Quality Enhancement Plan
GOAL 12
GOAL 12: The College will work toward a goal of maximum systems availability for online instruction and support services.
In some ways, the College is limited in its capacity to implement this goal because of current VCCS policy. As has been discussed earlier in this document, all Blackboard and SIS and email servers currently reside in Richmond and are operated and maintained by the VCCS Utility. All the institutions that comprise the Virginia Community College System are dependent on the utility when it comes to seeing that the hardware and software that enable online instruction function properly. Nevertheless, each institution does bear a certain amount of responsibility to provide adequate systems resources to enable online instruction.
Objective 1 – Year One: Define systems availability.
Most broadly, systems availability means the hardware and software are fully functioning whenever a user desires to access the system. When one turns on a light switch, for example, one expects the power to be on and the bulb to light. When one turns a faucet, the expectation is that water will flow from the tap. Likewise, when a student wants to work on her online sociology class, for example, she expects to be able to access the site and to be able to navigate through the course.
Generally, systems availability is expressed in terms of a percentage, and the ideal is that a system should be available 99.999% of the time. However, this objective raises some important questions that the institution will need to answer in the course of defining what constitutes the term systems availability. One question that needs resolved is whether maintenance time should be included in the calculation of systems availability. If a maintenance operation results in the system being down for a period of time, should this down time be calculated against the 99.999% ideal figure? Some necessary operations may result in temporary outages. If a software package is updated to the next iteration or a larger hard drive needs installed—both fairly common if not routine maintenance functions--and the system is down for a time as a result, is this counted against systems availability?
Another issue to be decided is where, exactly, is systems availability to be measured. Most of the hardware and software that enables online instruction is housed at the VCCS Utility. It is the Utility that runs PeopleSoft, the student information system software that permits online enrollment and records management; Blackboard, the course management platform for all VCCS online classes; and the email service that everyone involved in online instruction—instructors and students alike—must use to conduct the business of web-based classes. So should systems availability be measured in Richmond at the Utility?
Students who take CVCC’s online courses are encouraged to access Blackboard through the CVCC’s Internet presence. Accordingly, the College must maintain the appropriate hardware and software on campus to enable students to get to their courses. Should the percentage of systems availability be measured at this point?
All VCCS Internet traffic is routed through the telecommunication provider’s hardware located in northern Virginia. Should the percentage of systems availability be measured at this point?
Lastly, the College must determine with whom to negotiate service-level agreements. Should CVCC, for example, negotiate one with the telecommunications providers? Is such a service agreement the responsibility of the VCCS Utility?
Objective 2 – Year One: Negotiate a service level agreement with the VCCS Utility defining systems availability expressed as a percentage.
Like most things in this world, in the case of service level agreements, you get what you pay for. The College will need to determine the optimal cost/service ratio. The needs of the system users will have to be balanced against the budget and a suitable fulcrum point determined. What will it cost the institution for a 99.999% systems availability contract? Would, for example, a lesser figure be more appropriate? These are the kinds of questions the College must decide.
Objective 3 – Year One: Ask the VCCS Utility to fund purchase of a firewall for the VCCS Utility.
The issue is less asking the VCCS Utility to purchase a firewall as the objective calls for than it is asking the VCCS Utility to demonstrate that the appropriate technologies are in place to protect data maintained on servers at the Utility. These data include the following kinds of information:
- All student data protected under the Federal Educational Rights to Privacy Act
- Student credit card information
- Student identification information including
- Social Security Number
- Maiden name
- Previous addresses
Objective 4 – Year One through Five: Provide redundant web services at CVCC by replacing web servers on a three-year life cycle.
As mentioned earlier in the discussion of this goal, CVCC students access many online resources through the CVCC’s Internet presence. Students are encouraged to access Blackboard and the SIS through CVCC’s Internet presence at www.cvcc.vccs.edu because it provides the student additional CVCC-specific information. This value-added element is necessary to provide CVCC students the highest level of service. The purpose of this objective is to ensure CVCC web servers are able to provide this value-added service at the same high rate of systems availability to which the other system components are being held.
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