Previous Community Updates
It’s the second week of remote teaching, learning, and work at UBC as the majority of our faculty and staff continue to operate off-campus as part of UBC’s response to COVID-19. This past week has been a flurry of operational activity for our IT staff ensuring faculty were equipped to deliver online teaching and that our workforce had the necessities to resume work off campus.
To be able to move one of the province’s largest employers to a telecommute environment in under a week has been a tremendous feat. Even with the long hours put in by many of our IT managers and their teams, it has been a rollercoaster week with unexpected outages, network challenges, and many questions arising from a situation that we have never encountered before.
To date, we have had more than 4,000 Zoom accounts activated as an additional tool for delivering courses to large groups, and as an alternative option for large video conferencing gatherings. As of yesterday, we had more than 4,000 individuals connecting to our Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access their UBC work files and logging in to UBC systems and networks for day-to-day work. And our IT Service Centre continues to experience high volume, with more than 1,100 tickets and 1,000 phone calls answered over the past week.
With a large majority of our faculty and staff now off-campus, we all need to be more aware of UBC’s cybersecurity precautions. We know that universities are being targeted and are at greater risk with our systems being accessed at a high frequency off-campus. I urge everyone to visit the Privacy Matters website for more information and resources to keep UBC safe.
This week, we have turned our attention and assistance to helping research teams move to remote work arrangements as research activities are curtailed on campus. Our Advanced Research Computing (ARC) staff remain committed to helping researchers during this transition, and providing specialized IT services as needed.
For our own IT family, we continue to take guidance from the Provincial Officer, and the BC Provincial Government in supporting remote work. As of this week, our IT Service Centre will no longer be onsite, and will work remotely responding to requests primarily through web-based tickets while we pilot a phone system that can be accessed off-campus. Desktop Services staff is winding down on-campus work, receiving and configuring the remaining equipment needed to be distributed to those waiting for laptops to take home. This means that staff under the Office of the CIO and UBC IT are almost completely remote. This does not change our service delivery or the level of support we provide to the University. Offering services remotely will be new for us, but the level of commitment we have for operational excellence remains a top priority.
Should you need any IT assistance, please continue to reach out to our IT Service Centre.
Lastly, it gives me great pride to hear how UBC researchers are collectively working to find ways to fight the outbreak. Earlier this week, five research teams in the Faculty of Medicine received $2.3M in federal funding for research to tackle COVID-19. And, in the same faculty, there are six students who created the BC COVID-19 Medical Student Response Team to provide personal assistance to families of medical workers.
In our most uncertain and ambiguous moments, we want to feel a sense of belonging and connection. Technology has the ability to connect us – not just for work, but socially. Take a virtual coffee break, pick up a phone to call a colleague, and reach out to each other for support. Let’s take care of each other knowing we are all in this together, and that we will persevere.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Burns
Associate Vice-President, Information Technology & CIO
Monday marked the first day of UBC transitioning to remote online classes for more than 54,800 students and 6,000+ faculty at our campus as part of the institution’s response to containing COVID-19. We joined Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria in supporting teaching and learning for our students while we continue to pay heed to the advice of provincial health authorities and the federal government. Today (Tuesday) will mark the start of a 3 week pilot of remote work for many of our faculty and staff, following the UBC Broadcast Email encouraging physical distancing and to work from home if possible.
I would like to share with you the work being done, which will continue by staff in UBC IT to support the community during our transition to online activity.
Over the past 2 weeks, UBC IT has been preparing for various scenarios. To address critical services needed by students, faculty, staff and visitors, we conducted a comprehensive overview and assessment to determine staffing and equipment requirements. A continuity plan for critical services was developed in consultation with IT Managers and faculty IT Directors, and implemented once the UBC decisions were made. To address the anticipated increase of network activity when working remotely, we expanded our network capacity and provisioned greater virtual private network connections to log-in to UBC’s administrative systems. We also purchased an enterprise license for Zoom Video Conferencing, an additional virtual conference and collaboration tool available to faculty and staff to accommodate larger class sizes moving online and as an addition to Skype for Business, with more than 600 accounts created since yesterday.
Working remotely may also be new for some staff. We have created an online guide to working off-campus with essential information on equipment needs, instructions on how to access UBC files remotely, and reference to the host of IT services to create a safe, productive, and optimal work environment. We have expedited orders on additional laptops so we can meet the needs of remote work arrangements.
While the recent decisions made by UBC will mean less faculty and staff are physically on-site, the campus remains open and university operations continue. The UBC IT family has more than 500 management and professional staff – about 10% are remaining physically on-site to support the community while the rest are responding remotely. Senior leaders within IT will maintain a presence onsite as long as we have staff present.
Even with the most detailed plans, we know that there will be challenges. The demands for support from our IT Service Centre, Desktop Services team, and Audio-Visual Help Desk team are high. We need to be extra vigilant about information security and privacy, and ensure that security controls are in place when working off-campus. Staff may be deployed from one area to another where needed. And, the critical work of the Integrated Renewal Program must be preserved for the go-live target set for this fall.
The collaboration between staff across UBC to work together to support our community, and the long hours spent preparing the delivery of online courses and supporting staff remotely has been tremendous. It’s also a time to support one another personally. To recognize the shared challenges we face, the concerns we have for family and friends, and support our broader community by following the guidance of our health authorities and UBC about how to take care of ourselves. Stay safe, and please look after each other.
Thank you for your ongoing support and patience as we navigate these unprecedented times.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Burns
Associate Vice-President, Information Technology & CIO