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NCTrust: Collaborating for K-20 Education

Learn about NCTrust, a collaborative initiative in North Carolina that aims to break down silos between K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, and provide collective resources that are cheaper, better, and faster. Discover how the project is utilizing federated identity management and addressing challenges in membership and technical implementation.

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NCTrust: Collaborating for K-20 Education

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  1. The National Report:State, K-12, and Federal Government CAMP: June 23rd, 2010, 10:45-11:45 Presenters: Tim Poe – Sr. Collaborative Technologist at MCNC Mike Veckenstedt, Ph.D – CTO/Deputy CIO at NC-DPI Steve Thorpe – Systems Analyst at MCNC

  2. Agenda • Overview of NCTrust (Tim) • K-12 in NCTrust (Mike) • Configuration Management (Steve) Slide 2

  3. Overview of NCTrust • Now that we have the NCREN for K-20, what are the opportunities to: • Collaborate between campuses? • Break down the silos between public universities/independents/community colleges/K-12? • Collaborate with campuses in other states and nations? Slide 3

  4. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • Also, what are the opportunities to provide collective resources in our state that are: • Cheaper • Better • Faster Slide 4

  5. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • And how can we provide granular access so that the right people get access to the right resources at the right time (or not)? Slide 5

  6. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • The CSWG (Collaborative Services Working Group) is a part of the MCNC/NCREN Advisory Structure. Co-chaired by: • CIO of the public university system (UNC GA) • CIO of the community college system (NCCCS) • CIO for state K-12 (NC DPI) • Independent representation (CIO of Elon University) Slide 6

  7. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • Federated Identity Management Task Force established (Chairs Mark Scheible and Mike Veckenstedt) • Comprised of the best and brightest identity management experts in NC • Recognition that a K-20 solution needed (not just higher education) • Group determined early on to utilize InCommon, largely due to value of legal framework. Slide 7

  8. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • A pilot project was created: • Two K-12 Districts (Rockingham County &, Davie County) • Three Universities (UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, NC State University) • Two Community Colleges (Central Piedmont CC, Wake Tech CC), • Two Other Organizations (NC DPI and MCNC) • Two primary SPs (NC LIVE and VCL) Slide 8

  9. NCTrust is a Subset of InCommon Federation Slide 9

  10. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • Pilot “ended” in May 2010. • Results published in End of Year Report available at www.mcnc.org - follow links from “Advisory & Governance.” • Now we proceed with “growing” and managing the trust. Slide 10

  11. Overview of NCTrust (cont.) • Success to date do to: • Platforms (CSWG and eLearning Commission) for K-20 collaboration. • Immense amounts of expertise and good will from all sectors of K-20. • Persistent belief in achieving a vision that relies on each organization knowing who its members are, what their roles are, and the benefits of collaboration and shared resources. Slide 11

  12. K-12 in NCTrust • 115 School Districts with ~ 2,500 schools • ~97 Charter Schools • ~1.4 mill students (K12) • 17 UNC system institutions • 58 community colleges • 36 independent colleges / universities • Plus many others Slide 12

  13. 21st Century Learning (K-12) • K-12 moves into P-20: Schools, Colleges and Universities “converging” • Learn-And-Earn: NC program • Virtual Public Schools • Student, Teacher, Parents are all part of the student’s education • “Streamlining student account administration” Slide 13

  14. Teacher and Staff Time Is Valuable • 2 min per student per year for account administration, focusing on Middle and High School • ~ 3000 admin work days statewide(K6-12) • Times logins for Network, Media-Center, Lunch, Study Island, Moodle, etc. (~5) => 15,000 work days Slide 14

  15. Other Important Benefits of FIM • Systems- and Data Security • Decentralized Account Administration works; Centralized Administration doesn’t. • Staff joining/leaving • Parents/Guardians associated to a student • Use of other Educational Resources • Virtual Computing Lab • iTunes University • NC-Live Slide 15

  16. Statewide Rollout in K-12 • Selected CIMS Project: • Computerized Instructional Management System – Teacher Tool, Testing Students Online. • Included two School Districts • Shibbolized Identity Mmt Systems. • Vendor became SP. • Pilot ended in May successfully. Slide 16

  17. Attribute Release Policy • Lots of discussion – still unclear what the total set of released attributes will be… • Student Identifier seems to be a good one. • What about: • Age? • Grade? • Special Needs? Slide 17

  18. Some Challenges … • Membership Management of 100+ School Districts. • Legalities, Responsibilities • Central Meta-Data Management • How do you build a business case one SP at time? • One project cannot pay for all infrastructure. • Readiness of K-12 software vendors. Slide 18

  19. … even more Challenges • Available staff at School Districts • Technical Skills of Local School District Staff • 10 month Employees. • Maintenance of the NCTrust/Shibboleth Infrastructure Slide 19

  20. Technical Issues Non-Trivial • Requires understanding of many layers • XML • Web application server configuration, X509 certificates • IdP and SP packaging • OS configuration • Managing software updates • Network configuration, etc. • This is can be challenging, especially for smaller institutions Slide 20

  21. IdP Virtual Machine Appliance • MCNC developed a customizable VM for the NCTrust federation participants • Guest OS is CentOS • Host OS can be Windows or Linux, running Xen or VMware • Preconfigured to use NCTrust Metadata (subset of InCommon’s) • Customized for each NCTrust member • This helped a LOT! Slide 21

  22. Configuration Management • MCNC’s Automated Configuration Management System • Rapid building and replicating of customized OS installs • Automated deployment of patching and reconfigurations • Delta among IdPs is small • Only ~15 small files are different, totaling just ~150KB • Rest of the appliance is same for all Slide 22

  23. IdP Appliance Only Goes So Far • Each institution is unique • Back-end Identity Infrastructure • Technical Skill Set • Considerable ramp-up effort is still required at each organization • Centralized NCTrust Federation IdP Hosting? • NCTrust is looking at options for this • Probably this is much more scalable for NC’s K-12 community Slide 23

  24. Conclusions • It works…, even in K-12! • How can we finalize an Attribute Release policy for K-12 / P-20? • Skill set requirements are challenging. • More vendors have to become SPs • Scaling requires • New organizational thinking • Cloud-like computing Slide 24

  25. Thank You • Also thanks to the many Federated ID Task Force members from throughout the NCREN community that are participating with us in the NCTrust pilot project • More Info: • Link: http://edspace.mcnc.org/confluence/display/FIM • Tim Poe: tpoe@mcnc.org • Mike Veckenstedt: mveckenstedt@dpi.state.nc.us • Steve Thorpe: thorpe@mcnc.org Slide 25

  26. See you in the Federation

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