Core Router Installation Schedule

The final pieces of our new core router have arrived as scheduled. That is something to be thankful for in these times.  

Let me outline our plan for configuring and installing the new core router.

 

After all the equipment has been delivered, it will be unpacked and serial numbers verified to ensure the equipment shipped is the same equipment that is on our maintenance agreement. This is important.

 

We have engaged a highly qualified Cisco Certified Engineer to assist the configuration and implementation.

Our Network Services team, along with the Cisco engineer will:

• Complete a design workshop - November 10

• Develop a detailed action plan - November 11-16

• Install and test

• The installation process is estimated to take 24 hours. We plan to start the installation at 5.00pm on Friday, December 11.

• The installation begins in the server room in the Admin Building. The old core router is physically removed from the rack, the new core router is mounted in the racks and the  power and  fiber cables are connected to the new core router.

• From there, the team will work on a list of buildings moving each building’s equipment and settings to the new core router

• During this installation period there will be internet interruptions.

• Once the work in the Admin Building data center commences, there will be no internet connection on campus. This commences at 5.00pm on December 11.

• After the Admin Building is back up and running, we will work building by building, starting with the Burks American Heritage Building. 

• Internet service will be restored to each building as it is moved to the new core router.

• After this is all complete the whole campus network and internet will be active on the new core router.

 

FAQs

1. How do I contact Public Safety when the Admin and Heritage buildings are offline?

1. Public Safety will send a message to the campus prior to December 11 and explain how to contact them.

2. What If it takes longer? How can we log into Canvas?

1. We will be setting up cloud based authentication so that the service to Canvas will not be interrupted from off campus. You can get to Canvas from: http://harding.instructure.com

3. Why are we doing at this time, right before finals?

1. There is no longer any ideal or good time to make these types of changes. Leaving it later will take us to grades being submitted and rolled, degrees to the conferred Christmas break (when there is no load on the system), and then we are at the first of the Spring semester.

4. Can I access Pipeline during this time?

1. No, Pipeline will not be available while the data center in the Admin Bldg is offline. After the Admin Bldg is back online, Pipeline will be available off campus and will come back online on-campus as each building is brought back up online.

5. Will I still get email?

1. Yes and no. Email will still be available on mobile devices that stay logged into email. To access email via your browser on a computer will be similar to how it works with Pipeline. After the Admin Bldg is back online, email will be available off campus and will come back online on-campus as each building is brought back up online.

The New Core Router is on the way...

The Router is on the way

If we go by the number of packages, 80% of the router has arrived. 

  

 

But functionally, John Exum considers it as 60% because these are the minor components, not the major ones.  

 

 

The expected arrival of the final pieces is November 4th.

We will keep you posted!

Web Conferencing, Tech Changes Since 2010, Thankfulness

Web Conferencing Access and Support Available On Campus

The Multimedia Studio in Admin 209 offers a Zoom (Web Conferencing tool) setup for individuals that need to participate in or arrange a web session. The Studio offers the equipment, software and support to conduct or participate in a web conferencing session.

Other services available:

• Lecture Capture and PowerPoint voice-over recordings (in or out of Canvas)
• Interview style recordings
• Lightboard recordings
• All recordings come with closed captioning and or transcript options

For more information, please contact Nikki at ndecker@harding.edu

Harding Library Director Receives Service Award

Jean Waldrop was recently featured in the Three Rivers Edition of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette for receiving the Suzanne Spurrier Award. Check out the full article here!

Technology's Effects on HU Since 2010

Moving Canvas Content

Did you know it’s easy to move your Canvas content from one semester to the next, and it will even change due dates for you?

To move content, you will need to first go into the future course. This course should be empty. Once in your future course, click Settings on the bottom left and then Import Course Content. 

Then you will change the Content Type to Copy a Canvas Course, find the course and select if you want to move All content or Select specific content from the course. The last option is Adjust events and due dates, and then select Shift dates. If you select this option, Canvas will automatically adjust the due dates associated with any course events and assignments. Canvas will look at the new start and end dates and distribute all the assignments as evenly as possible across the course dates. Here is the Canvas tutorial: How do I adjust events and due dates in a course import to give a more detailed look into the adjust events and due dates option. Once the import is complete, it will show Completed under Current Jobs. I would then suggest going back to Settings in your course and clicking Validate Links in Content to search your Canvas course for any broken links.

If you have any questions on moving your content, please contact the E-Learning helpdesk by emailing elearning@harding.edu or calling at x5201.

IS&T People Giving Thanks 

We asked the people in IS&T to tell us some of the things they are most grateful for about working at Harding; here are some of their answers:

Family and the opportunity to grow professionally and spiritually.

My co-workers

The first thing that comes to mind is the opportunity to become personal friends with accomplished thinkers/scholars who are ALSO serious about their faith. Some of the folks I work with--however tangentially--have refreshed my soul simply by being themselves. I'm deeply grateful to God for allowing my life to intersect theirs.

My supervisors always put Jesus above job

I am thankful for the financial assistance and encouragement Harding provides for pursuing more education.

I am most thankful for the Christian atmosphere all over the campus. I love seeing the smiling faces of everyone, and know that God could use me to make a difference in the lives of those around me.

All the people I get to work with.

I enjoy the focus on faith and family. Being able to bring my daughter to my office after school is a wonderful opportunity for her to be around fellow Christians who are working and love the Lord.

A good environment, with good people to work on things for the greater good

The people I work with.

I'm thankful for Godly leaders like Dr. McLarty, the Administrators and the Board who strive to keep Harding true to her mission so we can influence the world for Christ.

All of my wonderful co-workers!

The people at HU: a wonderful student body, faculty, and staff. (Polite, friendly students; a flexible, understanding boss; and dedicated, hard-working faculty and staff co-workers.)

A beautiful, well-kept campus that invites me to take a walk

Students that care about what kind of an education they seek.

Thankful for the opportunity to get to know students and form a relationship with them that carries on past their time at Harding.

My week off at Christmas.

The wonderful people I get to work with across many departments.

The spirit of living and working as Christians together

The respect, humility, and willingness to help that is exhibited daily by the staff.

If "thing" means non-person then I would have to say the industrial coffee maker. ;)

The Christian work environment that has an eternal mission.

Tuition discount!

That we are moving in the same direction--living and working for God. It is such a blessing to share that with those around you.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of IS&T!

Good Habits of Personal Computer Use

Seven Habits.

       1. Lock your computer when you leave your office for some time

How do I lock my computer?

• Windows computer - easy. Hit the Windows+L keys together. 

• Apple computer depends on the operating system version and hardware configuration. Here is a link that explains how -  https://macpaw.com/how-to/lock-mac-screen

          2. When in doubt, restart your computer.

Many times when things get stuck, restarting your computer will clear the problem. So, do a restart first before calling the Help Desk.

               3. Get up and walk around.

Don't get stuck behind the screen for hours on end. Get up and walk around at least once every hour. Go outside, smell the roses, chase a squirrel or just enjoy the trees.

          4. Back Up

Don't be caught if something should happen to your hard drive. Have your data backed up, maybe in more than one place. There are some great data backup and synchronization tools. Some people don't want to pay for back-ups. But what value do you place on your data, including those tens of thousands photos.

Check these options (there are more than these options):

• Google photos
• Flickr
• G Drive
• Sugarsync
• Carbonite
• iCloud

      5. Separate email accounts

Have one email for Harding business and another for personal and home business. This helps keep things in place and should anything happen where your HU account is lost, you will still have your personal and home business emails intact.

        6. Don't eat over your keyboard

Need there be any more said - there have been some really sticky and inoperable keyboards in the labs, library and other places.

        7. Passwords

• Use a strong password
• Don't use the same password on multiple accounts, at least don't use your Harding password on other accounts
• Don't write your passwords down and store them next to your computer
• Use a password manager (LastPass, Dashlane)

Canvas Gradebook, Multimedia Studio, and New Faces in IS&T

New Canvas Gradebook

This summer, we released the New Canvas Gradebook. The new gradebook will allow you to more easily input and manage grades. There are several new functionalities in the gradebook that you will want to note. One new functionality is Late Polices which will allow you to automatically apply a specific grade for missing submissions (missing work) and allow you to deduct a specific percentage for each day an assignment is late (late work).



Another new feature is the option to change the status (none, late, missing, excused) of an assignment for a student. To change the status, click the gradebook cell next to the student’s name under the assignment you want to change and click the “Grade Detail Tray” icon.


There are several new and improved features available in the New Gradebook. To view them all, click the link to the New Gradebook Resources. If you have any questions, please contact the E-Learning helpdesk at x5201 or by emailing elearning@harding.edu

Multimedia Studio!

The Center for Learning with Technology is excited to announce the opening of the Multimedia Studio! The Multimedia Studio offers a Lightboard recording suite, which allows the recording of engaging lectures. It also houses a presentation studio, allowing recordings of PowerPoint lectures with voice-overs, or webcam presentations using Camtasia.

Professors and students may reserve times to use the Studio by contacting 1-501-279-5201. The Studio is located in the Administration building, second floor, in the 209 suite. Schedule a tour or visit us anytime! 

We want to thank Maren for his work in helping get the studio set up and the production of this video. Since making this video, Maren has moved to another organization. Thank you, Maren.

New Faces

Alyssa Eller

Alyssa Eller is the new Print Resources Librarian for Brackett Library. She is a Harding graduate (2016) and has been working at the Germantown public library outside Memphis, Tennessee. Alyssa was a former library student worker and is completing her graduate work in Library Science at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Her husband, Andrew, will be starting medical school at UAMS this fall so they will be very busy for a while. Please drop by the library to meet Alyssa!

Ean Myers

Ean Myers joins our team as Desktop Support Specialist. He comes to Harding having worked for the Walmart home office and for 3-D Technology. His wife Sophie is a 6th grade literacy teacher at Southwest Middle School. Ean and Sophie have a mini Australian Shepherd named Banjo, and during his free time, Ean enjoys reading and watching movies.

Beth Seay

Beth Seay is the Office Assistant in the Center for Technology & Learning/AV. She grew up in Judsonia, and is a third generation Harding graduate. She is married to Tim Seay and has spent the last 22 years raising and homeschooling their two sons, Brennen and Carter. Beth’s office is located in Lee 110.

Hannah Dodson

Hannah Dodson is the new Audio Visual Technician in the AV department. She was born and raised in Searcy. She graduated Harding University this past May with a degree in Electronic Media Production. Hannah's office is located in Lee 110.

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.

Will Banner live on? Where is the VoIP Conversion project up to? Is there an app for that?

Banner??

Pop quiz--How long has Harding been using Banner/Oracle as its core student information system, Finance/HR system, Admissions and Advancement systems?
          A) 10 years           C) 15 years
          B) 20 years           D) Too long
          E) None of the above

As part of our strategic plan, we are currently exploring alternatives and future roadmaps for Banner. This does not mean we will be automatically replacing Banner (and that would include many of the other systems connected to Banner), but are actively looking at other options. We are also asking Ellucian (the company that "owns" Banner) to show us their development road-map beyond Banner 9!

What Other Systems?

There are not many options really.
          1. Ellucian (Banner)
          2. Campus Management (Nexus) - this is being implemented at Lubbock and                            Lipscomb, and being used at ASU-Beebe
          3. Workday - chosen to replace Poise, Banner and PeopleSoft for the entire                              University of Arkansas system.

          4.  Unit 4

All the newer systems are cloud-based and have CRM (Client Relationship Management) built in.  

When Is It Going To Happen?

The research and investigation is underway.  We make our last payment under this contract with Ellucian in August 2021.  We pay a year in advance.  So we have time, and if we were to change, we would minimize "double payments!"

How Will I Be Affected?

The simple answer is - yes!  There is no doubt things will be different from Banner 9.  However, I suspect there are not too many of us reading this who are using Banner all day. Most Banner users are use Banner more as a casual user. Many of us will rarely use Banner directly. We all use what is in Banner but access it through our portal, Pipeline.  We are confident that our portal will also change!

Do We Really Have To Change?

The answer is yes and no.  We can certainly stay with Banner as long as Ellucian will maintain and enhance the product.  But even with that scenario, change is going to happen e.g. Banner 8 to Banner 9.  So in essence, the real answer is yes.  Whether that change is to enhanced versions of Banner or to another product is yet to be determined.

Whichever way we go, we will do our best to keep you as informed as possible of what is happening with this project.

The Answer to the Pop Quiz?

While a number of people would like to answer D, the answer is C --15 years.

Updates from Brackett Library

The 2018 lectureship audio and video files are now available in Brackett Library’s online institutional repository, Scholar Works at Harding. Past lectureships, starting with the year 2014, are located on this site. The repository also contains digitized collections from the Ann Cowan Dixon Archives & Special Collections, faculty and student research, Harding publications, and Harding doctoral dissertations.

Brackett Library is also happy to announce that students and faculty can self-reserve the newly named Henry Terrill Conference room located on the second floor of the library. Patrons can go to https://ht-confroom.youcanbook.me/ to find available times and reserve this space online. Reservations are for groups of 6 – 15 people and can be made up to 30 days in advance. Room amenities include a large white board and a 65” SMART TV with HDMI and wireless access. More details can be found on the reservation page.

DormNet helps people get “unstuck” …

Dr. McLarty made this statement recently at a Welcome Dinner to a group of student workers who returned to campus a week early to participate in a rigorous week of training and twelve-hour workdays. These students are called DormNet Assistants (DNAs for short), and they work in IS&T.

This group of 15 student workers, managed by Lora Fleener, runs the DormNet Help Desk. They support the Harding student body with all computer-related issues. Two of the 15 student workers are Senior DNAs – they help supervise and assist the other DNAs.

The DNAs handle everything from “my computer doesn’t work” or “I can’t log into my Pipeline account!” to “how do I make this laundry app work?” or “Help! My computer just crashed!” They are on the “front line” when something goes wrong. They get to answer the phone when things go very wrong. They help students get “unstuck.”

Recently, before school started, DormNet was able to assist different groups of students and help them get their computers ready for school to start. One of the most fascinating things to watch is a group of recently-trained student workers help international students set up their computers, all of which are in a foreign language. In these pictures, DNAs were helping the Chinese students set up their computers. None of the DNAs has training in Chinese, but somehow they were able to work together and get the job done.

As displayed on the entrance to the IS&T offices, Colossians 3:17 says: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” And then a few verses later in Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

And for DormNet, that means we help people get “unstuck.”

There is an App for That - Canvas Teacher App

Have you been away from your computer and realized you need to send a
quick announcement to your Canvas course? Did you know Canvas has an app that
will allow this and much more?

Canvas has multiple apps available, including the teacher app for iOS
and Android devices. The Canvas Teacher app allows teachers to grade
assignments, provide feedback and conveniently communicate with students from
your mobile device.

For more information, check out the Mobile Guides - Canvas
Teacher page in the Canvas Guides or download the Canvas Teacher app from the
App Store or the Play Store.

VoIP Update

As announced in this article from April, the conversion to VoIP is nearly complete. The only devices left on the old telephone switch are a few fax machines and we have been turning off sections of the old phone switch as we proceed.

We have tried to convert all of the devices on that switch, but we may have missed some. If you have any phones or fax machines that are in an obscure location or seldom used, please try them and assure that they work. If they don’t work, please call 4100 and enter a ticket so we can convert them.