IT Forum on SkyDrive and Office Web Apps

10 02 2012

There’s an IT Forum coming up at the end of the month that might be of interest to faculty.  Here’s the announcement:

IT Forum
February 23, 2012
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Brennan Hall, Room 509

The IT Forum for February 23, 2012 will demonstrate many of the features within the Live@edu environment, including SkyDrive, and other highlights available to the university community. Outlook Live, our new email program, is just one of the “apps” included in Live@edu. On-line versions of WORD, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, or web apps as we refer to them, allow all Live@edu users to create and share documents, “in the cloud” with anyone we choose.  Faculty can create on-line projects for students, who can then view and edit those projects. All users can collaborate on any issue with anyone having a link to a particular document or file. Storage of pictures, personal files, or anything else can be stored within the 25 gigabyte storage area that all users receive. Uploading and downloading from SkyDrive is fast and easy. All this is available to all Live@edu users, from anywhere in the world, on any device that is internet-connected.

Registration Required. To register: University Links tab > Events and Facilities box on left > select link for IT Services Training and Event Registration.)

Lunch will be served and prizes will be given. All members of the university community are encouraged to attend and learn more about Live@edu.




Choose the New Angel: Vendor Demos

2 02 2012

This month, three Learning Management System (LMS) vendors will be coming to campus to demo their products: Desire2Learn, MoodleRooms, and Blackboard.  Thanks to the LMS Work Group, we’re all invited to sit in on the demos.

If you use Angel, please make time to scope out these new options.  While TAG has representatives on the LMS Group, these demos are the main opportunity for the faculty at large to weigh in on what system the University switches to when our Angel contract expires (2013).

Here’s the invitation from Connie Wisdo, who’s heading the LMS Work Group:

In January, the LMS Evaluation Working Group reviewed 8 vendor responses received in response to the Request for Information document sent out in December. We used the review to narrow our search down to 3 vendor finalists.  They are all scheduled to present their products to the University Community this month.

Desire2Learn will be here February 14th and 15th:

February 14 – 2 demos: 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m. and 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. — Location:  Brennan Hall Auditorium (228)

February 15 – 1 demo: 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. — Location:  Brennan Hall Auditorium (228)

MoodleRooms will be here February 23rd and 24th:

February 23 – 2 demos: 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m. and 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. — Location:  Brennan Hall Auditorium (228)

February 24 – 1 demo: 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. — Location:  Brennan Hall Auditorium (228)

Blackboard will be here February 28th and 29th:

February 28 – 2 demos: 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m. and 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. — Location:  Brennan Hall Board Room (500)

February 29 – 1 demo: 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. — Location:  Brennan Hall Board Room (500)

Taking into consideration the results of our recent faculty LMS survey, we’ve identified the top desired features as:

1.  Mobile connectivity / application / use

2.  eMail or messaging (with some type of RSS or “push” technology)

3. Assessments

-Creation (ability to incorporate different question types)

-Import of questions, question banks or assessments from other courses (ability to upload questions from Word )

– Grading options (Easiness of grading)

4.  Dropbox (include creation and grading)

5. Discussion forums

-Viewing options (flexibility)

-Grading options

6.  Rubrics (include creation)

-Flexibility (ability to incorporate different question types)

7. Gradebook

-Intuitiveness

-Student view (publishing grades for Student View)

-Flexibility of grading scales

-Export to Banner

8. Start of Semester Procedures (SOSP)

-Rolling over courses/content

-Announcement and notifications

9. Student tracking/reporting tools

10. Gradebook – Easy interaction with Excel for import/export

11. Course Content items – Folders, pages, links, conventional files, audio/video files

12. Assessments – Assessment security

13. Browser compatibility – IE, FF

14.  Course content migration from ANGEL to new LMS

15. Orientation/Online help for faculty and students

16. Course export capability

The vendors will be directed to cover all 16 of the above, as a minimum, in their demos.  Any additional features can be demonstrated by the vendors, as time allows and/or based on audience questions.

If there are students in the audience, the vendors will be asked to begin the demo with a 15-minute overview of the “student view”.

Rating sheets will be provided to all who attend the demos, so that we can obtain feedback from both faculty and students.

Separate meetings between the vendors and our technical staff will also be conducted while the vendors are on site so that we may ask them questions and/or see demonstrations regarding integration of their software with key enterprise applications, such as Banner and Live@edu.

You are cordially invited to attend these demonstrations.  Notice of the demos will also be posted on my.scranton in the near future.





The Matrix unplugged: University’s web server is being replaced

2 02 2012

Update 2/8: This server move has been postponed until next Thursday, 2/16/12.

——————-

Connie Wisdo in ITDA sent out this notice about the University’s public web server. I don’t think this change will have any effect on faculty, but please let TAG know if you have any concerns.

Connie’s announcement:

I wanted to give you advance notice of a server replacement taking place next week.  The University’s public web server, known as matrix.scranton.edu will be replaced by a new server, which will be known as www.scranton.edu.  No interruption in service for the University’s web site is expected as a result of this action.

The Public Relations office has been working closely with the PIR division over the past several months to plan this transition.  We have collectively reached out to a number of departments as we were doing this planning, to help ensure that only current web content gets moved over to the new server.

A separate notice will be posted on the my.scranton portal, to inform the University community of the action.  However, since no downtime is planned, the action will likely not be noticed by anyone.

CMS users will be notified separately of some minor changes that will occur in the CMS after the move.

The matrix server is old and outdated, and needs to be replaced.  The naming of the new server as ‘www’ will eliminate the need for many of the redirects that are currently in place (e.g.www.scranton.edu/admissions will no longer need to redirect the user tomatrix.scranton.edu/admissions).

Testing of the cutover (using a test server) is taking place on Monday (the 6th) and if any identified problems cannot be rectified before Wednesday (the 8th), the action involving the production servers will be delayed accordingly.

I asked about existing links to matrix.scranton.edu URLs.  They’ll still work:

The Systems group will set up the configuration of the new server so that it responds to eithermatrix.scranton.edu or www.scranton.edu, so it will work immediately after the move.

Further, we are going to republish the entire site in the CMS to www, so any links that were established in the CMS as “internal” links, will change automatically to www upon the republishing.  However, I would advise that you do change any hard coded links shortly thereafter, just so we can try to eliminate the term “matrix” from our web vocabulary!





Live@Edu Junk Mail Filtering

31 01 2012

Just a note to anyone who may be checking their Live@Edu mail from another program, such as gmail. Live@Edu does its own spam filtering into a “junk mail” folder. So if you have a habit of regularly checking your spam or junk mail folders to make sure no important messages are accidentally flagged, you will need to log into Live@Edu to check your junk mail folder as well.

Alternatively, you can turn off the junk mail filtering in Live@Edu. To do this:

  1. Log in live@edu
  2. Click “Options” in the upper right hand corner
  3. Select “Junk E-Mail” from the list on the left hand side
  4. Select the button which says “Don’t filter junk e-mail” at the top of that page
  5. Click “Save” in the upper left

Voila! All your mail, even any junk mail, will be sent to your inbox, and thereby moved wherever you want it to go, hopefully caught by the spam filter in your local account.





CTLE/Library Instructional Technology Refresher

12 01 2012

The CTLE and Library are holding a joint refresher training at the end of the month. The agenda includes brief sessions on:

  • CTLE Services
  • Library Services
  • Online Course Evaluation system
  • Email
  • ANGEL basics

From the all-faculty email announcement:

Dear Faculty,

In preparation for the Spring 2011 semester, the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) and the Weinberg Memorial Library (WML) wish to invite you to an instructional technology refresher session. Click here for the agenda.

“CTLE/Library Instructional Technology Refresher”

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
St. Thomas Hall (STT) 590, Harper-McGinnis Wing

A light dinner will be served.

Although this orientation session is not mandatory, it will be very beneficial in introducing you to the technology tools and library resources that are available in support of teaching and learning.

Please register for the event (select Special Event) by January 17, 2012.

We look forward to seeing you.

 





Email Migration for Mac Users

10 01 2012

(Updated 1/12/12)

TAG got a few questions from Mac users about how the email migration will work for them.   Live@Edu is browser-based, so for the most part, the Outlook Live email interface and the server mail migration process are the same for Mac and PC users.  Mac users can follow the general instructions for claiming your account and importing any mail on the RoyalMail server.

We’ve gotten questions about some special cases, though, so IR passed along these recommendations for Mac users…

If you have local Thunderbird email on your Mac:

  • The best way to move your local mail from Thunderbird to Live@Edu is to copy it back to the RoyalMail server before your scheduled migration.  Then, when you migrate your account, all of your mail will be imported into Live@Edu.
  • The quota on RoyalMail is too low for most people’s local email, though, so you’ll have to request more space. To do that…
  • Navigate to Go > Library > Thunderbird > drill down to Mail Folder; Select File from the top menu bar > Get Info to determine how much additional space you’ll need on RoyalMail.  Then…
  • Log a ticket with the Technology Support Center (570-941-4357, techsupport@scranton.edu, or via Footprints) and request an increase to your RoyalMail quota, specifying how much space you’ll need.
  • When you’ve gotten your quota increase, upload all of your local mail to the RoyalMail server so that it can be migrated over.  Note that this can be a rather time-consuming process.

If you have Entourage 2008:

  • You can either set up Entourage 2008 to access your Live@Edu account (see Microsoft’s documentation), or…
  • If you have a University-provided Mac, request the installation of Office 2011 for Mac by contacting the Technology Support Center (570-941-4357, techsupport@scranton.edu, or via Footprints).

If you use Mac Mail: 

If you use Gmail: 

Many thanks to Diane Kennedy in IT Services for all the help and recommendations!





Email Migration for Gmail Users

10 01 2012

DISCLAIMER: IR has warned TAG that faculty need to be extremely careful about using Gmail.  Our Information Security Manager Tony Maszeroski says, “Individuals shouldn’t, in general, be storing their University credentials on external systems… there are HUGE potential issues with storing University email on external systems that end users need to be aware of –  (FERPA, Court-ordered eDiscovery, Business continuity (access to separated employee’s email accounts), International legal jurisdiction, PATRIOT act requests, etc).” See Tony’s Guidance on the Use of Cloud Applications by Individuals for details.

—————————-

Not that TAG recommends it, but on the off chance that some of you might be using Gmail to read your University email, and should you hypothetically want to continue doing so, you will need to change your account settings in Gmail after your University email has been migrated (see the migration schedule here).

1. The morning after your overnight migration, log in to my.scranton and claim your new account (step by step instructions).

2. The last step of claiming your account is logging out and logging back in to my.scranton, so that you see the Live@Edu icon in the upper right of your my.scranton home page.  Click on that icon to get into your Live@Edu account.

3. Look for a question mark at the top right of your Live@Edu web app. Click on it and select “About” from the drop down menu.

4. You’ll get a page of information. From this page you need:

  • External POP setting: Server name, Port, and Encryption method
  • External SMTP setting: Server name, Port, and Encryption method

5. Log in to your Gmail account.

6. At the top right of Gmail, click on the gear icon and select “Mail Settings.”

7. Click on “Accounts and Import.”

8. Under “Check Mail using POP3,” click on “Add a POP3 mail account you own.”

9. In the pop-up window, put your new Live@Edu email address – for most of us, that’s firstname.lastname@scranton.edu.

10. You’ll then be asked for your mail settings:

  • Your username is your new email address – firstname.lastname@scranton.edu
  • Your password is your new password (remember, you had to reset it when you claimed your Live@Edu account).
  • POP Server – put in the server name that you found on the “About” page of your Live@Edu account.
  • Port – put in the POP port number from your “About” page.
  • Check the box for “Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail”.
  • “Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server”: If this box is not checked, Gmail will download the mail locally and then delete from Live@Edu. Your mail will be in your Gmail account, but that is the only place where it is stored. If you would like to access your mail via Live@Edu as well as Gmail, click this box.
  • “Label incoming messages”: You have the option to automatically put a label on all the mail coming in from this account. Labels in Gmail are like folders in other mail applications. This will help you keep your “work email” separate from your personal email, if you want to make this distinction.
  • “Archive incoming messages”: Gmail allows you the option to simply not put the messages in your main inbox. Chances are, you don’t want this button checked.

11. Click “Add Account.” Gmail will attempt to access the account and will show you an error message if it cannot.

12. Next, Gmail will ask you if you want to be able to send mail from your University email account. If so, click “Next Step.”

13. Pick your display name. Your email address should already be there.

14. “Treat as an alias” – Gmail historically has treated your added email addresses as aliases, so it treats mail sent from your scranton.edu address the same way as mail sent from your Gmail address. The option to deselect “Treat as an alias” is pretty new – see Google’s explanation here.  For most of us, you’ll probably want to continue treating your scranton.edu address as an alias, so keep this box checked.

15. Click “Next Step.”

16.  Now you have an option:

  • “Send through Gmail (easier to set up)”: This is easier. BUT, it just looks like the mail is sent from you. If you use this method, it’ll say something like sent by you@scranton.edu, but the actual electronic breadcrumbs will be myaccount@gmail.com. If you’re ok with that, go ahead and click there. They’ll send you a verification email, click the link, and you’re good to go.
  • “Send through scranton.edu SMTP servers”: This will make sure that your mail will be sent through Live@Edu’s servers.  If you select this, you’ll be given a form to type in. Use the SMTP server, port, and encryption method from your Live@Edu “About” page to fill in the remaining boxes.  Your username is still your email address – firstname.lastname@scranton.edu.

17. Click “Add Account.” Gmail will send you a confirmation email. Click the link in that email, or enter the confirmation code and click “Verify.”

18. Done!  Go back to “Accounts and Import” under “Mail Settings” to delete your old account from “Send Mail As” and “Check Mail Using POP3.”

19.  Update any listservs, etc that you subscribe to with your new address.  Don’t forget — you’ll still receive email sent to your old address (lastname2@scranton.edu), but you won’t be able to send mail from that address.





Office 2010 Installation

5 01 2012

Just a heads up from IR about Office 2010, which is rolling out to all faculty and staff computers this week.  Mine did take quite a while.

In preparation for the Live@edu email conversion, Microsoft Office 2010 (which includes Microsoft Outlook 2010) is being pushed via KBOX to all faculty and staff PCs in January.   Microsoft Office 2010 will replace Microsoft Office 2007. Please note that due to the size of the upgrade it may take upwards of 1 hour to complete. Users can delay the installation by clicking defer; however, the installation must be completed prior to the email migrations. Users should restart their computers after the installation has been completed.

Questions can be directed to the Technology Support Center at (570) 941-4357 or techsupport@scranton.edu.





Reminder: Angel-LMS Feedback Needed

4 01 2012

Apologies for all the posting this week, but the Learning Management System (LMS) Work Group asked us to remind faculty to provide feedback on your priorities for the replacement for Angel.

Please take a look at the survey link below and submit your feedback.  The committee needs responses by January 10th at the latest.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PWTW2ZM





Email Update: Schedules and Addresses

3 01 2012

A few more updates on the email migration.  First of all, the schedules are now posted:

There are some online tutorials and instructions posted for faculty, including a flow chart for the migration process and configuration guides for iOS and Android devices [after you’ve been migrated].

And there’s in-person training available, with both PREP sessions (walking you through the email migration process) and USE sessions (introducing you to Outlook Live).

Last but not least, we’ve gotten some more information from IR about email addresses.  Details below, but the bottom line is that Live@Edu email address will be created from your first and last name on official record with the University.  No “non-standard” accounts will be created.

Here’s IR’s explanation for this policy:

The Live@edu email migration is underway.  Over the past year, the PIR Division has worked on establishing the new environment, testing migration methods, creating training and documentation, and developing an Identity and Access Management System (IAM).  The IAM system will manage all University accounts and is the foundation for access to the new email system.  In the future, the IAM system will allow federation of identities with other institutions.  An identity federation lets you use locally assigned credentials to gain access to remote organizations.  It is critical that all accounts are created and managed under this new, more structured process.  All University students, faculty, and staff will be issued an official University of Scranton email account.  In order for us to properly follow the IAM process, all University of Scranton email accounts will be pulled from the corporate database in the following format: FirstName.LastName@Scranton.edu.  Only first and last names on official record with the University of Scranton will be used in the creation of email accounts.  The official email account is also used as your new email address.

Some members of the University community have been using non-standard accounts that may include initials and department numbers, nicknames, or simply just last names.  Unfortunately we are unable to continue to create non-standard accounts.  Alias addresses will be created for all historic email accounts.  The alias will allow email to be delivered to those individuals; however, all email sent out will follow the FirstName.LastName@Scranton.edu format.  Understandably, this may create some challenges for users that have used non-standard accounts.  The new Live@edu email system will provide faculty and staff the ability to customize their display name.

Live@edu provides a display name field that appears next to the email address and is also listed in the corporate address book.  Faculty and staff can customize their display name by changing their prefix, first name and suffix.  Modification of the last name in the display name is not permitted. Initial defaults will establish the display name with the prefix, first name, last name & suffix as listed in the banner database.  As part of the Live@edu email migration, faculty and staff will be provided instructions on how to change their display name.