Announcement – Page 130

Turnitin: Writing X Tech Virtual Conference

Turnitin’s Writing X Tech: The Writing Mindset will be April 18-22, 2016 (#writingtech16). This five-day virtual conference hosted by Turnitin will explore how technology affects writing instruction and the student learning experience. Hear techniques and strategies for using digital tools to increase student engagement and improve writing skills.

All sessions are geared for educators, and several are appropriate for students.

Educator attendees of the LIVE sessions will:

Receive “certificates of participation”
Be eligible to designate one of five (5) $100 gifts toward a DonorsChoose.org project
Receive recorded links of the sessions.

Registration is free. Information about this conference can be found on the Turnitin Registration page.

IT Help Desk Hours During Spring Break

The OIT Help Desk will operate under reduced hours for Spring Break as the Hughes-Trigg Student Center will be closed.

Spring Break Help Desk Hours

March 5–6	CLOSED
March 7–11	8:00 am – 6:00 pm
March 12–13	CLOSED

The emergency after-hours option will, of course, be available when the help desk is closed.

StarRez Brings Enhanced Service to Residence Life

SMU’s transition to a new residential management system has completed quickly and quietly. First year and returning students are now using StarRez to apply for housing.

Residence Life & Student Housing have partnered with OIT to seek, purchase, and implement this new application. RLSH sought a simpler user interface for both students and for RLSH staff. In fact, it was so simple RLSH staff noted they were able to handle a typically busy day with one key staff member out.

This project is an example of the success when there is a strong partnership between the business unit and OIT.

VPN has a new address

VPN Starting today, OIT will begin phasing out securenet.smu.edu for vpn.smu.edu. This change coincides with the move of the VPN services to new hardware. When you log in to the new VPN for the first time, you will be prompted to install the updated Cisco AnyConnect software.

If you have any bookmarks or links using the old URL, we recommend updating them to the new address of vpn.smu.edu.

About VPN

Virtual Private Networking (VPN) provides a secure connection to the SMU network through an established DSL or cable modem connection with an outside Internet Service Provider (ISP). The VPN connection provides access to secure SMU network resources such as departmental drives and applications hosted on the campus intranet.

Using VPN

There are two methods for establishing the VPN connection: browser-based and client based. Users can link to vpn.smu.edu through their web browser and log in with their SMU ID and password. Only the traffic within that browser window will be routed through the VPN connection.

Cisco AnyConnect To use the VPN client, download AnyConnect from vpn.smu.edu (log in with your SMU ID and password and click “AnyConnect” in the left navigation). Once a session is established, all traffic will be routed through the secure VPN connection.

Please contact the IT Help Desk at 214-768-HELP with any questions about using VPN.

Box Departmental Storage Coming

Beginning February 15, we will be accepting requests for departmental storage using Box. With Box, departments will have unlimited storage on the cloud system to collaborate and share files. These departmental folders will show up in your Box space and will be designated by a blue folder icon.

Box.com Collaborated folder To request a departmental folder in Box, please contact the OIT Help Desk at help@smu.edu. We will need to know your department or school, the preferred name for your folder, and those individuals who will require access. It’s important to note that Box uses “waterfall” permissions; this means that users can be added to subfolders without impacting the top-level permissions, but permissions granted at the top level cannot be revoked from subfolders! Please keep this in mind when requesting a resource, and add only the minimum required users to your top-level folder. You can always add additional users to your subfolders later.

For additional information on managing folders in Box, please see Folder And Subfolder Permissions.

OIT will soon provide guidance on migration of data from Locker.SMU and BStore.SMU to Box. Stay tuned!