IT Training: Upcoming Training for Qualtrics, Sitecore, and lynda.com

IT TrainingWe have added additional IT Training Workshops through Winter Break, including a new course in Qualtrics. Take your skills to the next level by engaging in one of our online or instructor-led trainings.

lyndaCampus Now Available 

Please Note: LyndaCampus has been replaced by LinkedIn Learning and can be accessed at smu.edu/linkedin.

We understand not everyone can make our in-person training sessions due to scheduling conflicts, a busy week, or life just getting in the way. In an effort to provide quality training that works with everyone’s schedule, OIT has licensed lyndaCampus for the university. The lyndaCampus provides a vast online library of instructional videos covering the latest software, creative, and business skills. Taught by accomplished teachers and recognized industry experts, lynda.com is a high-quality resource for students, faculty, and staff looking to develop skills in Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, project management, social media, and a wide range of other topics. You can even view courses on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet, or other mobile device at your convenience — anytime, day or night.

To begin, just go to smu.edu/lynda and log in with your SMU ID and password.

lyndaCampus Webinars

If you have never used lynda.com before we invite you to join us for the lynda.com + SMU: Formal Overview webinar presented by lynda.com.

Register: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 3pm – 3:45pm CST
Register: Thursday, October 29, 2015 3pm – 3:45pm CST

Sitecore Basics

Are you new to Sitecore, SMU’s Web Content Management System? Have you been using Sitecore, but not regularly enough to remember what to do when you log in? We can help. OIT is offering a special hands-on Sitecore Basics class to the SMU community. Not only will we cover everything you need to know to get started using Sitecore, but will walk you through building out a complete site within Sitecore.

Register: Wednesday, November 11 from 2:30pm-4pm

Advanced Sitecore

Sitecore, SMU’s Web Content Management System, does a lot of the work in creating your pages, but sometimes it needs a little wrangling to really get it to shine. In this advanced class, will cover basic HTML usage in Sitecore and how to spice up those pages by adding CSS formatting, using widgets, and creating forms. This class is for advanced users.

Register: Wednesday, November 18 from 2:00-3:30

Photoshop for Sitecore

Learn how to take advantage of Photoshop to add slide shows and format images for use in Sitecore. In this advanced class, will cover basic Photoshop usage and how to upload the items to the Media Library in Sitecore. We will also discuss the slide show widgets.

Register: Wednesday, December 9 from 10:30am – 12:00pm

Updated 11/12/2015 to remove Qualtrics courses.

lyndaCampus Now Available

Please Note: LyndaCampus has been replaced by LinkedIn Learning and can be accessed at smu.edu/linkedin.

lynda.comThe Office of Information Technology is pleased to announce lyndaCampus is now available for faculty, staff, and students. The lyndaCampus provides a vast online library of instructional videos covering the latest software, creative, and business skills. Taught by accomplished teachers and recognized industry experts, lynda.com is a high-quality resource for students, faculty, and staff looking to develop skills in Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, project management, social media, and a wide range of other topics. You can even view courses on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet, or other mobile device.

To begin, just go to smu.edu/lynda and login with your SMU ID and password.  With more than 2,500 courses taught by industry experts, lynda.com is designed for all levels of learners and is available whenever you’re ready to learn.

If you have never used lynda.com before, we recommend you watch the How to use lynda.com video.

Shared Services Update

It’s been eight weeks since the announcement was made regarding IT Shared Services.  Since that announcement, IT has been working diligently to transition and establish the road map to meet the critical objectives of this new service model. OIT has identified the following critical milestones for IT:

  • Integrate the infrastructure for Cox, Lyle and Law
  • Unify the ticketing system for tracking and managing customer requests across all IT groups
  • Establish the two governance councils
  • Design and implement a distributed desktop support and classroom support framework
  • Implement an e-forms tool to help further expedite processes across campus
  • Establish an ERP Steering Committee and begin streamlining the ERP processes
  • Complete the transition of individuals into the new Academic Technology roles

The timeline for each of these items can be viewed on our website.

On September 28, we completed the unification of the ticketing system.  Requests are now entered into the same application and can easily be transferred to the appropriate support personnel.  We will work on several changes to the customer request portal (help.smu.edu) to provide a more robust support experience including live chat with the Help Desk staff, and access to the knowledge base to help resolve issues quickly.  Stay tuned for more information on these upcoming changes!

During the month of October, the IT Leadership team will meet with the various Deans, VPs, and leaders throughout campus to share the vision for Academic and embedded support.  In addition, several Open House meetings will be announced where faculty and staff can visit with the IT Leadership team and learn about the vision and plans. Please join us if you are able!

 

Issues with Outlook for Mac and El Capitan

Looks like another major application is having problems with Apple’s latest OS release, El Capitan. This time, the popular email client Microsoft Outlook for Mac is having difficulty with the OS. The problem identifies itself when the application tries to connect to the server to sync email and the application locks up. If you use Microsoft Outlook, you are highly encouraged not to update to the last Mac OS at this time.

In an emailed statement to Computerworld, a Microsoft spokeswoman said the company is looking into the problem.

“We know that some users may be experiencing issues with Office 2016 for Mac running on El Capitan,” the statement read. “We are actively investigating the matter with Apple. Until there is a fix, we recommend people install the latest updates to Office 2016 for Mac using Microsoft AutoUpdate.”

The Project Manager for Outlook, Faisal Jeelani, recently commented on a post on the company’s support forum.

We are aware of the issue with Outlook 2011 on El Capitan and of Office 2016 on El Capitan.

We are working on a fix for 2011 and for 2016 we are working closely with Apple to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Unfortunately we do not have any timelines for either fix, please stay tuned and thank you for your understanding.

While Microsoft is acknowledging that users of its Office for Mac 2016 application suite are encountering frequent crashes and that their team is working on a fix, there is no timeline for an update. Until then, Microsoft suggests that users can work around this issue by running Outlook for Mac 2011 on Mac OS X Yosemite (version 10.10) or an earlier version.

Password Managers: What are they and should I use one?

For those who are challenged with managing multiple different passwords for different accounts they might consider using a password manager, also known as a password vault.

Password ManagerA password manager is a piece of software that helps someone to organize their own passwords or pin codes. It typically is a local database that encrypts passwords and the database itself uses a master password to open it. Some types of password managers also acts as a Form Filler, where once a particular website is launched, and it prompts for a username and password, the password manager recognizes the request and will automatically fill the user name and password into the form.  This type of password manager can be used as a defense against “phishing” as it is setup to handle automated logins to a particular site, and will not work with an imitation or a look alike website.

Some password managers include a password generator.  In this case, when you define an entry in the database for a password, the password manager can generate a password that can be stored and used as needed.  There are also password managers that are available online.  This type of tool is a web based version similar to a desktop password manager, but allows for more portability.

Password managers have pros and cons.  Some of the pros are listed above, while one of the main cons is that if your computer (or phone if you have a password manager on your smartphone) is lost, so are your passwords.  Even though they may be protected and encrypted inside of the password manager, you no longer have access to that information.

(A few password manager tools are Keepass, Lastpass, Roboform, Kaspersky Password Manager and 1password)

IT Connect is published by the Office of Information Technology at Southern Methodist University.


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