Oracle Calendar Peer Institutions Policies and Procedures
(condensed version)
As we examined the various configuration options and policy issues surrounding
the large-scale deployment of the Oracle Calendar product, we thought it would
be prudent to research what some of our peer institutions have done in this regard.
To that end, we submitted a series of questions to the following institutions,
all either currently offering or in the process of offering Oracle Calendaring
Services:
California Polytechnic State University – Chris Broome
University of Wisconsin – Madison – Guy Stalnaker
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill – Stephen
Braswell
Their condensed responses are summarized below. The full text of the responses
is available on the project web site at:
CalPoly:
Under OCS, we plan to allow anyone to schedule anyone else.
A side note: we have about 2,000 students who are FERPA’d. We are meeting
with our Registrar’s office next week to determine how we will have to handle
such students. Some of the plans and statements that follow may need different
processes for such students.
Wisc.:
We set **all** accounts such that times-only are visible for all users and can-invite-me
is allowed. We explicitly state this in our Policies and Procedures and explain
our reasoning.
UNC-CH:
Anyone can and will be able to schedule anyone and see anyone's calendar. We are
working on policies and documentation on how individuals can restrict their schedules
if they want to.
Who can see whose calendar?
CalPoly:
Anyone can see anyone’s calendar, but certain people restrict access through
the client settings so that their calendars are only visible as completely empty
schedules. We will be setting defaults for Confidential and Personal entries as
either ‘View times only’ or ‘No viewing rights’ for the
general population.
Wisc:
See above:
UNC-CH:
See above
Who do you see (by default) when you
search for someone?
CalPoly:
Everyone is visible when searching. By default you will see their name, with their
‘Public’ and ‘Normal’ entries.
Wisc:
By default everyone is available and can be found by a search. If their access
rights are set such that nothing is visible, then all that the searcher will see
is a blank agenda with nothing in it.
UNC-CH:
Everyone is available by search. We have some individuals that restrict their
directory information. If they do not want people to be able to search for them
in our regular electronic directory, we do not allow them to get an account at
all
Do you pre-populate student calendars
with their class schedules?
CalPoly:
Not in place or planned at this time. This is under consideration as a future
project.
Wisc:
We do not. We thought at first to populate all agenda with the campus Academic
Schedule, but even that was vetoed. We created a campus events import/subscription
process that allows students to manually subscribe to things like athletic events
(football schedule, their class schedule, etc.).
UNC-CH:
We do not pre-populate this information. We have a programmer that is working
on a sort-of "opt-in" piece where students can go to a web page, log in, and add
their class schedules. A second phase of that would include the academic schedule,
sports schedules, etc. The only thing we add for everyone is University holidays.
Do instructors populate student calendars
with tests, exams, etc?
CalPoly:
No. This may be a future enhancement.
Wisc:
We are actively working on this in two facets. One is to allow faculty and instructors
a method to import into their agendas their teaching schedule, and the other is
a mechanism that will allow them to make their class syllabi available for students
to import into their agendas. We have the delivery method (the event importing
system mentioned above), we just need to work out the data part of things--always
the most problematic.
UNC-CH:
No. We are beginning with class schedules and the academic calendar.
Who can block whom?
CalPoly:
Anyone can block anyone.
Wisc:
Anyone can block anyone.
UNC-CH:
Anyone can block anyone.
At what point in the account process
is the calendar account created?
CalPoly:
At present, for Faculty/Staff when the HR feed submits them as new employees.
Student assistant and resource accounts are created manually, via a request form.
Wisc:
When new students, faculty, and staff activate their NetID, this process gets
them access to the calendar system.
UNC-CH:
Aside from email, all extra services require the customer to go to a web page
and request to be "subscribed" to the extra service. This includes calendar services.
When are calendar accounts removed?
CalPoly:
Regular employee calendars are deleted when the HR feed indicates they have left
the university. People leaving with Emeritus status have their calendars deleted
manually when they leave the campus. Student assistants have their calendar account
deleted when they leave the university, or they lose their assistant status (whichever
happens first). Emergency deletions and resource deletions are handled manually.
Wisc:
Twice a year, inactive NetIDs are identified, then the service accounts are destroyed
after a minimal wait period.
UNC-CH:
We plan to set up an automated procedure that scans the expired users list and
removes those accounts, which likely won't happen until after the person is gone
for at least two months. In the meantime, this is a manual process.
Are folks allowed to opt-out of using
the calendar system?
CalPoly:
No. However, whether they use it or not is up to them. A substantial number
of our faculty don’t use their accounts today, so their calendars appear
to be empty.
Wisc:
No. But there's nothing, of course, that mandates that they MUST use their calendar
unless that comes from within their department or from colleagues. In fact, though
we currently have some 70,000 created and thus 'active' accounts, use is only
at about 5-10% of that total.
UNC-CH:
Our users are opted-out at user ID creation. We don't require them to subscribe
or use the service.
Additional information and online policies/resources:
Back
to Oracle Calendar Policy Steering Committee page