April 24, 2000
Report on WebCT
Banner Documentation
Summer Work Outlined
Office 2000 Software Installation
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NVCC Computer Services Newsletter
A Report on WebCT
At January's Professional Staff Meeting, faculty were introduced to WebCT, an integrated course management system for distance education courses and web-supported courses. NVCC's student license agreement with WebCT, starting in Fall 2000, will be extended to cover all students enrolled at this campus. This decision stems from the very favorable review that WebCT has received from the faculty using the software.
An "Introduction to WebCT" training class has been underway since late March and participants have learned that "WebCT is so easy to use that training is hardly more complex than demonstrating what it does." (as stated in a WebCT advertisement) We've also learned that "If you can use a mouse . . . WebCT is not intimidating!" Novice users can step into WebCT by beginning to use the Calendar tool, e-mail, and adding a small amount of content. Next term, add more content, add quizzes, and enhance your site with any of the other built-in WebCT tools. The key to success is to start simple and stay organized.
WebCT Part II training is
underway now. We will be demonstrating how to convert documents
into html files and uploading these files into WebCT. This
can be done with minimal exposure to FrontPage or Netscape
Composer to save files as html files.
Some "Famous Last Words":
From Tony Biello, Multimedia Faculty: "WebCT has lots of strengths with testing features, internal e-mail, drop-box for assignments and the capability of importing lots of files types. The only negative aspect is that html editing is awkward and a user needs some experience with an html editor such as FrontPage or DreamWeaver."
From Jenny Beetz, Dir. of IT:
"I don't have to install any software for the user! And you
can do this from home! Just point your web browser to
www.nvctc.commnet.edu:8900."
Banner users may find the following link for BANNER documentation useful.
http://www.nv2.commnet.edu/csv99/bannerdocumentation.htm
These web pages contain documents that may be helpful with learning Banner, or understanding terms or screens in Banner. Also a FAQ document is available. (i.e., do you know the difference between a Banner extract and a Banner report?)
These documents are prepared and updated by the Banner Team Leaders and Tobi Krutt, Manager of Technological Tools & Training in the System Office in Hartford.
Summer Work Outlined
New Network Closets in Kinney Hall . . . .
Beginning in late May, Kinney Hall will be outfitted with new network closets. Currently, network equipment is housed in custodial closets on all 4 floors of Kinney Hall and in order to meet the standards as set forth by CTC Network Standards Committee, this equipment will be moved to especially designed closets for network equipment. This move of switches and fiber cable also requires the rewiring and upgrading to CAT6 cables from each desktop computer to the new closets on each floor.
New Network Switches . . .
Most of our current network equipment is approximately six years old. This is pretty old, the way networking technology changes these days. We will be purchasing and installing over 30 Cisco switches to replace the current Digital hardware. The Cisco switches will be much faster than our current equipment and offer more flexibility on the design of our network. We will implement VLAN's which are virtual networks designed to help tighten security and also speed up the network. This is in response to an audit done by Digital Corp. Spring 1998 and has been the focus of a systemwide Network Infrastructure Committee.
New Banner Forms Server . . . .
A new Banner Forms Server will be purchased to support the Banner application. This should speed up the access to Banner screens and forms which currently runs from a server in heavy use daily.
Most of this work will be done "behind the screens", in other words, before or after hours. Users should experience little interruption as network equipment is swapped out or wiring is re-done. We'll keep you updated with the latest development as the project moves forward over the summer months.
Office 2000 Software Installations
Approximately eighty (80) faculty and staff computers have been upgraded to Office 2000 in the past 3 weeks. The Computer Services staff started with the Division of Allied Health, and then moved to the Business Division and Math/Science Division. Our next stop is Continuing Education. Mid-May will find us in Founders Hall. Kinney Hall will be started in June. Most computer labs will remain at Office 97 until Summer session is over. At that time, the labs will be converted to Office 2000 applications for the Fall semester.
Upgrades to Office 2000 requires 64 MB RAM and 500 MB free disk space. Additional memory will be purchased for those CPU's requiring memory upgrades. Along with upgrading to Office 2000, new network passwords are also being assigned.
Training in Office 2000 applications has been underway since late March, and will continue throughout the first week of May. We will resume training in June, so be sure to check our training schedule often for new dates. Overview to Office 2000 is a very popular section with approximately 7 to 9 participants in each class. Copies of SmartComputing's "Guide to Office 2000" are still available, but once our supply is exhausted, we will be unable to order more. Keep checking our training schedule for more open dates.
Visit
our website at http://www.nv2.commnet.edu/csv99/default.htm