September 2019

New and Improved ITS Website

ITS is excited to announce the redesign of the ITS Website (https://www.clarku.edu/offices/its/). A team of ITS staff members, in collaboration with MarCom, worked for the last 6 months to design and organize a new website to be more ‘on-brand’ and easy to use. The team’s main goal was to listen to feedback about how you want to find information and build a site that meets your needs. And as a bonus, you can see many familiar Clarkies featured in new photos throughout the site.

While there are lots of new features to talk about, there are three that we’re most proud of.

Pages curated just for you

Screenshot of the ITS Website with For You highlighted

Screenshot of the ITS Website

The ‘Get Started’ button on the menu bar, and the ‘Info For’ button in the top right allows community members, particularly those new to campus, to visit pages with links and information curated to meet their specific needs.

Incoming students can quickly and easily get computer purchasing advice, learn which software is available on campus, and learn how to connect to WiFi. New faculty can activate their accounts, see photos of their classroom, and learn more about Moodle. By getting all of the important links for our community members in one place, we hope to make those first few weeks on campus as easy as possible.

Explore Services

The easiest way to find an answer to an ITS question is the new Explore Services page. This directory offers links to all of our services from A to Z. Our research showed that most users come to our site looking for specific information, and we’re confident this will allow them to find what they need as quickly as possible.

Get Help

Need more help? The Get Help link will connect you with the Help Desk by allowing you to create a ticket, as well as highlighting answers for our most asked questions. Additionally, the contact information for the Help Desk is at the bottom of all of the ITS site pages.

We hope you like the new site as much as we do, but if you’re looking for something that has moved, or you have any feedback, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Countdown to Cybersecurity Month: Spyware

Digital lock guard sign binary code number. Big data personal information safety technology closed padlock. Blue glowing abstract web internet electronic payment vector illustration art

October is National Cybersecurity month, a time to raise awareness about the importance of Cybersecurity, and how to stay safe while online.

Clark’s ITS professionals take the campus’s cybersecurity very seriously. In fact, in a single 24 hours period in mid-September, our security systems blocked over 90,000 threats presented by spyware. Spyware is malicious software that will infiltrate your computer (and Clark’s system) and report back passwords, financial information and internet usage. It can also slow down your computer and spam you with ads.

While ITS systems are keeping threats from Spyware at bay, you can provide the best layer of defense when you take your online security seriously – both on and off campus. As a community member, your Clark computer is protected by ITS, but you also have free access to Sophos, an anti-virus product that also includes Spyware Protection (Click here to learn more about Sophos.)

Click here to read a 5 minute article about spyware and other ways you can avoid the threats it presents.

Shortcuts for Success

Close up of a keyboard

by Flickr user Walimai.photo (https://www.flickr.com/photos/walimai/)

Whether you’re looking to impress your new boss or just become more efficient when working on your PC, Windows shortcuts are the key. Learning a few of these time-saving combinations can make your workflow quicker and easier.

To use many of these, you’ll need to press the Windows key on your computer at the same time as another key. The Windows key usually has an icon similar to the Microsoft Windows icon, and is usually between the ‘fn’ (function) and ‘alt’ keys

Some of our recent favorites are

  • Windows Key + l (lower-case L): locks your computers; perfect to use as you’re running out of your office.
  • Windows Key + d:  toggles between your desktop and your current window; useful if you want to temporarily hide what you’re working on, or get quick access to files on your desktop.
  • Windows Key + → (right arrow on your keyboard) or Windows Key + ← (left arrow on your keyboard): Snaps your current window to the right (or left) half of the screen; great when you need to see two windows at the same time.
  • Windows Key + p: Shows presentation options including mirroring and extending; great for when you’re working with two monitors.

Click here for more useful shortcuts for Windows and we haven’t forgotten our Mac users, check this out for Apple specific shortcuts

Saying Goodbye to Summer (in Moodle)

Five Adirondack Deck Chair in the sunset

by Flickr user Lawrence Lazare (https://www.flickr.com/photos/scrappymc/)

To comply with copyright and Fair Use guidelines, student access to Summer 2019 Moodle courses will end on September 30th.

For students, this means that your Summer 19 courses will be hidden on September 30th and that course materials will no longer be accessible. So now is the time to make backups of any assignments or resources that you may need in the future. If you require access to a course beyond September 30th, your faculty member should let ATS know in order to make alternate arrangements.

Faculty access to Summer courses won’t change. However, if you have a student finishing an incomplete that will need continued access to one of your courses, you should reach out to your ATS liaison.(Click here to find the contact information of your departmental liaison.)

Get to Know Us: Jim Hilow

Jim Hilow smiling in front of water

Jim Hilow

Jim Hilow has been a part of the Clark community for almost 20 years, and is our Senior Endpoint Administrator.

Jim loves his job supporting all the different areas of technology at the university, and particularly likes the fact that he gets to try new technology before it launches to the campus as a whole.

If he could give one piece of advice to the Clark community, it would be to talk with Jim about the importance of updating your computer backup process on a regular basis.

Jim is another one of the ITS team members that was born and raised in Worcester, and another Clark alumnus with a B.S. in Computer Science.  He and his wife have been active foster parents since 2016 and are currently in the process of adopting two most amazing little girls (sisters).

When not spending time with his family, Jim likes to hang out at Peppercorns eating their Lobster Mac & Cheese, enjoys playing the video game “Destiny”, and reading. In fact he highly recommends “The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World” by A.J. Baime.

Interested in asking Jim more about backups and other fun IT questions? Click here to find his contact information.

“Get to Know Us” is a recurring column that introduces and highlights ITS staff members.