Distributed via email to faculty on 4-3-2020.

We each have our individual challenges working from home- such as Annabelle who lives with a Rice OIT staff member. We hope you will find these resources helpful.

We Are Here For You

The Office of Information Technology is committed to supporting you as you adjust to teaching and working remotely. Prior to the start of remote teaching, Learning Environments (LE) partnered with Rice Online Learning and the Center for Teaching Excellence to offer individual workshops for each school as well as a number of one-on-one training sessions. There were 500 attendees at the school sessions while another 400 watched the recorded videos. LE held close to 100 one-on-one training sessions as well. We will continue to be here to support your teaching needs.

Support

Learning Environments staff are available by phone at 713-348-4989 to help you troubleshoot and answer problems while you are teaching. Business hours are from 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Monday – Friday but support staff members are on call in the evenings.

Additionally, if you have questions on Canvas, Kaltura, Zoom or any other academic technology, you can submit a Help Desk ticket (via our online help formor email) and someone from Learning Environments will contact you. We are happy to set up one-on-one training sessions via Zoom to provide you the help you need.

For more general questions, you can also call the Help Desk staff from 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Monday – Friday at 713-348-HELP (4357). (Walk-in services have been suspended.) Or look for the answer to your question by searching our KnowledgeBase.

Remote Teaching Resources

A number of excellent resourceshave been created to help you with questions or step by step instructions on how to do something. The Remote Teaching Resourcesguide in Canvas offers steps for communicating with your students, creating a course in Canvas, using Zoom, securing Zoom for privacyand a number of additional functional tools, such as how to share documents, record a lecture, give a live lecture, create an assessment, and more.

Tools

Canvas

Rice’s learning management system, Canvas, is designed to manage your courses and student communications. You can find information on using Canvas in the Remote Teaching Resources modulewithin Canvas. You can also get 24/7 support via chat or phone from within Canvas. For details, log in to Canvas and click on the Help icon. For tips and tricks, follow the Teaching and Learning with Canvas blog.

Video Conferencing

Zoomis a collaboration and online meeting tool. Zoom License accounts (formerly called Pro accounts) are available to all Rice faculty, staff, and students. Zoom can also be used in Canvasto allow instructors to schedule online meetings within Canvas. Google Hangouts Meetis an alternate tool for virtual meetings and is accessible through the G Suite platform.

Recording Your Lectures/Lessons

There are a couple of options for recording your lessons for viewing offline or asynchronous delivery. Zoom allows for recordingand works well when you are presenting to a live audience. If you wish to record your lessons in advance, Kalturaworks well for this. Kaltura is a lecture capture tool and can receive multiple inputs (webcam, doc cam, etc.).

Software

Faculty are eligible for free and discounted software including Adobe Creative Cloud, Crashplan, Office 365, Matlab, Mathematica and more. Many of our vendors have extended the usage of our licenses to allow faculty and students to be able to download the software onto their personal computer at no cost to them. Check the software pageto see which software includes this feature.

Secure Connections

Additional software may be needed to securely connect to Rice resources. Using VPN(virtual private network) securely connects your computer to the Rice network.  Duoprovides an extra authentication step and is required by some systems, such as VPN and Esther.

Home Network

One of the challenges of working remotely can be your home Internet service. If you are having issues, check out these helpful tips from Internet2 (Rice is a member of this collaborative research and education technology community.)

Tips for Troubleshooting Home Connectivity

Optimizing Your Home Network for Working and Learning

Research Computing

If you already use Rice research computing resources, access remains the same since using research computing resourcesis done remotely. If you are interested, the Center for Research Computingstaff welcomes the opportunity to support your research computing needs. CRC staff can offer advice and set up services from high-performance computing/high-throughput computing (HPC/HTC) to research virtual machines and cloud (ORION) to research data facility (RDF).

Security Reminder

Follow university guidelinesto protect your computer and Rice data. Keep your guard up against email scams designed to obtain your account information, especially during this crisis.

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.