OIT's new Digital Toolboxes, designed in collaboration with the Office of Instructional Innovation, help you make informed selections by comparing tools on a variety of topics.

On August 20, OIT will be introducing a new, streamlined landing page in Blackboard Learn that allows students to more easily access important course information, including learning materials, grades, messages, calendars, and relevant links arranged in an Activity feed. Only Blackboard's home page is changing. Courses, Grades, and other pages inside of your courses will remain and will work the same as before.

Advisory communities are an important part of the University's IT Governance framework. They provide a means to engage with OIT and influence decisions based on the needs and experiences of participants and, most importantly, to inspire action to meet those needs. The Learning Spaces advisory community, Teaching & Learning Technologies advisory community, and Computer & Device Support advisory community will all meet in the month of July.

Advisory communities are an important part of the University's IT Governance framework. They provide a means to engage with OIT and influence decisions based on the needs and experiences of participants and, most importantly, to inspire action to meet those needs. The Teaching & Learning Technologies advisory community and Collaboration Tools advisory community will meet in the month of June.

May 21 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. OIT would like to remind everyone that information technology can be one of the great equalizing forces in our society, helping to lower barriers and bring access to a broad spectrum of individuals. OIT is committed to fostering digital accessibility at Ohio University.

Adobe recently notified us that they have extended their offer of free personal access to Creative Cloud applications for OHIO faculty, staff, and students through July 6, 2020. If you took advantage of this offer during spring semester, no additional action is needed. Your access will automatically be extended through July 6.

On May 11, 2020, OIT will begin phasing out support for Basic Authentication, an older, less secure way of accessing Office 365 services. When this change takes effect, some email and calendar clients and mobile apps will stop working with Office 365. To find out if this change will affect you and what you will need to do, see Next Steps.

Last week, OIT's Information Security Office unveiled a top-to-bottom redo of the University's IT Security website that will make it significantly easier for OHIO faculty, staff, and students to find the resources they need to protect University and personal data.

Starting May 7, 2020, OHIO employees and emeriti will be required to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the following online services:  

• Office 365 – Email, Calendar, OneDrive, Teams, and other Microsoft online applications 
• Qualtrics – For tasks like creating/editing surveys, viewing reports, and analyzing/exporting data. Survey participants will not be affected by the new requirement. 

Office 365 and Qualtrics are the latest to join a growing list of University online services that are protected with MFA, including PeopleSoft, e-Biz, and My Personal Information. 

In January 2020, OIT conducted a faculty survey to document LMS usage patterns, identify current and emerging needs for this service, and gauge faculty attitudes toward Blackboard Learn, the University's current LMS. A detailed report from that survey is now available (DOCX hosted on OneDrive). 

As we all settle into teaching, learning, and working together online, even thinking about sorting through tools and best practices can feel overwhelming. The Office of Information Technology is here to help with workshops, consultations, and technology self-help resources.

Learning spaces, including physical classrooms, blended hybrids like the Ohio University Learning Network (OULN), and fully digital locations, play an important role in Ohio University’s strategic initiatives. If you would like to help shape the future of learning spaces at Ohio University, consider joining the newly formed Learning Spaces IT Advisory Community. Membership is open to anyone at the University.

In light of all that is happening with OHIO’s move to online instruction and remote work, it’s more important than ever that OIT continues to engage the University community in evolving and advancing technology services. To that end, two new IT advisory communities will launch in the month of April: Collaboration Tools and Computer & Device Support. Additionally, we will continue moving forward with the Teaching & Learning Technologies community that launched in February.

Most of us are so looking forward to spring! While it might be easy to see the need to purge and tidy up, realizing the need to also digitally declutter isn’t so apparent. Follow these tips from SANS to get your virtual house in order.

In early April, Microsoft will start using a new background image for their sign-in screens. This is a cosmetic change only. The actual login process will not change.

In partnership with faculty, the Office of Instructional Innovation (OII), Capital Planning, Finance, and the Office of the University Registrar, OIT has begun installing updated technology packages in over 250 centrally scheduled classrooms. Many of these rooms have not seen investments for 5 years or more.

For the 2019-20 academic year, selected classrooms in Bentley, Glidden, Gordy, Grover, and Morton halls will have their technology packages and, in some cases, their furniture updated.

If you would like to help shape the future of teaching and learning technologies at Ohio University, consider joining the newly formed Teaching and Learning Technologies IT Advisory Community. The first meeting will take place from 11 am - 12 pm in Alden Library 251 with an online option via Microsoft Teams for individuals who cannot attend in person.

Drop-ins are welcome, but to get the most out of the experience, we recommend joining the Microsoft Team devoted to this topic

From February 24 through February 27, the Office of Information Technology will host vendor presentations to support the evaluation of the student experience at OHIO. During the presentations, vendors will share their ideas for how they would assist OHIO in understanding the current state of our student experience and envision future opportunities to enhance this experience.

Technology is essential for the day to day activities of students, faculty, and staff and an enabler for many of Ohio University’s strategic initiatives. To ensure our technology strategies align with OHIO priorities and evolve with the changing needs of our campus, OIT is establishing an IT Governance framework to solicit input, engage the campus community, and inform decisions regarding IT strategy and services.

Cyber criminals increasingly are targeting college students with the goal of stealing financial aid and tuition refund payments. Multi-factor authentication is the single best way to secure your OHIO account! You'll get a verification request on your phone any time someone tries to access your account. If a login isn't you, press the DENY button and change your password.

Protect your OHIO account: Enable multi-factor authentication today!

Are you interested in making the digital world at Ohio University more accessible for everyone? If so, consider attending the first OHIO Digital Accessibility Network (DAN) meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 29 from noon to 1:00 p.m. in WUSOC 346. If you are unable to attend in person, you can participate remotely via Microsoft Teams.

During spring 2020, OIT will be upgrading software on many University-owned computers. If your computer is affected, you can expect to hear from OIT or your departmental IT technician in the coming weeks. Titles being upgraded include Windows 7, older versions of Windows 10, and older versions of Microsoft Office for Mac and PC. Mac users also will receive a new application called Self Service that provides automatic security updates and one-click install icons for University-licensed software. These upgrades are part of a regular schedule to keep University devices secure, current, and in compliance with vendor license terms

Software and security updates are about to get a whole lot easier for many university-owned Mac computers. Over the next few months, OIT will roll out a new Mac Management application called Self Service to all university departments. Self-Service offers one-click installers for university-licensed software packages and automatically takes care of required security updates.

If you have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro that you downloaded from the OIT Software page or that was installed on your university-owned computer via Software Center, Managed Software Center, or Self Service, that copy will stop working on November 1, 2019. You have several options, depending on how you use Acrobat.

If you have a copy of  Windows 7 or Microsoft Office 2013 on a university-owned computer, you can expect to hear from OIT during May about upgrading to a supported version.  This upgrade is necessary for several reasons. Most importantly, Windows 7 and Office 2013 are no longer receiving updates from Microsoft. 

To support the University’s decision to brand itself exclusively as “OHIO," OIT will retire the ohiou.edu internet domain in favor of ohio.edu on Dec. 21, 2018. From December 21, 2018 through June 30, 2019, ohiou.edu web addresses will redirect to a page that informs visitors of the name change and recommends that they replace “ohiou.edu” with “ohio.edu” in the address they were trying to reach.

Email scams can take many forms, but they all have one thing in common. They all ask you to provide your password or other personal information. If you receive a message that asks you to log into a website or reply with personal information, it is a scam. Learn more about how to protect yourself from email scams.