SHSU Information Resources Update

We Are Listening

We keep hearing that "the Helpdesk doesn't answer the phone." We know it feels that way to many of you when you reach the voice mail. But we are answering your calls! In the past month, we have detailed over 2,200 of those calls in our Work Order Call Logs. In the same time period in 2007---even with the Office 2007 roll-out---we only had 1,400 calls.

Here are the steps and processes we are taking to help manage the heavy volume.

We are dealing with walk-ins, callers, voice mail, and e-mail in that order. So if it's extraordinarily critical, come on over. The Helpdesk is in Room 208 of AB1.
We are requesting another fulltime staff member for the Helpdesk.
To improve the efficiency, retention, and service, we have increased the student wages, stepped up the training, and added three additional student assistants.
We are evaluating the type of problems which necessitate Helpdesk intervention. For example, a profile reset previously required a personal visit by you to our Helpdesk and then direct support by a fulltime staff member. Thanks to a new program from the UCS-Systems Department, a student worker can assist you over the phone now.
We are researching Call Center software which would permit your call to be queued rather than having to go to voice mail. It will also offer better routing choices and analytics.

We are currently averaging about 20 voice mails daily, compared to the 200 we received at the start of the semester. So the pain is easing for us as well as you! Thanks for hanging in there with us to get 2008-2009 up and going.

Line Printing Be Gone

How many of you went to college when you had to use green-bar paper to print out your assignments? Not many of us left. It's time for SHSU to move on too.

As of January 1st, 2009, the UCS department will discontinue printing labels and green-bar/white paper on the antique line printer. If you are still printing to this printer, please place a WO on SamWeb asking for assistance in sending your administrative print jobs to the PDF print option so that you can print them in the comfort of your own office. Checks and other special forms will continue to be evaluated for moving to a laser solution.

If you plan to do hard-copy campus mail-outs, the procedure for getting campus labels will be changing too. You will be using your own Avery labels to print these on your office laser printers. Details will be coming soon on this change. Remember: instead of using hard-copy mailers, you can include your invites and information within your divisional weekly e-mail and save the time and expense of mail. Go green!

Blackboard

Have you wanted to add web 2.0 to your Blackboard courses, but you weren’t sure how to use blogging or wiki tools? We completely understand. That is why we have revamped the wiki and blog section of our Blackboard Technology Tutorials. Now, you can find out what a blog (web log) is and learn how to create a group wiki . You can also see demos of these web 2.0 tools in action.

Enjoy your holidays away from Bb. We will be performing Bb maintenance during the week of Christmas, December 23-29th and it will not be available for student or faculty use during this time.

Are You Tough Enough?

Trying to figure out why your PC is sluggish? It could be it's old or it could be that you're just wanting to do more fancy stuff than it was designed for. You can find out whether it even meets the new minimum standards for SHSU's network. The guidelines for our recommended setups and minimum configurations are provided each month in the final article of the Update.

Scary Stuff

There are a multitude of viruses, worms, and trojans floating around right now according to Symantec. Take no chances.

Ensure your University laptop and home computers are up-to-date with their virus scanners.
Do not open unknown attachments.
Set a firewall on your home computer. If you don't know how, google it or ask a friend, your kids, or a vendor.
Run the Microsoft updates regularly. One of the patches last week was for an especially unpleasant worm. The campus network is patched; make sure your PC at home as well as your University laptops are patched.
- Don't wait till Saturday@Sam or when you're ready to give your presentation to the Rotary Club to turn on a University laptop. Click on the Control Panel, Security Center, Check for the latest updates from Windows Updates and ensure you're safe today.

Be alert to the real dangers lurking while you enjoy the fun of pretend scares with Halloween.

Don't Let Someone Just Charge It!

As you know, you can buy stuff easily when you give someone your name, address, credit card account number and the expiration date. So..... think now about whether you have that information stored anywhere.

Each staff member entrusted with accepting credit card payments must have earned that trust. SHSU must meet PCI Security Standards so the UCS security officer will be ensuring the network itself is up to snuff. Your job is to ensure that every employee, whether full or part-time, understands and follows the procedures and policies to safeguard that vulnerable financial information.

The PCI Security Standard requires that we protect stored data and encrypt cardholder data in transit. What does that technospeak mean to you?

Do not ever ask our campus customers to just e-mail you their credit card information.
Do not create your own forms on web sites for credit card payments.
Do not write down their credit card information and just store it in your file drawers or in unrestricted files on the T: drive.

Your understanding of and commitment to protecting the campus is essential to SHSU's overall security.

Training

Classes this month include:

Plagiarism continues to plague many. Within Blackboard, learn how to use Turnitin, the plagiarism-detection software.
It's almost grade time. Make sure you grasp all the features of Blackboard's Grade Center.
Stay organized. Learn how to synchronize your Exchange calendar and mail to your mobile devices.

Check the Calendar for class times 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. Blackboard will be unavailable from 12/23/08 until 12/29/08.

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.