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The first few weeks of being a first-year student at Stellenbosch University (SU) can be overwhelming. Getting to know how SUNLearn, the university’s electronic learning management system works – and familiarising yourself with the terminology that goes with it, can be daunting. We want to encourage you to stay calm and to reassure you that help and support are at hand!
SUNLearn has been in operation since 2014 and, through the years, it has been improved to make it increasingly accessible and user friendly for both staff and students to navigate. On top of that, the SUNLearn learning technology support team is in place to help students with all their queries.
In this article, we asked the people responsible for SUNLearn to take students on a welcome journey to understand the system so that they are able to use it and are better prepared for their academic year. We picked the brains of Dr Lianne Keiller – Manager: Learning Technology Systems and Morris Samuels – E-Learning Technical Officer at SU to answer some of the most frequently asked questions related to onboarding.
According to Dr Keiller and Mr Samuels, an important thing students need to note is that only students who have completed their registration process will have access to SUNLearn.
“We have found that sometimes students forget to complete their registrations at the beginning of the year; and then they start classes and realise they cannot get into SUNLearn and cannot access their content or their modules. So you have to be registered first before you will have access to SUNLEearn,” Dr Keiller said.
Below are some of the more common questions asked by first-year students at Stellenbosch University.
LIANNE KEILLER: SUNLearn is the name of the learning management system we use at Stellenbosch University. A learning management system (LMS) is an online space where a student can manage their learning and their interactions with their lecturers and with each other.
SUNLearn is where lecturers will upload all the content for a lecture, or they might even conduct a lecture on SUNLearn if they are doing it virtually. SUNLearn also allows the creation of spaces where students can talk to each other on discussion boards and can send private messages within the LMS. If a student is registered for a module, there is a SUNLearn space for it and the lecturer is the one who decides how to put things onto the module.
A number of lecturers make use of the SUNLearn system for tests or exams for the students to do online.
From an IT perspective, the SUNLearn system is supported by a small team which is dedicated to making sure that the student and lecturers’ experiences are as simple and easy as possible.
MORRIS SAMUELS: Students should not be overwhelmed. Using SUNLearn is as easy as accessing any web page on the internet.
MORRIS SAMUELS: SUNLearn can be accessed via any web browser on a computer, mobile phone or tablet. In the address bar of the browser, type in learn.sun.ac.za and press ‘ENTER’. On the SUNLearn homepage, click on the ‘Log in’ link that is located in the top righthand corner to navigate to the ‘Single Sign-on login page where you will need to enter your username (student number) and the password set for it.
Alternatively, you can also access SUNLearn via the MY.SUN entry page by typing in my.sun.ac.za in the address bar of the browser. When the page opens you will be prompted to enter your network login credentials. Once you are logged in, locate the shortcut link for SUNLearn and click on it to open the SUNLearn Dashboard page where you should see all your registered modules. Most students access SUNLearn and other university systems via the MY.SUN entry page.
MORRIS SAMUELS: The important thing for students to understand is that the IT help desk is there for general IT information and support, but, in terms of SUNLearn, there is a dedicated support team which falls under my leadership.
The SUNLearn learning technology support team deals with any queries related to SUNLearn. For example, if a student finds that a registered module is not listed on their course overview page or if, for some reason, they cannot access a module on SUNLearn, then the SUNLearn learning technology team is your port of call to report that.
MORRIS SAMUELS: The correct way to get support is to log a ticket on the SUNLearn service desk. This should by using the portal at www.learnhelp.sun.ac.za. Alternatively, you can call the support desk on 021 808 2222.
If, for some reason, students struggle to log a ticket via the learnhelp.sun.ac.za portal, they can also send an email to learn@sun.ac.za to automatically log a ticket on our service desk.
MORRIS SAMUELS: Lecturers are responsible for uploading the content and for the visibility of content in their modules on SUNLearn. Students with this problem should first contact the lecturer directly about uploading notes if there is nothing there and they expected to see something.
MORRIS SAMUELS: If this happens, there may be a problem with your password or it needs to be updated on www.sun.ac.za/password.
MORRIS SAMUELS: You can access SUNLearn on any device – your mobile device, your laptop or your tablet. There is also an app for the learning management system you can download from the Apple app store or Google Play store. SUNLearn is zero-rated. This means that it doesn’t use any of your mobile data to access the Moodle app (the system SUNLearn is built on) or the LMS via your mobile browser.
In a final word of advice to students, Mr Samuels had this to say: “First-year students, don’t call your mother, call us! We’ve had a few phone calls from mothers or fathers on behalf of students, who are sitting in class, struggling with SUNLearn. Don’t ask your parents to call us – rather call us yourselves. Our support services are easy to use and we are here to help.”
The online learning support page contains the full range of tips on logging in, loading print credits and other tips.
Also on the technology onboarding page, students can find information on how to connect to wifi on campus. Here is the direct link to that information: https://tech.sun.ac.za/faq/#step-11-apps-to-download. It is located under the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on that page.
We are all looking forward to escaping for a well-deserved break over the December holiday season. But before you leave, there are a few things you can do now to ensure that your return is seamless.
Here are a few tips:
Stellenbosch University is currently in the process of taking a “great leap forward” into the “cloud” era, which will see the new finance and student systems, SUNFin and SUNStudent, operating in the cloud.
This is not only going to make all the difference to security against cyber threats but will also make the university’s systems more efficient and accessible, in a number of ways, for students and staff. The move into the cloud, which is the culmination of years of work, will take SU into an entirely different risk profile, said Marc-Allen Johnson, acting director IT Institutional Software Systems at SU.
“This is a big step in the right direction, as the threat of cyber fraud at universities is growing all the time, all over the world,” Mr Johnson said in an interview. To date, most of the university’s administrative systems have been housed on premises, in a data centre on campus. “But now they will be housed in the cloud, running in data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and according to the latest standards in technology, to ensure that the personal information of both students and staff remains secure,” Mr Johnson said.
“At the same time, once fully operational, it will be possible to access the systems from anywhere without having to be affected by loadshedding or interrupted internet connectivity on the Stellenbosch campus. So, we are providing a much-improved service, while ensuring a secure system.”
Elaborating on the two new systems, SUNFin and SUNStudent, Mr Johnson said SUNFin refers to the university’s new financial system. “It is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that SU will use to manage day-to-day business activities of the Finance capability within the organisation. It manages all the key financial requirements that a university has to fulfil to ensure that the books balance, that people get paid and that we manage our finances well. The implementation of the SUNFin project has been under way for the last two to three years.”
“SUNStudent refers to the new system that supports the Student Administration capability and all the related student services. The SUNStudent system will usher in a modern, integrated and cloud-based solution that will allow key university capabilities like Registration, Bursary Awards, Assessment and Degree Audits to be supported in a secure way. Although the staff and students have always had access to self-service functionality, the modernised interface provides it all levels. The new Application and Admission process went live in 2021 and facilitated a significant jump in the number of applicants and demographic.”
Mr Johnson said the university is planning to be fully operational with both systems by the end of next year. The application and admissions functionality of SUNStudent have already been live for two years.
He said that, for the IT team at the university, the new moves address “quite a few risks”. “We have legacy administrative systems of between 20 and 30 years old at the university. Through the years, the demands on these systems have been continuously growing and the world continues to throw security challenges our way. We’ve responded by making changes ourselves, but the technical debt has grown untenable over the years. Coupled with a technology that the industry is not actively pursuing anymore and people who have been part of building these systems retiring, it was necessary to make a leap.
“So, it is a great relief for me to see us moving into a new era where we are implementing software solutions that will last another 30 years. It is also exciting to know that, from now on, our system will be continuously improving and remain up to date.”
Part of the improved efficiency, he said, was the fact that the IT Division will work in close partnership with vendors like Oracle and Serosoft “to ensure that we have security by design”.
“We also know that we are not their only client, which means that we benefit from the collective. For instance, if they implement enhanced security measures, or conduct vulnerability tests for one client, they implement it for all of us. That is one of the benefits of going to the cloud –the vendor takes responsibility to keep the system up to date and secure according to a contract.”
Mr Johnson said that in the past many institutions bought software “off the shelves from a vendor” and then tried to maintain their systems themselves.
“But then they fall behind the latest versions and patches which opens them up to security risks. By moving to the cloud, Stellenbosch University will receive regular updates and be assisted regularly, and we will not fall behind as new functionalities are released.”
Mr Johnson said that the mechanisms implemented by the new systems will be a great deterrent to the ever-present cybersecurity threats.
“I recall a quote, often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, – “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” – and it really rings true. With these new systems, we have invested in a solution that will continuously be kept up to date. Yes, along with the vendors, our team will have to be continuously vigilant, but it means newly discovered vulnerabilities will be quickly patched by our partners. We are contractually partnered with our vendors to provide that level of surety.”
Mr Johnson said once the system is up and running, “we will all sleep easier”.
“As the research shows, one of the most difficult IT challenges at any institution is to implement a new system. It involves a lot of change and the switchover from the one system to the other is a risk that can be easily exploited by people wanting to do harm.
“For instance, if cyber criminals know that a new system is being implemented, they could send out an email to a student or staff member and invite them to click on a link to be “onboarded” on the new system – potentially leading to compromised credentials. During this period of transition, we have to promote a heightened awareness and ensure we educate all students and staff about the risks. Our teams monitor and respond to phishing attacks like these that target our users. One of the measures that counter the reach of these attacks is to implement multi-factor authentication. For instance, when you log into the system, you receive a prompt to either supply a one-time PIN or approve the log in using a mobile app. For many staff and students, it feels like a burden, but that simple act is an important deterrent, because if someone gets hold of your username and password it makes it much harder to get past that hurdle.
“We can try to put in place as many security measures as we can, but if the attacker manages to use phishing techniques to trick a student or staff member to disclose their username or password, it could give the attacker access to sensitive information. This is a critical threat to administrative systems and something we are obviously concerned about, hence measures like Multi-factor Authentication.”
Mr Johnson continued: “SUNFin and SUNStudent will not only provide better functionality, to enable us to become a more modern and efficient university, but they will also make us more resilient to cyber-attacks. However, we really need everyone’s help to be vigilant by educating oneself and being on the lookout for suspicious messages. All students and staff are encouraged to reach out to us if they have any doubts or queries about suspicious emails or notifications they receive. Our IT support desks and relationship managers are there to assist, especially during this transition period to final implementation of SUNFin and SUNStudent.”
Universities around the world are facing ever increasing cybersecurity risks, particularly in the post-pandemic world – and Stellenbosch University is not immune to these threats. Even before Covid-19 struck, higher education institutions were already gathering vast amounts of data from students and staff – and now, with more hybrid and remote offerings, requiring even more information, the risks of cybersecurity have become massive.
The risks for these data rich institutions are wide ranging and include ransomware attacks, business email compromises, data and privacy breaches, as well as adversary-in-the-middle attacks, said Brian Mhembere, the Cybersecurity and Technology Risk Specialist in the ICT division at Stellenbosch University.
Brian, who has a background in IT in the banking, mining, health and financial services sectors, has seen and heard it all when it comes to cybercrimes. With his finger on the pulse of global cyber trends, and with first-hand experience of the havoc that cyber fraud can create, he has, in the past, been asked to share his expertise in interviews on television and on radio. He was even interviewed on the 8pm news on ETV ahead of Black Friday, where he warned South Africans of all that can go wrong when shopping online.
Now, as a key cyber “sleuth” at Stellenbosch University, he’s determined to ensure that the valuable student and research data stay safe.
“There have been a lot of data breaches in higher education institutions mainly through phishing attacks – attacks aimed at compromising personal identifiable data or to reveal personal sensitive information like credit card numbers, bank information or passwords,” he said in an interview.
Brian explained that ransomware attacks take place when a cybercriminal threatens to use technology to either publish or permanently block a victim’s personal data unless a ransom is paid. A data breach is a security violation, in which sensitive, protected or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen or used by an individual unauthorized to do so.
An adversary-in-the-middle attack is when an adversary intercepts communication channels between two components, with the aim of either altering the message or data, or compromising the integrity of the data a person is trying to transmit, with the result that the message reaches the intended recipient with altered information or configuration.
Brian was responsible for the recent cybersecurity maturity assessment and report on cybersecurity at the campus. The analysis was done using the ISO27001 standard and the National Information Security Technology (NIST) cyber-security framework, which uses a Capability Model Maturity (CMM) tool to analyse where the weaknesses lie in the whole IT environment. The CMM tool guides the analysis of the entire IT environment with controls mapping and scoring exposing gaps, in accordance with the ISO/IEC27001 standards.
“The report did not find anything out of trend with most universities around the world,” Brian said. “Our university falls in line with the current state of cybersecurity maturity of most other South African universities. There is still some work to be done to improve the cybersecurity of all these institutions. Our maturity is very low compared to universities in the UK and America, but better than that in some other countries in Africa.”
He said the audit was conducted during April and May 2022 and the report has not yet been published or made public.
“Even if we knew the findings, we would not make them public, because anyone who reads this article would know what our weaknesses are,” he said. “Even if SU had ever had an attack, we would not speak about it in the public domain. There have been attempts but we are able to monitor and protect most attacks.”
Brian said the issue of cybersecurity at the university keeps him on his toes, but this is nothing new. “When I was working as head of IT in one of the major private hospital groups, we had an incident with ransomware called Wanacry. One of our managers’ PC was encrypted by the hackers as she clicked on an attachment sent by email which contained some malicious code. Luckily, my office was right next to hers. I was able to run through and I saw her computer countdown times which said they were encrypting all her data on the computer unless she sent an amount in Bitcoin.
“We managed to quickly isolate her workstation and to disconnect it from the Internet, but it was too late to avoid the encryption on that workstation. However, we managed to prevent it from propagating through the network. We lost all the data on her machine, but because we had a good business continuity plan, we restored the data on her machine from our backups.”
In a humble deflection of his own vital role, Brian said: “This colleague saved the day. She followed all the awareness products we were pushing which is a major thing, as users are first and last in the line of defence. I have always placed a huge emphasis on user awareness and on campaigns to create what we call the the human firewall against cyber fraud.”
Brian, who grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe, has always been intrigued with information systems. He completed a Bachelor of Science, Honours degree in Information Systems, Diplomas in Telecoms Engineering, and Networking whilst working in various sectors. He is a Certified Information Security Manager from Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and has since completed a range of other cybersecurity certifications and, in 2018, completed a Masters in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town.
“This is really very interesting work, as well as being very important,” he said. “In the age of digital transformation, everything is moving online and onto the cloud. It’s exciting to be part of this huge transformation and to educate users on best practices.
“Of course it keeps me up at night,” he said, of his role at Stellenbosch University. “But thankfully, our current chief director of IT has prioritised cybersecurity at the campus. We both recognise how important it has become in today’s world, especially for universities relying on remote working which was necessitated by the pandemic.”
He said the IT division is assessing the findings of the university’s audit into cybersecurity and is now working on implementing the recommendations from the report so as to strengthen their security and control in the digital sphere.
Brian said he tries to keep up to speed on cybercrimes, locally and internationally. “Recently, Uber was hacked. There were data breaches, and the matter is still under investigation. Each incident teaches us lessons. We learn how they were compromised, what their vulnerabilities were – and we compare this with ourselves. We ask ourselves, ‘if this happened to us would we be able to defend ourselves?”
He also cited numerous recent articles on the subject of cybersecurity, particularly in higher education. Part of his job, he said, is to keep up to speed on all developments in cyber fraud, which involves reading research, articles and journals on the subject. During the interview, he gave figures and case studies from various studies, including the Bank of America, Checkpoint, Sophos and Verizon.
“For example, the IT security company, Sophos recently published its report, The State of Ransomware in Education 2022 in which they gave insights into the ‘ever more challenging attack environment’ in which the education sector finds itself,” he said.
“Key findings are that ransomware attacks on education have increased – 64 percent in higher education were hit in 2021. Education is the sector least able to stop data being encrypted in an attack – higher education reported the highest data encryption rate of all sectors at 74%.
“The study also found that … education has below average cyber insurance coverage rates – only 78% of education organisations have cyber insurance coverage against ransomware compared with the global average of 83%. Many education organisations are choosing to reduce the financial risk associated with such attacks by taking cyber insurance.”
Cybersecurity should be a priority project for SU, Brian said. “So much could go wrong when a university is targeted. For example, when data breaches happen with student admissions and other personal data, a university can be fined by the regulator in terms of the POPI act. If our systems are compromised, the university could be forced to pay a breach fine of up to R10 million – or ten years in jail.
“We need to be always searching for the gaps. Hackers work 24/7 and always come up with new ways to compromise and breach systems for corporate espionage, financial gain, or national security espionage. We have to keep abreast with what’s happening in the world as it filters back to us.
“I’m so glad that SU’s senior management has bought into the importance of cybersecurity. To have an organisation with a chief director of IT who gives her full support – from budgetary support to moral support – on the importance of cybersecurity is hugely valuable.”
Image credit: Thomaguery; Getty
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