbooks associated with their Luther courses.

In August 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act was reauthorized. Section 133
of the Act deals with the requirement for institutions to provide textbook information at the time a student registers for a course. The textbook provision takes effect on July 1, 2010.

The Textbook Information option links to the Luther Book Shop website. Currently, only Spring course and textbook information is available.

The registration dates for Fall 2010 term will be April 14th, 15th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Students will be getting their registration time from their advisor. Students can check their registration clearance prior to their registration time on my.luther.edu

Lane Schwarz has been hired as Web Programmer Analyst and System Support to join the Application Development team starting Thursday, February 11th, 2010. Lane will be supporting the CBORD Dining Services and Housing Management systems, Bookshop point of sale, web program development, servers, and interfaces to other systems.

The reason server began experiencing some perceived hardware failures last night around 5:45pm. This resulted in some down time for all websites being served through reason. Though the server is currently running, it has been unstable and we will work today to move to another server.

In the meantime, the user login for reason has been disabled. Users will not be able to update their websites. If there is an emergency, please let me know.

LIS and the publications office will require use of the web work request submission form at www.luther.edu/webwork to submit requests for assistance on website creation and maintenance. Using the form will allow LIS and the publications office to keep better track of requests and better allocate its resources toward the college’s marketing goals. A link to the WebWork form is also available from the www.luther.edu/publications or lis.luther.edu. Contact the LIS Help Desk with questions x1000.

Marcia’s GusDay 10 highlights

-Ethan Sommers presented a session about how Gustavus is updating their student and faculty google calendars with information from Datatel. They use the data from the same export that they use for updating Moodle. They also have a master calendar @gustavus.edu in google. There is a limited amount of history that the google caledar stores, so Ethan also has a procedure to backup calendars from google. Ethan offered to share the programming code that he developed. They use EMS for their facilities scheduler.

-St. Bens/St.

A new option has been added to the my.luther student menu under “Other Campus Links”, called “Student Group Management”. This new option will direct students to the new web-based software for the Student Activities Office to assist student groups in organization and communication with their members. There is also a link to the Student Group Management Software on the college website under “Faculty/Staff/Students”.

The Student Activities Office is working with a small group of students initially and plans to expand the use to more students by February.