Faculty, students, and staff are invited to participate in a free monthly "Security Series" of workshops developed by Security Operations and Services and ITS Training Services within Information Technology Services.

Each month, topics will alternate between those of interest to a general audience and those targeted to IT professionals. The series is designed to help a general audience gain a better understanding of safe computing and how to protect their personal and professional online information and identities. IT professionals will learn how to apply specific technology-based security solutions to their network infrastructures.

Following are the details and registration links for the next three workshops. Each will be offered from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. both face-to-face in 508 Rider Building, University Park, and via a Meeting@PennState desktop videoconference.

February 22 (general audience)

Security Series: Protect Your Social Networking Profile

Social media is everywhere. Services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow you to communicate on a whole different level. However, there are plenty of concerns about the security and privacy of these sites. Is your data secure? Are you sure those pictures you just posted can only be seen by your friends? Join us as we discuss how to stay safe when using social media and some precautions you can take with your security settings that will help keep your data private.

Face-to-face https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=110969

Meeting@PennState https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=110970

March 20 (IT professionals)
Security Series: Mod Security for Web App Filtering

Mod Security is an Apache module that evaluates HTTP requests and blocks malformed and malicious requests. The engine has a very robust and flexible filter language, and can be applied differentially within Apache directives. System administrators who manage web servers can expect a brief overview of this tool.

Face-to-face https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=110983

Meeting@PennState https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=110982

April 17 (general audience)
Security Series: Defy h4CK3rs. Buy with confidence. Bank online with authority.

Learn how to conduct secure online transactions as we explore simple methods to protect your financial information from prying eyes. Avoid lines! Engage the power of your money through 24x7 online banking. Gain more personal time and expand your options through buying products from online merchants as easily as walking into a retail store.

Face-to-face https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=110985

Meeting@PennState https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=110984

To learn about additional security topics, anyone with a Penn State Access Account can access a series of short video tutorials by logging on to ANGEL at http://cms.psu.edu/, then enrolling in the group entitled "Information Security and You: Learn. Know. Protect."

Please visit the ITS Training Services online catalog and click "Winter-Fest" in the black bar at the top of the page to view all available sessions.

Innovation, progress, and improvement continue to be the staples of ITS Training Services at Penn State. In the 2011-2012 fiscal year, this 14-person unit reached more people and provided more services than ever before. The ITS Training Services team offered 697 training sessions and reached a total of 7,798 participants, an increase of over 1,000 participants from 2010-2011. Combined, the trainings logged a total of 19,291 participant training hours, an increase of over 3,500 hours from the previous year.

Each of the three training session types--scheduled offerings, Training on Demand, and vendor training--that ITS Trainings Services offers saw increases almost across the board, again, in both number of programs offered, and number of attendees. The unit offered 11 new scheduled training sessions and 35 new and revised training materials, addressing new technology needs in the Penn State community. From the scheduled training sessions, a staggering 96 percent of participants rated the overall training experience as "Excellent" or "Good" and 92 percent of participants stated that they planned to use the skills they learned within the next three months. Also, by offering scheduled training sessions during academic breaks--a time when attendees often have increased availability--the unit was able to reach 277 participants, including 195 graduate students.

In addition to face-to-face training sessions, ITS Training Services also offered 133 training sessions via Meeting@PennState, powered by Adobe Connect. With this service, they were able to reach 886 participants University-wide, more than a 30 percent increase in number of participants reached by this medium last year. Again, participants reported being extremely happy with the training: 90 percent of evaluation respondents claimed that these sessions were "About the same as the face-to-face sessions" or "Better than the face-to-face sessions," and only 5 percent reported audio problems. This method of training reached participants at 24 Penn State locations beyond University Park and saved a reported 17,000 miles of travel.

Training on Demand (TOD) sessions, which allow faculty and staff at all campus locations to request training for their group, unit, department, or classroom, demonstrated remarkable growth, with a 50 percent increase in the number of sessions requested and over a 40 percent increase in the number of participants. At University Park alone, 90 TOD sessions served 956 faculty and staff members while the Technology Learning Assistants (TLAs) supported an additional 67 faculty requests (a 26 request increase from 2010-2011). An additional 77 TOD trainings sessions, including 7 presented via Meeting@PennState, powered by Adobe Connect, were offered at 19 campus locations and totaled 938 attendees. In order to reach more students, the service provided 116 training sessions in the classroom, reaching 2,797 students University-wide.

Through vendor training, ITS Training Services provided both for-fee offerings--with negotiated discounted University rates--and free offerings by vendors with whom Penn State has license agreements. The unit worked with 5 different vendors--Adobe, HDI, Learning Tree International, lynda.com, and Net Objectives--building both relationships and opportunities with these companies.  The 10 for-fee courses that were offered to 176 attendees saved the University $170,000. Additionally, by partnering with Learning Tree International to supply participants with discount vouchers, ITS Training Services saved Penn State staff over $40,000 this year through the 44 vouchers that were used. Combined, ITS Training Services and their vendor agreements saved University IT Professionals more than $210,000, bringing the total that the program has saved the University since 2009 to $400,000.

One of the largest of these vendor agreements that ITS Training Services manages is lynda.com, which continues to grow as an extremely important training tool across the University. This year ITS Training Services made a huge upgrade to lyndaCampus, which, in addition to the many tutorials offered by lynda.com, provides support for personal profiles, certifications of completions, and movie bookmarks. The number of unique of lynda.com users increased 24% from last year, jumping from 8,440 unique users to 10,748, and an outstanding total of 20,097 hours of training were completed. This service strategically allowed the unit to offer fewer courses on Microsoft Office and Adobe CS and focus more on developing training for University-specific applications.

In addition to the many increases in training session offerings and attendees, ITS Trainings Services also demonstrated their commitment to progress in every aspect of training through their extensive development projects and initiatives. The unit collaborated with several other units within and beyond ITS to produce various new training materials and eLearning modules on Penn State tools. ITS Training Services launched new initiatives, including developing training for the Identity and Access Management project as well piloting a new consultation-style service called Tech Tutors, aimed specifically at reaching students. The unit worked closely with the Center for Workplace Learning & Performance--partnering on specific programs, partnering on tool implementation, and investigating opportunities to incorporate presentations at new employee orientation sessions.

The unit also played a major role in the Oracle calendar migration, training and supporting faculty and staff as they began to use the University Collaboration Suite as a University-wide common good service. Additionally, members of ITS Training Services took on an important role in exploring ways to improve accessibility of training materials, with many unit members sitting on external committees tasked with examining different aspects of accessibility and University requirements. The unit continued to develop iStudy tutorials, hosted the Penn State Network of Trainers Summer Event, evaluated vendor registrations systems, and more.

ITS Training Services also worked to become an ever more active and visible part of the Penn State community. Announcements and information, regarding class enrollment and otherwise, were posted to 14 different locations including e-mail lists and websites. The unit participated in several events to reach over 1,600 faculty, staff, and students and worked with the Office of Human Resources to provide 25 service overview presentations as a part of the New Employee Orientation Program, reaching nearly 500 new staff and faculty.

Overall, ITS Training Services accomplished a year of significant achievement in both the depth and breadth of their work, growing in almost every aspect of the department. In addition to the impressive hard metrics related to their training offerings, the unit has demonstrated widespread innovation and dedication though collaboration initiatives, new materials development, and direct responses to the needs of the Penn State community. It is not a stretch to say that everyone from IT professionals to faculty, staff, and students, are in capable and caring hands with the trainers in ITS who through their own innovation, progress, improvement, continually ensure the same for those around them.

The full report is available on the Teaching and Learning with Technology website.

Quick Start Guides are one-page documents intended to acclimate new users to the UCS system right away. Web-based tutorials are two- to five-minute videos demonstrating the use of UCS features and tools not generally covered during a hands-on training session.

To access UCS Quick Start Guides, visit the handouts section of the ITS Training Services website at http://its.psu.edu/training/handouts and scroll to the University Collaborate Suite section.

To access UCS web-based tutorials, visit the class recording and video tutorials section of the ITS Training Services website at http://its.psu.edu/training/learnonline and scroll to the University Collaboration Suite section.

Tech Tutors are responsible for providing individual technology support to faculty and students in a variety of settings. This position is also responsible for developing training materials as needed and may be responsible for delivering training to groups of students. Experience presenting technical content to non-technical audiences is preferred. Excellent verbal and written communication skills required. Ability to learn technology skills quickly required. Position will begin at the start of the fall 2012 semester. Applicant should be prepared to present a 10-minute training session to ITS Training Services staff. Minimum availability of 10 hours per week required. Please submit a cover letter and resume to L-Student-Trainers@lists.psu.edu and direct questions on the application process to ITS Training Services at 814-863-9522.

Information Technology Services' (ITS) training unit is working hard to bring those at every Penn State campus the training they need through the Training on Demand program, and more specifically, a revamped campus outreach initiative. With the combination of face-to-face training, instructor-led web-based training through Adobe Connect, and free online video tutorials through lynda.com, ITS has plenty of tools to reach out and provide requested training in a timely manner.

In September 2009, ITS Training Services director Chris Lucas implemented a communication and training strategy that encourages ITS trainers to reach out to each campus on a regular basis.  "My goal is to have trainers visit each campus at least once a year. It's important that we do so in order to identify the individual training needs of each campus, because they vary," said Lucas.

This campus outreach has been a big part of the progression of the Training on Demand program. Trainers are making a concerted effort to contact and visit all Penn State campuses to build relationships that foster learning by targeting learning needs and providing training designed to meet those needs.

Technology trainer, Heather Huntsinger heads the campus outreach initiative and has been working diligently to make sure all campuses are receiving the training they need. She has worked to identify, at each Penn State campus, a designated contact who is in charge of communicating training needs for that campus. To assist those contacts in identifying and targeting learning needs, Huntsinger developed an online needs assessment questionnaire. "These assessments are in place to help make sure all campuses are getting the training they want and need," she said.

Through the campus outreach initiative, representatives from ITS Training Services travel to various Penn State campuses to meet with designated contacts and discuss potential training needs of faculty, staff, and students. Since the initiative became a main priority in September 2009, members of the unit have visited six campuses in addition to the seven visited for traditional Training on Demand requests.

Those six visits included New Kensington, Greater Allegheny, Fayette, Shenango, Brandywine, and Abington campuses and have resulted in four requests for face-to-face training and one request for needs assessment assistance. Four additional campus visits are in the process of being scheduled for summer. "Face-to-face meetings provide personal attention that generates more immediate response than an e-mail or a phone call ever could. People value that we make the extra effort to travel to find out about their campus needs and seem to be more likely to use our services because of that."

As part of a continual communication plan, ITS Training Services also sends regular e-mail reminders about new and existing services, as well as important dates to keep campus contacts informed and up-to-date. Classes on Penn State's Data Warehouse and financial systems, as well as Adobe and Microsoft Office products are all popular, although ITS Training Services deals with a myriad of other requests.

Scheduling training sessions can be difficult with an already hectic training schedule at University Park. However, prioritizing campus outreach as a major initiative has allowed trainers to shift their schedules as necessary in order to accommodate the needs of all Penn State campuses. Regional visits are becoming more common, during which trainers visit and instruct at several campuses in the same geographic area over the course of one or several days. This tactic has made Lucas's goal of visiting each campus at least once per year possible. During the week of spring break, for example, ITS trainers were very busy with campus outreach, traveling to four different campuses to provide instruction.

So far, the campus outreach initiative has been met with positive accolades, which has led to many repeat customers. The ITS trainers have also thoroughly enjoyed the experience. "I really look forward to the chance to train at other campuses," says trainer Dawn Van Bramer. "Each of my visits has been really enjoyable." Van Bramer deals mostly with Penn State's administrative computing topics, Excel, and the Data Warehouse. "I never cease to be amazed by how thankful my trainees are by the time I'm done with a session."

There is no doubt that the campus outreach initiative is worth the time, effort, and travel, according to Lucas. "Going to the location in need creates a special relationship between the trainer and the training participant," said Huntsinger.

In that sense, campus outreach is accomplishing the intended goals of strengthening connections between Penn State campuses, as well as making sure that all campuses are getting the technology training they need to function at optimal levels for the benefit of Penn State, as a whole.