Technology Update - November 8, 2011
Table of Contents
Do You Trust Emails Asking for Your Password?
Would you give your username and password to just anyone who asks for it? In fact, that is exactly what happens every time users respond to scam emails stating that their account has been restricted, their quota exceeded, or that they must immediately reply with their username and password to maintain their accounts. If everyone deletes these fictitious emails, they will stop being forwarded to others. DO NOT respond to these emails!
What happens if you respond to these emails? In the hands of phishers/scammers, your account becomes a relay for sending out tons of spam. Locally, IRT Computer Security will disable the compromised account until IRT can speak with you. However, when multiple Drexel.edu accounts are compromised and send out spam, Drexel becomes blacklisted by other universities, Comcast, Yahoo, Google, etc. Blacklisting can prevent the delivery of your messages to individuals with email addresses hosted by those providers.
Know how to identify phishing/scam emails. Spammers and Phishers try to make their emails appear to be from sources you know and recognize. Thus, carefully check all emails you receive that ask for personal information, such as social security numbers, ID numbers, usernames, and passwords. IRT will never ask you to provide that kind of information in an email. Neither will any other reputable, legitimate organization.
For tips on phishing/virus prevention, see the September 22nd issue of the Tech Update.
If you do receive ANY email asking for usernames and passwords, etc., the IRT Help Desk wants to know. Please call us at 215-895-2020 or email a portion of the email header to consult@drexel.edu.
Updates to the Drexel AnyConnect VPN
The Drexel VPN server will be upgraded on November 17. This upgrade will not cause an interruption of service and no action is necessary to continue using the server. However, anyone who is using the AnyConnect VPN client might notice these changes after the upgrade:
- The next time you connect to the Drexel VPN server, your VPN client will be automatically updated to version, 2.5.
- While connected to the Drexel VPN you will be able to access local devices, meaning that you will be able use printers connected to your local network as well as those connected to the Drexel network.
- At login, if you click on the Group Name "DrexelVPN," you will see a list of alternate groups. Do not change the group name; the University community should continue to use only the default group, "Drexel VPN."
- The IP address assigned to a successfully connected VPN client will be selected from a new range of Drexel IP addresses.
If you are not currently using the AnyConnect VPN client, and you wish to take advantage of local printing, you can learn how to install the AnyConnect client from http://drexel.edu/irt/networks/offCampus.
If you have any questions, please contact the IRT Help Desk at consult@drexel.edu or 215-895-2020.
"Desktop and Presentation Recording" Training Now Online!
IRT's "Desktop and Presentation Recording" workshop is now available online! In this training course, we cover screencasting theory and practice, talk about a few software programs that can be used to create screencasts, and introduce you to Camtasia Relay.
The online course consists of a series of video lectures and demonstrations as well as a few short assessments. Participation in this course is a prerequisite for training on Camtasia Studio (for Windows) and Camtasia for Mac.
If you would like to be enrolled in the online course, or if you have any questions about recording presentations using screencasting software, please send an email to olt@drexel.edu.
Join us on Twitter and Youtube!
Members of the Drexel community can follow us on twitter @Drexel_IRT for news and updates regarding technology at Drexel. We also have a newly-created YouTube channel. Please feel free to give us suggestions on what videos you’d like to see.
Create a OneNote Library in SharePoint
With the introduction of SharePoint 2010 comes the ability to create an Office OneNote notebook in a library that everyone on your team can use simultaneously, either through the Web browser or through a local OneNote installation.
To set up a OneNote Library:
- Navigate to your team site.
- Under the "Site Actions" menu, select "New Document Library."
- Enter a name and description for your OneNote Library, choose "Microsoft OneNote 2010 Notebook" as the Document Template, and click "Create."
To create a OneNote Notebook:
- From the OneNote Library you created, select "New Document" from the "Documents" tab under "Library Tools."
- If prompted, click "OK" in the "Open Document" dialog box.
- Enter your SharePoint credentials into the "Windows Security" dialog box and click "OK."
- Enter a Name for your new notebook in the "Unpack Notebook" dialog box, then click "Create."
The OneNote Notebook is now set up, and can be accessed and updated via the OneNote application on your local machine or through your Web browser using the OneNote Web App. To open the notebook via the OneNote Web App, simply navigate to the OneNote Library and click on the name of the notebook. To open the notebook in OneNote locally, open the notebook with the OneNote Web App and then choose "Open in OneNote" from the "File" menu on the Ribbon.
Scheduled Telephone System Interruption, Saturday November 12
On Saturday morning, November 12, Drexel's telephone system equipment provider will perform hardware and software upgrades to the University telephone system. During this maintenance period, University telephones beginning with 895 and 571 telephone numbers will be intermittently disconnected between the hours of 2:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. EST. Additionally, Voice over IP (VoIP) telephones will be limited to campus-to-campus calling between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. EST. During these times, the University voicemail system will not answer or announce outgoing messages, and mailbox owners will be unable to retrieve messages; however, all existing recordings will be preserved.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this scheduled service interruption, please email telephone-request@drexel.edu or call 215-895-6666.
News and Notes from the Online Learning Team
A Primer on Browser Compatibility with Bb Vista
Since most, if not all, of your interaction with Bb Vista occurs through a Web browser, the browser you use will significantly impact your user experience. When you log into Bb Vista and click the "Check Browser" link in the upper right-hand corner, the "Browser Check" window will appear and display a green checkmark if the browser you're using is "validated" and "supported" for use with the system.
This check is usually accurate; however, although the current version of Apple's Safari browser (version 5) is certified for use on Mac OS X computers, the validation results state that it is "non-validated or unsupported."
If you see the above message along with a big red "X," you should visit Blackboard's Supported Browsers page to view the full, authoritative listing of browser versions that are validated for use with Bb Vista.
However, if the browser and version you are using is not on the list of supported browsers, all is not lost. A "validated" or "supported" browser version means that Blackboard has tested most of Bb Vista's functions and features with that browser version. Other browsers, or other versions of browsers, might nevertheless work fine for many of the things you need to do in Bb Vista. So, even if your browser is "non-validated or unsupported," you can still use it, but with the understanding that you might need to use a validated/supported browser for certain functions that are not working properly in your "unsupported" browser.
(Some Bb Vista users have asked why newly-released versions of popular browsers are not validated more quickly. Since testing each new browser version takes time, and some vendors are locked in a browser "arms race" of sorts, new versions are released faster than Blackboard can test them.)
If you have any questions about browser compatibility with Bb Vista, please contact the Online Learning Team at olt@drexel.edu or 215-895-1224.
Enrolling a Teaching Assistant or Section Designer in Your Bb Vista Section
Are you a Section Instructor of a Bb Vista course? If so, the Online Learning Team can enroll Teaching Assistants and Section Designers for you into your course. But did you know that you can also do this on your own? Just follow these steps:
- From the "Teach" tab, click on the Grade Book in the left-hand toolbar, and then click the "Enroll Members" button.
- On the next screen, enter the Drexel username (i.e., the first part of the abc123 email address, not including the "@drexel.edu" part), check the box next to Teaching Assistant and/or Section Designer, and then click the "Enroll" button. The user's information should appear at the bottom of the screen.
- The final step (and probably the most important one) is to click "Save" at the bottom of the screen. The user is then enrolled in your course as a Teaching Assistant and/or Section Designer.
To view a step-by-step video, see the Bb Vista support section on IRT's Web site.
If you have any questions, please contact the Online Learning Team at olt@drexel.edu or 215-895-1224.
Paging in the Bb Vista Grade Book
Is one (or more) of your students missing from your Bb Vista Grade Book? If so, it could be due to a paging issue. To view all of your students on one screen:
- Click the drop-down menu next to "Page" in the lower right-hand corner of the Grade Book.
- Select "All."
- Click the green "Go" arrow.
Alternatively, you can adjust your paging settings by following these steps:
- Click the icon in the lower right-hand corner that looks like a yellow piece of paper.
- In the "Edit Paging" window that appears, enter the number of records you would like to see on-screen simultaneously. (It is a good idea to enter a number that is slightly higher than the number of students in your class, as long as you don't have a very large class. For example, if you have 25 students, enter 30.)
- Click "Save." You should now see all of your students appearing on one page.
If you have any questions, please contact the Online Learning Team at olt@drexel.edu or 215-895-1224.
Lecture Capture Anywhere with Camtasia Relay Portable Recorder
Picture this scenario: Drexel University, Philadelphia, January 2012, at 10:00 a.m. There are six inches of snow on the ground, and it's still falling. Only a handful of the 20 or so students in your 10:15 a.m. lecture class have shown up, but you have crucial material to cover.
Now, imagine that you could, at a moment's notice and with just a (previously-prepared) USB flash drive and a microphone, record the class so that all of your snowed-in students could watch it later.
Camtasia Relay Portable Recorder can help you make this happen. Camtasia Relay is a lightweight, cross-platform (Mac and Windows) screen recorder that is freely available to all Drexel faculty and staff. After you've installed Relay on your computer, you can download the Portable Recorder and install it on a USB flash drive. Then, you can log in to any computer (administrator access is not required), plug in the flash drive, and record your class, lecture, demonstration, etc. After the recording, you can do some basic editing (i.e., trim material from the beginning or end) and save it to the flash drive. When you get back to your own computer, simply plug in the flash drive and launch Relay. Your recordings will automatically be published online via IRT's DragonDrop system.
If you are interested, we recommend checking out our new online "Desktop and Presentation Recording" training (see the article above), which focuses on Camtasia Relay. If you would like to be enrolled in the training, or if you have any questions about the training, Camtasia Relay, or the Portable Recorder, please email olt@drexel.edu.
Sign Up for OLT Workshops
The Online Learning Team conducts training sessions on Blackboard (Bb) Vista, Camtasia, DragonDrop, Dreamweaver, Mac OS X, Respondus, SharePoint, and Wimba Classroom. In addition, several brown bag lunches and workshops on technology products of interest (Microsoft Windows 7, Office 2010, PowerPoint, Turnitin, GIMP, Audacity, etc.) are held each month. These training sessions are open to members of Drexel's community as well as the general public.
To reserve a spot at any of these workshops, email us at olt@drexel.edu with your name, institution (if other than Drexel), contact information, and the name of the workshop(s) you would like to attend.
Below is a sampling of workshops taking place in November and December:
Bb Vista Full Day Workshop
Friday, November 11, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Learn 9 Information Session
Monday, November 21, 11:00 a.m. – noon
Wednesday, December 7, noon – 1:00 p.m.
Recording and Editing: Camtasia Studio for Windows
Tuesday, November 15, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
iPad Workshop
Wednesday, December 14, 10:00 a.m. – noon
Web Basics
Thursday, November 10, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Visit our Web site for our complete training schedule and workshop descriptions. Unless otherwise noted, all training sessions will be held in room 116 of the Korman Center (off the Quad on Drexel's Main Campus, 33rd Street between Market and Chestnut Streets).