IRT: News & Events: TechUpdates: Wednesday, April 4, 2007

As reported in previous issues of the IRT Technology Update (November 30, 2006 and March 15, 2007), Drexel University will be installing a new voice mail system sometime during spring term. The exact switchover date will be announced soon in a separate email.

You will be able to set up your new mailbox prior to the cutover. Instructions will be given in a subsequent Tech Update and, coming soon, on the IRT website. A click off the main IRT web page (http://www.drexel.edu/IRT) will take you to instructions, how-to videos, frequently asked questions and a quick reference guide.

In preparation for the cutover, we recommend that you begin cleaning out your voicemail box and save information you need from saved messages. In addition, if you have departmental voicemail boxes that several people service, make sure someone is attending to stored messages.

Some questions you may have are:

* Why do we need to switch? The old system is being discontinued by its manufacturer.

* Will this change impact the Center City campus? No, only the University City campus will have the new system.

* Will my voicemail mailbox number change? Yes. In order to keep up with expansion and the increasing numbers of students, faculty, and staff, Drexel will begin implementing a five-digit number scheme. Your new mailbox number will be the number "3" followed by your current four-digit extension number.

* How much storage will I have? Storage space will remain the same as your current voicemail box.

* I did not get a chance to finish cleaning out my old voicemail box; now what? To ease the transition, we will continue to provide access to the old voicemail system for a few weeks after we switch to the new system.

We will continue to keep you up to date as we plan for this change. If you have questions, contact IRT/Telecommunications at 215-895-5862 or email telephone-request@drexel.edu.

2. Stand Pat as Testing Continues on WinVista and Office '07

Drexel University faculty and staff should remain on the Windows XP Professional operating system and the Office 2003 suite of applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for the foreseeable future. Due to needed vendor clarifications and testing of Drexel's many systems, the switchover will occur not earlier than July 1, 2007, and perhaps significantly later. Updates on this timetable will be posted in the IRT Technology Update and on the IRT website as they are available.

This schedule allows time for ongoing testing and sign-off of critical administrative and academic systems, academic applications, web systems and applications. Neither WinVista OS nor Office 2007 are currently supported by IRT. For information, visit http://www.drexel.edu/irt/support/winvista/.

Meanwhile, IT professionals in IRT and a number of colleges have been testing WinVista and Office 2007. So far, some items of note are:

* WinVista and the current Cisco VPN client are incompatible.

* WinVista requires Symantec Antivirus 10.2 (available from IRT's Computer Marketplace).

* WinVista removes third party software from the imaging process.

* Exchangeweb access is limited to just reading messages when using WinVista and IE7.

* Administrative applications like Banner and Nolij (used for graduate and undergraduate admissions) don't work with WinVista's IE7.

* The Office 2007 file structure is not backward compatible with previous versions of MS Office. Deliberate steps must be taken to use documents created in '07 with Office '02 and '03.

If any additional college lab managers or IT staff would like to participate in testing, send email to consult@drexel.edu with WINVISTA TESTING in the subject line, and include information so IRT staff can contact you.

3. Understanding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Copyright infringement takes many forms, and has undergone significant modifications as our modes of communication have changed. The most recent iteration of copyright law in the United States is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This federal law imposes heavy civil and criminal penalties for infringements. In addition, Drexel University imposes penalties for infractions that take place over university owned and managed networks.

Since many people are confused as to how this affects them individually, here is a summary of some key points.

* Each individual is responsible to make sure his/her computer is free from and is not sharing copyrighted materials in violation of DMCA. Make sure you know what files are on your computer and what programs are installed, especially peer-to-peer sharing clients and downloaded audio and video files. If another person has used your computer to download copyrighted materials, even without your permission, it is still a violation of DMCA. If you need help removing files or programs, stop by the Korman Computing Center or contact the Help Desk at 215-895-2698.

* Even when an individual has purchased copyrighted files, the fee paid does not allow passing them on to others. The price for a song or movie is the price for personal use only.

* TV shows may often be viewed for free, but they are still copyrighted and may not be shared.

* Purchasing peer-to-peer sharing programs such as KazaaPro or LimewirePro only grants the right to use that program. It does not grant the right to download or share copyrighted materials. Each individual has the responsibility to read and understand the terms of agreement before using any program.

Members of the Drexel community have access to the MusicSelect network that offers free or discounted access to music. Visit https://www.MusicSelect.org for more details. This is a simple and legal way to hear the music you want and still comply with the law.

The DMCA is a federal law that is actively enforced by copyright owners. No one is exempt from the hefty fines and legal fees that may be imposed for infractions.

4. Wireless Access Available for Guests

Are you hosting a conference or meeting to which non-Drexel participants are invited? You may want them to have access to Dragonfly, Drexel's wireless network, while they're on campus.

Guest registration is required for access to the wireless network. To have accounts created for participants, send a list of the guests' full names and email addresses to network-request@drexel.edu at least two weeks before the conference.

5. Conference Re-cap for eLearning 2.0

Drexel hosted a very successful eLearning 2.0 Conference on Thursday, March 29, 2007 in the Behrakis Grand Hall. This was the fifth conference of this type for Drexel along with several regional institutions.

At the conference, more than 180 individuals represented 50 institutions as IRT, Drexel eLearning and Villanova co-hosted the event. For those in attendance, there were 26 presentations in tracks on Best Practices, Support, and Administration. The featured speaker at a lunchtime videoconference was Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL).

Ms. Patrick and a number of the other presenters have made their materials available for online viewing. We are posting them as they become available at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/eLearningConf2007/.

6. Don't Send Private Information by Email

Please be reminded that email is not a very secure mode of communication. Since email travels through many networks and servers, one should not send sensitive private information via email or attachments to email.

This applies especially to the keys to your identity (such as your social security number) and to your accounts (such as passwords). These keys give anyone who possesses them access to your personnel records, student records, and credit information, among other data. Think of the personal information available in DrexelOne, access to which is governed by your Drexel account password.

So, do not send personally identifying information like your SSN or password via email, not even to IRT. If you need to supply a social security number, do it by telephone, or secure web connection (look for the "s" on "https"), or sealed snail mail - or in person. And no one, not even in the University, should ever be asking for your password.

7. Apple Megapatch Plugs Security Holes

Apple posted a "megapatch" security update for Mac OS X to plug 45 security holes in mid March 2007. It deals with vulnerabilities in Apple software as well as third-party applications. The vulnerabilities addressed pose varying risks, ranging from limited annoyances to the possibility of a hacker gaining full control over your machine.

The Apple patches can be downloaded and installed via the Software Update feature in Mac OS X or from Apple Downloads at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/. The date of the security patches was 3/13/07.

News and Notes for Online Learning

8. What Is Bb Vista?

Simply put, Bb Vista is the product "formerly known as WebCT."

WebCT was purchased by Blackboard (Bb) some time ago so, technically, WebCT no longer exists. Yet the "Vista" product that Drexel uses for online learning has the same name that Microsoft selected for its new operating system (Windows Vista).

Drexel thus has need to differentiate among three products: the online learning system that used to be WebCT which has been used at Drexel for several years, Blackboard's legacy online learning system, and the new Microsoft OS.

Bb Vista (or Blackboard Vista) is the nomenclature chosen to designate Drexel's primary online learning application.

9. Bb Vista 4 Is Coming Soon

Drexel will be upgrading to the newest version of Blackboard Vista to be in use for everyone at Drexel beginning in summer term. We anticipate that Bb Vista 4 will be available for Drexel instructors and designers for development work on April 9, 2007. Over the period between April and September, when Bb Vista 3 will cease to exist at Drexel, it will be necessary to transfer or save locally all materials you have stored in Bb Vista 3. This includes students who, e.g., have files stored in their My Files area.

If you have files, grade books, student tracking reports, or other data stored in Bb Vista 3 that you need to preserve for yourself or your department, begin downloading them and saving them locally, now. You can contact OLT@drexel.edu for additional information. And pass the word to your colleagues.

The Online Learning Team will work with faculty members and TAs during the summer, will help copy a section or template for each course an instructor needs to use in Bb Vista 4, and will hold focused information sessions to highlight the enhancements of Bb Vista 4.

The upgraded product is more intuitive, has a simplified interface, and requires fewer clicks in many areas. Discussions include new features like Journals, Blogs, and Peer Review. In general, the focus on active learning is enhanced and course management is more efficient. There is even a date rollover feature.

See information at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/services/Bbvista/.

10. Horizon Wimba Live Classroom Server Upgrade

On Wednesday, March 28, 2007, we moved from the Horizon Wimba test server to the production server - for the Live Classroom product only.

If you had established links to Live Classroom events for your upcoming spring term Section in Bb Vista prior to that date, you will need to establish those links again. If you have uploaded PowerPoint slide sets and other Managed Content, you will need to upload them again in order to have them available for display in your Live Classroom environments going forward.

If you need assistance with this, call 215-895-1224, email OLT@drexel.edu, or visit the Instructional Technology Center in Room 109, Korman Computing Center.

11. Training and Demo Sessions

Faculty and staff members have training available for Bb Vista and many other forms of instructional technology. The expanded list of training sessions is posted at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/services/workshops/.

For students who use Bb Vista in class, there are Walk-In Sessions, one-hour time slots when they can come in without an appointment to ask the Online Learning Team questions. See the schedule for spring term at http://www.drexel.edu/irt/services/webct/walkInSchedule.html.

Online, in addition to sending queries via email to the Online Learning Team at OLT@drexel.edu, there are several resources available from the Bb Vista section of the IRT web page (http://www.drexel.edu/irt):

* Report a Problem
* Make a Suggestion
* Bb Vista FAQs (this link is under the Student Links heading)

12. Bb Vista Qwik Tips

* When creating Assignments or Assessments in Bb Vista that have a numeric grade, the default setting in the Grade Book is for the grade to have no decimal places. To override this, go to Column Settings in the Grade Book area and specify each numeric column to have 1, 2, or 3 decimal places.

* The Banner start and end dates for sections govern the availability of sections for your students. Spring term sections may be viewed from April 2 through June 16, 2007. If you want your section(s) to open early or stay open late, send details to OLT@drexel.edu.

* DES-101, the Course Designers Forum, has many resources and links for Bb Vista 4. The link is on the Bb Vista Home Page. To access, log in directly to Bb Vista. If you do not see DES-101 in the Course List, email OLT@drexel.edu.

To read previous issues of the IRT Technology Update, go to http://www.drexel.edu/irt/news/technews/

To manage your subscription options to the IRT Technology Update and other Drexel Announcements, go to http://www.drexel.edu/irt/subscriptions. If you prefer to receive a plain text version, please email your request to mailreq@drexel.edu.

Modified: August 20, 2008

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