Tips and Tricks

November 2019, Teaching with Technology, Tips and Tricks

Finals are coming …

As the end of the semester is approaching, technology can either be your friend, or foe. Here are some quick tips for students and faculty on how to ‘tame the tech’.

Students

Backup your work

The last thing you need as finals approach is to lose a semester’s worth of work if your computer has an issue. Backup your work regularly on your favorite cloud provider. Don’t forget that you have access to 1TB of storage in OneDrive with your Clark account.

Check your work and your dates

Using Moodle (if available) and your syllabi, double-check that all of the work that you’ve completed has been correctly submitted and received. Additionally check all your upcoming due dates so that you don’t miss something important.

Don’t leave Technology until the last minute

If your final assignment involves technology, don’t leave it until the last minute. Install and try out any new software now so you can focus on the content in the last couple of weeks instead of working out new tech.

For example, if you’re doing a poster presentation, check out our poster printing guidelines early so that you don’t waste time creating a poster in the wrong dimensions. Or, if you’re doing an in-class presentation, make sure that your presentation software will work well in the classroom.

Faculty

Get a Gradebook Check-up

The Moodle gradebook is great, but it can get complicated. As you start your final grading, feel free to email or call your Academic Technologist so that we can run a quick check on your gradebook. We’ll make sure it’s calculating correctly and you’re comfortable with how the students are viewing grades. We can usually do that in about 10 minutes. Click here to find your Academic Technologist

Submit your Grades

First time submitting grades, or just need a refresher? Check out this handy guide from the Registrar’s Office on how to finalize your courses for the semester. 

Think about Spring

While we hope you get to have a relaxing and/or productive Winter Break, remember that ITS staff, including Academic Technologists and the Help Desk are available on campus for much of the break. So as you begin thinking about those Spring courses, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us and let us know how we can help.

Data Privacy and Security, September 2019, Tips and Tricks

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.

September 2019, Tips and Tricks

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

March 2019, Tips and Tricks

Managing Clutter Email in Outlook

Reading and sorting through email can sometimes be the most time-consuming task during the day. It is all-too-easy for important messages to become lost and unread in the midst of other emails that aren’t junk, but just aren’t as important or urgent as others. The “Clutter” tool can help you solve this problem.

The “Clutter” tool in Microsoft Outlook is designed to help you automatically sort low priority email out of your inbox so that your most important messages are what you see first. The “Clutter” tool can be turned on and off in your Microsoft Outlook settings. If you turn the tool on, it will begin to monitor which email messages you read and which you don’t. Then, as the system learns about what types of email messages are important to you, it begins to filter messages you do not typically read into your “Clutter” email box. You can always read a message in Clutter, or remove it from the “Clutter” mailbox, and the system will continue to learn about which emails it should sort and which it should not.

Click here to learn more about the Microsoft Outlook “Clutter” tool, and to learn how to turn the tool on and off.