The University IT and Data Center operates now GitLab, a new IT service for collaborative version management of software or other text-based data.

GitLab can be used for research projects for which own projects/Git repositories can be created. The system offers central management and bug tracking functions and a wide range of tools for automating processes (CI/CD) and various options for publishing software.

GitLab is available free of charge to all holders of a Uni-ID, i.e. employees and students of the University of Bonn. Read access is also possible worldwide as long as the viewing rights of a group or project have not been restricted. The GitLab instance is operated on its own servers and is completely independent of gitlab.com, i.e. data does not leave the University of Bonn (as long as corresponding repositories are not explicitly made visible university-wide or publicly).

Due to the current situation, we would like to draw your attention once again to the danger of phishing and other emails with malicious content.

There are currently E-mails in circulation that request a "confirmation of the e-mail account" and allegedly come from "Uni Bon" (sic). These are phishing emails! Please do not click on the links and delete these emails immediately.

After Educast.NRW was discontinued (see news from December 1, 2023), the university's own video platform "eCampus Video" is now up and running. The migration of videos from Educast.NRW to eCampus Video was successful. Currently, 9523 videos are already available for studying and teaching. The existing videos on eCampus are therefore still available. The platform can be accessed either directly via its own web interface or via the "Opencast" object in eCampus.

Further information on the new video platform "eCampus Video" can be found on the eCampus website.

The eCampus team is once again offering a wide range of webinars for students, lecturers and employees of the University of Bonn in the summer semester 2024.

Among other classes, introductions to the use of eCampus will be offered. In other webinars, you will learn more about specific tools and formats such as tests or feedback and evaluation in eCampus.

Here you can find the eCampus class overview for the summer semester 2024.

Through the use of cloud-based e-mail clients, such as the new free Outlook app and other e-mail clients (see below), secret login data and e-mail contents can get transferred to third-parties without notice (see news from December 6, 2023). Using cloudbased e-mail clients and backup programmes poses a significant threat to the university data and information security, from the perspective of the IT security and the data protection officer at the University of Bonn.

The paid for Outlook programme (from Microsoft Office) is not affected. It can be used further. Currently, there are no security concerns, as these applications communicate directly with the e-mail servers of the University of Bonn and no data is transferred to the Microsoft Cloud. 

To prevent disclosure of login-data and data outflow, using the following programmes with your Uni-ID is not allowed because of informations security and data protection reasons, in accordance with the HRZ user regulations (see § 3 Para. 2 Clause 5) and must be discontinued immediately: 

• Outlook-App for Android and iOS,
• "New Outlook for Windows" (included from version 23H2 in Windows 11),
• Windows Mail (predecessor of the "New Outlooks")
• Outlook for macOS (when using IMAP with CloudSync),
• Google-Mail (Cloud- and POP3 direct access),
• Edison Mail,
• Newton,
• BlueMail (under certain conditions on mobile phones),
• Spark und
• Xiaomi Mail.

What to do now?

Should you use one of the applications mentioned above, please change immediately (as mentioned in the news from January 20, 2024) to another product and change your Uni-ID password afterwards.

The HRZ will block the retrieval through cloud based E-Mail programmes from the 30.03.2024 by enforcing appropriate technical measures. This means that afterwards you will not be able to receive or send e-mails through the aforementioned applications.

Security risks also with cloud-backup

Please note that backup applications from Google and Apple are also categorised as highly problematic and must not be used, when they lead to outflow of university data (incl. login-data) to external cloud storages.

The »Toolbox Digital Accessibility« on eCampus offers many resources, that were developed by the ILIAS community. It contains an array of important information on the promotion of accessibility. In this toolbox are learning units that deal with the basics and the situation of students with disabilities. Furthermore, the legal obligations are explained and an overview over assistive devices is given.

For the development of teaching materials, advice on the early identification of barriers and checklists for different Office, PDF, and media formats are provided. Teachers receive important advice on accessible designs for their seminars, office hours, exams and tests. 

The University of Bonn is introducing the "Uni Bonn App" for the summer semester 2024, which was developed as a result of the successful DiCe project as part of the digital strategy. The University IT and Data Center is actively involved in the development of the app as part of the Universe project and is responsible for the technical connection to the university services and the provision of the app for all university members at the University of Bonn.

At the time of its launch* (April 1, 2024), the Uni Bonn App offers the following features:

• Employee ID**
• Student ID**
• "Deutschlandsemesterticket"**
• Studierendenwerk canteen menus (Mensa)
• Links to the websites of the University of Bonn, Bonn University and State Library and General Students’ Committee

*The Uni Bonn App is currently being actively developed and has not yet been finalized.
**Can also be used offline after logging in thanks to temporary storage function.

Statistical calculations, scientific algorithms or programming languages are part of your teaching activities or do you offer introductory courses on these topics? Then JupyterHub is the simple and university-wide solution for you!

Since mid-February (see news from February 15, 2024) the University IT and Data Center has recently started to operate the new multi-user data science platform JupyterHub. Thereby, it is possible to do collaborative work in a private and interactive environment, directly through the browsers. Teachers can, for example, use JupyterHub to create a uniform but adaptable study environment via eCampus, without first having to install software on the devices. 

To introduce JupyterHub, the HRZ offers a beginner workshop for teachers, who are interested in using the system in their courses. The workshop takes place online, on March 15, 2024 from 10:00 to 11:00 o'clock. 

Registration for the JupyterHub beginner workshop can be done via eCampus.