Welcome Students!

Over the summer, the ITS department (computer people) were busy updating technologies that will help you succeed. Visit and bookmark our blog itsnews.widener.edu, as new valuable information is frequently posted. Check out the latest below!

Five web links to help start your semester!

Wireless access

Email access

Getting started with Office 365

 FREE Office 2016 download

FREE access to LinkedIn Learning

Contact us with any questions or issues.

Submit a ticket! Go to QuickTicket.widener.edu

Call us!   (610) 499-1047

Visit the Student Technical Support Center (STSC)
Located on the Main Level of Wolfgram Library

Campus Cruiser Closeout FAQs

As you may have heard, Cruiser closed their doors on December 31, 2018. This FAQ has been compiled in anticipation of questions you may have. If your question is not addressed in this FAQ, please submit your question to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu.

We highly recommend subscribing to this blog to receive notifications when new information is posted.

Click on any Question button to toggle between showing and hiding its answer.

Cruiser – General

A. Subscribe to the blog! Visit our previous post here for instructions on subscribing to the ITSNews blog. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You should already have made every attempt to download any data you wished to save. If you have not, please attempt to download your data right away. The portal may continue to be accessible until March 15, 2019 but we are on borrowed time now. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. While Cruiser formally closed their doors on December 31, 2018, the portal may be available until March 15, 2019, but with little to no support from the vendor. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Even though the site may be available until March 15, 2019, Cruiser officially closed their doors on December 31, 2018. As we move forward, there is no guarantee we will have a contact to help with data download issues. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. If you are a current student, staff or faculty, we encourage you to save the files in your OneDrive space in Office365. If you need help moving files to OneDrive, please see our OneDrive resources. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Any email sent to a loginID@mail.widener.edu account will be returned to the sender after March 15, 2019. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. If you would like to setup an auto-reply to instruct senders to update your email address instructions follow the steps below.
1. Log into Cruiser and click on MyCruiser.

a. Click Archived Cruiser Email

2. Click on the Tools tab, and then click Settings.

3. Click on the Auto Reply tab.

a. Click Enable Auto Reply button (correct display should say ENABLED)

b. Target should be ‘All Senders’.

c. Frequency should be ‘Every Time’.

d. Do not enter a Begin or End Date.

e. Enter your reply message that will be sent to any email delivered to your Cruiser email account.

f. A generic message could be: Please note, my email address has changed to loginID@widener.edu. This email address will no longer be valid after March 15, 2019. Please update your address book with my new email address.

4. Click Save.
Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Update your email address on your personal website accounts, i.e. banking, Amazon, iCloud, LinkedIn, utilities, etc. Last updated: 1/11/19

My Cruiser – Personal Tools:

A. This data was moved to the new Office 365 platform as of May 2018. You can access it through the WUMail link on the Widener home page. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Navigate to My Cruiser > Personal Tools. Click on My Files.
Review the list of folders and files you’ve saved. Check the box next to any that you want to save and then click Download. If you need help moving files to OneDrive, please see our OneDrive resources or send us an email with your question to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu Last updated: 1/11/19

Students

A. Students should download any data that they wish to keep for archival purposes. Students should immediately download data located in the shared files of your Campus Cruiser courses, committees, or clubs. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Unfortunately they cannot students need to download the files individually. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Navigate to My Cruiser > Personal Tools. Click on My Files.
Review the list of folders and files you’ve saved. Check the box next to any that you want to save and then click Download. If you need help moving files to OneDrive, please see our OneDrive resources. Last updated: 1/11/19

Academics

A. Now that Cruiser has formally closed their doors, there are no guarantees for how much longer the data will be accessible. It may continue to be accessible until March 15, 2019 but we are on borrowed time now.
Navigate to Academics > Classes > My Cruiser Class Archives. For Assignment Submissions, select the assignment > Detail and choose the document you want downloaded (it should download automatically) For Discussion Boards or Journals you will need to copy/paste your prompts and replies. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You may find that the data is still accessible and may be available until March 15, 2019. However, we have no way to guarantee for how much longer the data will be available. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Now that Cruiser has formally closed their doors, there are no guarantees for how much longer the data will be accessible. It may continue to be accessible until March 15, 2019 but we are on borrowed time now.
Navigate to Academics > Classes > My Cruiser Class Archives. There is no simple download for anything built in HTML notepads, Discussion Board prompts, Home Page content, Assignments, Assessments, Announcements, or Journals. You will need to Copy/Paste into a Word document or a Canvas course (create a new Master Class or use an existing course in Canvas).The YouTube Playlist “Cruiser Closeout” is a 3 part series that TLT has created to address moving specific course content out of CampusCruiser:
Part 1 – Shared FilesPart 2 – Course Content (ex. HTML Notepad, Assignments, Quizzes, etc)Part 3 – Course Records (Attendance, Gradebook, Student Submissions) Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Back to and including the Fall 2015 term. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. The Provost has requested that the respective Deans serve as custodians of this content. Any request for access to retired/former FT or adjunct faculty course data for assessment and accreditation purposes must include permission from the Dean, along with the Course ID number(s). The complete request with Course ID number(s) and the Dean’s permission should be emailed together to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Canvas classes can be accessed from the Widener home page or the Canvas app on mobile devices. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You can access Engage classes directly using the link below, or through Canvas (via the same link).
Direct Access: Go to https://engage.widener.edu/learn/ and Log In. We recommend bookmarking this page for future reference. You may receive a message that states “User could not be authenticated.” If that happens, please click the “forgotten username or password” link to update your credentials.

Access through Canvas: You will see a “Course” in Canvas titled, “Access Your Engage Courses Here” on your Canvas Dashboard. This will provide a link (the same one listed above) to log into Engage.

For assistance with technical issues related to Engage, please contact the Personal Support Center (PSC): PSC – Personal Support Center widener@personalsupportcenter.com 1-844-386-7321

Last updated: 1/11/19

A. For every evaluation you need to keep, please access it and use one of the following options:
Use the Overall Download button for a .xls workbook of survey data.

Use the Report Formats button (has 3 options) > use the Print button to get PDF printouts. If you employed the Scale format in your evaluation, the  Additional Results tab may provide additional formats under the “Response Distribution Reports” section (click to expand). Last updated: 1/11/19

@Widener

A. You will continue to receive emergency campus alerts via email and on your phone if you have subscribed to Omnilert (previously E2 CampusAlert). Omnilert Subscription Signup We have signed a contract for a new portal solution, which will be announced shortly. We will broadcast general campus announcements in the new portal. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Office365. The owners or Hosts of these offices, Committees, or clubs will need to move them to Office365. ITS will provide instruction on how to do this in the near future. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. There is no easy or quick way to pull the data off of Campus Cruiser. Everything needs to be save individually. The steps are listed below.
1. Go to your page
2. Right click anywhere on the page
3. Depending on the browser you are using > Select “Save as… or Save Page as…”
4. Your file directory will launch, select the location where you want to store your Campus Cruiser data
Things to remember when saving data:
1. The main page is saved as an html web page, the view will not be the same as Campus Cruiser. This is to preserve your information that is accessed from the page and any external internet links that are contained there.2. If linked content lives in Campus Cruiser it will need to be downloaded separately. Examples are word, excel or pdf documents.3. Images, videos and movies will need to be downloaded separately. ANY LINKS THAT WORKED IN THE PAST MAY NOT WORK NOW THAT CAMPUS CRUISER IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. THE DATA MAY BE ACCESSIBLE UNTIL MARCH 15, 2019 BUT THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. To copy an Office, Committees and Clubs membership list. Go into the Office, Committee or Club and follow the instructions below.
Member Tools > Address Book > Check “Contact” box to select all > Select “E-mail” > Then copy the list of email address of your members.
Last updated: 1/11/19

A. We have signed a contract for an external-facing website solution, which will be announced shortly. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. If the content is intended for Widener clients only, you will move this content to Office365 into a group or site. If you need help moving files to Office365, please send an email to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. The directory was migrated to the Office365 platform as of May 2018. Office365 directory Last updated: 1/11/19

A. Send us an email with your question to CruiserCloseout@widener.edu Last updated: 1/11/19

WebAdvisor

A. GOOD NEWS — We are NOT losing any of the functionality listed under the Web Advisor tab. All of the services listed under WebAdvisor are links to other web sites or pages. ITS grouped them under the heading of WebAdvisor to make access easier for students, faculty, and staff. We have signed a contract for a new portal solution, which will be announced shortly. The WebAdvisor services will be accessible through the new portal. Last updated: 1/11/19

A. You should locate any customer-facing documentation or instructions you may have prepared and review them for possible updates. You will be changing references to Cruiser and any instructions with regard to navigating to a particular service. Any instructions regarding how to actually use a particular service should not have to change. Last updated: 1/11/19

One Year Later with Lynda.com

Last April, we began providing Widener faculty, staff and students with access to the Lynda.com library of tutorials on technology, creative, and business skills. In the first year, we’re happy to see that 926 of us have viewed 16,900 videos.

Here are courses that have been viewed by the most people (or for the most total hours):

  1. Learning Canvas 2016
  2. Learning Office 365
  3. SPSS Statistics Essential Training
  4. How to use Lynda.com
  5. Learning Canvas 2017
  6. Social Media Marketing: Optimization
  7. Excel 2013 Essential Training
  8. Learning with Lynda.com
  9. SharePoint: Compliance Management
  10. Office 365: Learning Excel

Remember, you can access Lynda.com from any device with Internet access, even when you’re away from campus. (Students: if you need to brush up on a skill for an internship or summer job, remember that you can still use Lynda.com.) All you need are your Widener username and password when you visit lynda.widener.edu. Enjoy!

External OneDrive File Sharing

We’re enabling one of the most requested features for Office 365.

ODFBUntil now, OneDrive file sharing to external accounts has been disabled. In our ongoing effort to support your academic and business needs, ITS is happy to announce that you can now share your OneDrive files with anybody.

Sounds great! How do I do I get started?

1. Log into Office 365 and click on Apps Launcher and click on OneDrive. (It’s a blue button in the upper left that looks like a waffle.)

image of Microsoft

2. Right click on the document you plan to share and choose Share.

3. Click on drop down option “Only people in Widener…” in pop up window.

4. Click on Anyone (you will see a check mark) to share the file outside of Widener University accounts.

a. Note that Allow editing is checked by default; if you do not want to allow editing, uncheck this box.

b. Also, there is an option to enter an expiration date for the link to expire. We recommend entering a date.

c. Click Apply when finished with Link Settings.

5. Enter the recipient’s full email address then click below to choose that email.

a. For multiple users, enter each email address and click on the email below it.

b. When all of your recipient emails have been entered, you can enter an optional message.

c. Other options include clicking on Copy Link, which will create a link to copy into an email, etc., to send to recipients.

d. Clicking on Outlook will open a sharable link in an email (in a pop-up window), addressed to the recipient emails you entered earlier. This is a great option for when you need to attach additional files to the email, insert a signature, etc.

6. Click Send to send link to recipients.

a. You will get a pop-up stating a link to your files have been sent. You can click the Copy button to copy and paste the link if needed.


b. Each recipient will receive an email supplying a link to the file and an optional message if entered.

c. If you granted the recipient edit access, they will be shown as a Guest Contributor in the document when editing.

 

To remove a share

a. Right click on the file and click on Details.
b. Click Manage access (in blue letters)
c. To stop sharing this file:
i. Click on the x to the right of the specific link to end share.
ii. To stop all sharing of this file, click Stop sharing (under Manage Access).
d. Click Stop sharing button to confirm.
e. Click X at top right to close Manage access window.
f. Under Has Access, you should see updated icons.
g. Click at top right to close Details window.
h. At far right of file, you should see “Only you” if you removed all sharing.

If you have any questions, please contact the HelpDesk or submit at ticket at quickticket.widener.edu

macOS High Sierra Announcement

Apple released macOS High Sierra (10.13) on Monday, September 25th, 2017.  As with most new OS releases, we strongly recommend that you wait and not upgrade your University owned Mac.

Apple released macOS High Sierra (10.13) on Monday, September 25th, 2017.  As with most new OS releases, we strongly recommend that you wait and not upgrade your University owned Mac.  Information Technology Services cannot yet support High Sierra on University owned Macs until it has been sufficiently tested.  Additionally, waiting until the first set of High Sierra updates are released allows Apple to fix initial stability problems and bugs before the OS even makes it to your machine.

Our currently deployed Macs cannot even benefit from the most significant changes in High Sierra – the new Apple file system (AFS).  The enhanced speed, performance, security and reliability that High Sierra advertises is dependent on the new file system, which Apple does not support on our Mac hardware.  In addition to not being able to realize the biggest benefits of the upgrade, the process itself could cause significant issues, making a complete system backup an absolute necessity.  Furthermore, ITS is already aware of a number of issues with network printing and older software programs, including incompatibility with all versions of Microsoft Office released before 2016.  Software compatibility issues resulting from this upgrade are more complex than a basic update can fix.  These compatibility issues are similar to those experienced when Apple moved to Intel processors and Power PC programs no longer worked.  All of this leads us to our recommendation that you wait and not upgrade at this time.

One of the best updates – Safari’s ability to mute autoplayed videos – doesn’t even require High Sierra.  The new “Autoplay Blocking” is part of Safari 11, which is available in the App Store for systems running Sierra (10.12) or El Capitan (10.11).

Once we are confident that High Sierra will work well in our environment, ITS staff will be happy to assist with a safe and coherent upgrade process for our faculty and staff.

Top 25 Lynda.com courses at Widener

Since ITS started offering all faculty, staff, and students unlimited access to Lynda.com in late April 2017, 659 unique people have viewed over 6,800 videos.

tile_lyndalearning_logoSince ITS started offering all faculty, staff, and students unlimited access to Lynda.com in late April 2017, 659 unique people have viewed over 6,800 videos. Here is the list of the top 25 videos for our community so far, ranked by the number of unique viewers to use a course:

  1. Learning Office 365
  2. Learning Canvas 2016
  3. How to use Lynda.com
  4. Excel 2013 Essential Training
  5. Office 365: Learning Outlook
  6. Windows 10 Essential Training
  7. Learning with Lynda.com
  8. Office 365: Learning Excel
  9. Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell on Designing and Delivering Great Customer Experience
  10. Outlook 2016 Essential Training
  11. Excel 2016 Essential Training
  12. Migrating from Office 2010 to Office 2016
  13. Customer Advocacy
  14. Statistics Foundations: 1
  15. SPSS Statistics Essential Training
  16. Office 2016 and Office 365 New Features
  17. Outlook 2016: Time Management with Calendar and Tasks
  18. OneNote 2016 Essential Training
  19. Microsoft Planner First Look
  20. Microsoft Teams Essential Training
  21. Learning Python
  22. HTML Essential Training
  23. Team Collaboration in Office 365
  24. Photoshop CC 2017 One-on-One: Fundamentals
  25. WordPress Essential Training

Understandably, there’s a heavy emphasis on Office 365 and Canvas training so far. It’s worth noting that there’s also interest in both technical skill development in areas such as programming languages and general professional development on business topics, such as customer service and time management.

An emerging trend in the usage data points to faculty who may be using Lynda.com as supplemental learning materials for their courses. For instance, we’ve heard positive feedback about the quality of the statistics package training available. Let us know if you’d like more information about assigning Lynda.com courses and playlists to your students.

Get Started

Just visit lynda.widener.edu. Use your Widener login ID and password—the same one you use for Office 365. Even if you don’t have time to dig into the material right now, search for topics that interest you. You can easily add them to your personal playlist to try out later.

Have a Lynda.com success story you’d like to share? Please let us know!

Device Registration – WIRELESS AND WIRED

Get connected to Widener’s wireless network.

For security reasons, Widener University has implemented a solution to protect your electronic devices from other devices that might not be secure. Every device you connect must be registered for compliance purposes.

Steps to register your device

  • Connect to the wireless SSID “WUdorm” or “Widener”, if you choose to connect via Ethernet cable you will need to put in a port request.
  • Open your internet browser and try to go to a website such as google.com.
  • Follow the on screen instructions to register your device.

Device Registration Requirement Information:

 Device Registration Requirement Information:

  • Windows PC
    • All Microsoft Windows based Desktops and Laptops (Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10) are required to have up to date operating system patches (Windows Updates) and an up to date Anti-Virus program (free or subscription) not provided from the University. A persistent agent is required to be downloaded and installed in order to stay in compliance on the network. It will prompt you for your Widener Login ID and password, then it will scan for your operating system patches and verify an up to date anti-Virus.
  • Phones & Apple Products (MacBook, iMac, iPad, iPhone), Non-Windows Tablets, eReaders
    • (MacBook, iMac, iPad, iPhone) non-windows tablets, eReaders will only require your Campus Cruiser username and password to register on the network.
  • Gaming Devices
    • (PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo products) will be automatically registered on the network. Please connect them via ethernet cable or on the wireless SSID “WUDorm” and they will take up to 15 minutes to move from the registration network to the production network. If you still have issues connecting after patiently waiting, please locate your MAC address for your device and contact your campus HelpDesk.
  • Smart TV’s and other streaming devices
    • (Apple TV, Amazon Firestick/TV, Echo, Roku, Slingbox, etc.) do not automatically register on the network at this time. Please locate the MAC address of your device and contact your campus HelpDesk to open a work order to have it manually registered OR submit a work order at http://QUICKticket.widener.edu

 *PLEASE NOTE: CHROMECAST is designed to work in a home environment and given the size and complexity of our network, it will NOT work on Widener’s Network. Wireless printing in the dorms is not supported; therefore, please connect your printer via usb cable. WE DO NOT ALLOW PERSONAL WIRELESS ROUTERS ON WIDENER’S NETWORK.

*For additional assistance, please visit the Student Technology Support Center located in the Wolfgram Library on the Main Level.  The Student Technology Support Center (STSC) is a walk-in support center where students can go for assistance with their computers and hand-held devices.  Their hours are Monday through Thursday 3pm to 10pm and Friday 3pm to 6:30pm. You may also visit the ITS HelpDesk located on the 2nd floor of Academic Center North (ACN) Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm excluding holidays.