• Dec. 4, 2007

All K-Staters: Take the campus e-mail/calendar needs-assessment survey

by Campus Email/Calendar Needs Assessment Committee
published Dec. 4, 2007

The survey below was developed by the Campus Email Needs Assessment Committee to help identify the e-mail and calendaring requirements of K-State students, faculty, staff, alumni, and affiliates. This collaborative effort will help identify and implement a new strategy for K-State e-mail, calendaring, and other collaboration suite services. (Additional committee information may be found at www.k-state.edu/infotech/projects/email.)

It is assumed any solution chosen to meet the needs of K-State constituents will be reliable, secure, will integrate e-mail and calendaring functions, will provide sufficient account limits, will support standards-based protocols, will allow forwarding of messages, and will include basic editing capabilities. In addition, significant communications and training will be a part of the implementation.

Participation in this survey will help ensure the needs and priorities of all K-State constituent groups are understood. Your participation is critical, and greatly appreciated. If you have any general feedback, please provide those in the comments box at the end of the survey.

Please begin the survey at https://surveys.ksu.edu/TS?offeringId=77635 and note it's available through Friday, Dec. 14.

Faculty/staff: University-wide mandatory online training

by Ashley Rhodes, University Research Compliance Office
published Dec. 4, 2007

K-State will launch a mandatory institutional training program regarding Export Control Regulations on Dec. 6. All faculty and staff will soon receive an e-mail from Provost Nellis with instructions for completing the required online program. The deadline for completion is Feb. 1. You must have QuickTime 7.2 or later in order to participate. If you do not currently have this program on your computer, you may use any of the following university computing labs to complete the mandatory training:

  • K-State InfoCommons (in Hale Library)
  • Dickens 1-1A
  • Justin 325
  • Nichols 21
  • Seaton 22
  • Union Copy Center
  • Union Station (ground floor of the K-State Student Union)

Any questions regarding this training program or the use of QuickTime can be directed to the University Research Compliance Office at 785-532-3224.

Big savings for faculty/staff on Adobe software

by Chris Loehr, K-State Student Union Computer Store
published Dec. 4, 2007

Recently, Adobe made its Student Licensing program available to faculty and staff for a limited time, through March 15, 2008. (Microsoft products have been available to faculty/staff via the student-licensing program for more than a year.)  See the complete list of available software and prices for Adobe and Microsoft in PDF format. Faculty/staff and students must present a valid K-State ID at time of purchase.

The Student Licensing program represents significant savings over the educational shrink-wrapped box pricing, which in turn has big savings over the retail price. A few products have been added recently to the Adobe program:

  • Dreamweaver -- $129
  • Flash Pro -- $149
  • Web Premium -- $349  (Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Acrobat 8 Pro)

For more information, stop by or contact the Union Computer Store, 785-532-7319, computerstore@k-state.edu.

K-State TV introduces Wildcat Watch short videos

by Susan Jagerson, Educational Communications Center
published Dec. 4, 2007

Last week, Wildcat Watch debuted as a collection of short videos of campus events and activities. It lets K-State Wildcats see themselves in action! Tune to K-State TV cable channel 8 to see the new Wildcat Watch segments between local programming. Wildcat Watch can also be seen at www.k-state.tv.

If you see yourself or someone you know in a video segment, e-mail ecc@k-state.edu and win a free purple T-shirt (limited to first 50 respondents). Just tell us your name and the date/time you saw the Wildcat Watch segment. Be sure to include a mailing address to receive your free shirt.

eTips Dec. 12: HRIS -- Employee Self-Service

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Dec. 4, 2007

Alma Deutsch will present an eTips session on "HRIS - Employee Self-Service " at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, via an online webinar at the desktop of those who register. This demonstration will show how to:

  • View information (i.e., paycheck data, leave balances, benefit summaries, personal data, compensation, and training summary)
  • Update W-4 tax information
  • Use the training enrollment process

eTips registration is required at least 24 hours in advance to allow time to add you to the session and ensure your workstation is configured properly for accessing the session.

Mac end-of-semester specials at Union Computer Store

by Justin Anderson, K-State campus student Apple representative,
and Chris Loehr, K-State Student Union Computer Store
published Dec. 4, 2007

Apple recently released slightly upgraded MacBooks. With that in mind, the Union Computer Store has a special sale on their leftover stock of MacBooks. You can get a great price on a white MacBook starting at $819 (up to $200 in savings on some models). You can get a black MacBook for $1,099 (a $300 savings). While not upgraded recently, if you want a larger screen and an even faster processor, look at the MacBook Pros. Current in-stock MacBook Pros are also on sale starting at $1,779 (with savings of up to $200 on some models). A free laptop sleeve is included with the laptops that are on sale. Quantities are limited, and sale prices apply to in-stock models only. For details, see the sales flier (PDF format).

If you have questions concerning your Mac or any Apple products, contact your K-State campus reps -- Justin Anderson (Anderson.ksu@mac.com) and Eric Holderness (ericholderness@mac.com).

Course accessibility

Accessible online courses (part 2 of 2)

by Shalin Hai-Jew, Office of Mediated Education
published Dec. 4, 2007

Retrofitting an existing online course

What happens if your course has already been created and used for several terms? Here are suggestions for retrofitting to meet accessibility standards and protect the value of the learning materials.

  • Assess your resources. Record all the file types you’re using, including text files, slideshows, audio files, video files, animated shows, and other elements. Identify the original software used to create/edit these digital files.
  • Refresh these resources using accessibility recommendations (PowerPoint, PDF, live online events, webpages, creating online courses).
  • Consider adding additional course resources. Create these resources using accessibility standards.
  • Consider the assignments from the viewpoint of a person with visual, hearing, or other disabilities. Do any aspects of the assignments exclude these groups? If so, can an alternate assignment with the same learning value be substituted?
  • Review interactive components of the course. Consider how you would provide interactivity to a sight-impaired person using the message board or a hearing-impaired person when using live chat. Shared student files, if the work is properly annotated and transcribed, should be fine for peer review and use. Interactivity may be more challenging in cases of live synchronous events. To set these up effectively, see the K-Access Getting Started page.
  • Review the assessments. Assessments need to be fully accessible as well. Sound files should be accompanied by transcriptions. Visual files need "alt text" annotations. Time extensions need to be given for learners with documented disabilities as verified through Disability Support Services.
Security tip of the week

Updated handouts, presentations from October security event

by Harvard Townsend, IT security
published Dec. 4, 2007

On Oct. 31, K-State's SIRT held an annual IT security training event in the K-State Student Union. Handouts and PowerPoint presentations have recently been updated on the event website, so visit the site to learn more about these important topics:

  • Handling confidential data
  • Firewalls
  • Secure remote access
  • Windows forensics
  • Application security
  • Database security
  • Server security
  • Media sanitization (properly disposing of old hardware like disk drives, CDs, tapes, USB flash drives, etc.)
  • Managing passwords
K-State Online

Creating a grading scale

by Sarah Silva, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Dec. 4, 2007

Do you plan to import grades from your K-State Online course to the Electronic Grade Submission system? When you submit grades for your full-semester classes, you will need to create a grading scale in the Gradebook. To find out how, check out Defining a Grading Scale (PDF format).

Personal response systems in classes: Qwizdom, Axio Survey

by Rebecca Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Dec. 4, 2007

In the past several weeks, faculty have been asking about the use of personal response systems in classes. In 2006, Qwizdom was recommended as the personal response system of choice for K- State. This system, including the receivers and transmitters, is available in the Leasure 13 technology classroom. To learn more about Qwizdom, see www.qwizdom.com/index2.php.

Axio Survey also is an option for a personal response system. Faculty could pose a question and send it to students via e-mail, then post the public report during class. To use this tool, see online.ksu.edu/Survey.

Spotlight

Chris Sorensen, a K-State champion of learning using technology

by Rebecca Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Dec. 4, 2007

photo of Chris Sorensen, K-State physics professor Chris Sorenson, distinguished professor of physics, is a champion of learning using technology. Sorensen was named the national 2007 Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year, which is awarded by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was chosen from more than 300 distinguished professors. To read more about this honor, see Media Relations' Nov. 15 news release.

To view Sorenson teaching in action, see Media Relations' K-State podcasts.