Planned Network Maintenance in Overlook Manor

ITS will be conducting network maintenance in Overlook Manor on Friday, September 30th, which will cause some localized network outages between 6am and 7am.

In order to improve the network reliability, there will be scheduled network maintenance in order to update the network equipment firmware.

Both of the wired and wireless networks will be impacted during the maintenance period.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any questions, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or at extension x-7973.

WARNING: Phishing Attacks Have Started Again

Around 1:16 PM today an email was sent out from 'robert.damato@manhattan.edu' that looked like the image below:

EXAMPLE OF A PHISHING SCAM

The email from 'robert.damato@manhattan.edu' is a phishing scam and you should delete it immediately. Do not click on any links in the email. As with most  messages, the message contained a generic warning about spam and updating a spam filter.  
If you receive a message that asks you to  click on an unknown link or suspicious attachment, DO NOT OPEN the link or attachment. Instead, please verify authenticity with ITS  by forwarding the message to ITS@manhattan.edu. 

If you are worried that your account has been compromised, please go through Google's account Security Checkup:

https://security.google.com/settings/security/secureaccount

As always, be careful what you click!

Home Server Final Decommission Nov 1

As of November 1 the home server will be taken permanently off line. 

• If you are still using any office or non-user home server share points you will be contacted about our newer solution going forward. This will be mostly non-disruptive. 
• If are using your personal webspace at home.manhattan.edu eg http://home.manhattan.edu/~<Jaspernet ID > 
• Please open a ticket with client services and we will migrate your page to the new location on our public access linux server, turing.manhattan.edu. On November 1 the dns entries for home will be changed so that your page will work at
  both:
  http://home.manhattan.edu/~<Jaspernet ID>
  and
  http://turing.manhattan.edu/~<Jaspernet ID>
• Turing offers many more features as well as full Linux shell access and a much more full and robust hosting and development platform. 
• If you are using your personal drive space at home.manhattan.edu please contact client services immediately for migration assistance to google drive. 

Why is this happening?

• With the advent of unlimited storage for educational institutions on google drive we can now offer our faculty, staff, and students more storage that is more reliable and easier to get to in the google cloud. The google cloud gives us features such as fine grained access control and sharing, on-line and off-line availability, and a data redundancy that would have been unattainable in house all for virtually zero cost to the college. 
• The current home server hardware is end of life and can no longer be maintained. 
• The current home server solution is outdated by today's standards and no longer offers what would be considered standard sharing features. Like email, google is doing it a lot better!

Head Back to School with Drive: Student Edition

Summer has come to an end, which for college students usually means the end of a grueling internship, a road-trip or getting moved back to campus, embracing friends you have not seen in months, and, oh yeah, that other tiny detail: the start of classes.

With so much else going on — friends, extracurriculars, sports — students today need to be as efficient and productive as possible when they dedicate time to studying and doing homework. In this age of internet transformation, Gen Y is more tech savvy than ever before, and we expect online education to meet our technology standards.

The purpose (and hope) of this blog post is to give a few examples of how I used — and benefitted from — Google Docs, Slides, and Forms in college.

Example 1: Have a group project? Stay calm, cool, and collected. Docs make collaboration easy!

If you have ever had to work on a group paper or project, you know how cumbersome and inefficient the process can be. There are two ways to go about accomplishing this task: (1) your group sends 173 emails trying to coordinate a time at which everyone is available to meet or (2) each person writes a portion of the paper and the group tries to synthesize uncoordinated chunks of different writing styles into one cohesive paper, which always ends with one Type A student editing the entire thing. Luckily, there is now an option 3, and it’s called Google Docs.

To start using Docs, just open a doc, share it with the group members, and write. It’s that simple. Having the ability to work together in the cloud means no coordinating schedules, no wasting time on multiple revisions, and no unequal division of group member contributions.

For example, when I had to complete a group paper for an Economics class, my two groupmates and I decided we would each write one-third of the paper. We put our respective portions into a single document and then went through each other’s writing, adding comments and correcting errors when necessary.

Example 2: Google Slides. Enough Said.

Presentations are an inevitable college assignment. Whether you are a history or physics major, you cannot escape this task. Before using Slides, the process of creating presentations was inefficient, awkward (so...what should we put on this slide…?) and time-consuming.

For one of my physics laboratory experiments, my partner was an exchange student from France. While we understood each other in the lab by scribbling Greek letters and numbers to solve problems, at times it was difficult to communicate since English wasn’t her first language. So when we had to create our presentation, it sounded like a grueling task for both of us.

We decided to use Slides, divide the work, add notes, and edit together from within the presentation. Our communication was clear and efficient when we typed comments to each other since we could take our time to be articulate, which virtually dissolved our language barrier. In the end, creating the presentation was quite enjoyable; we were proud of the final product and our professors were impressed by how well we worked together.

Example 3: Using Forms to organize information and make it universally accessible and useful...sound familiar?

Being a full-time student and an active member of an extracurricular activity (sport, club, fraternity/sorority, etc.) can sometimes feel like a full-time job. It requires teamwork, organization, time-management, and dedication.

Being the leader of a group demands more: writing agendas, scheduling meetings, organizing fundraisers, and sticking to a budget. Keeping track of all of these items can be difficult, as each task requires different resources — email, documents, spreadsheets, polls, and more.

As the house president of a 165-student residence hall for two years, I struggled to keep track of it all, but after switching to Forms, the whole process became seamless.

For our fundraiser, my house sold over 300 t-shirts to the student body. Because of the high quantity, we utilized a pre-order process in which students could order their size/color and pay in advance. Before we had Google Forms, we used a paper form to collect pre-orders (I still try to block out all those hours spent inputting the paper orders into my computer!).

Not only did using a form make it easier to collect pre-orders, it also made it easier to distribute the order form. As a result, our pre-orders increased by 40% in one year! The form did all of the heavy lifting for me. Orders were seamlessly filed into a spreadsheet, and I simply had to click “Show summary of responses” to place the order, making my job easier and freeing up time so that I could focus on other aspects of my role as a leader.

So there you have it, three examples of how using Docs, Slides, and Forms in college made me more efficient, saved me time, and increased my productivity. For those of you about to begin a new semester, good luck!
Partially reposted from the Google Drive Blog: http://googledrive.blogspot.com
Originally posted by  Alex Nagourney is a 2013 graduate of Wellesley College. She was a 2011 Google BOLD intern and a Google Student Ambassador from 2011-2013 - https://drive.googleblog.com/2013/08/drivebts-students.html

Planned maintenance of LMS (moodle) system, Wednesday morning, Sept 21, 2016

ITS will perform planned maintenance on lms (moodle), starting 7:30am, ending 7:45am. Normal service will resume with more performance capacity.

Head Back to School with Drive: Teacher Edition

Here are 3 tips to help teachers prepare for going back to school with Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.

1. Use Slides to get to know your students

A great introductory activity is to create a single slide deck, and then invite each of your students to share a bit about themselves on their own personal slide. It’s a fantastic get-to-know-you activity for the beginning of school and you’ll be amazed by the creativity that comes out of your students!

The screenshot below shows how Google Student Ambassadors from 9 different countries used Slides to introduce themselves before gathering to meet each other at an event in Indonesia this summer.

Want to get this going with your students? Easy—create a new Slides deck on the first week of school, click the blue Share button to invite your students, and give them a little direction for their individual slide by adding comments.

2. Use Docs to create a classroom “Bill of Rights”

The first few weeks of class is that precious transition from the “honeymoon” period of well behaved students to learning the norms of your classroom culture. Help start the year off right by inviting students to co-create their ideas of citizenship and a happy learning environment, Docs style.

Start by creating a copy of this template and then invite students to join in with you to add their ideas, ratify by adding a comment, and use their editing prowess to come up with a final copy to live by for the coming year.

3. Use Forms to get to know your students (and their prior knowledge!)

Get to know your classroom as soon as possible, using Forms to gather information about their needs, interests, and abilities beforehand. Consider creating a simple Form for a survey for your students and have fun showing the data on your projector and learning about your class as a whole.

Forms can be used as a very quick getting started activity before any lesson as well—take this example from a social studies classroom before talking about population. By placing a quick Form on your classroom site or emailing your students the Form, you can quickly grasp your students' prior knowledge—before you start teaching.

In this case, our team was a bit off, but helped us not only talk about population but estimation and numbers in general (answer? 7.1 billion and counting. )

Partially reposted from the Google Drive Blog: http://googledrive.blogspot.com
Originally posted by  Wendy Gorton, an educational consultant- https://drive.googleblog.com/2013/08/drivebts-teachers.html

Brief MATLAB outages this evening (9:00 PM - Midnight)

MATLAB users may experience brief outages this evening, during the hours of 9:00 PM - Midnight, due to emergency maintenance (troubleshooting a licensing issue). 

The brief outages should not be long lasting. If you experience a licensing issue while attempting to launch or use MATLAB, please wait about 5-10 minutes and then try re-launching the program.

Hayden Network OFFLINE

Hayden Network OFFLINE

UPDATE: At 10:15am this morning, both wired and wireless network in Hayden Hall has been restored. We apology for this inconvenience.

UPDATE: At approximately 9:00AM, ITS was able to bring up part of the network in Hayden Hall. Wired and wireless access is still OFFLINE in some parts of Hayden. 

At 8:37AM, ITS was informed of a network outage affecting Hayden Hall. ITS is currently troubleshooting this network outage. Currently wired and wireless access to Hayden is OFFLINE.

We are working diligently to bring this network back online. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Phishing Attack Awareness

Glance MC and Jasper Pay Locations

New: Get alerts when you are near a Jasper Pay location.

The Glance MC app now features location-based notifications when you are near College venues that accept Jasper Pay.  Using beacon technology, your IOS device can alert you on the lock screen when you are near to a location that accepts Jasper Pay with a simple notification.  Swiping the notification activates your Digital Jasper Card for 1-click access to Jasper Pay.

To use Jasper Pay, download and install the Glance MC app from the Apple App Store by searching "Glance MC".

Currently, all on-campus dining venues accept Jasper Pay for both Dining Dollars and Jasper Dollars.  An Android version of Glance MC is coming soon!

Moodle Login Page - Temporary Fix

ITS has received feedback  that some Moodle users may be experiencing issues when accessing Moodle for the first time each day.  We have identified an issue with the login page and are working to resolve the issue.  In the meantime, ITS has implemented an alternate login page for Moodle.  Until a solution is in place, you may notice a different login page for Moodle.

Please report any issues to ITS@manhattan.edu

Jasper Pay Promotion - See Today's Campus Announcements....

Visit the Kelly Commons Starbucks today between 5-7PM, download the Glance MC App and use your digital Jasper Card (Jasper Pay) for a chance to win a $25 Dining Dollars credit!

Did you see the clue for today's content in this morning's "Today at Manhattan" Email? The "Today at Manhattan" email is distributed to all students each day at 6AM. In that communication, you will find today's announcements and events happening on campus. You can also find this information at http://inside.manhattan.edu and the new Glance MC app for IOS (Android version coming soon).

Be sure to check the "Today at Manhattan" email all week for a chance to win $25 Dining Dollars Monday - Thursday!

Introducing Jasper Pay for IOS

Download the new Glance MC App, use your Digital Jasper Card, win prizes.

Starting on Monday 9/12, students who download and install the new Glance MC app from the App Store and use the Jasper Pay feature of the new Digital Jasper Card will be entered for a chance to win one of (4) $25 Dining Dollars credits.  Each day we will announce where and when to use Jasper Pay via Campus Announcements found on https://inside.manhattan.edu  or the Glance MC app.  Be sure to check in each morning Monday - Thursday starting on 9/12.  The time and location will be revealed starting at 6AM.

iOS users can download the app by searching "Glance MC" in the Apple App Store.  After installing the app, be sure to activate your Digital Jasper Card.  

ITS Service Catalog

ITS has put together a Service Catalog so that the community can better understand what services are provided as well as what is covered under each service.  This is a work in progress.  Over time, new services will be generated and outdated services will be retired.  Aside from ITS services, you will also find some non ITS services and how to request them.

Here is the direct link to our Service Catalog:
https://manhattan.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/Requests/ServiceCatalog

We need your help!  Please provide feedback and suggestions for the service catalog here.

Schedule Meetings more Efficiently with Google Calendar or Doodle

Google Calendar Information:

As part of our ongoing effort to spread knowledge about the productive new Google Calendar Features, our users are able to be more use Google Calendar to schedule meetings.  

The easiest way to access Google Calendar is to click on the Google Calendar app from your Google Apps launcher at the top right of your Google Desktop Home screen:

Following instructions include how to quickly and easily schedule a meeting with a group of colleagues who are using Google Calendar:

** Be sure to explore the "Find a meeting time" section **

If the other guests have shared their calendar with you, you can use the "Find a time" feature to schedule an event at a time that works for everyone. You can compare up to 20 schedules at one time.

Note: The "Find a time" feature is only available while using a computer, not the Google Calendar app.

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. Create a new event, or open an existing event (you may need to click Edit event first).
3. Click the Find a time tab. If the other guests' calendars are shared with you, you'll see their schedules.
4. Find a time. Use the arrows at the top to navigate between days.
5. Once you've found a time, click the area within the calendar grid. The time will update at the top of the page.
6. Click Save.

Note: You can only edit the event if you created the event yourself, or if the event organizer gave guests permission to modify the event.

All-day events: All-day events are shown at the top of the calendar grid. If a guest has an all-day event, they will appear available in the "Find a time" tab unless their event is set to show as "Busy." To schedule an all-day event, click the Week button and then click the area at the top of a day column.

Doodle: Another Excellent Scheduling App

Great idea to use as an alternative to Google Calendar

What is Doodle?

Doodle is an online scheduling tool that can be used quickly and easily to find a date and time to meet with multiple people.  First you suggest dates and times for your event participants to choose from, then Doodle creates a polling calendar that can be sent to participants for feedback.  As each participant selects the dates and times from the polling calendar that he or she is free, Doodle aggregates the responses and tells you which option works best for everyone.

Getting everyone on the same page is hard enough with just five other coworkers, let alone fifty new volunteers you may have never met.  Doodle can be a valuable tool for coordinating a large event like volunteer training as well as a small event like a monthly meeting with the board.

Doodle in Action

Part of Doodle’s appeal is that it’s so easy to use.  The site walks you through the four steps of creating a polling calendar:

1. Schedule an Event
2. Propose Times
3. Choose Settings
4. Invite Participants

Each step of the way there are options to make the whole process easier for you and the people you’re trying to meet with.

1. Schedule an Event

The first step in scheduling an event with Doodle is to fill out a simple form with the title, location, and description of the event.  This information will be visible on the poll, letting participants know exactly what the event is.  On this page you will also enter your name as administrator and your e-mail address so that you can receive the link to view, update, or edit the poll.

Notable Features:

• Easy Directions: The location automatically links to Google Maps, making getting directions a breeze.

• Your Own Doodle Account: Although you are free to use the site without creating an account, signing in makes checking up on your scheduling polls a lot easier (especially if you have several out at a time).

2. Propose Times

The next screen asks you to choose days and times that you are considering for the event.

Notable Features:

• Time-Zone Support: If you’re scheduling an online event, such as a Twitter chat or a video conference, you can enable time-zone support to keep participants across the country or across the world on the same page.

3. Choose Settings

In this third step, Doodle offers some options so that you can modify the basic poll to suit your specific needs.  These customizable settings allow you to tailor your Doodle scheduling poll to each event.  Among other things, you can use these different settings to transform your scheduling poll into a registration sheet, or to offer extra options to your event participants such as greater privacy.

Notable Features:

• Yes-No-If need be Poll: In a basic poll, the people you invite can only respond “Yes” or “No.”  This option adds a third possible response, “If need be,” to give you more detailed information on participants’ availability and flexibility.

• Hidden Poll: Perhaps you are looking to schedule times to meet with donors.  This option allows you to keep each donor’s schedule and availability confidential from the other donors.

• Limit Number of Participants per Option: For example, setting the group limit to ten people per time slot would be handy if you are looking to conduct feedback meetings with past volunteers.  Once a timeslot has ten names, it will stop being shown as an option.

• Participant Can Only Choose One Option: This option coupled with limiting the number of participants per option turns the poll into a registration sheet, allowing each participant to sign up for a timeslot on a first-come-first-served basis.

4. Invite Participants

The final step is to send out the invitations.  Doodle has three methods of delivering your poll to participants: email, Facebook, and Twitter.

For smaller or internal meetings, email is the way to go.  But if you are putting together a larger event, like a cookout to thank your volunteers, then a social media platform might be a better choice.  By posting the Doodle poll link on Facebook or Twitter, you can simultaneously advertise your event and find a good day for it.

Notable Features:

• Import Contacts: Link your Doodle account to your email account to easily import the email addresses of the participants you’re interested in inviting.

The Poll

For the people you have invited, the finished basic poll will look something like this:

The people that you invite will enter their name or an ID number in the field that says “Your name” and check the boxes in the time slots when they are free.  In the image above, the best time to meet would clearly be Monday at 1:00pm.

Notable Features:

• Load Your Calendar: If you do open a Doodle account, you can sync your Google, Outlook, or iCal calendar to Doodle.  This lets you avoid switching between calendars, making it easier to respond quickly to scheduling requests.
• Comments: There is even a comment section at the bottom of the poll where participants can note dates that they would prefer over others or ask questions about the event.
• Different Viewing Options: The image shown above is the table view, which allows your participants to see which dates and times are popular.  There’s also an option to look at the schedule on a calendar view, shown below.  The calendar view is helpful if you have loaded your own calendar to Doodle for comparison.