Hyperlink out of quarantine!

The Hyperlink is back.

We are very pleased to have The Hyperlink back out of quarantine. The pandemic seemed to have put a solid hold on the production of The Hyperlink. However, it is back and we will get back into sending you regular updates and information from IS&T.

We hope you find the content informative and helpful.

Cybersecurity

The storage and transmission of digital information has a profound positive impact on how we serve our students, faculty, staff and alumni. It also comes with some serious repercussions if not properly protected against unauthorized access. The IS&T department at Harding is taking deliberate steps toward bolstering the security of our data in the ever-increasing world of data risks and breaches. Security-related projects and reviews have been completed with several more currently being implemented or are being planned. A recent example would be the implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Harding-owned web logins.

It is rather difficult to identify all of the ways an attacker would use to breach Harding’s infrastructure. To combat that, IS&T uses security industry standards and cyber security insurance guidelines to scope the areas that might be overlooked or undervalued but are key to an attacker’s success. Harding is capitalizing on the relationships with long-term partners to bring their information security offerings to bear.

Nothing will completely block the bad guys. There is no magic point at which Harding can say we are fully secured as long as human beings create and implement technology. Flaws in the various systems are discovered with regularity, and patching is among the primary responses IT has for shoring up potential holes. Scanning for viruses is done at network layers as well as most computing devices.

Recently we contracted an outside organisation to conduct pentration and vulnerabilty testing of our systems.

However, everyone has a part to play in helping to secure and protect our digital assets. Each user should develop an information security-savvy approach to emails received, websites visited and attachments sent their way. If a computer is not behaving in an expected way, it is always good to report the behavior rather than ignore it.

If you suspect questionable computer activity, Students can contact DormNet at 501-279-4545 or for faculty and staff, contact Client Support at 501-279-4440.

Library Renovations

Brackett Library is excited to announce renovations done on the second floor. After listening to students, four more study rooms were added. The most significant undertaking was replacing the carpet which required using stack movers. The shelves of books in the general collection needed to be moved so that the old carpet could be ripped out and the new carpet laid down.

When using stack movers, all the books can stay on the shelves as they use machinery with hydraulic lifts to pick up the shelves and then move them over to one side of the library while the carpet work is done. There were a few collections that had to be moved by hand, such as the Best Sellers and Christian Fiction since they are on wooden bookcases. Also, the Brewer Book collection and the Williams-Miles Chemistry collection all had to be moved as well. Most of these books were moved to the first floor while the work was being done upstairs. The whole process took several weeks.

The mauve endcaps on the bookshelves were also replaced with a wood finish making a significant change to the look and feel of the library. There are still a few things that need to be completed such as doors in the study rooms and painting the staircase. These should be finished in the upcoming weeks.





The library has had a lot of questions about the construction behind the building. This is not added space for the library but the new East Plant for Physical Resources that will house equipment for the air systems on the east side of campus.

Course Design Workshop

Today’s learners often seek a dynamic learning environment that engages them in a variety of learning experiences. An important aspect of providing this dynamic learning space is having the proper design elements in place. This is where the Course Design Workshop can be helpful.

The Course Design Workshop aims to prepare instructors to develop quality online courses. This is done through collaborating with the design team, using quality standards (best practices) in teaching and learning, and streamlined course design procedures. At the completion of each phase (phases are detailed below), a badge is awarded as a token for successfully completing that section. After completing all 6 phases, instructors will have the first draft of their unit/module 1 in place, which sets the tone for the remaining design.


The Course Design Workshop consists of the following 6 Phases:

Phase 1: Introduction - Quality Standards and Streamlining the Process

Phase 2: Course Mapping - Creating Learning Objectives

Phase 3: Course Mapping - Syllabus Creation

Phase 4: Course Building - Instructional Materials and Assessments

Phase 5: Course Building - Learning Activities and Engagement

Phase 6: Improvement and Next Steps


To learn more, please email the Center for Learning with Technology at hulearn@harding.edu or call 501-279-5211.

New Library Website, Qwickly Attendance, and Calendar Find a Time

Library Launches New Website

Brackett Library launched a new web site on May 28. Our goal was to better organize all of our content and to improve user experience interacting with the virtual and physical parts of the library. We believe the new site will make finding resources easier. Come check out our new site at library.harding.edu.


Please note: If your syllabus or Canvas course includes links to any library web pages, you will need to update those links because we moved everything. Please feel free to contact us at library@harding.edu if you have questions or if you want us to help you update any library related sections on your syllabus.

Qwickly Attendance

I am happy to announce our newest integration to Canvas: Qwickly Attendance. 

Qwickly Attendance is an optional attendance tool that will be used in place of the existing Canvas Roll Call Attendance tool.  A few instructors piloted Qwickly last spring and found it to be an improvement to the existing Canvas attendance tool.  Qwickly has several key features that make it a great addition to any Canvas course. 

Key Features:

Flexible Automatic Grading

Automated Absent Email Alerts

Customizable Statuses

ID Card Reader

Student Check-in Mode

Unlimited Daily Sessions

To start using Qwickly, go to your Canvas course and click Qwickly Attendance on the left side of the navigation pane. If you do not see Qwickly, then you will need to click Settings, Navigation, and move Qwickly to the top section in order to add it to your course navigation pane. Click Save before moving on.

The first time you use Qwickly, it will ask you to "Begin Set-up." This is where you can set your attendance settings for the course.  Here you can set up automatic grading, and set up a grade based off of total points or per-session points.  You can also have Qwickly send an automatic email to the student once they have been marked absent.

Qwickly also has custom course statuses, so you can add your own statuses to attendance such as a tardy, extra credit, or participation status.

Qwickly offers a few new ways to take attendance. One example is the Student Check-in Mode.  You will start check-in mode via your Canvas course, and it will pull up a pin on the screen and allow your students 2 minutes to type in the code. It will automatically mark them present once they send their response in using Canvas on their phone or laptops.

There is also an option to take attendance via a card reader.  If you have a card reader hooked up to a computer in your classroom, students can scan their ID cards to be counted as present. 

Another option is that you can have unlimited attendance sessions per day. This would be great for those long classes that have a break at chapel, where you could take attendance before and again after chapel. It would also be convenient for taking attendance during optional “bonus” meetings for a class.

Qwickly allows you to easily see the attendance history for your class. By selecting the name of one student, you can pull up just that one student’s attendance history, which would be helpful if a student has a question about their attendance in class.

To learn more about Qwickly Attendance, contact the E-Learning helpdesk at elearning@harding.edu

Allison Case

LMS Support Specialist

Calendar Find a Time Feature

Have you ever wanted to schedule a meeting with several people and dreaded calling all of them to arrange a time? Google Calendar can help.

Start Google Calendar and click the button that says Create Event (the red plus sign at the lower right). Enter the title of the event and maybe the day you would prefer. Then, on the right, enter the Guests, the people you would like to invite. You can also click Rooms and choose rooms that have calendars associated with them.

Now the helpful part. Click the Find a Time link on the left.




That will create a calendar view showing the free and busy times of all of your guests and rooms. You can scroll through the day you chose. Also, there are arrows at the upper left to let you choose a different day.

When you find a time when all of your guests are free, you can click on the calendar view to select that time. After doing that, it’s a good practice to check the date and time fields at the upper left.

Come see the light (board) and more in this post...

Meet Lightboard

Chalkboard…Whiteboard…Now Lightboard

Lightboard is a video lecture recording tool which allows the presenter to diagram concepts while maintaining eye contact with the audience. Click on the video below to see a demonstration.  Contact elearning@harding.edu to schedule a recording time with Lightboard. Staff​ members are available to help ​you ​ get started and take you through the entire process. Your finished product can be posted to a Canvas course or site of your choice.

Hover, look and then click…

The most effective way to protect an organization from being compromised through phishing or other similar schemes is through user alertness and education!

We do this in a number of ways. We like to make sure we do not become complacent in how we deal with the emails we receive. Without a doubt, the vast majority of emails that come to our inbox are not nefarious. They are there to genuinely inform us and be used as a way to conduct our business.

Then there are those emails that have attachments or links that are set to trap us into sharing information we should not share or to have something downloaded that will take information from us illicitly.

To help us be more aware and alert, we will be conducting some phishing tests in the future. We will be generating some phishing style emails and sending them to different groups around campus. This is not a punitive exercise. There will be no public shaming. If someone 'falls' for the email, they will receive information that highlights why the phishing email was successful! It is designed to be informative.

One of the simplest ways to check whether a link in an email may be legitimate or suspicious is to just hover over the link and look at the bottom left of the browser window. You will see the actual web address where the link would take you should you click on it. (this works with most browsers, but it may not work on some instances of Safari)

Consider these two links:  www.harding.edu and www.harding.edu.

They look the same don't they?

Try moving your mouse pointer over each link.  DON'T CLICK - just "hover".

Did you see what web page you would have been directed to if you had clicked?

(This example is courtesy of John Nunnally.)

Library Donations

Rhema Christian Academy Library

Did you know that Brackett Library helps with various missions here and abroad? One outreach is donating books to mission fields. Lola and David Crouch recently asked for books for a school in Nigeria. Some health science books have been sent to Zambia. One of the latest missions was the Likewise College (overseen by Jeff Kreh), a school that works with those in the prison system in Arkansas. 

These books are either discarded books from our collection or donated books. If Brackett already has a copy in the library's collection of a donated book, it can be used for missions. Discarded books will be sent because many times the library has obtained a newer edition with the older edition being only a few years old. Brackett Library makes an effort to use books in a positive way when they are not needed in the current collection. If you are interested in making a book donation, please call 501-279-4354 for more details.

New Phones on Campus

Chances are you have already received a new phone on your desk recently. We are upgrading the campus to VoIP – voice over IP – phones.

Why are we making the switch? The Nortel phone switch was installed in 1989. It was the “latest and greatest” when we installed it, and it has served the campus well, but its time has come to an end. We need to make the switch to VoIP to keep up with industry standards.

We first installed VoIP phones in the IS&T area as a “pilot” project to test their usability on campus. It didn’t take too long to decide that this was the direction we needed to go. As new buildings were built, we installed new VoIP phones instead of installing expensive copper phone cable. When we did this, it meant that we were “straddling” two phone systems – Nortel and VoIP – and that did make management of both systems cumbersome.

Recently, the decision was made to cut over the rest of the campus to VoIP. Harding Telephone Service (HTS) has been cutting over the campus building by building. As time and schedules permit, HTS is replacing old Nortel phones and installing new VoIP phones. They plan to finish the cutover by this fall.

There are many benefits to the new phones, including allowing the user to make phone changes through an online portal. Once you get your new phone, you can log onto https://phone.harding.edu with your Harding username and password and make changes to your ring settings, forwarding settings, and other settings. You will also have access to Jabber.

Jabber is a set of applications that allows users to connect to each other in more ways than just a desk phone. One feature is an app for Android and I-Phone. Once downloaded, Jabber allows a user to answer and make calls as if using their desk phone on their cell phone no matter where they are located, as long as they have a data connection (don't worry, the app can be turned off/on when needed). This app not only allows you to take calls in almost any location but it also allows you to keep your cell number and private voice mail separate from your office number and office voice mail when you need to.

Another feature of Jabber can be a virtual phone set on your computer so you can answer, make calls and check voice mail via your computer. It’s also easy to save a voice mail on your computer by using this feature so you can keep any messages you feel you should for as long as you need to.

Along with the desktop virtual phone, a chat window can be used to message others who use Jabber. In all Jabber applications, you can set a presence icon that lets others know if you are on the phone, away or in a meeting. These are just a few of the features of Jabber we are excited about using on campus.

New Faces

IS&T has welcomed some new people this semester. If you haven’t already met them, stop by and say hello!

Anora David

Anora is the Office Assistant in the Center for Technology & Learning/AV. Born in Camden, Tennessee, she attended both Michigan Christian College and Freed-Hardeman University. She spent 22 years in Liberia as a missionary. In 1996, she and her husband built Ford-Madden Christian School there which now houses kindergarten through high school grades. Anora’s office is located in Lee 110.

Maren Patterson

Maren Patterson comes to the Center for Learning with Technology from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has been a digital content developer for 18 years and has guided teams to successful publications of various projects.

Currently, Maren is working​ on​ ​the following projects: 3D Virtual tour and interaction​ ideas​, best methods for introducing Virtual Reality (VR) to campus and assisting with planning for the 8th Annual Faculty Technology Showcase. ​He is also collaborating with the Library to create a dynamic video to illustrate library resources for instructors and students.

Maren’s office is located in Admin 212.

Introducing Team Dynamix

For a while, we in IS&T have wanted a better way to help track what we do both from a day-to-day standpoint as well as the projects, short and long, that we work on. Along with that we wanted to have an easier and more consistent way to communicate with you as we work for and with you.

With that in mind, we explored the market and found a company and product called TeamDynamix. Because TeamDynamix works mostly with higher education institutions, they understand the things we in a higher ed IT operation regularly deal with. It appeared to be a good fit so we recently signed a contract and have been implementing the product.

We plan to open it to you around June 1. Your main entrance to it will be a portal linked from Pipeline that will have links to four main areas we think you will find helpful:

A Service Catalog that will contain information about the various software, hardware, help, and other services we provide. Within each service will be information about how to use the service as well as request the service or help with it.

A Ticketing system where you will be able to enter requests and view your outstanding requests. We will be using this much more to to track, but more importantly to consistently communicate with you about what we are working on for you.

A Knowledge Base like Kenobi, our wiki, except tied in with the services and tickets. Over time, the articles IS&T people have created will be moved to the TeamDynamix knowledge base and will be accessible through this portal. (Don’t worry, the other things in Kenobi like Policy Portal, etc. will remain as they are.)

A Projects area where you can see and interact with the projects we are working on or plan to work on.

We are already using this in a limited fashion as we configure it and are already seeing some benefits. It is also expandable and as our use of it grows, it will allow other areas to have a presence as well.

More information will be coming soon. We look forward to being able to use it as we work with you.

Who Let the Dogs In?

The Brackett Library brought along some therapy dogs for the first time during finals week this semester. Apart from being very cute and being man's best friend, they proved to be calming for the students who went along to pet and be with the dogs.

What did the students think of this? Here are some of their comments:
"The support dogs in the library were one of my favorite things that Harding has offered. I went before a final and the chihuahua, Tyler, just snuggled up to me, sat there looking at me with his big brown eyes and any anxiety I had just melted away.  So many students were impacted by the power of these animals, one girl said that she wanted to take a dog into her final so she could pet him while taking her test."

"Thanks so much for doing this!!  This was a great idea".

"The best part of finals week--dogs to pet in the library!"

"...I could feel the atmosphere change.  It provided students the chance to step out of their stressful week. People were happier and more relaxed. It's amazing the power that animals have to soothe the soul."

And from a library worker: 
"The dogs provided a wonderful break for students, a moment in their hectic frenzy of final exams to slow down and enjoy something simple and fun.  :)"

Did you miss seeing the dogs on Wednesday? Not to worry they will be back this Friday (December 12) afternoon from 3.00pm to 5.00pm

While a lot of the students will have left the campus by then, those engaged in grading might want a way to relieve some anxiety. So come on over to the library on Friday from 3.00pm - 5.00pm to spend some calming time with a puppy.

Finally I want to share the feedback from the therapy dog handlers. This speaks so much for the great Harding community:

"Jean, just a short follow up on therapy dogs in the library.  I want to extend a heart felt THANK YOU for inviting ABLEPaws to your library.  I hope the event was everything you expected or even more.
My volunteers were so excited to be there and participate.  We honestly have never been thanked by so many different students/staff for coming.  It was wonderful to be a part of and witness.  
Please let me know if in the future we can be of service to your establishment again.  We look forward to serving you again.
Also on behalf of ABLEPaws my volunteers would like to thank you & the library staff for the gifts provided to our volunteers. The gifts were not necessary or required at all.  However, your thoughtfulness has touched our hearts greatly.  Steve, Nancy, Amy, Candee, and I extend a sincere THANK YOU as well as our fur babies!  
Thank you again,
TJ & Bella"

Thanks to Jean Waldrop the other library staff for this initiative. Jean sums it by saying:

"I always get a little anxious trying something new but the smiles on the student's faces and the positive comments I heard made me feel good about the decision to have therapy dogs in the library."

Brackett Library Wants To Serve You

Brackett Library has been busy since the beginning of the semester.  The Library has been open 82 days this semester and has had 123,690 visits to the library, on top of the 66,290 visits to the Library web home page.

Our eight librarians, seven staff members and forty student workers have all taken the time to be prepared and enjoy serving you and our students.  The following is just a small list of ways that we can assist both faculty and students:

• Recommend a Book – This link can be found on the right hand side of the library home page.  If there is an item that you think the library should consider purchasing, just fill out the information for us.

• Research Help – There is a librarian or trained staff (our Information Assistant) available for you 74 hours a week.  (The library is open 84 hours a week so librarians are happy to schedule a time to meet with you if needed).

• Study Space – The library is a place where you can settle in for some study time.  Downstairs provides a space to work in small groups while upstairs is for those who like it a little quieter.

• Suggestion Box – A link can be found down on the right hand corner of the library home page.  Your input matters!

What’s next?  We are already thinking ahead to one of our busiest times – Dead week and Finals Week!  And what are we thinking? Some possibilities are extended hours, late night snacks, and bringing therapy dogs to the library to help relieve a little bit of the stress!