Google Apps Training and a Note About the New Compose Experience

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google_apps_smAs of Friday, April 18th, the faculty and staff migration to Google Apps for Education is more than eighty percent complete. Because so many faculty members have been migrated in the last month, we want to remind you that we’re holding Google Apps training every week on Tuesday and Thursday. You can find the full schedule here. There’s no need to sign up, just drop in and get answers to your questions about creating, collaborating, and sharing with Google Apps.

Many of you may have noticed that Gmail now has a new compose window that you’ll see when writing an email. The new compose setup features a few advantages, including the ability to minimize drafts in progress and to open the email you’re composing in a separate window. To find out more about the new compose experience, click here.

That brings us to our tip for this month. During training, many people have asked us if you can automatically open a new email in a new window, and the answer is yes. If you hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and click COMPOSE, a blank email will open in a new window in front of your inbox. You can find additional tips for making the most of the new compose experience over at the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

Being Aware: Spam, Phishing, and You

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Though spam, phishing, and other attempts to obtain personal information via email are nothing new, we’d like to remind everyone that these types of threats are real and that Gmail is not immune to the most sophisticated attempts.

When using your Simmons email, please be aware of these threats. If you receive an email that you know is suspicious, you should report it to the Service Desk and click SPAM in the Gmail toolbar above the email.

For more information about safe computing, please read this FAQ and, for more information about phishing scams in particular, please see this FAQ on the Service Desk website. If you have questions about phishing or need guidance in a particular situation, please contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.

REMINDER: Simmons is Moving from Sophos to Kaspersky Antivirus

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Kaspersky Sticker Icon 256Recently, you should have received a notice that beginning on May 6th at 5pm, Technology will automatically replace Sophos antivirus with Kaspersky antivirus on all Simmons-owned computers. Once the installation of Kaspersky is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer. If you will not be in the office or using your computer at the time of installation, we ask that you save all files you’re working on but leave your computer on. This will allow the installation and restart process to happen automatically. Going forward, you should notice little to no change in how your computer handles antivirus scanning and security.

If you are currently using Sophos on a Windows computer that you own, you should replace it with one of the other free options now available at servicedesk.simmons.edu. If you use Sophos on a Mac that you own, no action is required. Please remember that it is important to protect your computer while accessing the Simmons network or any other network you use.

For more information on this change, click here. If you need assistance, please contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.

Google Apps Tips and a Reminder about Meeting Maker

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google_apps_smSimmons Technology is pleased to report that we have completed more than half of all faculty and staff Google Apps for Education migrations. The project is moving forward on schedule and should be complete by late May.

As we move forward, we would like to remind you that Meeting Maker will be decommissioned at the end of June. If your department is now using Google Calendar and you want your Meeting Maker account removed, please contact the Service Desk. For more information, and tips for moving your meetings to Google Calendar, please see our full Meeting Maker FAQ.

If you have started using Google Apps and you have questions, you can find many answers on the project site or from within Google Apps by clicking on “More” and then “Google Apps Training” in the black bar at the top of your email. We’re also hosting trainings every week, where we cover Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and the other available apps. To find an upcoming session, check the training calendar.

Beginning this month, we’ll also be providing some advanced tips and tricks to make Google Apps even more useful. Here’s the first one: Did you know that you can drag messages to a label right from your inbox? Just click and hold on or near the checkbox next to a message and drag it to the label you want to use. Your message has been organized with one click and without leaving your inbox.

Using Google Apps in (and outside of) the Classroom

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As more faculty move to Google Apps for Education, we want to provide some ideas for how you can use the apps in your classes. We would also like to hear from you. If you have interesting or innovative use cases, please send an email to [email protected]. We would be happy to feature your stories in an upcoming newsletter.

Create
You can use Google Drive to quickly create and share lecture notes and presentations. Gather the information you need, create your doc or presentation in Drive, and then click “share” and copy the link to send to your students.

Collaborate
In addition to creating your own documents and presentations, you can also use Drive to start projects and then invite students to collaborate. Students can also use Drive to create assignments and then share them with you in order to get feedback. Drive allows for real-time chat, multiple comment conversations, and maintains a full history of revisions. You can work with students to develop a paper or presentation and track their progress as you provide feedback.

Collect
Need to gather information from students at the start of the semester? Looking for an easy way to create appointments during your office hours? Try Google Forms. You can create forms from within Drive in order to gather feedback quickly and track the results in a spreadsheet.

Empower
Your students can use Google Sites to compile portfolios or gather resources for a group project. Sites allows for embedding of documents, spreadsheets, images, videos, and more, making it the perfect place to create and display projects while gaining valuable technology and communication experience.

To find out more about each of the apps and what they can do, visit the Google Apps project site and click on the links under the “Using Google Apps” section.

Simmons Network Improvements Are Under Way

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In an effort to improve network security and to provide better access to services based on your role at Simmons, Technology has begun a project to enhance both the wired and wireless networks.

This project began on March 20th and will continue through April 30th. It should not cause any downtime on our networks but you might notice some minor changes to your login process during the project if you’re using a personally-owned Mac or PC or a Simmons-owned Mac. If you’re using a Simmons-owned PC or accessing the network wirelessly or via a wired connection in the residence halls, you shouldn’t notice any change.

If you have additional questions, please contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.

Upgrading Simmons Computers to Internet Explorer 9

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windows_logoThis week, our Endpoint Systems team will be deploying Internet Explorer 9 to all Simmons-owned PCs. You won’t have to do anything to initiate the deployment but you will see a message prompting you to restart your computer once the installation is complete.

Upgrading to Internet Explorer 9 is necessary in order to comply with the requirements of integral systems, including Moodle. In addition, there are several major new features available in this version, including the ability to perform a search directly from the address bar and choosing your most frequently visited sites when you launch a new tab. Please note that, by default, Internet Explorer 9 hides toolbars (including Favorites). To enable these, right click next to the address bar and click “Favorites Bar.”

Please visit Microsoft’s official Internet Explorer 9 homepage to find out more about what is available in the newest version.

Simmons Connection is Now Available on Mobile

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s57_datatelportal-logonewsletterWe know that you’ve been waiting for Simmons Connection to be available on mobile devices and we’re happy to announce that we have completed an upgrade that allows for full mobile access.

You can now use Connection, including AARC, by visitingconnection.simmons.edu on any common mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android devices, etc.). We recognize that the lack of mobile access made things difficult for many of our customers, especially students, and we hope that this upgrade makes accessing grades, registration, student billing and other services easier and more efficient.

In addition to the mobile upgrade, we’re also working on a project to enhance the news and announcements section of Connection. This upgrade will allow you to add rich media to announcements, comment and interact, and share listings on Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Based on your feedback, we’re also investigating alternatives to Planga as the event management tool for Simmons. We included Planga in Simmons Connection because it is a free tool and we wanted to test the value of an event management platform for our community. After months of use, it has become clear that Planga does not have the tools that you want nor does it have the technical capacity to fully integrate into Connection. Moving forward, we will assess other products based on criteria that you provided for us over the last six months. As soon as we have more information about when and how we will replace Planga, we’ll send an update to the entire Simmons community.

The Move to Moodle Gathers Steam

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The Spring 2013 phase of migrating courses from eLearning to Moodle is now complete! The School of Management, The Graduate School of Library and Information Science, The School of Nursing and Health Sciences, and several departments in The College of Arts and Sciences are now using Moodle. All together, this Spring we migrated about 60 courses from eLearning to Moodle; 160 new Moodle courses were built from the ground up.

Getting Up to Speed on Moodle
Since July, faculty have attended over 140 hours of dedicated Moodle training. In addition, we’ve been busy hosting drop-in sessions, in which faculty can stop by without an appointment for immediate one-on-one support, and staffing Moodle informational tables around campus. We’ll continue to have tables outside the library where students and faculty can have their questions answered. Finally, improved, searchable Moodle documentation is poised to be integrated with Technology Support’s FAQ database later this month. Keep an eye out!

What’s New in Moodle
This December saw a big update to Moodle that brought with it a number of improvements. Moodle’s new drag-and-drop feature allows instructors to drag multiple files from their computer directly into their Moodle course with a flick of the wrist. Moodle Assignments have been streamlined and made more flexible. In response to faculty requests for a tool that would let students sign up for Groups, we’ve added the new “Group Choice” activity.

Hook into Educational Tools through Moodle
Moodle facilitates integration with educational tools to enhance your course. Access the Library’s Course Reserves system directly from Moodle. There’s no need for students to log in again, and instructors no longer have to establish special passwords for their courses. More faculty are also trying out Tegrity, our Moodle-integrated content capture solution, to record videos of lectures and course content. Tools like these make it easier for faculty to flip the classroom and spend more face-to-face time on interactive work and discussion.

 

Google Apps for Faculty and Staff Remains on Schedule

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google_apps_smAs of today, Technology has migrated approximately one-third of all faculty and staff to Google Apps for Education, including the School of Social Work and the School of Management. In the coming weeks, we’ll be working with GSLIS and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences to transition them to Google Apps as well.

With Spring semester moving along quickly, we want to make everyone aware that we’re hosting four drop-in training sessions every week on Tuesday and Thursday. Three of these sessions cover the basics of Gmail and Google Calendar, while the remaining session focuses on the other apps, like Drive and Sites. You can find an upcoming session by viewing the training calendar available here. You can also access additional resources on the Google Apps project site: googleapps.simmons.edu.