UMKC Information Access
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The roles and responsibilities of UMKC's Information Access Division are broad and extensive. Our mission is to provide service levels that exceed our users' expectations. Included in our tasks is responsibility for management and development of programs and projects associated with these key service areas:

  • External web programming
  • Portal development
  • E-commerce options and information
  • Online surveys/email campaigns/forums
  • Programming standards to insure consistency in application development and enhancements
  • User accessibility and data flow
  • Assistance with implementation and training on Cognos, Peoplesoft, Darwin and Ad Astra Blue
  • Learning Management Systems and associated tools

The structure of the Information Access Division includes three departments with specific functions and responsibilities:

1. Instructional Technology Services (ITS) - responsible for the Learning Management System and associated applications, including Blackboard, Wimba, WebEx, SharePoint, ListServ, Moodle, Respondus, eInstruction, LockDown Browser, ePortfolio, Tegrity (podcasting), Learning Objects (blogs and wikis) and Turnitin.com. ITS also provides a variety of Video and Audio services to the UMKC campus including Videoconferencing, ITV Classroom Facilities, DVD Duplication, VHS to DVD transfers, and audio encoding and ripping, Video Production, Studio Production, Location Video Taping, Video Archiving, Video Stream Service. Time Warner and Comcast cable channels KCEN, and KCHN, are also managed by ITS. Satellite up and down links can be delivered to any point on campus is also available.

2. Information Manipulation Services (IMS) - responsible for migration and manipulation of data from legacy systems, Finance, HR, and Student Peoplesoft, UMKC Microsoft based servers and various shared resources within the UM System between servers and multiple applications.

3. Information Presentation Services (IPS) - responsible for customized website applications (not products of canned applications or programs)

ITS Software: Macintosh-Compatibility Matrix

Blackboard, Wimba, and Emergency Preparedness

In the event of an emergency shutdown of the UMKC campus or in the situation where a significant portion of the students in a class were unable to attend, e.g., widespread H1N1, the technology infrastructure currently in place allows for course instruction to shift quickly to a totally online environment. This holds true even in a situation where power outage or hardware damage renders campus-housed servers and networks totally inaccessible*. As long as students and instructors have access to the internet from any location, coursework can continue without interruption.

For each course taught at UMKC, a corresponding shell site is created on the Blackboard server. Students enrolled in each class have access to the corresponding Blackboard site, as do the instructors. Should the need arise, course documents can quickly be uploaded to those sites for students to retrieve and view. Built-in discussion boards, announcements, and an internal messaging system would support student-faculty communication, and other Blackboard tools would allow student assignment submission, administration of tests, and similar course functions to continue online. Wimba Classroom, closely integrated with Blackboard, permits students and faculty to meet online and conduct synchronous classroom sessions, complete with audio, video, application sharing, group web browsing, and a whiteboard. 

* The Blackboard application and database servers are housed in a remote location with backups stored offsite. Oracle Data Guard is used to provide a standby database in a third location distant from both the servers and the backup storage; this database can be switched into production within moments. Users authenticate to Blackboard does not depend on Kansas City. The servers for Wimba Classroom, which can be utilized independently of Blackboard,  are housed in New York.

 

See also:

Information on Emergency Preparedness and Wimba

IA Accomplishments

Click here to view highlights from our division from Feburary through July 2008.

Click here to view highlights from our division from July through December 2007.

Click here to view highlights from our division from January through June 2007.

Click here to view highlights from our division from July through December 2006.

Contact Information Access

If you have specific questions about or need to contact our division, please email infoaccess@umkc.edu.

301 Fine Arts Building
5015 Holmes
Kansas City, MO 64110
(816) 235-1096
(816) 235-1170 (Fax)
infoaccess@umkc.edu