OIT Technology News: Back to School 2017 Edition

Classroom Technology Updates, Desktop Replacements, Canvas Nights, and my.SMU Update are just a few of the items highlighted this month.

Classroom Technology Updates, Cloud Services, Security Report, ManeFrame II, and a new CIO are just a few of the items highlighted this month.
Dr. Michael H. Hites
Dr. Michael H. Hites to lead OIT into Second Century

This summer, Dr. Michael H. Hites, an executive with 17 years of experience leading large-scale computing operations for university-based research and innovation, joined OIT as SMU’s Chief Information Officer.

President Turner will be hosting a reception for faculty and staff on August 29th, to welcome Dr. Hites. We hope that you will join the Office of Information Technology in welcoming our new Chief Information Officer.
Epson Screen
OIT Updates Technology in SMU Classrooms Over the Summer

During the summer of 2017, the AV team tackled a large number of projects to refresh classroom technology in over 116 rooms, including 6 prototype new technology spaces.
Instructurecon Logo

InstructureCon Reveals Upcoming Features in Canvas

SMU's own Canvas administrators paid a visit to the Rockies for Instructurecon to find out what Canvas has up their sleeve, and they weren't disappointed!
OIT Security Report 2017 Summer Edition
Summer 2017 Security Report Now Available

Our Summer Edition of the OIT Security Report covers the rise in ransomware, phishing via text message, & results of our Cybersecurity Survey.

ManeFrame 2.0

ManeFrame II is ready for you!

ManeFrame II (M2) is ready & with a processing capacity of 630 teraflops, it has more than 6x the processing power than the original ManeFrame.

The Center for Scientific Computation Education will hold a week long workshop in September to help users get started.
New Account Request Forms Launched to Improve Onboarding

A series of new request forms will be available in help.smu.edu to streamline & shorten the process to assign employee permissions to the various services.
OIT Resources for Your Sitecore Needs

If you missed the Sitecore Clinics, there are still plenty of resources to get help with or learn more about Sitecore, such as Web Captains and the Sitecore Knowledge Base.
Keeping up to date with Cloud Services Outages

As we move to more cloud-based applications to provide services, sometimes we will be impacted by interruptions ourside of OIT's control. Find out how to find the current status of these hosted applications.
Using Zoom to Create Quick and Easy Screen Recordings

Zoom is an excellent way to conduct online meetings and webinars. Did you know that it's also an easy tool for quickly recording your screen and audio?
A-LEC/OIT Learning Workshops Return for Fall!

The Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (A-LEC) and OIT will once again be offering several workshops to students this semester.
Canvas 101: Easily Adding Essential Course Content

See how quick and easy it is to add course content, such as syllabus, a brief bio, and even a profile picture in your Canvas course.

A Farewell to Our CIO Joe Gargiulo

As you may know, the University's CIO Joe Gargiulo has announced his retirement. Joe has served SMU since 1998 in various capacities. He joined the team 19 years ago managing the Y2K efforts and then overseeing the PeopleSoft conversion. He has lead the Office of Information Technology (OIT) team through a number of organizational changes (most recently the transition to shared services), as well as shepherded many significant projects. We say goodbye to the man who has been our leader for so many years.

Classroom Technology Refreshes with New Collaboration Devices

OIT and the Academic Technology Council have identified 70 rooms to receive classroom technology upgrades this fiscal year. Here are a few exciting new changes.

Desktop Replacement Project to deploy over 700 new computers

OIT has made quite a number of changes to improve the desktop replacement process from last year and are replacing between 700-1,000 computers in 10 weeks.

My.SMU

my.SMU:
An Expected Journey

This summer, we will embark on a journey towards a more intuitive my.SMU. The first changes you will notice include a welcoming home page, tile-based navigation links, and an updated financial aid interface.

Canvas Corner

Canvas Corner: May Edition 2017

Every month in Canvas Corner, we discuss the new features and enhancements available in Canvas, including cover color overlays on Course Cards and setting any page as a Front Page.

Canvas Nights

Canvas Nights & Boot Camps return in August

Grab your calendar & mark it now for our Canvas Nights and Canvas Boot Camp sessions. These evening & all-day trainings will be available for Canvas in August.
SMU's ManeFrame II

Charging Forward with ManeFrame 2.0

With the final delivery of all remaining hardware components on May 12th, implementation of the new ManeFrame II (M2) High-Performance Compute Cluster enters the homestretch.

Over 2K Learned from Lynda

Over 2000 students, faculty, & staff have signed on to lyndaCampus and taken advantage of the thousands of business, software, & creative skills trainings.

Protecting yourself from crashes with CrashPlan

Crashplan is provided for daily backups of files in your user folder. This way, if your hard drive fails, IT can restore your files with CrashPlan.

Classroom Technology Planning Report for 2017 Now Available

Classroom Technology Planning Report for 2017 is now available and includes the Technology Fund spending for FY17 as well as the plans for FY18.

Creating a Canvas Assignment using Kaltura’s Video Quiz Feature

Kaltura

Learn how to create a video quiz using Kaltura's Video Management Service and Canvas Learning Management System. It’s fairly straightforward and easy.