Tech News – Page 8

Teaching & Video/Audio Conferencing with Zoom

Zoom Available now, Southern Methodist University has expanded services for Zoom, a cloud-based video conferencing and web conferencing service, as the primary eLearning tool for delivering easy-to-use, high-definition video/audio conferencing capabilities to faculty and students. Brought to campus in January 2015 as part of a pilot initiative, Zoom has proven a reliable, future-forward and cost-effective collaboration tool which is easy to use on just about any device (even Linux!). As Zoom transitions from pilot initiative and into a supported service, Zoom will also be replacing SMU’s current GoToMeeting conferencing service.

Over the next few months, OIT’s Academic Technology Services team will be integrating Zoom within Canvas and will be configuring Zoom for use with SMU’s single-sign-on technology so that you can use your SMU login credentials for access. Short-term Zoom Webinar licenses are also available but limited–please contact the IT Helpdesk for more information about webinars.

Suggested Uses for Zoom

1:1 Meetings with Students

Schedule meetings with students that you would normally meet face-to-face by using a Zoom meeting. If you have distance students, or when bad weather prohibits travel to campus, meetings and/or classes can still be held over Zoom (up to 50 participants).

Virtual Office Hours

With Zoom you can offer virtual office hours from any location anywhere in the world (with Internet accessibility). Send your students or collaborators an invite through email or post the meeting information on your Canvas course site as to the “office hours” that you will be available. Scheduled Zoom office hours create an active virtual “office” where students can come and go as needed.

Paper & Research Reviews

Using the Zoom Share Screen feature, you can have students or colleagues submit work for real-time review during a live Zoom session. Share Screen allows you to provide real-time feedback on work and to allow for any synchronous clarification as needed.

Exam Review Sessions

Launch a Zoom session and allow students to enter as necessary. Faculty members can choose to either moderate a student led review or to lead the review on their own.

External Research Collaboration

Need to host a research discussion or virtual seminar with up to 50 attendees? No problem! Create a Zoom session!

Recording Lectures, Meetings, & Sessions for Asynchronous Playback

Using Zoom’s recording functionality, all Zoom content can be recorded directly to your hard drive for future reference or future use in creating content for hybrid teaching.

Getting started with Zoom

Submit a Zoom account request to the IT Help Desk by calling 214.768.HELP or by emailing help@smu.edu. You will receive an email notification when your account has been created.
Once you’ve created a Zoom account, simply navigate to smu.edu/zoom to log in and host a meeting!

Zoom Requirements

System Requirements

Internet connection
Speakers & microphone—built-in or USB plug-in or wireless Bluetooth
Webcam or HD webcam—built-in or USB blug-in
Or, an HD cam or HD camcorder with video capture card

Supporting Operating Systems

Mac OS X with Mac OS 10.7 or later
Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7
Linux

Supported Tablets & Mobile Devices

iOS and Android devices
Surface Pro 2 & 3

Phone Scam: Hacking Over The Phone

Members of the SMU Community have reported a number of phone calls in the last several weeks attempting to gain access to your computer. Usually, these callers will indicate that they have “noticed” that your computer has been infected with malware and will helpfully offer to fix it for you while on the phone. The caller will direct you to a website and request that you download software to help fix your PC, but you will actually be downloading malware. This will usually lock your computer and the person will require you to pay hundreds of dollars to unlock it. Continue reading Phone Scam: Hacking Over The Phone

OIT and A-LEC Help Students Excel with Excel.

Almost two dozen students attended last night’s Excel@Excel hands-on-workshop at SMU’s Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center. The OIT-lead workshop was part of the A-LEC’s practical learning strategy sessions offered throughout the term. A-LEC has partnered with OIT to facilitate four of the 25 sessions available to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Excel@Excel Training in the A-LEC Yesterday’s workshop covered the basics of Excel and an introduction to formulas. OIT will offer a second Excel workshop for students on February 25th that will explore more in-depth formulas and functions. While last night’s and the February 25th session are both a student-only training, IT Training regularly offers workshops for all members of the campus community. For more information about upcoming training opportunities, visit our IT Training workshop schedule.

“I’m excited that we have such great training opportunities for all of our campus,” stated Laurene Klassen, the Manager of IT Training, “but, let’s not forget the challenges that some people have to attend our workshops. I always try to encourage others to check out Lynda.com. So many people aren’t yet aware of the great online resources we have and I’m working hard to get the word out. Our Lynda.com license strengthens our training department by offering the courses we can’t regularly offer. Now, we have the tools to assist others to increase their learning by leaps and bounds.”

Photo Credit: Rebecca Umobong

Faculty and Students: Receive free hands-on-training for Mathematica

Wolfram has created a new outreach program that gives faculty and students free hands-on training for Mathematica and SMU has been invited to participate.

Join a free online training session to learn different ways to interact with Mathematica—enter queries through free-form input and the Wolfram Language, create notebooks, perform symbolic and numeric calculations, generate 2D and 3D graphics, create interactive Manipulates, analyze data, and turn your notebook into an interactive presentation. This is an exciting opportunity to learn directly from the authors of the book Hands-on Start to Wolfram Mathematica and Programming with the Wolfram Language and ask questions during the interactive Q&A. Participants will need access to either Mathematica for the desktop or Mathematica Online to utilize the hands-on aspects of this training.

Eduroam Available Throughout Campus

Eduroam logo If you will be traveling to other universities this year, be sure to check out eduroam. The eduroam wireless network is available at SMU as well as thousands of educational institutions around the world. SMU participates as both a service provider (for users on-campus) and as an identity provider (for users off-campus). Basically, you can use your SMU credentials to connect to the eduroam network on other campuses and visitors can use their educational credentials to connect to the wireless network at SMU.

There is more information available on the wireless service page at smu.edu/wifi

eduroam maps!

You may be interested to see a map of institutions worldwide that participate in eduroam and offer the eduroam wireless service on their campuses. Note that it may take a while to load the large amount of data on these websites.

eduroam US Institution Map (map)
eduroam US Institutions List (searchable list)
Where can I eduroam? (map)

How can I use eduroam?

Simply find the eduroam wireless network with your wireless device. For the username, use your SMU email name (i.e., user@smu.edu), and the same password you would use to sign in to Webmail or my.SMU. You may be prompted to trust the wireless network certificate, which is safe to accept.

Once you’ve joined your device to the eduroam wireless network, you’ll find that your device should automatically connect to the eduroam wireless network here at SMU as well as at other participating institutions without being prompted again for credentials.