By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Senior Director of Academic Computing and User Services and Deputy Chief Information Officer for University Information Technology
University Information Technology (UIT) and CLEAR are happy to announce the availability of an enterprise license for Panopto lecture capture. The Panopto recorder is now installed by default in all general classrooms and lab classrooms supported by Classroom Support Services.
By Judy Hunter, Director of Front End Support, Helpdesk and Student Computing Center Willis Library, Willis 24hr General Access Computer Lab
The UNT General Access Lab System is very excited to announce the availability of "Web Printing" or "Print from Anywhere" services in a number of the Labs across campus. You can now use Printing.unt.edu to upload and print document from personal devices to supported printers on campus!
By Dr. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Director - Academic Computing Technical Services
Summer of 2013 was an interesting one for the UNT Denton campus. As one of my colleagues put it, the place looks like a child with a box of Legos and severe ADHD had its way on the campus! Construction everywhere! And everything moved to far-flung campus corners (has anyone actually found Wells Fargo Bank yet I ask you?) and housed higgledy-piggledy (love that term!) all over the place.
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
Issue 5 (September 2013) of the ITSS Quarterly Newsletter is now available. It is comprised of IT-related news relevant to anyone who uses or has an interest in shared services and applications throughout the UNT System and its member institutions.
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
The 2013 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference is coming to a close. Fear not, however, there are more EDUCAUSE events that you can participate in. Next up: ELI Online Fall Focus Session, "How Online Innovations Are Transforming Learning."
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
International Open Access Week is "a global event now entering its sixth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research."1 This is the second year UNT has participated in this event and in celebration, Academic Computing and User Services (ACUS) has joined with the UNT Libraries, Digital Scholarship Co-Operative, and the UNT College of Information to offer a week of free programming. You will need to register by 5pm Friday, October 18th to ensure that you have a place in the events.
By Jane Himmel, Associate Director, CLEAR
In the September 2013 issue of Benchmarks Online, Dr. Philip Baczewski announced availability of an enterprise license to Panopto Focus lecture capture system. Although Panopto has been in limited use at the University of North Texas since 2011, it is most likely a new tool, and perhaps a new technology, for many readers. This article explains what lecture capture is and describes the benefits of this technology for faculty and students.
By John Hooper, Chief Information Officer, University Information Technology
University Information Technology (UIT), in collaboration with its many partners across the campus and in IT Shared Services (ITSS), is embarking on the development of an Information Technology Strategic Plan for the university. The UNT IT (IT) Strategic Plan will provide direction for IT infrastructure, resources, service delivery, and funding allocation from the 2014-2015 through the 2017-2018 fiscal years.
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
The EDUCAUSE SPRINT 2013 event lives on via a 3-Day Sprint Summary.
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
Thanksgiving and all the good things normally associated with it is almost here. This year Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlap, giving rise to the term Thanksgivukkah. This happened before, back on November 29, 1888, but it won't happen again for another 79,043 years!
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
The Microsoft Home Use program has been available to UNT faculty and staff members for a number of years, as has Microsoft E-Learning. This is due to the fact that the UNT System has a site license for Microsoft products. Sometimes they are temporarily unavailable, however, when the site license is in the process of being renewed. Following is an announcement that was sent out to the UNT System on November 11, 2013 by Michael DiPaolo, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer.
By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Senior Director of Academic Computing and User Services and Deputy Chief Information Officer for University Information Technology and Dr. Scott Yockel, HPC Services Manager
The University of North Texas’ high performance computing (HPC) system, known as Talon, has been replaced with Talon 2.0, an advanced system that will accommodate a continually growing base of computational research. The acquisition of this new system represents a significant service upgrade for those doing computationally-based research at UNT.
By Jane Himmel, Associate Director, CLEAR
Faculty and staff have until December 2, 2013 to make requests to have content downloaded or courses migrated from Blackboard (formerly WebCT) Vista. Vista was last used for course delivery at UNT during the Fall 2012 semester and has been out of production since December 2012.
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
Lots of IT-related work has been accomplished since the last issue of Benchmarks Online was published. The EagleConnect Wave 15 upgrade was completed; UNT's high performance computing (HPC) system, known as Talon, has been replaced with Talon 2.0, an advanced system that will accommodate a continually growing base of computational research; and the UNT System site license for Microsoft products was renewed.
By Michelle Farley, Instructional Consultant , CLEAR
Looking for ways to collaborate with colleagues, meet with students without coming to campus, or provide online office hours? Blackboard Collaborate 12 is an online, synchronous, set of collaboration tools available to the UNT community. Blackboard Collaborate is designed to enhance online courses and encourage collaboration with dynamic interaction.
By Jane Himmel, Associate Director, CLEAR
If you were to utter the word Blackboard around campus a year ago, a pained facial expression or deep groan would likely have told you all you needed to know about users’ thoughts, feelings, and observations. The system had experienced multiple unplanned outages during Fall 2012, causing considerable distress among faculty and students who expected a stable, reliable platform on which to complete their course assignments, activities, and exams.
By Jane Himmel, Associate Director, CLEAR and Kathy Roberts, Instructional Technology Support, CLEAR
Among the instructional technologies supported at UNT is the classroom response system, informally known as “clicker” technology. Clickers have been used in higher education classrooms since the late 1990s to improve student engagement during class. Instructors present a question or problem to the class and students respond by entering an answer choice on the clicker device assigned to them.
By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
The fall semester is over, winter is upon us; time to rest, relax, catch up on things that were put aside, and generally take a break from what had become your routine these past few months. The following information should help you plan your activities if you need/want to access campus computing facilities over the break.
By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Senior Director of Academic Computing and User Services and Deputy Chief Information Officer for University Information Technology
A new website is available that supports and documents the IT strategic planning process that was announced previously. The new site is http://it.unt.edu/strategicplan and features an overview of the planning process and will serve as a focal point for planning information and activities.
By Dr. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Director - Academic Computing Technical Services
In 2007 I made a New Year's resolution to start studying karate because it looked like my two sons were having so much fun in their class that I wanted to try it out! Anyone who knows me well knows that I am the type of person who does not stop before finishing a goal and - indeed - I now enjoy my "non UNT work life" as a karate instructor and all-around ninja! This year I have been a little late on making my resolutions and maybe you are late to this task as well.
