Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS)

John Humes Selected to Serve as IITS Interim CIO

November 17th, 2021

John Humes, currently IITS’ Information Security Officer, has been selected to serve as the Interim Chief Information Officer (CIO) and will be leading the unit through the transition period from Dean/CIO Morningstar’s retirement (on December 30^th) until the successful conclusion of a formal search for the next CIO. Throughout his career at CSUSM, John Humes has demonstrated strong leadership qualities and an ability to successfully navigate challenges. These leadership qualities combined with broad technical expertise and a focus on moving the unit forward make John Humes an excellent choice for the role of IITS Interim CIO. 

Securing the Campus, One Year Later

November 10th, 2021

A year ago today, CSUSM experienced one of the most impactful security events in CSU history. In response, our campus community quickly came together to secure CSUSM through the adoption of DUO and other measures.

Looking forward, IITS is already taking the necessary and additional actions to address the security audit findings and complete our efforts in response to the systemwide security effort. To ensure the campus community is fully aware of the tools that are either deployed on systems you use or may produce noticeably different interactions, we wanted to share with the campus community several changes/improvements.

CSUCCESS Program a Big Hit for Fall

Fall 2021

CSUSM is one of eight participating CSU campuses that ​are offering every new first-year and transfer student ​an opportunity to receive a new iPad bundle​ for use as long as they are an active student. CSUSM's inaugural CSUCCESS event took place on campus on August 24-25. This was a great success, with over 1,100 new students receiving their Apple bundles (iPad Air, Keyboard Folio, and Apple Pencil) in a seamless process that saw them safely receive their equipment without having to exit their vehicles. Time-lapse video of the first day that distributed 711 units. As of mid-September, CSUSM has distributed almost 1,900 total units.

Salesforce Advisor Link & Student Success Efforts

Fall 2021

After a successful engagement with Huron over the summer, CSUSM has deployed Salesforce Advisor Link (SAL) for Office of Success Coaching and continues to work to deploy SAL for Academic Advising. This important initiative is part of CSUSM's efforts to reduce information silos and provide support staff with a 360-degree student view, since the current fragmented view of students hinders the creation of sustained relationships and reduces our ability to holistically support students. SAL offers coaches and advisors a single, highly customizable common system that contains all available student information. This new tool promotes seamless, coordinated, and consistent personalized student support and communications while seeking to avoid duplication of effort and to consolidate resources. 

IITS Annual Report - AY 20/21

Summer 2021

Over the past twelve months we have witnessed homes becoming virtual offices and spaces of instruction and learning, new collaboration technologies being adopted at an unprecedented pace, and new challenges and expectations arise.This time has also revealed higher education’s increasing dependency upon technology and the inextricable link between technology and the success of both our learning and administrative functions. IITS professionals have addressed unprecedented challenges of the past year and the IITS' Annual Report highlights just some IITS’ actions, achievements, and challenges.

Flexible Instructional Spaces

Summer 2021

IITS has been working to create flexible instructional spaces that offer faculty a range of pedagogical capabilities for teaching students bothj in the classroom and at home. As part of this approach, IITS built upon the technologies introduced in 2019 in the Extended Learning and ViaSat Engineering Pavilion classrooms. These rooms offered new technology options such as digital whiteboard capabilities, mobile lecterns, and informal collaboration technologies. CSUSM has enhanced classroom spaces by adding improved video conferencing and audio/visual capabilities for mixed instruction formats while maintaining ease of use and a low technology barrier.