Please be assured that academic IT support will remain in place and will be able to assist you as it has in the past. Please see the following questions for more detailed information about this support.
Generally, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Help Desk will continue to assist the campus community by providing general information about, access to, and support for the following applications: Blackboard, Qualtrics, ExamSoft, WordPress, Sitecore, and various statistical applications (SAS, SPSS, Mathematica, etc.)
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) will assist and consult with faculty on the use of these tools to enhance course instruction, student engagement, and learning assessment.
Q1
Who should I call if I need help with Blackboard or Canvas?
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) Help Desk will continue to provide information about and technical support for Blackboard. If you need assistance with copying content from one course section to another, merging sections, or have general “how-to” questions, the OIT Help Desk Consultants can assist you. Please call ext. 8HELP or email help@smu.edu.
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) will provide advanced training and guidance for faculty for the pedagogical use of Blackboard, such as building useful assignments, applying learning assessment tools, providing instructional design, using social learning features, and managing the integration of third party tools.
Q2
Who should I call if I need help with or information about Qualtrics?
Qualtrics is a Web-based online research tool, designed specifically to with conduct market research, customer insights, employee performance, event registration, institutional assessment, alumni outreach, academic research, and much more. All faculty, staff and students can simply login using their SMU ID number and password and begin using Qualtrics. There is no setup required.
For information, documentation and online training materials for the Qualtrics service, please visit http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Services/Qualtrics.
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) Help Desk will continue to provide information, ongoing support and access to Qualtrics services, including managing collaboration groups and troubleshooting technical issues. For additional questions on how to access the service, please call ext. 8HELP or email help@smu.edu.
Q3
Who should I call if I need help with ExamSoft?
ExamSoft is a test management application that allows faculty to administer a secured exam in class with laptops and iPads.
For information, documentation and online training materials for ExamSoft, please visit http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Services/ExamSoft.
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) Help Desk will continue to provide information about ExamSoft, access to the service, user maintenance, and synchronization with Blackboard. Please call ext. 8HELP or email help@smu.edu.
Q4
Who should I call if I need a Zoom Video Conferencing account?
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) Help Desk will continue to provide information and access to the Zoom Video Conferencing service. Please call ext. 8HELP or email help@smu.edu to request an account or help incorporating the use of this Web-based tool in the classroom.
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) will provide guidance for faculty in the use of Zoom to complement course instruction, enhance student communications, and provide for synchronous distance learning.
Q5
What should I do if I would like my students to create ePortfolios or use Web publishing in my class?
WordPress is the Web authoring /content management tool available to students for these uses.
Students, staff, and faculty may host academic, personal, and research sites at people.smu.edu. For more information on creating space on people.smu.edu (WordPress), please go to http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Services/WebPublishing#tab_tab2.
Q6
Who should I call to help me with technology questions or issues concerning the Audio/Video equipment installed in the classrooms?
Please continue to follow the same procedures that you have in the past for your area. For schools other than Lyle Engineering, Cox School of Business and Dedman Law, there is a special hotline (x8-8888) that directly calls the OIT Help Desk so we can dispatch support personnel. OIT will continue to provide support for faculty and emergency response for the use of technology in the classrooms and we plan to enhance the service going forward.
