Say Hello to LinkedIn Learning!

On December 18th, Lynda.com will become LinkedIn Learning

We’re excited to let you know that we’ll be upgrading one of your learning and development benefits, Lynda.com, to LinkedIn Learning. LinkedIn Learning has the same great content as Lynda.com, and it will provide a more personalized experience.

Accounts will be upgraded on Tuesday, December 18th, at which time you will no longer be able to access Lynda.com. But don’t worry, all your learning activity and history will be seamlessly transferred to LinkedIn Learning. After the upgrade is completed (we expect it to take up to ~18 hours), you’ll receive an email to activate your LinkedIn Learning account.

More information on the upgraded LinkedIn Learning environment is available here. Answers to questions like “What if I don’t have a LinkedIn account?”, “Do I need to connect my LinkedIn profile?”, and “Will my administrator have access to view my LinkedIn activity on my personal account?” can be found in the LinkedIn Learning FAQs.

We look forward to the upgrade and seeing how LinkedIn Learning helps you continue your growth and success!

New Faces in ITS: Leyi Zhu

Leyi Zhu has joined Widener’s TLT team as an Instructional Designer. She looks forward to collaborating with faculty to develop engaging learning experiences for our students, and exploring effective teaching and learning strategies and digital pedagogy practices within the entire Canvas ecosystem.

Leyi earned her master’s degree in Instructional Psychology and Technology from the University of Oklahoma. She also has a master’s degree in Business Management from Zhejiang University in China. Prior to moving to the United States, Leyi worked for over six years as an auditor and financial analyst.

In her spare time, Leyi enjoys reading with her two daughters and encourages them to create stories of their own. If anyone has any ideas about engaging children in storytelling or good books to recommend, please share them with her. Leyi’s office is in the TLT space by the FISHtank (Wolfgram Library, 1st floor).

Microsoft Office 365 Resources

Some helpful resources for getting started or learning more
about Office 365!

Office 365 is the Microsoft collection of productivity applications that you’re already familiar with, like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It also includes Outlook (email and calendars), OneNote, and OneDrive (cloud-based file storage).
Click on any of the Office 365 applications below for more info, including Quicksheets you can download for getting started, helpful tips, Microsoft info sites, links to mobile downloads, and videos!

Outlook — Microsoft’s Application for Email, Calendar, and Contacts

OneDrive — Microsoft’s Cloud-based File Storage

Excel — Microsoft’s Spreadsheet Application

PowerPoint — Microsoft’s Slideshow Presentation Software

OneNote — Microsoft’s Digital Notebook Application

Forms — Microsoft’s Data Collection Application

The Office suite is available for all Widener faculty, staff, and students to download on up to five devices as a part of our campus Microsoft agreement. If you want to install Office on your personal computer, we have Office 2016 download instructions.

Demystifying Green Printing

While it is true that there is an initiative being undertaken to right size the university’s printer fleet, we wanted to take this opportunity to reassure everyone that we will not be taking your printers without a mutual agreement.

Per President Wollman’s FALL 2018 Opening Meeting, ITS is managing the printer rightsizing effort in collaboration with the Operations Department. The steps we are taking are listed below.

1. An ITS representative will be meeting with individual departments, assessing need, and centralizing printing functions. This process includes removing costly desktop and laser printers and moving to digital multi-function devices. However, it is NOT strictly an elimination effort. If an area is lacking printing capacity, every effort will be made add capability, streamlining departmental workflow.

2. When an assessment is complete, ITS will share it with the dean or department head for their consideration, and changes will be made if deemed necessary. ITS will then begin setting everyone up to print to the appropriate devices, and removing unneeded & obsolete printers & fax machines.

The first floor of Old Main was first to partner with ITS in this undertaking, and in the course of consolidating, they went from 16 assorted devices down to 2 digital copiers.

Widener’s aging fleet of laser and inkjet printers has become unsustainable long term. Maintenance, repair, and the cost of consumables has continued to escalate. Digital imaging is the industry standard, proving to be a more fiscally and ecologically responsible than older technology. ITS is aware that each area has unique requirements and will customize a plan that will benefit everyone.

Need training? Client Success has you covered…

Client Success provides training sessions on a variety of topics, including the Office 365 suite of applications.

Upcoming OneDrive Training Sessions

Upcoming OneDrive training sessions are scheduled for October 30th, and November 5th and are open to all Widener employees. You can register for any of those sessions using the Open OneDrive Training – Registration form.

Recent Examples Illustrate How We Can Help

Our initial training sessions began with a handful of targeted groups. These initial sessions have helped us build a successful training program that we’re excited to share with everyone!

Microsoft Forms training provided one group with the tools and knowledge necessary to completely revamp a cumbersome registration process. Microsoft Groups training provided another with the ability to establish a new electronic records handling process – just in time for the “Printer Right-Sizing” campaign. Lynda.com from LinkedIn training helped yet another team create and share meaningful playlists for their target audience. And most recently, our OneDrive for Faculty sessions supplemented TLT Canvas training, providing extra help for building course content.

Training Requests

If you’re interested in attending training on a different topic, at a different time, or you want to schedule training for your department/group, please use the Training Request form. Future training sessions will be offered based on your feedback from this form.

Moving forward

Microsoft is always updating versions, changing features, or adding functions. And sometimes Widener makes changes that can affect existing processes or bring new tools to the table. Keep an eye out for anything new that we can help you learn and master.

If you haven’t already, subscribing to this blog is a great way to stay informed on new initiatives and upcoming changes. Visit our previous post for instructions on subscribing to the RSS Feed to get blog posts sent right to your Inbox.

We always value your input and feedback. Please contact Client Success if you would like to share your thoughts and ideas about how our training process can continue to improve. We’re here to help you be successful in your part of making Widener great!

Canvas Launch: Mission Accomplished.

Faculty, pat yourselves on the back!

With the fall semester in full swing, I am pleased to share some information about the very successful switch to Canvas.

Without a simple migration tool available, our faculty found themselves facing the feat of rebuilding their classes in Canvas. While it was understood that the intuitive Canvas platform makes it easy, the work seemed daunting at first. The TLT team set a plan in motion 1 year ago, providing learning opportunities that included interactive workshops, 1-on-1 sessions, and online self-paced courses and tutorials.

The great news is that so many faculty also used the migration as an opportunity to rethink pedagogical approaches, integrate new student-centered learning activities, and add project-based learning experiences. As of October 1st, instructors of 95% of all courses that could benefit from using Canvas had done so.

A few additional points of pride (October 1, 2018 data):

23,094 – the number of student enrollments enjoying learning in Canvas

494 – published quizzes in the online, easily graded Canvas space

908 – published graded discussion forums (contributions are assessed and measured)

8,769 – published assignments (mostly using the Speed Grader easy grading tool)

778 – “class calendar” items (also accessible by students on mobile devices)

2,139 – daily unique student visitors using the Canvas app

2,942 – daily unique student visitors using a mobile browser

Opportunities to keep learning

Sign up for any of the ITS fall training events. There are three different workshops on Canvas and OneDrive you can attend, or reach out to TLToffice@widener.edu for support.

SPRING 2019 courses are loaded in Canvas!

Go ahead, jump in. We have streamlined the template further and have even added a bonus Faculty Notes page that offers startup tips, like how to import your existing Canvas content into the next semester. You are free to begin customizing your home page and adding content. We are here to help if you need us!

Canvas 24/7 Support Hotline (Faculty): (833)735-0335

Located in the left-hand navigation of your Canvas account, you can access the live chat and phone number to the hotline.

For additional assistance, email TLToffice@widener.edu, or call 610-499-4090.

Colleague and WebAdvisor Scheduled Maintenance Notice

PLEASE NOTE on your calendars that all Colleague, Informer, and WebAdvisor services will be unavailable from 6am Friday, November 23rd until 8am Monday, November 26th.

During this scheduled maintenance time we will be moving the Colleague environment to a new SQL database. This update to the university’s technology infrastructure sets the stage for future improvements to many administrative services.

For the majority of students, faculty, and staff this transition should be a non-event. For those who log in to Colleague every day please be on the lookout for a series of emails over the next several weeks that will inform you of changes to the Colleague environment that will be affecting you.

It’s Everyone’s Job to Ensure Online Safety at Work

It takes all of us to keep each other secure.

Photo by Stanley Dai on Unsplash It’s often said that “people are the weakest link” in cybersecurity. We prefer to think of them as our greatest assets – not only our focus of protection, but also our greatest allies! A lot of phishes and spam that gets past our filters is caught by you. You’ve been forwarding the weird stuff to phish@widener.edu (keep it going!), and we’ve had a lot of success in reducing the number of compromised accounts. So, don’t let up – the bad guys sure aren’t. Every user at Widener is a target, even President Wollman herself. In fact, she’s one of our most eagle-eyed phish catchers!

Last week we spoke about the many scams that are hitting universities, and ours is no exception. Since that post, we’ve had several of the same types of scams come through our systems. We were safe from each due to skeptical and security-aware staff. Nevertheless, the attacks continue, and we expect them to get more targeted and better crafted.

Please be aware that one of the methods used is to build a scam so that you can’t easily verify the sender’s email address on a smartphone. Plus, if the bad guys send it during your commute, it’s even harder to know if it’s legit. Add to that an “URGENT” or a “right now,” and your red flags should go up. We want you to know who the sender really is, but we also want you to drive safely and get here okay. Check that email sender’s address on your PC, laptop, or tablet before replying.

Whether it’s preventing phishes, spam, and malware by a system we’ve put in place, or by the awareness of our user community, keeping Widener University safe is a shared responsibility.

Sometimes the Spam is a Scam

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues, and so do the scams.

There’s never a lull in email scams here at Widener. Our community is targeted daily by one or more scams. Some of them are old classics, and some are brand new. Here is a list of a few we’ve seen – but even though it’s a short list, we get plenty of them.

Invoices – the bad guys send us “invoices” that are often spoofing or impersonating Widener employees. The attachments usually have some sort of installer that tries to put malware (probably Ransomware) on the computer. Sometimes they’re just PDFs with “links” to phishing sites. So far, our defenses are finding them before they do anything bad (the author here knocks on wood). Still, it’s best to be aware of any invoice, especially those that don’t refer to anything that’s due. (FTC link about this)

Direct Deposit – we’ve seen several instances of the bad guys impersonating employees to try to get our Payroll and HR groups to change their direct deposit info. The goal is to catch a payroll or reimbursement deposit and then drain the account before the absence is noticed by the employee. This one is bad because when the money is gone, it’s gone. Since these started, we’ve put controls in place to verify requests. (Lexology link about this)

Dog-Walking/Babysitting/Nanny/Caregiver Offer – This scam involves the offer of a job doing some light care of pets, children, or a loved one. Once responded to, the bad guy begins a scheme where a bad check is deposited, and the victim is directed to pay a third party to buy needed supplies and pay themselves. The third party (the scammer) gets the money before the bank discovers the check is bogus, and victim is stuck with the shortage. (FTC link about this)

“Sextortion” – The victim gets an email claiming to know their password, and it is often a valid one (usually old). The scammer tells the victim that he/she has been caught looking at porn sites, and will release a pic “from the user’s camera” unless a sum of money is paid. This one really gets to users because the password that the scammer sends is from one of the many breaches that have revealed passwords tied to addresses. It’s a really popular scam – we’ve received dozens here at Widener – but it’s a scam nonetheless. (Forbes link about this)

Gift Cards – In this one, scammers impersonate someone that has a management position, and direct the employee to buy a sum of gift cards, scrape off the back, and provide the verification numbers back to the scammer. Everyone wants to please their boss, so this one can be a real problem. The best defense is to get to know your boss, and never use gift cards like this. (FTC link about this)

The goal of the scammer/phisher is to appear legitimate, which makes this difficult. The better they are, the more people they can fool. Use this to your advantage: if it looks good, but you shouldn’t be getting it, that’s a red flag. Forward any email that’s weird or out of the ordinary to phish@widener.edu.

Make Your Home a Haven for Online Safety

It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month again!

Since 2004, the National Cyber Security Alliance has designated the month of October to remind us: STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ ITS posts every week this month with a new theme to keep cybersecurity awareness at the top of mind.

This week’s theme is “Make Your Home a Haven for Online Safety.” We live in an age where having the internet in your home is a fact of life. Most of us have learned how to give our home router a strong password. We are routinely connecting PCs and smartphones, as well as game consoles and tablets. Many of us have more fully-connected homes with devices such as thermostats, security systems, cameras – even things like refrigerators, door locks, and light bulbs! Keeping these items secure is critical, since each is a small computer, and carries much of the same risk as your other data devices.

It’s also important to remember that, for many students, Widener is their home for most of the year. ITS maintains many security measures, but keeping out the bad guys also means having a strong password and staying alert for scams and phishing. Keep in mind that the bad guys hit us when we’re most busy, and for us that’s the start of the semester and finals.

If you ever have a question about an email, feel free to forward it to phish@widener.edu. You can also call the Helpdesk at x1047, or email at helpdesk@widener.edu. And be sure to follow us on Twitter at @WidenerISO. Happy October, and safe computing!

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