Upcoming events
- WVNET Offices Closed
December 24-25, December 31-January 1, 2025.
- 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 (next scheduled Dec. 4, 2024)
- Save the Date! – WVSTC –
October 15-16, 2025 – Oglebay Resort
UPdate From
the Executive Director!
As we near the close of 2024, I am filled with gratitude for the remarkable resilience and innovation that define our WVNET community. This year has brought its share of challenges and opportunities, particularly in the dynamic fields of educational technology and cybersecurity. Our teams have risen to the occasion, achieving significant milestones such as the WVSU website, ongoing improvements to our learning management systems, and ensuring the systems are kept updated to protected against emerging threats.
Looking ahead to 2025, we’re positioning ourselves for even greater impact. We’re strengthening our team with key positions in financial leadership and business administration, implementing new support initiatives like our “Web Wednesday” office hours, and continuing to expand our services to meet the growing technological needs of our state’s educational institutions.
I’m particularly proud of our ongoing commitment to accessibility and support, as demonstrated by our regular Banner, Degree Works, and Brightspace office hours. These initiatives ensure that our partners receive the assistance they need when they need it most.
As we prepare for the upcoming holiday season, I want to express my gratitude to our dedicated staff and our valued institutional partners. Your collaborative spirit and commitment to excellence continue to drive our success.
Stay tuned for exciting developments in the coming year, including our flagship event, the West Virginia Statewide Technology Conference (WVSTC) at Oglebay Resort in October 2025. Together, we’ll continue to advance technology solutions that empower education across West Virginia.
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
January – Ben Mays
February – Barbara Long
March – Eduardo Del Toro
April – Ben Mays
May – John Taylor
June –
July – Systems Group
August – Kim Jenkins
September – Cory Morrison
October – Edward Leonard
November – Zach Carpenter
Department Updates
HUMAN RESOURCES
WVNET seeks a strategic Chief Financial Officer to lead financial operations, drive growth, and optimize efficiency. Join our team and let’s innovate together! The CFO’s responsibilities include fiscal budget management, financial planning, financial reporting, internal controls, and analyzing the organization’s financial position. The CFO will also develop and monitor budgets to ensure financial stability and growth. Salary range is $95,000 – $115,000 and commensurate with experience.
WVNET is seeking a detail-oriented Business/Accounts Administrator to manage service agreements, user accounts, and support our business operations. This key role will ensure smooth contract management, efficient account administration, and provide critical support to our Business Office. Salary range is $45,000 – $55,000 and commensurate with experience.
For full job details, qualifications, etc. and to apply, visit https://wvnet.edu/about/careers/
Business and Finance
It was a busy start to fall for the WVNET business office. We renewed our contracts that were due to expire over the summer/early fall, successfully completed our annual financial audit and are now in the swing of things for FY 25.
We are also still in search of a new Chief Financial Officer as our previous CFO retired over the summer. So, if you, or anyone you know, may be interested, please visit our website at Careers – West Virginia Network. 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
- Manager of Business Operations, including Procurement – Phil; psnitz@staff.wvnet.edu or
304-225-0483
Client Services
Banner & Degree Works
The WVNET Banner and Degree Works functional team has set aside an hour each week to be available for informal discussion of Banner or Degree Works issues. Every Tuesday at 11am, beginning on November 12, you can click on the link and go online with us with whatever issues you like. We look forward to seeing you there.
Who are we?
Dianne Sisler – Banner Financial Aid & General
Barbara Long – DegreeWorks
Cristina Shannon – Banner Finance/Accounts Receivable
Jenny Young – Banner Student & General
Save the link: Banner and Degree Works Office Hours – Zoom
Brightspace/Distance Learning
The Client Services Team at WVNET has been working diligently to keep our Brightspace learning platform up to date with the latest features, tools and trends in learning. A big trend emerging in the education space is gamification through learning objectives, outcomes and assessment-based learning. One of our client institutions, Southern WV CTC, has been an outstanding pioneer in this field. Their Assessment team has cultivated an assessment-based learning environment that allows students to achieve mastery in a variety of learning skills. By completing objectives and achieving high scores on their assessments, students will achieve points of mastery, which can be tracked by faculty and staff. The Assessment team is working hard to incorporate badges and certificates for students who achieve mastery in certain skills, providing a fun and rewarding incentive to the students. A comprehensive summary of their assessment programs and requirements for accreditation can be found on their website listed here: https://www.southernwv.edu/administration/assessment/.
D2L Lumi, Brightspace’s powerful AI-driven tool has received many new updates and features. Lumi can be used to generate practice content, generate ideas for assessment content, generate quiz question banks, generate content from course videos, offer general support, and now generate and align content to learning outcomes all based on the learning materials provided in a course. Every month, D2l continues with their commitment to improve Lumi and provide a more personalized and efficient Brightspace experience for faculty and students. For a sneak peek at the future of Lumi, D2L will be launching two beta features for Lumi this Winter as per their roadmap: generating learning content from files like word, PowerPoint, or pdf, and automatically suggesting remedial content for students. We are excited to see how D2L continues to innovate with Lumi!
This year’s D2L Fusion conference has been announced and will be held in Savannah, Georgia, from July 21 to 23, 2025. D2L Fusion is an international conference hosted annually by D2L, and is meant to bring together educators, EdTech professionals, and industry experts from around the world to explore innovations in digital learning. D2L Fusion 2024, hosted in Toronto, Canada, showcased an incredible lineup of new features added to the Brightspace platform, including D2L Lumi, their powerful AI tool, and the addition of nearly 50 types of interactive learning content to the Creator+ tool, thanks to the acquisition of H5P. We are excited to see the lineup of new features at D2L Fusion 2025!
And don’t forget about our Brightspace Office Hours, Tuesdays at 1:00 PM.
Development Team Updates
WVNET Completes Major Website Overhaul for West Virginia State University
WVNET’s Development Team has successfully completed a comprehensive website redevelopment project for West Virginia State University (WVSU), migrating the institution’s digital presence from Kentico CMS to WordPress. The new website delivers enhanced functionality and a streamlined user experience for the University’s community.
Modern Features for a Modern Campus
The redesigned website introduces several key improvements:
- Enhanced Content Management: The WordPress platform provides intuitive tools for content creation and maintenance
- Specialized College Management: Custom multisite functionality enables individual colleges to manage their unique content and degree programs
- Advanced Directory Systems: A custom-built staff directory ensures up-to-date faculty and staff information
- Robust Security: Implementation of sophisticated user permissions and content approval workflows maintains site integrity
- Integrated Tools: New features include comprehensive search capabilities, a centralized events calendar, and support for featured video content
User-Centric Design
The new wvstateu.edu showcases a modern, responsive design that prioritizes user experience. With improved navigation and organization, students, faculty, and administrators can easily access information, forms, and contact details across all devices.
“This has been a very rewarding project for the WVNET Development Team,” said Sarah Barnes, Supervisor of Development at WVNET. “We are honored to have had the opportunity to work with our state’s premier HBCU and land-grant institution and are committed to continuing to assist the University enhance its online presence.”
Visit wvstateu.edu to explore the redesigned website.
Announcing “Web Wednesday” Office Hours
We are now offering a Website Support-focused “Office Hour” Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. (excluding holidays). Join us on December 4 on WebEx:
Web Wednesday – Webex
TELECOM UPDATE
Microsoft’s annual Digital Defense Report highlights a significant rise in cyberattacks driven by escalating geopolitical tensions. The report reveals that Microsoft customers faced 600 million cyberattacks daily, a troubling trend that underscores the growing role of cyber operations in global conflicts. These attacks, which include both cybercriminal activity and state-sponsored operations, reflect a more sophisticated and coordinated threat landscape.
Matt Aldridge, Principal Solutions Consultant at OpenText Cybersecurity, noted that the combination of geopolitical volatility, economic struggles, and increasingly sophisticated cybercriminal activity has created a perfect storm for cybersecurity challenges. A particularly concerning trend identified in the report is the growing collaboration between nation-states and cybercrime gangs. For example, Russian threat actors have increasingly outsourced cyberespionage operations, particularly targeting Ukraine, while Iran has used ransomware in influence campaigns, such as marketing stolen data from an Israeli dating website. North Korea has also entered the ransomware space with a custom malware variant, FakePenny, targeting aerospace and defense organizations.
Cyberactivity from Russia, Iran, and China has spiked, with these nations exploiting geopolitical crises to destabilize domestic affairs in other countries—such as influencing U.S. elections or undermining public trust. Microsoft’s report also notes a sharp 2.75-fold increase in ransomware attacks over the past year, alongside a dramatic 400% rise in tech scams. However, attacks that involve encryption have decreased, signaling some success in defense measures.
Experts, including Aldridge, urge businesses to bolster their cybersecurity infrastructure to defend against these evolving threats. This includes adopting advanced threat detection, encrypted backups, email filtering, real-time anti-phishing protection, multi-factor authentication, and ongoing staff training. The report also highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in cyber threats, with both cybercriminals and state actors experimenting with AI-generated imagery and audio-based attacks to improve their effectiveness.
“This is a wake-up call for organizations worldwide to reassess their cybersecurity strategies before it’s too late,” Aldridge concluded, stressing that nation-state attackers are not slowing down.
If you are concerned about your cybersecurity posture, please reach out to WVNET for information on our security services and advice on preventing cyberattacks.
Systems Update
Top-level domains (TLDs) are the final segment of a total domain name. This helps categorize a website. These categories are typically country specific (.jp, .uk), or for other classification purposes (.gov, .org).
These categorizations have grown to be crucial and familiar when initially identifying the purpose of a website and have also become an important part of marketing.
Not only are there preconceived notions that come from a TLD, but it also can play a role in your search engine optimization (where your website ranks in search engine results), which affects your outreach to potential users.
One TLD that was originally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory has become increasingly popular in recent times. This TLD (io) is used by many tech-focused projects since it can be used as a play on the concept of input-output.
Unfortunately for some, there has been recent news regarding the uncertain future of the io domain. This news is tied to the UK’s decision to relinquish control of the Chagos Islands, the legal authority of the io country code top-level domain, back to Mauritius. This geopolitical change raises interesting problems and questions for the future of the TLD.
The future of the io domain is currently in limbo. The new owner of the Chagos Islands may opt to retain the use of the io domain due to the economic upside that comes with maintaining a popular TLD. For example, another popular domain name held by an island is the ccTLD of ai, which is claimed by the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Angullia reported brings in upwards of 30 million in revenue per year due to their ownership of the ai TLD.
We will remain unbothered by this change in our operations, as we do not use this TLD. However, it will be interesting to see how the big players in the space like Google and Microsoft will go about handling this possible expiration of a heavy used TLD in their products.
WVNET Staff Suggested Reads
In this issue, Supervisor of Development, Sarah Barnes, recommends
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.
Anyone who works in information technology, engineering, training, design, customer service, and more will find what he discusses to be beneficial. It helps the reader (or listener if you, like me, listened to the audiobook) learn to take the time to approach their work from the perspective of the end user. This book emphasizes 6 principles to optimize functionality. Learning more about how people use “everyday things” improves the products and services you provide.
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.