IRT Technology Update
January 13, 2009
Contents:
01. DragonFly3 Status Update
02. New Voicemail System: CallXpress Help
03. LinkEdu: Offering Student GLink and ELink Accounts
04. Save the Date: 7th Annual E-Learning 2.0 Conference
05. Top Computer Security Threats: People, Social Networks, and Organizations
06. Now Part of Microsoft DreamSpark: Visual Studio for Students
Tips & Tricks
News & Notes from the Online Learning Team
13. Bb Vista Class Availability
14. Create Group Discussion Boards in Bb Vista's Group Manager
15. Bb Vista Tip: Using the Announcement Tool
16. Setting up a Bb Vista Assessment to Randomly Select Questions
DragonFly3 is now active in all Drexel Main Campus buildings and dorms, excluding Myers Hall and the Main Building complex (Main Building, Randell Hall, Curtis Hall, Alumni Engineering Labs).
For more information about how to connect to DragonFly3, visit http://www.drexel.edu/irt/support/wireless/dragonfly3/.
For questions, email the IRT Help Desk at consult@drexel.edu or call 215-895-2020.
As a reminder, Drexel has a Web site devoted to the use of the CallXpress voicemail system that is now up and running on the University City campus. Instructions for use are given at http://www.drexel.edu/voicemail.
If you are returning from a long period away from campus, visit the above Web site for instructions on how to activate your voicemail under the new system. To check out the features of the new system and how to navigate them, see the Quick Reference Guide and FAQs on the same page.
For additional support, email telephone-request@drexel.edu or call 215-895-2020.
LinkEdu, Drexel University’s partner for email services in addition to the University’s official email service, continues to offer additional student email accounts from Google and Microsoft (Exchange Labs).
Please note that new Hlink (Hotmail) accounts through LinkEdu will no longer be available at http://accounts.drexel.edu. However, individuals who have already picked up an Hlink account will still be able to use that account until it is closed by the user. The Microsoft and Google accounts are identified by their special domain names (@elink.drexel.edu and @glink.drexel.edu) and provide a total of 17 GB of mail storage and 12 GB of file storage that will remain open after graduation.
For more information, visit http://www.drexel.edu/irt/LinkEdu, or contact the IRT Help Desk by emailing consult@drexel.edu or calling 215-895-2020.
IRT’s 7th annual e-Learning 2.0 Conference will be held on Thursday, March 26, 2009 in Behrakis Grand Hall at the Creese Center. Join us for an informative day of presentations on leveraging existing and emerging technologies to augment face-to-face classes, teach hybrid Web-enhanced classes, or facilitate completely online, Web-delivered classes. The registration fee includes welcome materials, access to the presentations and keynote speaker sessions, a continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon refreshments, and a door prize drawing at the conclusion of the event.
Last year’s conference was a huge success, with more than 160 participants and 36 presenters from over 40 institutions all around the region. The upcoming conference promises to be a fantastic learning and networking opportunity as well. As the conference date approaches, visit http://www.drexel.edu/irt/services/workshops/index.html for more information.
Faculty and administrators who are interested in presenting at the conference are invited to submit proposals to olt@drexel.edu. Presentations should be approximately 25 minutes (half session) or 50 minutes (full session) in length. Anyone who would like to serve on the proposal review committee should email el2n@drexel.edu.
- NEVER give your password to anyone—not even friends or family.
- Create hard-to-guess passwords that cannot be found in the dictionary. The best passwords often incorporate letters and numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, and symbols.
- Avoid reusing passwords that are tied to high-risk accounts, such as your student accounts, online banking accounts, and online shopping accounts.
- Remember to log out completely when using public computers, on-campus or off.
- Keep personal computers up-to-date by frequently running updates and anti-virus scans.
Faculty members should keep their office computers up-to-date and remember to completely log off of classroom computers. Faculty who are using computer labs should be sure to lock the door after they are done using the room.
Staff should bear in mind that their computers can contain sensitive data. Like faculty computers, all staff computers should be kept up-to-date, maintained, and password-protected.
Social Networking Web Sites
Social networking Web sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, present numerous security risks. The application add-ons they use might contain viruses or malware. Security holes may also exist in the sites’ code. Most of all, however, these sites make it very easy to access detailed personal information, including pictures, home addresses, phone numbers, schedules, and more. Such information can be made public or private, but risk always exists.
To minimize the risk you assume while using these sites, avoid using third party add-ons, ensure that your profile is only viewable by people you know, and remove all sensitive information such as home addresses and daily schedules with times and places.
Thievery
From the remote theft of personal data to the tangible theft of a laptop computer, thievery can come in many different forms. Laptops can easily be stolen if left alone and unsecured, even if only for a few minutes. Laptop bags can also be easily taken. If you need to leave your laptop for any period of time, be sure to secure it with a locking cable, password protect the computer, and encrypt sensitive data where possible. Also, keep in mind that thieves can obtain sensitive data simply by transferring it to a flash drive – the computer does not have to be removed.
Visual Studio is now part of Microsoft DreamSpark's professional development and design tools. To download Visual Studio, students should log into DrexelOne, click the "drexel" tab, and click "JourneyEd for Students" in the Technology Services channel. Search for product I.D. 11111726, and checkout with DreamSpark in the shopping cart to receive free access to Visual Studio.
Students who access Visual Studio's old location in the Computer Marketplace will find text instructions for accessing Visual Studio through DreamSpark.
For questions or concerns, email the IRT Help Desk at consult@drexel.edu or call 215-895-2020.
Tips & Tricks are helpful articles that address a variety of Windows and Mac applications. Click on one of the links below:
Keyboard Shortcuts in Office 2007
Excel 2007: Fit a Printout onto a Set Number of Worksheet Pages
Prioritize with Note Tags in Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
Change Default Document Formatting in Word 2007
Charting in Excel 2007
Group Schedules in Outlook 2007
News & Notes on Online Learning
For the winter term, Bb Vista classes are available to students only between the following (Banner-defined) dates and times:
- Monday, January 5, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.
- Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 11:59 p.m.
Instructors have the ability to change when their course is available. For step-by-step instructions, visit http://www.drexel.edu/IRT_new/services/Bbvista/howToChangeDates.html.
For more information, email the Online Learning Team at olt@drexel.edu or call 215-895-1224.
Tired of creating discussion boards one at a time for each group in your class? Confused by the selective release criteria needed to set the proper permissions? If so, then try creating group discussion boards using the Group Manager tool.
Once you have set up groups in your course in the Group Manager tool, which is located in the Teach tab in the bottom part of the left-hand pane (under Instructor Tools), return to the Group Manager. Place a checkmark in the box next to each group for which you would like to create a group discussion board. At the bottom of the page, click "Discussion topic" from the Create Group Activity menu-box, and click the green Go arrow. You will then be prompted to set up a discussion board. Once you have selected your options on this screen, a discussion board will automatically be created in the Discussions tool for each group that you selected.
Note that the same process can be followed to create group chat rooms.
Have you ever deployed an announcement and then realized it requires editing? Unfortunately, you cannot edit an announcement in Bb Vista once you have sent it. The next time you create an announcement, consider setting the start time for the announcement to 15 minutes in the future so you have ample time to preview and edit it, if necessary. Remember to check the box next to “Also deliver as: A pop-up message” so that students will see the announcement when they next log in to the course.
- Click on the Build tab.
- Click “Assessments” in the left-hand pane.
- Click “Create Assessment.”
If you have already created an assessment containing the questions, click on the name of the assessment, check the box in the header row to select all of the questions, and then click “Remove” at the bottom of the screen. (Please note that removing questions from an assessment removes them from the assessment only; they still exist in your Question Database.) Then, follow the instructions beginning with Step 5 below to re-add the questions using a “Question Set.”
- Enter a title for your assessment, and then click “Save and Add Questions” at the bottom of the screen.
- Click “Add to Assessment” and click “Question Set.”
- This action will bring you to your Question Database. Check the boxes next to the 50 questions you would like to include in the assessment. Tip: Expand only the category containing the questions you would like to include, then check the box in the header row to select all of them at once.
- Click “Add Selected” at the bottom of the screen.
This action will bring you back to the assessment. Note the line that reads "Question Set Select: 1 x 10.” Using the dropdown menu, change the 1 to 20 (for 20 questions). Also, adjust the point value to be assigned to each question (for example, for a 100-point assessment that contains 20 questions, select 5). Click “Update Total” at the bottom of the screen.