SU Technology Tips & Tricks By Devon

Devon Taylor, IC Training Coordinator offers a Google Calendar Lab and Mac App that save him tons of time every day!  He would  also like to encourage you to try out the new Help Desk work order system for all your support/training needs.

Where To Find Devon This Week To Get Technology Help
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11:00 - 1:00 - Room 142
Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room
Thursday - HHH - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140
Friday - HPB - 11 - 1 - In Front of the Library

Attach a File to a Calendar Event The next time you send out a meeting invite via Google Calendar, why not add the agenda or any other documents for the invitees to preview prior to the event!  This would make for one (or many) less email that you would need to send!  Faculty could even attach a syllabus or required readings for students to events! Check out the video to see how to add files to Calendar Events!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Favorite Mac App - Jumpcut This handy little app saves a history of everything you highlight and copy in a day.  That means you can go to a website, highlight the address and copy it, find the paragraph that you liked and highlight and copy it. Then you can go to word or email or wherever and paste them both with two clicks of the mouse.  No more flipping back and forth copying and pasting.  You are free to copy and paste on your own time! Give it a try today!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Work Order System for Support & Training IC has recently updated our work order system to Web Help Desk.  This new system is much more user friendly and even has built in FAQ's to help with common support questions.  The next time you need assistance, fill out a ticket and see for yourself the ease and simplicity of our new system!

Facebook

Twitter

Training Website

Google Plus

YouTube

24/7 Support

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Make sure you stop by for on the spot demonstrations and problem solving for your technology related needs with Devon! Thanks Devon for providing SU with these great weekly tips!

Read More

Technology Outage At SU - Status Report

 

  

Just in case you haven't heard, there was a power outage in the server room the evening of Thursday, July 25 approximately around 7:33p ET. Institutional Computing (IC) had to shut down all SU servers and sent a campus wide email alert to all users.  At approximately 10:10p ET, IC sent another email alert informing users that the power was still and would probably remain out over night while the electric company & IC staff worked on the situation. The cause was determined to be a squirrel that jumped from a tree to the power line, yes the squirrel was found dead on the ground.

Approximately 7:20a ET today, the power was restored and the hope was to start rebooting servers, however the Air Conditioning (AC) unit that keeps the servers cool failed and the server reboots could not happen due to the extreme heat in the server room. IC staff quickly evaluate the situation. However, users were notified at 9:02a that SU e-mail was working off campus and that the SU phone systems are working. Additionally, users were reminded that they could also communicate via smartphone or cellular data plans on there iPads.

At 10:16a ET today, the AC had been restored and the Internet services on campus were available along with wireless on campus initially. All other servers were restated and 10:56a ET technology services were functioning again and users were notified via email.

No Blackboard (Bb) user data was lost or corrupted.  The IC department and the University apologizes for any inconvenience caused.  If you have any further questions, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@su.edu or 540-665-5555.

Read More

Blackboard World Update

It is hard to believe that it has been two weeks since the Blackboard (Bb) conferences. Shenandoah was well represented at the conference this year. George Hoffman, Pamela Smulovitz, Mary Gardiner, and myself represented the University. Getting to the conference this year was an adventure in itself, as I had eight hours of delays and lost luggage and George had delays and a stole wallet venture. Thankfully, we all eventually got there safe though and learned lots! 

George represented the Center for Teaching & Learning by moderating a "Birds Of A Feather" session in which Bb trainers from 33 countries shared ideas how to provide more training, to provide better training, and how to get more people to attend training sessions. George also lead the Virginia Blackboard User Group (aka: VaBug) session, talking about how Virginia Bb clients can help each other and when and where the annual VaBug conference may be. Lastly, George was one of six BbWorld 2013 VIP Bloggers. Read more about George's BbWorld adventures on his blog by clicking here. 

As you may have heard, Axillary Services upgraded the Bb Transact system in June to improve your Hornet Dollar experience. While the upgrade went well, there were a few lose ends. While at BbWorld, Pam was able to get these items addressed by Bb Transact staff on hand. Not just with staff, but a Vice President. Pam also learned that soon SU will be able to add Hornet Dollars within our SU mobile app. She was also able to make a connection with other Transact system administrators. If you have any issues with Hornet Dollars, please contact Pam per the instructions on the "Hornet Dollars" sub-tab on the "Community" tab within Bb Learn.

This year was Mary Gardiner's third BbWorld. Mary represents the School of Nursing and finds the investment of attending BbWorld a good one. She learns lots from other health professionals and even gets to brag some about the amazing thing SU's nursing faculty are doing within Bb Learn. Due to time constraints Mary was unable to accept Bb's request to lead a "Birds of a Feather" session, but I am sure they will ask her again next year. 



I not only attended BbWorld, but also the Bb Developers conference (aka: DevCon). The Developers conference is where key developers from Bb and clients meet to improve the product. It is also where system administrators learn how to read error logs, obtain troubleshooting skills, learn more about the back-end or dark side of the Bb applications, and talk in person with Bb Product Developers. While I was only an attendee at DevCon, I presented three times during BbWorld on the topic of Social Learning with the University of Missouri's LMS administrator, Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) with Chris Borales from Bb, Inc., and how Bb user's have a  responsibility to Bb. I had the pleasure of being quoted in Ray Henderson's speech during the Bb Corporate Keynote and interviewed by the conference roving reporter. I had the honor of winning one of six Key To Community awards. This was the first year this award was given out and it was presented to me by Stacey Fontenot, Bb VP of Academic Platforms and Tracey Stout, Bb Sr. VP of Marketing. While you cannot tell in the picture, it is a very nice glass key. I not only got to talk with other Bb users from all over the world, I got to meet Bb's new CEO Jay Bhatt.  I enjoyed wearing my Google Glass at the conference, so others could experience Glass and I could see how it performs at conferences. 

Enough about what we all did, because I am sure you really want to know how Bb will be changing and improving over the next year. First, the good news as of today SU is already on the most current release, so we won't be doing an upgrade before the start of Fall classes. With that said, the Bb CEO did inform us that the company goals were accelerate, integrate, and innovate. This includes adding things like polling, attendance, MOOC platforms, improved mobile via Mosaic, and much more. So I do expect that we will be adding new features to Bb through the year, but without any major downtime. A good recap of the corporate keynote can be found within the a post from Grand Rapids Community College here. 

I realize that some of you may have experienced Bb in the past with less than pleasant experiences and this holds you skeptical of them, but I can tell you they have admitted their mistakes and are making amazing efforts to improve. We now just have to keep an open mind and give them the opportunity to succeed or fail. They will stumble a little as any company would, but they are investing more in their products and working hard to make all their products function seamlessly as one. You can learn more about this years conferences, such as key news, recorded sessions, tweets, and presentation slide desks at http://www.blackboard.com/BbWorld/Home.aspx Hopefully, this will get you to consider attending BbWorld next year...maybe even present. It will be held in Las Vagas, Nevada; July 14 - 17. 

SU users won't have to wait till next year to have Bb hear their voices though. We are currently working on bringing Bb representatives to campus in September and as part of the Blackboard Idea Exchange (BIE) program SU users are invited to participate in focus groups, learning cohorts, and survey's throughout the year. 

Read More

Creative Commons For Students

Students have you heard of Creative Commons? Do you know what it is and why it is important? If not, your not alone! Below is a graphic that might help you understand it more. 


Graphic Source: http://www.tagseoblog.com/


People who create digital content add to the body of knowledge available on the Web, but if they do not allow their content to be used by others the content is not as useful as it could be. Creative Commons (CC) licensing allows others to use and in some cases even add content o that work. This is where the importance of a licensing body such as Creative Commons comes into play as a way to keep innovations flowing. 

Remember though tools like Creative Commons are not alternatives to copyright laws! Neet to learn more about copyright laws? Then clikc the link below to review the presentation created by Kay Chadwell at Brisbane Catholic Education, notice how she cites the CC license on the slides. 

 Click here to view the copyright presentation

Read More

Tips for iPhone & iPad to Help You Email Smarter & Faster

If you use the IOS mail app on your iPhone or iPad, then this list is for you!  The folks over at OSX Daily have compiled a list of tips that make the process of using the app much faster.  For instance, did you know that you can use Siri to send a quick email? You can also quickly insert pictures into your emails with just a few taps!

Click the link below to check out the full list.

10 Mail Tips for iPhone & iPad to Help You Email Smarter and Faster

 

This quick technology tip is brought to you by Devon Taylor, Institutional Computing's Technology Training Coordinator.  Want to learn more about technology at SU? Then connect with Devon through one of the tools below.

Facebook

Twitter

Training Website

Google Plus

YouTube

24/7 Support

Read More

Web Help Desk Will Help Users

Web Help Desk is ticket tracking software used by Shenandoah University. Web Help Desk offers students, staff, and faculty a simple interface to submit IC requests, view updates on previous requests, and self-serve with an FAQ Knowledge Base. You need only a web browser to utilize Web Help Desk; no flash or other plug-ins are required. Remote access from any location is possible by anyone with an internet connection and a web browser. The system creates “tickets” which in essence are work orders that can be updated by the user (students, faculty, & staff) and technicians (IC).

To report an issue to Institutional Computing (IC):

1. Go to https://workorder.su.edu
2. Login with your SUnet Username and Password
3. From the Help Desk page, select the correct Request Type in the drop-down list
4. From the second Request Type dropdown, select the correct Request Item
5. From the third Request Type dropdown, select the type of Help Needed
6. Enter all applicable fields, including Subject, Request Detail, and Location. In the Request Detail section, please include specific information about your issue, including where and when the issue occurred, what you need fixed, and the time sensitivity of the issue
7. Please select the correct Asset under, My Assets
8. When you have entered all the necessary information for the ticket, choose Save at the bottom of the page

It is important to note some request types have a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that will be displayed on the right hand side of the page when you choose the request category. You can look at an FAQ answer in a separate window, simply by clicking on the questions. Since the FAQs are open in a new window you won’t lose your progress on your ticket.

There is also a direct link to Web Help Desk with the Tool panel on Blackbaord (Bb) Learn. 

If you have any questions about Web Help Desk, please contact the Help Desk staff at 540-665-5555 or via email at helpdesk@su.edu.

Read More

Students: An Opportunity to Help Educate Blackboard

Blackboard, Inc. would like your help to improve the student experience of Blackboard Learn! 

Please take a few minutes to provide feedback on the most common and most important reasons you log in to Blackboard.

The survey can be found at https://bbuxresearch.wufoo.com/forms/students-why-do-you-log-in-to-blackboard/

Read More

Discussion Boards Within Blackboard

Last Monday - Wednesday (July 1- July 3) the Blackboard (Bb) system was slow due to server issues. This issue was corrected on Wednesday night. However, we continued to receive a few request for help from students on discussion boards. All but one of these request for help were due to not understanding the way the new discussion board building block works. Discussion have been updated in two ways: the thread detail page has been redesigned but still maintains current functionality and instructors can now require students first post to a forum before they can view other posts. 

Instead of loading all the discussion post upon opening a discussion forum, only the first few load initially. Over the next few minutes more post will be displayed, until a post is loaded the user will see a message that says "post is loading....". Given time the post will load! Secondly, if a user tries to enter a post during this loading process and they have not saved their post before their screen is refreshed, the unsaved post text will be lost. This is because the student starts typing before the page is done completely loading. The discussion board also shows the photo and basic Bb profile information. So make sure you have your Bb profile complete, we have found if users have not updated their profile their post takes longer to load.

We understand your frustration with the new way that discussion boards function and that they are now more time consuming to use. We have submitted an enhancement request and support ticket with Blackboard, requesting them to improve performance and to prevent data loss during refresh. However, until Bb makes a change to the discussion board area, users must wait until all the post are loaded BEFORE typing a new post. Faculty can help students by using smaller discussion boards to improve load speeds. For example, do not use one discussion forum for a weekly discussion requirement. Instead Faculty should create a discussion forum for each week. Users can also improve things by just loading the unread post, instead of the entire discussion forum when they are very large. Sometimes if a user slowly scrolls down the page this will load the post faster. 

How to Access the Discussion Board

1. On the course menu, click Discussions. -OR-
   On the course menu, click Tools and select Discussion Board.
   
2. The main Discussion Board page appears with a list of available discussion forums. A forum is an area where users discuss a topic or a group of related topics.

The Main Discussion Board Page

1. Click a forum title to view the messages. Forums containing unread posts appear in bold.
2. View data on the number of posts and participants.
3. Click the number in the Unread Posts column for one-click access to a forum’s unread messages.

Course groups can have their own discussion boards. Group discussion boards are available only to users who are members of the group. If a group discussion board is available, access it from the groups link on the course menu or in the My Groups area.

Interacting with the Discussion Board  (Flash movie | 4m 05s)

We will notify you when and if any changes occur with the Bb discussion board area. If none of this information helps, please email bbsupport@su.edu the class id and discussion forum title from your SU email.

Read More

Thank You, SU Community For Your Support!

In the mist of trying to address the Blackboard (Bb) server issues, I received an email from Bb about the Key To The Community Award that I asked for your support in. The email stated:
"On behalf of Blackboard, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a winner of the first annual Key to the Community Award for your outstanding service to the Blackboard Client Community! You have gone above and beyond the call of duty to support your peers through your active participation in Blackboard Community Programs." 

I could not have won this award without your support and I look forward to sharing it with you as I learn more about it next week at the BbWorld conference. Continue to watch this blog to learn about new things that will be coming to Bb at SU in future releases and photos of the staff who will be representing SU at the conference. This year SU will be represented by George Hoffman (Center For Teaching & Learning), Pam Smulovitz (Auxiliary Services), Mary Gardiner (School Of Nursing), & myself (Institutional Computing).

I also wanted to thank you for your understanding as we worked to repair the Bb server issues. We are sorry for any inconvenience this outage may have caused you.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July! 

Read More