Highlighting services and resources each semester
OIT participated in the Center for Development’s Career and Internship Expo in February to recruit Rice graduate students for summer internships.
Campus Technology News
Spring 2018
Contents
- Banner 9 Upgrade Information
- YouTube Access via Rice Google
- Google Team Drive
- Update: New Telephone System
- Two Factor Authentication and Duo
- Teaching Lab Software Requests
- Use or Teach with SPSS?
- Improving CLE@R
- CMS400 Nearing End of Life
- Owl-Space Collaboration Sites Migration
- Mudd Operations Center Hours Change
- Tableau Academic Program
- Free AWS Developer Training
- Leaving Rice?
- CrashPlan: Backing Up Rice Computers
- Need Technology Help?
Banner 9 Upgrade Information
Version 9 of Banner was released in late 2016 and OIT’s Administrative and Enterprise Systems and Services has installed and tested the system, prepared the production environment and started migrating offices to the new system. This release represents a major technical upgrade to Rice’s central administrative system. Learn more about the Banner 9 Upgrade project online.
YouTube Access via Rice Google
YouTube access for Rice faculty, staff, and students using their Rice Google accounts has been enabled. As a result, you will have the ability to access and upload content to YouTube without having to use a non-Rice account (i.e. personal Google account).
Usage of YouTube must comply with university policies regarding protecting confidential and sensitive information (Policy 808) and the appropriate use of information technology (Policy 832) as well as applicable local, state, and federal laws, including, but not limited to, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Copyright Act (Title 17 of US Code). It may also be useful to read over YouTube’s terms of service. Furthermore, all student use of these accounts is subject to the expectations in Code of Student Conduct, which includes the Sexual Misconduct Policy; these are available at SJP.rice.edu.
If you have any questions or need help accessing YouTube using your Rice Google account, contact the OIT Help Desk (713-348-HELP (4357), helpdesk@rice.edu).
Google Team Drive
Google Team Drive has been enabled for Rice students, faculty, and staff. Team Drive improves the process of collaborating on documents by permitting all team members to share ownership of a drive and its files.
Google Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device. You can access files from your computer using any web browser or you can install the mobile application to access your files from your Android or iOS mobile device. While files stored on Google Drive, also known as My Drive, are owned by the Google Drive owner, the files stored in a Team Drive belong to the team instead of an individual.
Team Drive is ideal for groups of colleagues who often collaborate on documents together, such as work groups or project teams. Anyone can create a Google Team Drive and share ownership of that Drive — as well as any documents stored there —making it easy for all team members to share in the responsibility of organizing and maintaining the files. Team members can be added or removed from the Team Drive at any time. When a team member is removed from the group, all of the files remain in the Team Drive so that the team can continue to share information and complete necessary work.
For more information, see the OIT Knowledgebase article on Google Team Drive.
Update: New Telephone System
Campus telephone services are migrating to a new Cisco VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) system. The new system is being initially rolled out as a “like for like” replacement to the Nortel system, with additional features and functionalities to be added in the future. Migrations to the new system will continue every month, building by building, to completion in late 2018. The campus telephone system migration is currently completed in ten buildings: Mudd Lab, Cambridge Office Building, FE&P Building (which includes shops, Central and South Plants), Moody Center for the Arts, Media Center, Data Center, Library Service Center, all Rice tenants in IBC Building, Hamman Hall, and Cohen House. Currently in progress (planning phase) are Barbara and David Gibbs Recreational and Wellness Center, Morton Rich Health and Wellness, Athletics (all buildings) and Huff House. Buildings to follow are Housing and Dining and Ley Student Center/RMC. To follow the project’s progress or to access resources for the new system, go to the Unified Communications – Project Communication Site.
Two Factor Authentication and Duo
OIT has been investigating methods to improve the security of accessing Rice accounts using two factor authentication, or 2FA, with the tool Duo Security. After the successful completion of a pilot test, OIT has expanded availability to the entire campus (read recent email announcement).
The first campus service to utilize 2FA is MyNetID (https://mynetid.rice.edu), which is the Rice online account management system that allows individuals to apply for and manage their Rice accounts and passwords. Two-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection to Rice accounts on top of your password. Verifying your identity using a second factor (such as your smart phone or other mobile device) prevents anyone but you from logging in to your account, even if someone knows your password. With the number of hacking attempts on the rise, it is important to ensure the safety and security of Rice data (including your personal data). Two-factor authentication can help ensure that critical university systems are only accessed by authorized users.
More communication will be sent to the campus as this project progresses or check out the project update web pages. Individuals who enroll in Duo will be required to use Duo on all the systems Rice installs with Duo authentication. Read more in the OIT Knowledgebase: Duo Enrollment Guide and other Duo Documents.
Teaching Lab Software Requests
As we prepare classrooms and teaching computer labs for the next academic year, OIT is collecting requests for course software and assistance with adding peripherals to classroom and lab computers. Requests have been directly emailed to instructors and department administrators.
These items will be installed in registrar-booked classrooms and teaching labs and do not need to be specifically requested:
Windows 10: PC
Microsoft Office: PC and Mac
Adobe Reader: PC and Mac
Chrome Browser: PC and Mac
Firefox Browser: PC and Mac
Internet Explorer Browser: PC
Safari Browser: Mac
Xming X Server: PC
Be sure to specify any other software needs for your courses even if it was installed in previous years, otherwise it may not be installed. Please submit your request by April 6.
Use or Teach with SPSS?
If you use or teach with SPSS, contact Diane Butler, Associate Vice President (dianeb@rice.edu). We are trying to get a better understanding of the scope of usage on campus.
Improving CLE@R
CLEAR (Curricular Linux Environment At Rice) is designed to offer a Linux environment for teaching and courseware needs. OIT is currently testing and evaluating new hardware that was funded by IT Executive Committee. This refresh replaces out of warranty hardware and adds three systems, which increases the total to seven computational machines. The new systems are bigger, better, and faster in regards to CPU, memory, and hard disk capacity. However, the version of the Linux OS will remain the same – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4. The system is in pilot testing this spring with select faculty and will go live for all faculty and students for fall 2018.
CMS400 Nearing End of Life
Support for the CMS400 web content manager is ending on December 30, 2018. If you or your department are still using CMS400 to host web sites, contact us about exploring other hosting options, such as Drupal or WordPress. Email helpdesk@rice.edu with details about your sites.
Owl-Space Collaboration Sites Migration
Learning Environments started a case-by-case migration of Owl-Space project and collaboration sites in February. Access to a variety of tools and solutions already exist and each site will be examined individually to find a suitable replacement. Replacement options will include leveraging features of Google, Box, Drupal, EduBlogs, and other supported solutions. This migration is expected to be completed in approximately 18 months. Learning Environments staff will reach out to owners of these sites and train users on how to migrate their materials to the new solution.
Mudd Operations Center Hours Change
OIT changed the Mudd Lab Operation Center hours to:
- Monday – Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 pm
- Saturday and Sunday: noon – 4:00 p.m.
The plotters in Mudd Lab are located in the Operations Center. These printers are attended by OIT staff, who place printouts outside the Operations Center window in the Mudd Lab lobby when they are on duty. You can access the lobby anytime to pick up your printouts although you will need to use your Rice ID after the building is locked. Please note that there is no access to new printouts when the Operations Center is closed. Your comments to helpdesk@rice.edu will help us evaluate these schedule changes.
Tableau Academic Program
Tableau is an interactive data visualization product focused on business intelligence that is licensed for usage by many departments. With the Tableau Academic Program, faculty who wish to use Tableau as part of their course, perhaps teaching data management or visualization, can get free licensing for the length of the course. Full-time Rice students enrolled in the course can also have free access. Setting up access can take a couple of days since they must verify that requesters are Rice faculty or full-time students. Technical support is also provided by Tableau by emailing tft@tableau.com.
Free AWS Developer Training
AWS Training and Certification now offers the AWS Developer Professional Series for free on edX to the Rice community. In this training, you will learn how to develop, deploy, and optimize applications on AWS. The courses are built with the expectation that you already have one to three years of software development experience, including some Python skills. Each course runs for six weeks and requires three to four hours of work per week. You can enroll at no charge. Verified Certificates are available for a fee of $149 per course.
Leaving Rice?
Graduating graduate students, if you haven’t already, set up your alumni email address via the Alumni Relations office and begin using it on your applications, resume, and RiceLink profile. Your NetID email account through Google will be deactivated in the fall.
Rice employees that leave the university will also lose their Rice mail address, except for retirees, who can keep their address but must forward their email to another account.
Also before you go, take a quick inventory of your Google Drive or Rice Box files that you shared with others. Any Google docs that you have created will be deleted and items that you have shared are no longer accessible by others. Consider this if you’ve got documents in the Google Drive cloud such as research for a faculty member, files shared with others in your department, or perhaps with a collaborative group across campus. If you created the document and your account is deleted, no one can view it. Get others who will have future needs to access your documents to make copies or convert items to a Google Team Drive (see article above). You can learn how to save your Google Drive documents in the KnowledgeBase.
CrashPlan: Backing Up Your Rice Computer
If you store data or files locally on your computer (laptop or desktop), it is highly recommended that you back up those files to protect against hardware malfunctions, accidental deletions/overwrites, or any other mishap. CrashPlan is an automatic, tamper-proof backup solution designed to back up laptop and desktop data and allows you to restore files from different points in time and from any networked computer. CrashPlan is simple to use, highly efficient, and very secure. Many faculty and staff find the automatic back ups CrashPlan offers more convenient and effective than having to manually duplicate files to campus storage solutions. The annual cost of the service is around $80 per year and is payable with a Rice fund and org code. CrashPlan works with Windows, Apple, and Linux operating systems but can only be installed on Rice-owned computers. Mobile devices can’t be backed up but they can be used to restore files or to manage your backups. To learn more, read the CrashPlan article in the OIT Knowledgebase. Contact the OIT Help Desk (713-348-HELP, helpdesk@rice.edu) to purchase CrashPlan or ask questions.
Need Technology Help?
Contact the Office of Information Technology’s Help Desk by calling 713-348-HELP (4357) or emailing helpdesk@rice.edu.
Online Information
To learn more about OIT services, go to the OIT web site, https://oit.rice.edu. For an easy-to-search source of instructions about services and tools, use the OIT KnowledgeBase at https://kb.rice.edu.
