Category: Teaching and Learning Tech

Freeze Lifted – What You Should Know

Posted on by Katrina Frank
happy illustrated character with two thumbs up signifying it's ok to edit WordPress.

Available Systems

We are happy to share that the content freeze for the Campus Web Infrastructure Modernization Project is now lifted!

Site Content Editors (SCEs) can now made edits to their department websites and the Hornet Hive Announcements as well as the Campus Event Calendar are available for submissions.

If you would like to report any website related issues you experience please complete the website issue/question report form.

For other questions related to this project please email wphelp@kzoo.edu.

New Process for Logging into Websites at K

If you are prompted to log in to view a webpage:

Do

Select the Sign-In button to use the one-click authentication option

Don’t

Do not enter your KNET username and password to sign in with WordPress as this is only meant for WP admins.

Note: If you enter your KNET credentials as opposed to using the single sign-on option, you may be delayed in attempting to log in again. Please reach out to the Help Desk if you are unable to use single sign-on.

a screenshot emphasizing to use the "one-click authentication" sign in button and not the "sign in with WordPress" option.

Reminder: Web Content Freeze Today!

Posted on by Katrina Frank

WordPress, Hornet Hive, and Campus Event Calendar Out of Service

As part of the Campus Web Infrastructure Modernization Project, Kalamazoo College websites will be unavailable from noon today, August 19th to noon Thursday, August 20.

During this freeze period, any changes or updates made by Site Content Editors will be lost and have to be repeated after the freeze.

We also ask all members of the campus community to refrain from submitting Hornet Hive Announcements and Campus Event Calendar requests during this period. Any submissions made during the freeze period may not be processed and could be lost as we complete the migration. Also during this period, there may be brief moments of inaccessibility or strange formatting on our web site while the work progresses, though we expect this to be minimal.

Information Services will notify the campus community when the work is completed. We will also provide a form for reporting any website-related issues that may arise.

New Tool Alert – IS Project Intake Form and the IS Support Form

Posted on by Katrina Frank
an illustration depicting the range of community members IS supports like students, faculty, and staff.

Launching…

Information Services (IS) is proud to launch our Project Intake Form and IS Support Form to Faculty and Staff at K. These two forms were created to improve collaboration through a newfound Project Governance Process and to work with you in a much more organized and documented way. So, when should you use these forms?

IS Project Intake Form

The Project Intake Form is the very first step for faculty and staff to engage with IS for software, hardware, or other technical projects. By doing so, the project is immediately added into a queue for review and shortly thereafter an initial discussion (in person or via email).

Please reference the IS Project Governance Process to learn about the 9 steps to success when partnering with IS on your projects.

Submit a Project to IS

IS Support Form

To provide more structure and clarity to your IS tech requests, we have created the IS Support Form. Although brief, this form is meant for faculty and staff to submit a request that needs immediate attention from the Help Desk. Once you submit the form a ticket is created within our Request Tracker (RT) system and requestors can check on the status of their request at any time.

Visit the IS Support Form page to learn more about the process and tips on how to send a successful support request.

Submit a Support Request

We are looking forward to utilizing our Request Tracker (RT) system to improve request fulfillment and to start the conversation on projects that involve IS.

Be Well,
Information Services

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Outage – Microsoft Cloud Services

Posted on by Peter Zillmann
warning icon

Information Services is monitoring an outage in Microsoft’s cloud services. According to Microsoft, “Users may be seeing degraded service functionality or be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services.” For updates on this outage please feel free to check Microsoft’s Service Health Status page.

Don’t Wait! – Action Items for Campus-wide Phone Migration

Posted on by Katrina Frank

Hello Faculty and Staff!

Beginning 9 a.m. on Wednesday, August 27th the College’s aged telephone system will be replace with Microsoft Teams Phone. The new Teams Phone service will enable our community to keep call features as our old system as well as allow calls to be placed and received outside of the College. Faculty and Staff can also expect many new services and features like setting unique voicemails, receiving voicemail transcriptions and messages via email, and more.

To make this switch as painless as possible, all faculty and staff should take care of the action items listed below.

For questions on this project, please email HelpDesk@kzoo.edu.

Immediate Action Items – Don’t wait!

  • Retrieve any of your voicemails that you want to have from the old system since they will not migrate to Teams Phone. Review Cisco Phone Documentation for instruction to access your voicemails.
    • Want to save your voicemail, but don’t know how to? – Sometimes the simplest tech is the right tech! Simply play your voicemail on your College phone and use personal cell phone recording app to capture and save.
  • Verify and set up your voicemail in Teams. This needs to be done BEFORE the switch date so you can start receiving voicemails in the new system as soon as the switch takes place at 9 a.m. on August 27th.

What to Expect on Switch Day

Date and Time: Wednesday, August 27th – 9:00 a.m.

  • Starting at 9 a.m. off campus calls to your Kalamazoo phone number will now ring on your computer and any other Teams app that you have installed and set up (mobile, laptop, etc.)
  • If you have Teams set up on other devices you can also utilize Teams Phone there in your Call tab. If you need to transfer calls between devices that can also be done easily.
  • Old desk phones should not be used after 9 a.m. Please keep your old phone plugged in so IS can disconnect and collect outdated hardware. It is important that you do not unplug your old phone since it could impact how your office computer works.

Additional Resources

Moodle Upgrade

Posted on by WordPress Administrator

Information Services will be updating Moodle on Wednesday, August 14th from 11am to 2pm.  Please note that Moodle to be unavailable on Wednesday during that time. After completion, we will be upgraded to Moodle 4.4.

Moodle 4.4 should not be a disruptive change but will include a visual update, a change to the text editor, upgrade to our Hypothesis annotation tool, and various improvements.  For a more detailed preview of changes, please read the Moodle Site News.

Contact Josh Moon, Educational Technology Specialist, at josh.moon@kzoo.edu with any questions.

Stream Video Migration

Posted on by Todd Watson

Microsoft has introduced a new version of Stream for video hosting on SharePoint.  This change requires Kalamazoo College to migrate Stream (Classic) content to SharePoint by early April 2024.

What you need to know:

  • After migration, Stream (on SharePoint) will include the videos that you’ve already uploaded to Stream (Classic) so you can continue to use them.
    • Your videos from Stream (Classic) will appear in your OneDrive in a folder titled “Stream Migrated Videos.”
    • Videos will also be viewable via the Stream start page for sharing, creating playlists, comments, etc.
    • Videos that are part of Microsoft 365 Groups will be moved to that group’s SharePoint site.
  • Videos you have linked or embedded in Teams, Moodle, and elsewhere will automatically redirect and continue to work for one year. However, we recommend updating your links before that.
  • Stream (on SharePoint) includes the important features from Stream (Classic) as well as new capabilities. If you are interested in learning more about the differences, review this short guide.

What you need to do:

  • If you would like to start migrating your videos now, please contact the Help Desk and I.S. will assist you.
  • Any videos not migrated by the beginning of April will be migrated for you.
  • Update your links to videos and embeds within one year after migration.

Please contact Help.Desk@kzoo.edu with questions. 

Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Oct 2022

Posted on by Katrina Frank
cybersecurity awareness month logo.

Did you know that October 2022 marks the 19th Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month?

To spread cybersecurity awareness, this month IS will be sharing key behaviors we can all adopt to be more secure. Read our posts each Friday for the month of October to learn more.

About Cybersecurity Awareness Month

“The National Cybersecurity Alliance launched Cybersecurity Awareness Month in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2004. The campaign is a strong collaboration between government and private industry to raise awareness about online security” (National Cybersecurity Alliance). You can learn more about the month and other cybersecurity initiatives on the National Cybersecurity Alliance website.

Habits to adopt:

Throughout the month of October we will be sharing more detailed information on the following habits:

  1. Using strong passwords and a password manager
  2. Enabling multi-factor authentication
  3. Recognizing and reporting phishing
  4. Complete required and offered cybersecurity trainings offered by IS

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IT Tip – Having Wifi Issues?

Posted on by Katrina Frank

Are you having issues with Wi-Fi on campus?
Use the Wi-Fi Outage Report Form

Steps to Resolve and Report

  1. Visit the Wi-Fi troubleshooting page to assist you in resolving your issue. Please attempt all troubleshooting tips that apply to your circumstance before completing a report.
  2. Due to the complexities of Wi-Fi-related problems, specific details are needed to help resolve Wi-Fi related issues. You must provide the following in order to submit a Wi-Fi Outage Report.
List of Required Information to Complete the Wi-Fi Outage Report Form
  • Name
  • The wireless network you were attempting to connect to
  • Screenshot of the error you encountered or the exact error message as displayed on your device
    • Note: A full screenshot of the error you are encountering is the most reliable way we can assist in resolving your issue
  • Date of occurrence
  • Time of occurrence
  • Location of occurrence
  • If this issue has happened elsewhere on campus. If so, the location(s) it has occurred
  • If the device was able to connect successfully in any other locations on campus. If so, the location(s) it has been successful
  • Type of device experiencing the issue –
    • Note: If you are using a device running on Android 10 or iOS 14 you will need to disable MAC randomization on your device first. See the Wi-Fi Troubleshooting section for instructions.
  • MAC Address – If you are unsure where to locate your MAC Address please see, How to Find Any Device’s IP Address, MAC Address, and Other Network Connection Details article by How-to-Geek.
  • If there were any other apps running on the device while the issue was experienced. If so, which apps