SHSU Information Resources Update

Moving, Moving, Moving

The moves to the new CHSS Building are taking up lots of the UCS resources in time and people. For those of you staying put, we appreciate your patience as we deal with all the scheduled relocations (and Registration set-ups for on-campus and the University Center.) And please wish for dry weather so we can move computers!

An open-access 24-hour computer lab will be available in the new building. It is CHSS 130 and will provide 103 computers. The labs in AB1 are now closed. These closings will permit the Computer Science department to occupy the entire second floor of AB1, the Helpdesk to move back to the first floor, and the UCS-Systems Department to return to the main campus from Sam South. (Yay!)

These changes will also provide training spaces for the much-anticipated new Banner ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system which was announced last month by President Gaertner. The renovations and move schedules are being finalized now and will proceed this semester. We'll keep you posted on who and what will be where and when.

Keeping It All Together

The SamWeb Computer Services Work Order (WO) system sends you a notification e-mail when an update has been made to a WO placed under your name. In the past, many of you have just hit reply to correspond with us. As of January 16th, we will be disabling the reply option to the WO notification because we really want you to log in to SamWeb to add all your correspondence directly in the WO.

This will help ensure the entire process is completely documented. By relying partly on e-mails, the workflow was losing some pieces! It is hoped the long term benefit will be a complete record and communication of what you needed and what we did.

Blackboard

Over the break we added a new database server to SHSU's Blackboard. We now have three application servers and two database servers powering our Bb installation. Just like having multiple application servers, the second database server will take over database operation should the first fail, thereby decreasing downtime and ensuring that Blackboard operation goes on even when a major part of Blackboard is unavailable.

This is another step in helping to ensure that we have as much Blackboard "uptime" as possible. A special thank you goes to a number of the UCS-Systems staff who gave up their holiday time to accomplish this week-long task.

Rules, Rules, Rules

Creating relationships with prospective employees, students, or donors is desirable throughout SHSU. It helps all of us if we can better target our time and communications to the right people. But.... be aware of the state rules which regulate how we are to ask/receive/store information about these contacts.

SHSU must comply with the Texas Administrative Code for Higher Education web sites. If you have a webmaster within your department, please visit with our campus webmaster before you create any pages which ask for something as simple as an e-mail address. Here's an excerpt with part of the legalese:

"Prior to providing access to information or services on a state Web site that require user identification, each institution of higher education shall conduct a transaction risk assessment and implement appropriate privacy and security safeguards. At a minimum, Web sites that require an individual to enter the following information in a Web based electronic form shall use an SSL session or equivalent technology to encrypt the data:

The individual's name and other personal information, such as an SSN;

Transaction payment information;

An individual's access identification code and password;

An individual's e-mail address.

Any Web based form that requests information from the public shall have a link to the associated privacy and security policy."

Any department can set up a compliant form by requesting a form ID. The University's Privacy and Security policies are linked from the main university site. Please ensure any web-based form complies with and links to these policies.

Training

Classes this month for which you can register are:

CHSS Classroom Technology Training: Faculty: If you will be using the new resources in the CHSS building with your classes, please come in for an introduction.
CHSS C070 Friday, 1/9/09, from 1-2 p.m.
CHSS C070 Wednesday, 1/14/09, from 10-11 a.m.
CHSS C070 Thursday, 1/15/09, from 2-3 p.m.

Blackboard: Grade Center: Faculty: Attend this now and save troubles at the end of the semester. Department Chairs: Please urge your faculty using Bb to attend this as many professors who had not attended previous seminars experienced frustrations in December.
CJ A111 Monday, 1/12/09 from 10-11 a.m.
CJ A111 Tuesday, 1/20/09 from 1-2 p.m.

Facebook, Twitter and Blogger (What on earth are those?!): Using Social Media in your courses - Overview on using social media tools Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger to engage and get information to your students in the places where they spend most of their Internet time anyway.
CJ A111 Friday, 1/16/09 from 1-2 p.m.
CJ A111 Friday, 1/23/09 from 10-11 a.m.

Microsoft Visio: Creating Flowcharts and Org Charts
CJ A111 Monday, 1/26/09 from 10-11 a.m.
CJ A111 Thursday, 1/29/09 from 1-2 p.m.

Creating Mailing Labels from SamMenu/Nell Programs: Printing of labels for campus mail-outs or other purposes will now be done in your department at your own laser printer. Come learn how to do the merge from a delimited file into a Word document.
CJ A111 Wednesday, 1/21/09 from 1-2 p.m.

Check the Calendar and sign up now to reserve your seat. You may also request one-on-one training or training for your department. Just e-mail the Helpdesk.

What's Good, What's Not, and What's Happening When?

The Helpdesk provides support for university equipment and software on the local area network. Each month's update will include the versions of software and minimum requirements for hardware with the new or changed information highlighted and bolded.

Memory Sticks: Purchase (and encourage your students to buy) flash drives that are USB Mass Storage Compliant.

Operating Systems: The supported version of Macintosh machines will be OS X, version 5 after the Leopard conversion which is underway. The supported version of Microsoft's operating system is Windows XP.

Software Packages: The supported versions of office suites are Microsoft's Office 2007. The new version of an office suite for Macintoshes is Microsoft Office 2008 and is being packaged for installation on campus machines.

Hardware Configurations: The new minimum requirements for the SHSU local area network support for a PC are a 2.5 GHz processor, 1.5 GB RAM, and an 80 GB disk, with 15 GB free. Our recommended configuration is a 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo 2 GB, 800 MHz memory, and a 250 GB hard drive. The recommended configuration for a Macintosh on the LAN is a 1.6GHz PowerPC Single-core/Single processor, 1GB RAM, and a 40GB hard drive.

Computer Services may schedule significant periods of downtime for major system upgrades and maintenance. For your planning purposes, the weekend following each graduation will be set aside for scheduled outages. Additionally, certain systems may be unavailable on Friday nights after 6 p.m. and on holidays.

All offers, training, and software above pertain to faculty and staff at SHSU only. If you have any questions, compliments, comments, or concerns, please let us know.