-The VNet Team

VNet is a modern web operating system for students, faculty and staff. It is changing the way the University community communicates and exchanges information.

It includes a centralized information environment for administration and academic services. Obsolete and time-consuming paper forms are replaced with modern web electronic documents.

It provides modern technology multimedia services such as streaming of course lectures and news bulletin boards for students. Professors are able to access their cost centers in real time and approve purchases from their graduate students. Staff can archive electronically all their documents for fast web retrieval. All of these services, and more, are provided using a secure web environment.

The academic module features:

• Class streaming management and authoring (VClass).
• News bulletin board management and authoring
• Class presentation multimedia resources library
• File upload management and authoring system

VNet has received positive attention and the interest of various groups. Recently, partnership agreements were signed by various divisions in the university to further develop and implement the module in its respective units. Other divisions have also expressed interest in using VNet and are in the process of joining IT as partners. The streaming modules are getting excellent reviews from professors and students. VNet is making possible the transition to a more efficient, paperless academic, administration and communication environment.

The administration module features:

• A real time web financial information management system.
• Real time payroll information management
• Web forms submissions management
• Inventory management
• Equipment and Room Reservation management.
• Electronic Document Archive management system
• Direct links to main campus web services such as:
  • CougarOne Card
  • IT Support
  • Libraries
  • myUH (PeopleSoft)
  • Student Enrollment
  • WEBCT

VAdvising integrates several of the existing applications such as VCalendar, and VRecords. The application facilitates advising contact between students and advisors, and permits the creation of databases critical to student academic development planning and programs. Moreover, the ability to generate reports based on the database created by the user, as well as information from other databases is valuable. It provides faculty, academic programs, and administrators a quick, cost-effective means of generating assessments, institutional effectiveness reports, and other documents central to institutional strategic planning and student academic management. As an advising tool, it makes it possible for students to set up appointments with their advisors and to keep track of each session and the outcome. The advisor has his or her own portfolio in which they can manage their appointments; pull up a snapshot of the student's academic record from the student records system; see the student's request sheet which lists the issues to be discussed; and make entries into a journal in which the outcomes of the academic intervention for that session is recorded. Information collected on these interventions forms a unique database that links the traditional student records information with the narrative data contained in the advisor's portfolio. This system is being provided to all colleges on the UH campus, with modifications that respond to the unique needs and disciplinary makeup of the colleges. Once adopted, the system will make it possible to track a student's academic progress throughout their stay at the university.

VCalendar condenses the overwhelming amount of information on appointments, tasks and events produced in an academic environment. This application enables a user to display screens and sort all necessary and important day-to-day functions, to manage workflow, and to list daily tasks and campus announcements. VCalendar also allows users to add other users' or groups' to their calendars. Intelligent features alert users about items of immediate attention, such as class registration due dates. It becomes a user's virtual point-of-contact with the University; the first place to go every day in order to figure out what they have to do. VCalendar has been thoughtfully engineered to be more than a personal organizer. It is an intelligent tool that communicates with other VNet applications. For example, adding a reservation in VReservation triggers an automatic posting on VCalendar. Since VNet does not have a per-user license fee, this service can be offered to all faculty, staff and students.

VClass is an innovative academic tool. By using the VClass streaming feature, professors provide their students with video versions of their class lectures through the web without any intervention of a technical staff. In addition, professors have the ability to post any course related material such as notifications or announcements, notes, practice problems, and much more on the Internet with the click of a button. VClass also provides easy customization and management of course content as well as easy upload/download of electronic documents including syllabi, text handouts, PDFs, audio and video file formats, and images. Students can return to review past lectures or specific topics at any given time; they can view notes or announcements the instructor posts. Hence, VClass provides the tools to simplify the process of distributing resources and information and increase the accessibility of resources. For professors, VClass provides all the tools needed to stream lectures, but without the need for extensive technical support-personnel or expensive equipment usually required by traditional streaming tools. The professor records his/her visual and voice notes and publishes them to the Internet in a matter of minutes. It makes daily streaming lectures possible since it does not require the complicated file post processing of most conventional systems. File upload to the server is a very simple step that can run in any web browser’s window. The files are automatically processed for streaming and published in the server.

VContact takes the user directly to contact information for all VNet account holders. The VContact page lists all users by name, in alphabetical order. Each name is a link that directs the web-surfer to additional information on the person whose name was selected. Such information on the person selected (the VNet account holder) includes office location, phone number and a VHomepage where the VNet account holder has provided personalized information for people to see.

VPublication provides materials published by faculty, staff or students . The information within this application includes the publication title, date, author and department. With this feature, all publications can be kept in a centralized location. Users would no longer have to search for web pages or other resources in order to see published information. Also, this resource gives the publisher the option of allowing users the ability to download the material. With this flexibility, if the document published is one that the publisher would prefer to have as read-only (no downloads allowed), readers of the document would not be able to download.

VPurchase allows professors to manage their purchasing electronically. Students can initiate purchases that later can be approved by the professor from any place in the world. It provides real-time process status information. This feature gives the professor the ability to track the status of their purchase orders, without having to call the departmental purchasing agent. VPurchasing also gives professors access to real time data about their cost centers.

VRecord provides the ability to archive, update, and retrieve records quickly and easily. Input methods could be web form submissions and scanned document attachments; yet the information is stored in a consistent format for easy retrieval and update purposes. VRecord also provides a view window with information of the users' academic and administration records including notifications of the processing status of previously submitted documents. In addition, VRecord can be used as a powerful tool to publish encrypted web forms instantly.

VReport provides administrators with valuable real time statistics and figures. Professors have access to real time data about their cost centers. VReport retrieves all of the information stored on VNet to produce numerous reports in a matter of seconds. For example: a professor who accesses his cost centers will have the option to choose summary reports or detailed information on their transactions. The summary reports provide budgeted, expended, encumbered, and outstanding balances information, by transaction account type. VReport helps one take advantage of data in making vital executive decisions. It delivers targeted, individualized information to the appropriate audience. All of this is done using interfaces that are easy to understand and do not require any prior special training to use.

VResource provides students, faculty and the administration staff with electronic access to any form they need for administration purposes. These forms can be filled with information already available on VNet, thus reducing the transaction processing time greatly. It provides a primary centralized interface that gives them access to numerous documents to help facilitate the administration process more efficiently.

VReservation is used by students, staff and faculty when there is a need to reserve equipment or rooms for university-related business. Under equipment reservation, users may reserve equipment needed for lectures, presentations or other needs. Under room reservation, one has the opportunity to reserve a room in advance for an event. Any user can check for availability, reserved, checked in or checked out equipment, software or rooms using any web browser.