Registration is Open for UNC CAUSE Conference

NC State is well-represented at the conference with presenters in many categories. Registration is now open with “early bird” savings available through Friday, Sept. 16. UNC CAUSE will be an in-person conference this year at the Sheraton Downtown Charlotte from Oct. 3-5, 2022. It is hosted by the Eastern region which includes these universities: East Carolina, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, NC State and UNC Wilmington.

UNC CAUSE is an organization founded in 1974 and is composed of the management and staff of the information technology based units of the 17 campuses of the University of North Carolina system. The UNC CAUSE FAQ page offers answers to most questions you may have about the group and the upcoming conference.

“The organization exists for the purpose of promoting and facilitating cooperation, information exchange and technology leverage between the campuses of the UNC System in all areas related to information technology. The activities of this group are recognized, supported and participated in by the UNC General Administration,” according to their mission statement. 

Sessions Hosted by Members of the NC State Community

Monday, Oct. 3 

1:45 p.m. A Successful Student Service Desk, As Told By the Students!

IT System Administrator II Imraan Khan, Computer Engineering Student Kaurwaki Babu, Support Technician Mehraz Ahmed

The efficiency of your support desk can make or break the customer experience. Managers do what they can to ensure the team’s performance, of course. But why not hear the inside perspective? Join this presentation directly from NC State’s Math IT student techs. Get the inside scoop on what works and doesn’t work to get the most out of your student techs, straight from the techs themselves!

4:45 p.m. SIG Interest: Cyber Security and Lessons Learned

OIT Information Security Specialist Elizabeth Cole-Walker

SIG is short for Special Interest Groups. These groups are comprised of individuals from UNC CAUSE member institutions that share a common interest in a topic or technology that is prevalent across institutions.

Tuesday, Oct. 4 

9 a.m. Supporting Digital Accessibility — An Interdisciplinary Team Model 

NC State DELTA — Instructional Technologist Jill Anderson, Instructional Designer Caitlin McKeown

In 2021, NC State’s Digital Education and Learning Technologies Applications (DELTA) formed a team to centralize DELTA’s accessibility leadership and partner with stakeholders. Their accessibility team uses diverse perspectives to develop strategies for problem-solving, training, outreach and awareness. They will share their journey thus far, then invite discussion about other strategies.

11:15 a.m. WomenInTech – Expanding the Conversation of Inclusivity Across the UNC System

DELTA Vice Provost Donna Petherbridge, University Libraries Associate Director for Digital and Organizational Strategy Jill Sexton, Chief Information Security Officer Mardecia Bell, OIT Assistant Vice Chancellor Gwen Hazlehurst, College of Sciences Director of Information Technology Debbie Carraway

At NC State, a group of women in technology leaders have helped create a Women In Tech community that is thriving, creating networking opportunities for women in technology, and positively impacting technology culture along with growing and encouraging women technology leaders. Join the conversation on how to expand this effort across the UNC System.

11:15 a.m. Continuous Application Services – Modern Application Delivery and Patching with the Jamf Catalog

NC State, Apple Support Specialist Everette Allen

Allen is a 26 year veteran of IT support much of which has been spent supporting Apple devices. He has worked 10+ years on walk-in and telephone help desk requests in the NC State academic environment. Currently, he works with advanced Apple Support, leads a team of full-time and student developers for web applications and mobile applications including tvOS, watchOS, iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Android apps.

1:15 SIG — Apple Managers

System Program Specialist (Appalachian State) Kevin Snook, Apple Support Specialist Everette Allen, Apple Systems Administrator (Appalachian State) Josh Hodges

The Apple Managers SIG will discuss the latest best practices for Apple Device Management and state of the UNC17 Jamf Pro MDM service. SIG will be an open discussion format where best practice is discussed and each institution is encouraged to share their experiences in managing Apple Devices for Zero Touch and Zero Trust deployments. New opportunities for integration with other environments such as MS Azure and Google Identity will be showcased.

4:15 p.m. Selling Change — The Demise of Unlimited Storage for Google Workspace

NC State OIT Team Leader/Associate Director Sarah Noell, Google Administrator/Systems Programmer Chris Deaton, OIT Training Coordinator Katie McInerney

Learn what NC State is doing to prepare for the end of unlimited storage with Google Workspace and how they will work with their campus community to prepare for, support and move forward with storage limits.

Wednesday, Oct. 5

9 a.m.  Roadmap to Success — A Multidisciplinary Team’s Journey of Creating an LMS Plugin to Enhance Student Learning

NC State DELTA Lead Instructional Designer Yan Shen, Business and Technology Applications Specialist Stephen Bader, Lead Interaction Designer/Developer Benjamin Huckaby

Hear their story about creating and piloting a Moodle roadmap plugin as a multidisciplinary team with expertise in instructional design, media design, application development and research. They will share the iterative design, development, and evaluation process and preliminary findings. Also, the plug-in features will be introduced and there will be a discussion on the significance for post-pandemic teaching and learning.

9 a.m. Teaching with Real Life Experience and Storytelling

NC State DELTA Lead Instructional Designer Jakia Salam, College of Natural Resources Online and Distance Education Coordinator Erin Adair

This session will outline a pandemic hit redesign project to develop an online tourism micro-entrepreneurship course. They will share their process and solutions for how they created an experiential learning environment online, bringing real-life experience to the course and using active learning strategies to build an online community.

10:15 a.m. Taking CMDB to the Next Level by Capturing Data Inventory on Assets that will Automate GRC Efforts

NC State OIT Director of ISRA Damon Armour, Project Manager Dan Grigg, Director of Shared Technology Services Gary Li, Director of Client Solutions John Constantelos, Senior Design Engineer (Bohler) Ryan Gallagher

To improve compliance, IT risk management and IT support within their decentralized IT structure at NC State University, the Office of Information Technology is working with cross-campus IT stakeholders to establish a central inventory within our ServiceNow Configuration Management Database. NC State is in the process of expanding this resource inventory to include data from all IT assets.

10:15 a.m. Is it Okay to Teach without Slides? Support Materials for Instructional Presentations

NC State DELTA Instructional Technologist Kerri Brown Parker

Slide presentations can lead to inflexibility for instructors and cognitive overload for students. Yet, slides can help instructors organize and increase the use of visuals. Instructors should think deeply about selecting instructional materials, including slides, digital handouts, and websites that students can interact with and use to access the content after an instructional session.

10:15 a.m. The Best Laid Plans — Planning for Moodle 4

NC State DELTA Director of Instructional Support and Training Bethany Smith, Learning Technologies Coordinator Marty Dulberg, Director of Educational Technology Services Jeff Webster

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. As a Moodle campus they knew that Moodle 4 was coming. This alone was a large undertaking with multiple months of planning. What they did not predict was how many times it would be delayed. In this session they will discuss our original timeline, the tough decisions they had to make and how they informed their community of these changes.

10:15 a.m. A Conversation About Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in our IT Communities

Communications Analyst Caffie Darden, Senior Director OIT Outreach, Communications and Consulting Stan North Martin,Shared Services
Systems Programmer/Specialist Brandon Garrett and Systems Specialist/MEd Tech Ed Student Tom Karches.

Diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging have been hot topics throughout our university communities, especially since the murder of George Floyd. What are ways that you are promoting DEI&B within your organization? Have you established a group that focuses these efforts within your IT community? Join them for a discussion about efforts to create a more inclusive IT work environment.

11:15 a.m. Faculty Perceptions of Improvements in Course Quality Following Intensive QM Training

NC State DELTA Assistant Director of Course Quality Bethanne Winzeler, Senior Instructional Designer Rebecca Sanchez

How do you demonstrate the impact of your QA efforts and use this information to sustain and build your work? In this session, they will share how they do this, provide links to survey instruments, present results and discuss how to incorporate evaluation into QA plans.

For a complete list of sessions, please see the UNC CAUSE schedule.