Let your technology voice heard

The Institutional Computing (IC) department is here to assist and support you with all your technology needs. 

If there is some technology related item that is bothering you or you cannot get resolved, please talk with your SGA representative immediately. IC staff attend SGA meetings and work directly with student representatives to get technology issues resolved quickly. Students are also always welcome to contact the Director of IC Quaiser Absar directly at qabsar@su.edu or 540-665-4937.

Below is some some direct contact information for specific topics. 
Network Administrator: Ken Lambert, klambert@su.edu
Bb Student Training: Rich Giersch, rgiersch@su.edu
Bb Help: bbsupport@su.edu
IMLearning: Don Silvius, dsilvius@su.edu
WEPA: Chris Bean-Library, cbean@su.edu
Emergency Alert System: Donna Fazio-Auxilary Services, dfazio@su.edu
SU ID card: Donna Fazio-Auxilary Services, dfazio@su.edu

If you don't see something list contact the Technology Support Services (a.k.a. Help Desk) at helpdesk@su.edu or 540-665-5555.

Do you have a great idea of how to improve technology engagement at SU? Then don't keep it to yourself! Email your idea to bbsupport@su.edu today!

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Student Training

SU offers free technology training classes to students! You can find out more about these learning opportunities by looking at the Training Calendar.

The training calendar can be found from on the SU Online Portal page (directly off the main SU website), under the Training button on the SU Help Desk page (www.su.edu/helpdesk), from the Blackboard support page (www.su.edu/bb) third link under the Students column, and under the Tools panel within Blackboard.

If you do not see a topic that you would like training on you can always send an email to bbsupport@su.edu and provide the specifics on the training you would like to have, when you would like to have it, which campus you want to have it at, and how many people you have willing to attend.

Students are welcome to all Google sessions listed on the Faculty calendar. Consider attending one of the Monday Google Madness sessions offered by Lois Rannells (lrannell@su.edu) to learn more about Google email, docs, sites, forms and surveys, and much more. Rich Giersch (rgiersch@su.edu) offers several Student Drop In sessions, where he is there to answer all your technology questions.

Don't let technology cause additional stress, let us help you concentrate on your class topics!

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Student Drop in Training

At the IC department we want to help you adjust to the many technologies you will come across as a student at Shenandoah. That is why we hold Student Drop in training several times a month. Have a question about your Mac? Your email? Google? Just write me aqt rgiersch@su.edu and I will try my best to assist you! For a list of our Drop in Training sessions go to your tech support tab then blackboard and then click under the student section student technology training.

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Fill ‘er up? (Mac laptop that is)

Your IC department has made it easy to get the software you want without even having to take a trip to the helpdesk.

On your toolbar at the bottom of your Mac you will see the following icon. 

This is the Self-Service application. This application allows you to load iLife, Adobe Reader, Google Chrome, the latest version of MS Office, Skype and many other useful programs.

Simply click the Self-Service icon, enter your username and password and then it’s just a matter of clicking the install button found in the icon for the program you wish to install.

However please note that software available in SU Self Service is for use only on computers owned by Shenandoah University, which includes those in the iMLearning program.

Need help? There is a very informative presentation found by clicking the Getting Started button on the upper left. If you need further assistance with SU Self Service please contact the IC Help Desk at helpdesk@su.

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SU Emergency Alert Reminder

Shenandoah University has always strived to maintain an atmosphere of safety for all students. With nationwide university threats appearing more and more in the news SU would like to remind all of you to PLEASE sign up for SU Emergency Alert. If any campus emergency were to happen including hazardous weather conditions you AND your parents (if they so choose) will be notified immediately. Here are the simple steps if you have not already signed up.

1. Go to the SU home page (www.su.edu)

2. Click on the “Go to SU Online” link (right side)

3. Click on the “Blackboard” link

4. Click on the “Emergency Alert” tab

5. Scroll down to the sign up form (note your user name will auto populate to your S.U. user name)

6. Complete all blanks

7. Students: select your graduation month and year (please note, an email reminder will be sent to you 30 days prior to the expiration date you’ve selected)

8. V.P.’s, Faculty & Staff: select any month and year (please note, an email reminder will be sent to you 30 days prior to the expiration date you’ve selected)

9. Read the Terms of Service and check the box

10. Select Create an Account

11. You are not done yet . . . .

S.U. EMERGENCY ALERT SIGNUP COMPLETION

1. To activate the email account(s) you’ve listed, a confirmation email will be sent within seconds, simply open it, select reply and send – DO NOT TYPE ANYTHING IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL – IF YOU DO YOUR ACCOUNT WILL NOT ACTIVATE. THANK YOU.

2. To activate the cellular/pda device text account(s) you’ve listed, a confirmation text message will be sent within seconds, simply open it, and on your signup form type in the four digit code

PLEASE NOTE: It is recommended that you include parents in your account – remind them they will also need to complete items 1 and 2 above.

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MORE File Management Tips!

5. Store like with like. Restricting folders to a single document type (or predominantly one type) makes it easier for you to find files. For example, put all of your graphics in a single folder

6. Avoid large folder structures. If you need to put so many subfolders in a folder that you can't see all of them at a glance, consider creating an alphabetic menu as illustrated below.

7. On the Mac use Alias and on Windows use shortcuts INSTEAD of multiple copies. If you need to get to the same file from multiple locations, don't create copies of the file. Use Alias or Create shortcuts instead These are links to the files or programs. On the Mac select the file or folder (say in Finder). Right click and select Make Alias and then drag the alias where you want it ie desktop for quick and easy access. To create a Windows shortcut, right-click the file and then click Create Shortcut. You can drag the shortcut to other locations.

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Tips to Manage your Files Better

Use these tips to help with organizing your computer files.

1. Use Documents (Mac) or My Documents (Windows) to store files you are WORKING on. Instead of cluttering up your desktop with a thousand document icons use your Documents folder for current documentation. That way you will always know where your work is located. MS Office files on the Mac and Windows are by default automatically saved in their respective Documents folder.
2. MOVE those files when done. Don’t keep documents in the documents folder if you are done working with them. Create folders to organizing your work and move the documents into these folders when you are done with them. Note: if you are finish an MS Office file and select Save As to copy the file into a folder you are doing just that…COPYING a file. You don’t need a copy in your documents folder AND the storage folder. Instead when you are finished with the document select Save (into Documents area) and then open your Documents folder and right click the document. Select Move and move the document to it’s respective folder. That way you are not leaving a copy behind!
3. Adopt consistent methods for file and folder naming When learning how to manage files and folders, it is important that you develop a naming scheme for the kinds of files you create most often and then stick to it. To change an existing file or folder name on the Mac click the filename once to select it and then click a second time. You can then overwrite the original. In Windows simple right-click the file or folder and select rename.
4. Keep names short and don’t use special characters! Shorter file names are easier to read. And as everyone should be aware of by now, Blackboard does not like special characters. Use only alpha-numeric characters please. 

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Class Attendance

Your attendance tracking while at SU is important for several reasons such as: (1) financial aid, (2) safety, and (3) learning.

If you are receiving financial aid, you have attendance obligations you must meet and the University must report on. Attendance is also a way for SU to know a student is safe, if a student is absent repeatedly SU has an obligation to check on the student's well being. Finally, you cannot learn the content of the course if you are  not attending and participating in class.

Did you know that attendance is not just taken in physical traditional classes at SU, but also online classes through active participation in assignments and communications with the instructor.

Your responsibility in the attendance program is to check it often by clicking on the "My Attendance" button or the "Tools" button on your course menu in Blackboard. If you don't see either of these buttons, please contact your instructor.

Thanks for helping us make the attendance program at SU a success!
Melissa

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Thumbs Up for Thumb-Drive File Backups!

Put that thumb drive of yours to good use ESPECIALLY BEFORE BRINGING YOUR LAPTOP TO THE HELP-DESK! You should ALWAYS back up your important files before leaving your laptop since the help-desk is not responsible for any loss files. An average sized thumb-drive (4 Gigs- $14.99 at the SU bookstore or 8 Gigs @$24.99) should be plenty of room to copy over all your documents and external hard-drives are perfect for those audio and video files.

Backing up your Mac Files;
Insert the thumb-drive or external in one of the Mac USB ports.
Open the Mac Finder app. (by default the 1st icon on the bottom left of your toolbar)
Drag your Documents folder (under Places) to the drive (top under Devices)
Make sure to drag over any additional folders or files you may have saved to the desktop or folders other than Documents.

Backing up Windows Files;
Same process as above except right-click your start button and select Explore. Go to Desktop>My Documents and drag the ones you wish to backup to your USB drive (Under My Computer). Again make sure to drag over any additional folders or files you may have saved to the desktop or other folders.

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Blackboard COLLABORATE is Here!!

Shenandoah University now has a new tool, Blackboard Collaborate. Collaborate is basically an interactive online classroom environment, allowing for both real-time pedagogical activities, and for the recording of such sessions for playback. You may have heard of Elluminate and/or Wimba Classroom. Blackboard has combined the best capabilities of both these industry leaders to create Collaborate.

A group of staff and faculty, have recently been trained in order that they may help train other users. Training sessions will appear on our training schedule very soon for students and faculty, and we hope you will attend whenever possible. Please be understanding about our limited number of training sessions at this time. If you and two other students would like a training session or your student organization would like to use this product, please email bbsupport@su.edu with the subject line STUDENT COLLABORATE TRAINING REQUEST.  

While Collaborate can be used as a stand-alone application, the Blackboard Collaborate building block will be the focus of our training and information. Also, while Collaborate may be useful for staff within organizations, our initial priority will be to focus on the academic application for Bb courses and student organizations/groups.

For those of you who are anxious to learn more about Collaborate at SU, you can visit the Bb support site (www.su.edu/bb) and under the Related Technologies link find all the information or directly by clicking here. Note that not all faculty will be using this tool.  

We are requesting that before any student organization or group uses the tool they attend a student leader training session with an IC Blackboard Staff member to learn all of the session naming rules and moderator tools.

If you have questions or issues, please send an email to our BbSupport@su.edu address. Additionally, we ask that you please not file any support tickets with Bb or Collaborate, but instead, let the Bb Support team manage those requests. We have a set number of support requests per year, according to our license, and not only do we not want to exceed that number, but we don’t want to waste support ticket opportunities with duplicate requests. We appreciate your help with this.

SO….take a test drive! Kick the tires! Enjoy this new exciting tool. If you have any creative ways students could use this tool in addition to groups, organizations, and courses please email bbsupport@su.edu with your ideas. 

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Quickly See Those Mac Files!

Got a few too many icons on your Mac desktop? Are you having to open each word document to see if it's the one you need? There is a much quicker and easier way. Do a quick view. Simply select the icon and press the spacebar. You will see a reduced view of your document. This also works with PDFs and MP3s! Try it...you'll like it!

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