G Suite To Extend Access To Advanced Features Through September

Google has announced that they will now be extending their free access to advanced Google Meet video conferencing capabilities through September 30th, 2020. This extension is intended to help provide resources for remote working and learning during the pandemic.

Additionally, Google also announced that they will be dropping the word "Hangouts" from Google Meet. Please be on the lookout for this change as they have begun the process of removing the word. For more resources on Google Meet please refer to our knowledge base.

Stay safe and healthy!

RESOVLED: Lee Hall and Draddy Gymnasium Power Outage

UPDATE: As of about 6am this morning, the power has been restored to both Lee Hall and Draddy Gymnasium. Both wired and wireless services should be working as intended.

ITS is aware of a network outage affecting both Lee Hall and Draddy Gymnasium at this time.

As of about 2:53pm, both the wired and wireless networks in Lee Hall and Draddy went down due to a power outage. Lee Hall is currently on a generator at this time and very limited network services have been restored.

ITS is currently waiting to hear back from Physical Plant about when power will be restored to both buildings, however, we do not have an exact time as to when this will happen. ITS will update the campus community as soon as we can. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu.

Remote Teaching FAQ

Our Instructional Design team has created a Remote Teaching FAQ resource. This resource address some Moodle and Google Meet topics that pertain to teaching remotely.  

Please use this link to access the resource. 

Additionally, this link has been added to the Manhattan College ITS Blog sidebar for convenient access and a knowledge base article has been created containing the link.  The article can be found within the "Working Remote" category under "Remote Teaching FAQ".

Please follow these directions to subscribe to the ITS blog and be the first to see blog posts containing helpful tips and information. 

Grid View for Google Meet available in Chrome Browser

ITS would like to announce some good news! Grid View for Google Meet will now be available in your Chrome Browser for all accounts managed by Manhattan college, meaning all @manhattan.edu accounts. Below please find some important information regarding this feature:

• Be on the lookout for this change as it will be occurring in the next 24 hours. It will automatically be added to your browser.

• Make sure that you are signed into your Manhattan College account in Chrome. If you are not logged into Chrome please use this link to login. If you are logged in with a personal account then you will not see this change.
  
• If you are unsure about managing different profiles in Chrome please reference this article for windows users or this article for mac users. 

If you would like to install the extension before it is added please reference this article for guidance and installation tutorial below:

Manhattan College’s First Ever ITS Chatbot to Go Live!

🎉 ITS would like to introduce our brand new Client Services & Operations Chatbot Beta! 🎉

For the first time ever ITS at Manhattan College will be rolling out a student developed Chatbot to assist the community with IT related issues. This Chatbot was entirely created by one of our STARS, Alberto DeAngelis ‘20, and was designed to bring you quick resolutions with the information you need to resolve potential issues you might encounter. You can ask the Chatbot questions about an issue you are having and it will quickly try to help you come to the best resolution and send you information from our knowledge base.

The Chatbot is running through Hangouts Chat and is easy to install. To install the Chatbot in your Hangouts please follow these instructions.


ITS is very excited about the deployment of the Chatbot Beta and would like to encourage you to take advantage of it! As this is a Beta version of a Chatbot we are looking for as much feedback as possible. Please fill out our CS&O Chatbot Survey and give us any feedback you may have.

Friendly Reminder To Back Up Your Data

With the convenience of the cloud and apps like Google Drive, it’s pretty easy to forget to back up your data. This is just a friendly reminder to do so!

Data on Google Drive:

Make sure that you have all of your data backed up either on your hard drive, a storage device, or a separate cloud storage service.

File Streaming:

If you are using Drive File Stream, it is very important that you are regularly checking drive.google.com to make sure that your data is syncing/saving properly. 

Once you’re logged into your google drive via web browser make sure that any files you worked on using drive file stream are present and up to date. You can access your drive via file stream or web browser on any device. 

Losing data can be incredibly stressful, but it is preventable! Here are some previously shared tips: 

• Your critical data should never reside in a single place.
• The ideal backup strategy will typically include both an online backup service (Google Drive) to ensure your data is secure no matter what happens to your mobile device or computer.
• Running consistent, automatic backups is a straightforward process that will take a little time to set up and will require even less to maintain.
• Backups can be configured to run in real time when files on your computer are changed.
• Routinely test your backup solution to ensure you can recover your data in the event that you do actually need to restore from a backup.

If you have any questions or concerns about this please reference our knowledge base articles or contact the ITS Help Desk for further assistance! 

Information partially taken from: https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2017/9/september-2018-do-you-have-a-personal-backup-plan

Susies Tech Tips #2

Tech Tip #2 

This weeks tech tip focuses on how to get the fastest response/help when you are creating a ticket. As we have transitioned to online learning and working and issues arise, this tip will help you to create a ticket that has all the right information so ITS can help you faster! 

When you are submitting a ticket it is important for ITS to know as much as possible about your request.

For faster help please reference the suggestions below for creating a ticket: 

1. Describe what you are trying to accomplish.
   Ex: You are unable to enter your Jaspernet account.
   Make sure that you specify which service you are trying to log into (email, banner, self service, etc.)
   
2. Describe what you tried to do to accomplish this.
   Ex: You are not able to log into Banner.
   Make sure to differentiate if it is a problem that is causing you to receive any kind of error message for or if you have forgotten your login credentials.
   
3. Describe exactly what happens and include screenshots.
   Ex: You are receiving an error message when trying to upload something to Moodle.
   Explain step by step starting from when you login to Moodle up until you receive the error message and how many times you tried to do this. Make sure that you take a screenshot, if possible, of the message and attach it to the ticket.
   
4. Other important details to include:

• Time and Date
• Is this a recurring issue?
• What is your computer make and model? 
• What operating system version are you running?
• What browser version are you running?
• If you are having problems with a software, what version are you using?

** Bonus Tip ** 

While most people are aware that you can create a ticket by emailing ITS, we would also like to encourage you to use our vast Service Catalog to submit tickets. Submitting via the service catalog ensures that your ticket is going to the appropriate team right away and will result in a faster resolution. 

For more help, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or 718-862-7973