Information Services
After Hours and Weekend Technology Support
Technical services staff provide on-call support to campus users during evening and weekend hours. After-hours support for audio visual related services is available by calling x7774. This includes support for connecting and operating web cameras, microphones, document cameras, or other equipment to off-site computers for remote instruction, lecture capture, or video conferencing; hosting or joining a meeting in Microsoft Teams; producing, editing, and converting original video/audio files; embedding video/audio files in Moodle; or accessing video/audio files in MediaSpace.
For any other urgent technology support needs after hours, including weekends, please call campus safety (x7161) and your call will be routed to our on-call support staff as needed. We are here to help and look forward to assisting you.
Teams for Distance Learning Quick Guide
Microsoft Teams is a program for engaging with students both synchronously and asynchronously, allowing for chatting, video and audio calls, and even sharing presentations with students while on a call. However, according to Sam Williams, academic technology and innovation, because of the many features it has, it can be a bit intimidating to get started with. Here is a guide on the basics of starting a 1-on-1 chat, and starting a classroom team for group or singular at distance instruction.
If you want to explore additional resources visit the ATSI Online Learning Support page or contact them at atsi@up.edu.
Laptop Web Browsing Protection – Umbrella Roaming Client
Starting Friday, March 13, information services will be installing a new piece of software on University-owned laptops. This software is called Cisco Umbrella Roaming client, a light-weight client which protects internet browsing and filters malicious content from being accessible on your laptop.
All equipment currently connected to the University’s network is already being protected with Cisco Umbrella and we want to extend that protection to University-owned laptops when they are being used remotely.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UP Help Desk at help@up.edu or x7000.
Participants Wanted: Use Real-Time Web-Based Polling in your Classes!
The academic technology services and innovation team is looking for faculty members to participate in a pilot project of Poll Everywhere, which enables digital polling and student-response gathering using laptops or other electronic devices that they already have with them, rather than requiring additional devices such as clickers. Faculty can create questions in a number of formats to collect various kinds of information, from attendance taking to status checks on students’ grasp of lecture content. Polls created with the program can be easily integrated into media you already use on a daily basis.
For more details on the pilot project or to request an account, please see the Poll Everywhere Pilot page. Training is available if desired and can be scheduled using the training request form on the ATSI homepage on PilotsUP.
For additional questions and information, or to share your own ideas on how we can utilize Poll Everywhere, please contact ATSI at atsi@up.edu.
Please Request Software for Classrooms and Labs by Feb. 28
Information services will be updating computer lab and classroom builds for summer and fall 2020 during March. If you need new or updated software for classrooms and computer labs for summer or fall term please use this link to fill out the online survey. You can also copy and paste this URL (https://uportland.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5sAK57IvV3S4nvn) into your browser to fill out the survey.
The software build and deployment process requires significant lead time; therefore, information services must receive your submitted software requests no later than Friday, February 28 if you want the software to appear on the computer classroom/lab software build for the Summer and/or Fall 2020 semesters.
Please contact the help desk with any questions at help@up.edu or x7000, M-F 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.mm.
Skype for Business Migrating to Teams Meetings on March 4
According to UP’s academic technology services and innovation team, Microsoft is retiring Skype for Business and has migrated all calling and conferencing functionality to the Microsoft Teams App. Calling and meeting using the Teams App is very similar to Skype. Click this link to learn more about Teams Meetings. To learn more about using Teams to communicate and collaborate with University of Portland community members and project teams, use this link.
For further information or training, please contact atsi@up.edu.
New Academic Technology Services & Innovation Site
Academic technology services & innovation (ATSI) has launched a new site to help communicate its many services to the academic community, according to Sam Williams, ATSI. You can find the site by visiting pilots.up.edu and clicking on “Academic Technology Services & Innovation” in the left navigation. The new URL for the site is https://pilots.up.edu/group/atsi.
Visit to learn about services we provide, schedule a consultation, or find professional development opportunities and current projects. Some of the topics you can learn more about include:
- Academic Technology Innovation Lab – Franz 33
- UP Tech Talk - Ed Tech Blog
- Virtual Classroom Project
- Hypothesis Pilot
- PollEverywhere Pilot
For more information contact Contact us ATSI at atsi@up.edu.
Moodle Drop-in Hours Before Spring Term
Working on getting your spring Moodle course set-up before the new semester starts? Drop by Franz 33 any time between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday, January 6 through Thursday Jan 9. Academic technology services and innovation staff will be there to help with issues or questions big and small.
Come for help with setting up online assignments or quizzes, getting your gradebook squared away, get an introduction to some of our great new integrated tools, or just say hello and happy new year.
For more information contact Ben Kahn, academic technology services and innovation, at kahn@up.edu.
Moodle Downtime on Dec. 19
Moodle will be down the evening of Thursday, December 19, from 5 to 7 p.m., so information services can install the latest security and bug fixes. There will also be improvements to the site theme and installation new plugins to give instructors more capabilities and flexibility within Moodle:
- Group self selection: allow students to create or self-select groups in Moodle
- Roster: faculty can view student pictures and practice learning names)
- Collapsible Weeks/Topics: a course format that can collapse modules to save space
For real-time updates or to subscribe to email alerts for UP systems status and outages please visit our System Status page.
Any questions or concerns? Please contact atsi@up.edu.