Update – May, 2018

Computer Information Systems – CIS
The department welcomes new full-time faculty Jacob Kier. We look forward to the value he brings to our department and students.

Professor Suzanne Smith and assistant dean Deb Elder attended the Two-Year College Data Science Summit hosted by American Statistical Association and funded by the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA, May 9-11. JCCC is one of only 14 colleges in the US providing Data Science/Analytics education programs. The Summit convened a cross-section of community college, four-year colleges, industry, and non-profits in an effort to address the high demand for educating and training the workforce. JCCC was validated as a successful model, based on the design to engage employers from the initial planning stages. JCCC appreciates the partnership with Normandale Community College and Bunker Hill Community College through the Educational Development Center in Boston, MA with funding from the National Science Foundation. National partnerships provide opportunity to put JCCC students at the forefront of educational initiatives to be responsive to our students and our community with cutting edge and relevant offerings. We look forward to continued relationships with our local stakeholders and peer institutions.

As part of the Data Science program grant, Professor Suzanne Smith attended a Stackable Credentials for Data Science Workshop. This area is developing fast in the industry and there are great opportunities for JCCC to integrate these options with our new certificate.

CSIS students in the capstone software development course, CIS 264 – Application Development and Programming, under the guidance of Professor Suzanne Smith, presented their end of the year projects. A joint presentation with other departments at JCCC and KU showcased the back-end system to support an online outdoor art catalogue for the Johnson County Arts Council. The second CSIS-hosted gathering welcomed industry partners, staff and board members. Students projects were very well received, and follow-up actions are developing.

Professor Perla Weaver attended the NCWIT Summit at Grapevine, Texas on May 15-17. The NCWIT Summit is the world’s largest annual convening of change leaders focused on significantly improving diversity and inclusion in computing. Educators, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and social scientists from across industries and disciplines participate in this one-of-a-kind opportunity. The summit focus is to provide the venue to convene, learn from experts, take action and celebrate accomplishments. Professor Weaver accepted the official award for the NCWIT Seed Fund Grant for the CSIS department.

Professor Weaver took the Computer Club to participate at the Hack-KU (coding hackathon) event in Lawrence, KS from April 20-22. At the event, students are given the challenge to develop an application from scratch in 24 hours. Students are judged on their learning, the design of their application, the completion level and the technology used for their project. The experience of a hackathon is packed with short deadlines, big goals, and little sleep, but most importantly it gives the opportunity for students to maximize their collaborative work. Both of the JCCC participating teams were able to submit projects for final evaluation, and received recognitions and awards!

The ACM Kansas City chapter Meetup welcome its members and some JCCC students to their bi-monthly gathering on May 10th. We look forward to continued collaboration with its members.

The Girls Who Code club welcomed parents, and family members to its end of the year graduation. Students showcased the projects they have been working on during the semester. Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization which aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science. The organization is working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a programmer looks like and does. This year, the JCCC hosted club had a record 41 students enrolled. The club meets weekly for 2 hours from September to May thanks to the support of JCCC staff and faculty Sandra Warner, Rachel Morris Singh and Perla Weaver, along with Computer Science professionals who work with work with students every week: Annissa Freeman, Anna Scheuler, Asha Chandrappa, Amanda Halek, Ariadne Spes, Abbey Trotta and Lindsay Brechler.

The Computer Club hosted its last special session with Tom Pagano, JCCC CIO, who discussed with students the value of informal leadership in career development. Students had a great question and answer session on this valuable soft skills topic.

Medical Information and Revenue Management – MIRM
MIRM and Learning Strategies have completed a joint-effort Carl Perkins Grant, developing an Online Student Success video. This video, detailing learning strategies and other tips/tricks for online student success, will be published as part of the MIRM curriculum beginning in Summer 2018.

MIRM students have completed Spring internships with a variety of employers – Freedom PTTC, KU Medical Center, in2itive Business Solutions, Lakeview Village, Pathfinder Health Innovations, and Physician Office Partners.

Ekta Priyakant, MIRM graduate (Spring 2018), passed the Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) credentialing exam in May. These credentials are nationally-recognized, awarded by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). With these credentials, Ms. Priyakant was offered a job at Pulse Systems, as part of the Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) team.

MIRM graduated 14 students with the Medical Coding Specialist Certificate, Fall 2017 – Spring 2018. These students include: Lindsey Bowlin, Valerie Kennedy, Paige Mansfield, Bonnie Offerman, Lovely Singh, Kilee Watson, Mary Brady, Denice Griffin, Hannah Mauk, Caila McPherson, Cynthia Pickard, Ekta Priyakant, Jessica Ramirez, Kayla Smith.

Web Development and Digital Media (WDDM)
• 5 out of the 10 students in the WDDM Capstone course graduated with jobs:
o Tatiana Trofimova and Carson Rapp – City of Shawnee ( 2 students)
o Melanie Garvey – Mylo a Lockton Company
o Talia Degisi – RealLeads, Inc.
o Jason Soltys – Computer Impressions
• WDDM, Marketing program and Small Business Development Center @JCCC are working on building the JC3 Innovations Student Agency.
• Kansas Workforce Partnership approved 6000$ for three summer interns from WDDM program.

June, 2018 Update – Assistant Dean Deb Elder attended the Cerner Show Day on June 25th, an annual event for educators and career development. Senior Director of Associate Learning and Development Laura Evans highlighted organizational overview and vision. Tessa Wood provided insight on hiring prep and process and moderated a workforce pathway panel. Senior Director of Employment Stephanie Roberts provided overview of employment practices, highlighting Veterans programs and global impact. It is great to know CSIT students are being prepared for the health IT workforce as part of the HCIS program.

Computer Support Specialist – Computer Applications (CPCA)
Adjunct Professor Phil Hauptman demonstrates the personal aspect he brings to teaching, learning, and mentoring high school students in career development! Read more of the story at: http://www.jccc.edu/experiences/2018/computer-classes-hauptman.html

Computer Information Systems
Gil Anderson, President and CEO of Dearborn Solutions gave an $11,000 scholarship gift to Computer Information Systems program. He participates on the CIS advisory board, provides mock interview, participates in the Capstone projects, and other CIS activities. He shared that he supports JCCC CSIT programs because students complete as workforce ready to hire. Thanks to Judi Reilly in the Grants Office for working with Mr. Anderson regarding scholarship processes, and to CIS Chairs Perla Weaver and Mark Van Gorp for engaging Mr. Anderson with our students.

Update – July, 2018 – Johnson County Community College – Computing Sciences & Information Technology Division –
Health Information Systems (HCIS)
HCIS chair Lori Brooks received a Carl D. Perkins grant for a Population Health Management project. One of the newest trends in the Healthcare Information Systems (HCIS) Program is Population Health. As the industry moves away from volume based care to risk based care, it is important that students understand Population Health management, which is inclusive of the social determinants of health, closing gaps in care, and robust analytics. This project would involve a HCIS faculty member working with a local industry professional to incorporate Population Health unit content and assessments into curriculum.

Medical Information Revenue Management (MIRM)
HCIS chair Lori Brooks and MRIM chair Amanda Kraus received a Carl D. Perkins grant for a labor market data project. To ensure that faculty are well-versed in specific employment opportunities and expectations for students in the Healthcare Information Systems (HCIS) and Medical Information Revenue Management (MIRM) Programs, faculty from those programs would like to collaborate and gather regional and national labor market data. In addition, HCIS and MIRM faculty will conduct visits to local healthcare organizations to build relationships and seek work-based experiences for their students. The goal would be to work to develop industry specific contacts for job shadowing and internship opportunities and create employment pathways for students.

Game
Game faculty Richard Fleming and Steve Smith received a Carl D. Perkins grant for a Game Design Framework Development project. The project will enhance current curriculum and provide unique game design scenarios to challenge the students by creating a framework that enables students to focus more on game design and less on framework development. Creating a standard/uniform framework that all students use for developing game scenarios also enables instructors to be more consistent in grading and evaluation. After being instructed in the use of the framework, students will be capable of developing a small, simple game in the target genre, and the framework would be available to all applicable instructors and classes on campus.

Web Development and Digital Media
The Web program received a KBOR Integrating Academics with Career & Technical Ed. Grant. Students in the Web Development Program have a difficult time translating their understanding of math to JavaScript applications. To address this need among Web Development students, the project will create supplemental online tutorials helping students to see how they can translate their understanding of math to JavaScript programming.

Update –
Computer Support Specialist (CPCA)
The CPCA program and JCCC Client Support Services are collaborating to provide employment opportunities for students in the Computer Support Specialist program. There are currently 5 students working in the Technical Support Center and 8 additional positions to be filled this semester. This is a win-win for JCCC students gaining invaluable skills in their field of study and Client Support Services employing dedicated and hardworking students.

Health Information Systems (HCIS)
HCIS student Sharon Kernes has accepted a VA contract job with GovermentCIO to start in October, even before fully completing her degree coursework. The recruiter told Sharon they have multiple 5-year contracts with the VA for the new electronic health record and need to hire about 200 IT professionals. Sharon’s prior VA work combined with her HCIS specialty degree coursework that includes Cerner labs, positioned her well for this opportunity.

Medical Information Revenue Management (MIRM)
This summer, Department Chairs from MIRM and HCIS partnered on a Carl Perkins grant project to gather regional and national labor market data, and develop industry-specific contacts for job shadowing and internship opportunities, and employment pathways for students. Work was completed on the project in August, and the departments are working with Marketing to update content on the departmental websites and in printed brochures.

MIRM and HCIS met with Saint Luke’s Health System (SLHS) health information management to discuss their requirements for coding, charge audit, charge management, and HIM IT roles. Opportunities for additional student-experiences were identified, as well as opportunities for collaboration between the programs and department. SLHS will provide additional real-world experience to MIRM students through redacted medical records, and will notify department chairs directly when applicable job postings are available. They are also willing to continue to take students from both programs in internship roles.

Game
The eSports Club is going strong and has a fine set of new officers. Nick Scobee is the new president. The first meeting this semester was Tuesday, August 21st in the CoLab. The club will meet there each Tuesday and Wednesday night this fall. One goal of the club is to develop strengths in all the top eSports games. Currently most players compete in Overwatch, LoL, Smash, CS: GO, Rainbow Six:Siege, and Rocket League. Both beginners and advanced skill levels are welcome.

Web Development and Digital Media
The Web program received a KBOR Integrating Academics with Career & Technical Ed. Grant. Students in the Web Development Program may have a difficult time translating their understanding of math to JavaScript applications. To address this need among Web Development students, the project will create supplemental online tutorials helping students to see how they can translate their understanding of math to JavaScript programming.
IT-Networking
The IT-Networking department continues to work towards building its Cybersecurity program. This summer, we had a student intern with a local company in the cybersecurity area. He mentions the great amount he is learning. He’s made a great impression with his current employer and is confident about his future job prospects. This and many other similar stories outline the importance of the internship experience for our students. It’s how we provide them with a leg up in a competitive workplace. We will continue to develop these relationships with industry partners.

Andrew Lutz, Chair of IT-Networking, met industry leaders including Taylor Milligan from BlackRock Global Information Security and Tedrick Housh from Lathrop Gage to discuss industry trends and partnerships.

Oakwood and Microsoft are hosting a SharePoint Meeting which is open to anyone interested in Microsoft SharePoint, Azure, Enterprise Mobility Suite.

Date: March 8th, 2016

Time: 6:30-8:30PM

The Presenter is Scott Cameron, a Solution Engineer with Oakwood Systems. He helps customers architect cloud solutions that include Microsoft’s Office 365, Azure and other services. He has over 20 years in Kansas City area Information Technology. He has worked at Microsoft with 12 of the 40 largest enterprise businesses in Kansas City, created an Office 365 practice from scratch and built and sold a startup consulting and managed services business.

Scott will be presenting an overview of Microsoft’s cloud services including: Office 365 – the cloud messaging and productivity suite; Azure – the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering; and Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) – which adds identity, mobile and information protection.

Meeting Location: Microsoft Office – Overland Park, KS, 10801 Mastin Blvd., Suite 620, Building 84, Corporate Woods, Overland Park, KS 66210.

Directions: From KS-69 and College Blvd, go East to Mastin Street then North to Mastin Blvd. Building 84 is the northern of the two office buildings on Mastin Blvd. Park on either side of the building and take the elevator to the Microsoft offices on the 6th floor.

Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Please e-mail john@cjk-consulting.com or text (913) 963-8756 with your RSVP.

Matthias Lechner (Art Director of Environments) with Disney Animation will be speaking at JCCC on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 10:00am in the Hudson Auditorium, NMOCA 217. Join us for a special 1-hour behind the scenes animation presentation and Q&A.

*Please RSVP by emailing your name to ALLIEDIMKC@GMAIL.COM. You must present your confirmation to the rep at the door for admittance. In subject line please include JCCC.

Please see flyer for more information.

Did you know that students get a personal website?

As an IT student this may interest you, get as creative as you want or simply learn to set one up if you are new to this.

Step one: follow this link to set up your server

http://www.jccc.edu/files/pdf/help-desk/enable-web-publishing.pdf

Step two: follow this link to publish with Dreamweaver

http://www.jccc.edu/files/pdf/help-desk/web-publishing-dreamweaver.pdf

 
Credit students at JCCC can publish a personal website using their drive space on the student server.

You get 6 GB of network drive space to store personal files, projects and course materials.

Only you have access to the contents of your personal drive space, and only you can create, modify or delete any files located there.

The student server supports the use of the PHP scripting language. The student server does not support the use of CGI scripts.

You can use any HTML authoring program to create your pages, such as Dreamweaver.