In This Issue
Upcoming events
- Banner & Degree Works Office Hours – Tuesdays at 11:00 AM
- Brightspace Office Hours – Tuesdays at 1:00 PM
- Web Wednesdays – Web Support Office Hours –
Wednesdays at 1:00 PM - West Virginia Statewide Technology Conference (WVSTC) –
October 15-16, 2025 – Oglebay Resort - Call for Presentations Open – Feb. 14-June 30, 2025
Executive Director’s Note
As we navigate the unpredictable winter days, shifting from mild spring-like temperatures to heavy snowstorms, WVNET remains committed to supporting our customers regardless of the weather.
Just as the weather is unpredictable, so is the current landscape of Artificial Intelligence in the workplace. While well-known names like ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Gemini dominate the scene, emerging models like DeepSeek are also making significant strides. AI offers numerous enhancements, but it must be used responsibly. Many organizations are developing policies for responsible AI use, and the term “Shadow AI” has emerged to describe the unauthorized use of AI by employees without IT department approval.
AI will continue to evolve, becoming an increasingly powerful tool for efficiency and assistance. However, it also poses risks, such as facilitating sophisticated cyberattacks. Just as users must be vigilant with email, avoiding phishing scams and malicious links, they must also use AI responsibly and adhere to their organization’s guidelines.
Looking ahead, several exciting trends are shaping the future of AI. These include the rise of generative virtual worlds, where AI can create entire interactive environments, and the development of smaller, more efficient models that make AI more accessible and cost-effective. Additionally, multimodal AI is gaining traction, integrating various types of data to provide more comprehensive solutions.
Together, we can harness the power of AI to create a brighter, more efficient future while ensuring a safe and productive environment for everyone.
West Virginia Statewide Technology Conference Update
The Conference Call for Presentations is now open.
If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please visit https://wvstc.com/call-for-presentations/ to submit your proposal. The deadline for presentation proposal submissions is 11:59 p.m., June 30, 2025.
The WVSTC will be held at Oglebay Resort near Wheeling, West Virginia October 15-16, 2025. Please join our conference mailing list for the latest information about the conference. https://wvstc.com/subscribe/
About the Moby Award
The Moby Award represents a powerful testament to workplace collaboration and mutual appreciation, where employees have the opportunity to nominate and celebrate their colleagues’ outstanding contributions. Unlike traditional top-down recognition programs, this award empowers team members to directly acknowledge the hard work, innovative thinking, and exceptional performance of their peers. By allowing employees to highlight and honor the achievements of those they work alongside daily, the award fosters a culture of genuine respect, encouragement, and collective achievement within the organization.
Moby Winners 2024
December 2024– Zach Carpenter to “The Dream Team”
Mike McDonald and JR Farley
November 2024 – Ed Leonard (Jersey Ed) to Zach Carpenter
October 2024 – Cory Morrison to Ed Leonard (Jersey Ed)
for Banner assistances
September 2024 – Kim Jenkins to Cory Morrison
Department Updates
Human Resources
New Employees – Rebecca Clise, Business/Accounts Administrator
Rebecca Clise joins WVNET as the Business/Accounts Administrator. With a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Marshall University, a MBA from Salem University, and work experience ranging from newspapers to the WV State Auditor’s Office, Rebecca brings a wide array of experience to her new role. In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys reading, science fiction, photography, artistic endeavors, swimming, and running. She’s an animal mom to 18 cats, two dogs, and will be adding fish and hermit crabs to the mix soon. Her dream vacation would be a trip to Scotland to visit the Lagavulin distillery, the Outer Hebrides to see the puffins, and Loch Ness for obvious reasons.
Business and Finance
The winter months are sort of like down time for the business office, if there is such a thing. It’s after the financial audit but before renewal time starts to ramp up in the spring. We just try to make sure we are keeping up to date with everything accounts payable and accounts receivable.
In the meantime, if you have any questions for the WVNET business office staff, please contact us at:
- Accounts Receivable – Libby; lcress@staff.wvnet.edu or 304-225-0451
- Accounts Payable – Buffy; evehse@staff.wvnet.edu or 304-225-0487
- Business Accounts Administrator – Rebecca; rclise@staff.wvnet.edu or 304-225-0472
- Manager of Business Operations, including Procurement – Phil; psnitz@staff.wvnet.edu or 304-225-0483
- More about our Purchasing Services can be found here: https://wvnet.edu/services/purchasing/
Client Services
Distance Learning
The Brightspace Support Team at WVNET plays a pivotal role in supporting higher education institutions within West Virginia by providing comprehensive assistance with the Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS) and affiliated third-party tools. Our team aims to enhance online learning experiences and streamline the management of sophisticated tasks associated with faculty, staff, and administration. By offering expert guidance and practical solutions, the WVNET Brightspace Support Team ensures that institutions can effectively harness technology to deliver quality education.
One of the primary services offered by the WVNET Brightspace support team is LMS administration, which involves managing all users, roles, permissions, and courses within the WVNET multi-tenant environment. This includes LTI 1.1 and 1.3 tools, as well as various Brightspace add-ons such as Performance+, Creator+, Insights Portal, and Data Hub. The team ensures seamless integration by managing Brightspace’s IPSIS Configuration for all Banner connections and updating third-party tools for all clients.
In addition to administrative tasks, the WVNET Brightspace support team excels in instructional design by developing and implementing systematic and inclusive processes for course, program, and assessment developments. Using the Quality Matters Rubric as a guideline, they manage course branding and design, college and course homepages, as well as custom navigation bars and widgets through client Navshell courses. Our meticulous approach ensures that courses are engaging, well-organized, and tailored to meet the diverse needs of learners.
Training and resources are another component of the WVNET Brightspace support team. The team provides extensive instruction and documentation for all users through on-demand courses available in the Brightspace Learning Area. These courses cover a wide array of topics, including course creation, competencies and learning outcomes, and more. The WVNET Brightspace support team provides documentation through our collaborative knowledge base and schedule meetings throughout each month, such as weekly Brightspace Open Office Hours and monthly Brightspace User Group (BUG) sessions, to offer real-time support and collaborative learning.
Furthermore, the WVNET Brightspace support team is committed to staying current with the latest updates and features offered by D2L and Brightspace technology. This includes communicating and implementing monthly updates and release features, managing onboarding for new clients, and liaising with D2L teams during migration processes. They also provide custom reporting solutions for data analysis and offer tier 2 and 3 support for troubleshooting.
The WVNET Brightspace support team is available 24/7 with the assistance of the WVNET Help Desk. This ensures prompt responses and accurate information dissemination to all Brightspace users, maintaining a high standard of service and support.
Banner & Degree Works
The Banner and Degree Works functional teams are hosting weekly open office hours for our Banner schools/staff. There’s often substantial attendance at these office hours, so we’ve started using breakout rooms so that all attendees have a chance to speak and share information or ask questions. The office hours have been extremely well-received, and we always get many questions at each session. Please join us every Tuesday at 11am at this link (please insert this link in the text: https://wvcolleges.zoom.us/j/84590046822?pwd=OYKmq3GFF0dZrl3adHaYegaDhuy1rw.1)
“WVNET’s virtual office hours have been so helpful! It has been nice to know that each week I can join in and ask questions. There have been issues that were resolved during the office hours and some that have required escalation to Ellucian. I have learned some little tips and tricks that I would not have otherwise known about. I hope you guys continue this valuable service!”
Comment from Becky Yesenczki, Northern Community College’s Registrar regarding our office hours
Read more about our Banner services and support team at https://wvnet.edu/services/client-services/banner-support-and-training/ and our Degree Works team at https://wvnet.edu/services/client-services/degree-works-support-and-training/
Development Team Updates
WVNET Website Update Improves Access to Services and Information
WVNET has updated its website to improve access to services and provide better information about our role in supporting West Virginia’s educational technology needs.
WVNET Services and Support
The new site presents our service offerings through organized sections. Our hosted services encompass Systems Administration, email solutions, Banner hosting, and the OZ Tracking System. The Telecommunications group manages network infrastructure and support across the state. Our Client Services group provides comprehensive support for Banner, Degree Works, and Brightspace platforms. The Development Team offers web and application development services, while our Purchasing group handles consortium procurement and software licensing.
System Status Dashboard
Users can now monitor the operational status of key systems through our new status dashboard (https://status.wvnet.edu). The dashboard provides status updates on our hosted services, Northern and Southern network connectivity, statewide network status, Oracle Cloud resources, and Brightspace. This allows users to quickly verify system availability and stay informed about any maintenance or performance issues.
24/7 Support Resources
The enhanced Documentation & Support section provides multiple ways to access help. Users can submit tickets through our online OZ system or contact phone support at 304-293-5192. Our Knowledge Base includes step-by-step tutorials and comprehensive service documentation. We also offer weekly “Office Hours” sessions for Banner, Degree Works, and Brightspace support.
Who We Serve
WVNET’s role extends across West Virginia’s educational and governmental landscape. We provide essential services to K-12 schools, public libraries, higher education institutions, state and local government offices, and non-profit organizations. Our new interactive service map visualizes this comprehensive coverage across the state.
News and Updates
The redesigned news section keeps users informed about important developments. Regular updates include technology tips, security alerts, service changes, and our WVNET Newsletter. The section also features employee spotlights and organizational announcements.
Additional Features
The new site continues to provide easy access to our rate schedules and online bill pay system. Users can find detailed information about WVNET’s mission, vision, and organizational goals, along with comprehensive service descriptions and contact information.
Visit https://wvnet.edu to check out the new website and let us know what you think! Questions and comments about the website can be directed to the Development Team via the Help Desk button on the top navigation bar. More about the Development Team’s services can be found here: https://wvnet.edu/services/development/
TELECOM UPDATE
The Statewide Contract for Data Transport Services was awarded to Segra by the State of West Virginia. All state entities that purchased on the previous contract awarded to Verizon must be migrated to Segra. We have been working with affected customers to help them move to new Segra circuits. This includes some of the County Tax Assessors, where we have worked with Segra to configure two aggregate circuits to bring down costs. Currently, 6 County Courthouses are slated to use these aggregate circuits. But we will be reaching out to others in the future to see if they will enable cost savings compared to their current point-to-point circuits.
We are comparing vendor equipment for Next Generation Firewalls to be purchased and installed for use by WVNET customers around the state. NGFWs provide more advanced features than traditional firewalls, such as intrusion detection, threat blocking, URL filtering, filtering based on geolocation, application control and others. NGFWs enable real-time updating from the vendor cloud to keep the customers protected from zero-day exploits.
We are getting closer to migrating away from 10Gbps circuits around our high-speed transit ring and onto 100Gbps circuits. The final wave should be ready sometime in March, and we will then need to schedule a network outage to migrate to the new routers at all four locations.
Systems Update
The Evolution of Automation for System Administrators
The early techniques of automation for system administrators took form in scripting languages. With the combination of scripts and job scheduling, admins were beginning to find a plethora of ways to automate away their daily chores. This improved their efficiency and reduced the mistakes that could form from manually completing these tasks.
However, applying these techniques still required a lot of manual upkeep and configuration. Large scale systems would inevitably experience configuration drift which negatively impacts security and causes the teams playbook to not match the actual system. Advanced tools started to develop in response to this need. Infrastructure as code tools introduced a way for admins to use declarative code to utilize automated configuration management. Now, instead of manually changing job scheduler configurations or script files on servers, admins could deploy these changes with code and define their infrastructure. This idea mitigated configuration drift and gave us an easy way to replicate our environments and scale large systems.
Modern automation system administration practices help our team maintain an agile deployment method of managing servers. By using these approaches heavily, we have streamlined our operations and enhanced our efficiency. It allows us to focus on individual sections of our system design and encourages the rapid release and feedback of configuration changes.
These techniques reduce human errors, but when they do occasionally occur, our response time is brisk. A consistency in deployments for our clients is a simple task to accomplish while using configuration automation. The code for our configuration management software also acts as documentation for the overall system. It is less complicated to go back to a system after months and view what is running on it when documented by the code, as opposed to maintaining a design document with different administrators.
WVNET Staff Suggested Reads
In this issue, Supervisor of Development, Sarah Barnes, recommends Sarah Barnes, recommends companion novels, The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim
Gene Kim’s companion novels The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project offer insights into modern IT transformation through parallel narratives. In ‘Phoenix,’ we follow IT manager Bill Palmer’s struggle to fix failing deployments and stabilize operations, while
How are we doing?
Your satisfaction is very important to us. WVNET has implemented a customer satisfaction survey link in our OZ ticketing system. When a help ticket is closed, the reporter will receive an email update with a link to allow customers to fill out the survey, and, if desired, request a call from a manager. To access the form in the OZ email, click on the link.
If you’re not using OZ and you wish to take the survey, please feel free to complete the survey at https://wvnet.edu/satisfaction-survey/. We look forward to hearing from you. Have questions? Contact Harmony Garletts at hgarletts@staff.wvnet.edu.