The Continuity and Community digest was begun as a response to emergent conditions: our abrupt move to remote work and instruction early this year and our need to share information and resources through late spring and early summer.
Though there are many unknowns that remain on the horizon, those conditions have now stabilized, and we are now much more informed and prepared as we move into this Fall semester of planned remote instruction and telework. Bandwidth is also at a premium, and there's a need for our campus to consolidate communications as much as possible to allow more time and space for truly critical messages.As such, September 2020 will be the final month for the Continuity and Community digest.
This doesn't mean that we're taking our memes and going home! We will continue to share updates and information regularly via other communication channels and methods, and we'll use the last few issues of this digest to detail how and where to find updates about OIT and our campus partners in the future.
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ISSUE 14: September 2, 2020 |
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NEW ZOOM REQUIREMENT:
WAITING ROOMS AND PASSCODES
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Starting September 27, Zoom will require that all meetings have a passcode or a waiting room enabled for all accounts. On that date, Zoom will automatically enable waiting rooms for all meetings that do not already have a passcode or waiting room set up.
If you already use either a passcode or a waiting room for all meetings, great! There will be no change for you.
If you need to learn more, visit the OIT Zoom page for more information on how to manage waiting rooms and passcodes.
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With the start of a new semester here, make sure that you know how to protect your classes and meetings against Zoom Bombing.
'Zoom Bombing' is a form of trolling in which a participant uses Zoom’s built-in feature to interrupt and disrupt meetings and classes. Click below to learn how to secure your settings and allow legitimate participants to share in your Zoom meetings. Keep in mind that OIT offers Zoom security workshops
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If you've been locked out of meetings or are having problems accessing Zoom, you may need to log in to the Zoom website and "claim" your account.
To do this, simply visit ucmerced.zoom.us and log in with your UCMNetId. That's it!
Once you've logged in, you will have access to all the current security features within Zoom.
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UC MERCED EVENTS CALENDAR LAUNCH |
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External Relations and the Office of Information Technology and are pleased to announce the launch of a new Campus Events Calendar at events.ucmerced.edu.
The new platform offers a number of new ways to find out what's happening on campus—whether virtual or (hopefully, at some point soonish?) in-person! As a calendar user, you can follow the groups, departments, event types and topics you are interested in, add events right to your personal calendar, and even create your own personalized events digest (like Happenings, but way better).
The new Events Calendar is the first step towards the launch of UC Merced Connect, a desktop and mobile platform that will replace the current portal and provide curated content, essential resources and more in one central location—coming later this Fall!
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CURIOSITY & EXPERIMENTATION WITH TECHNOLOGY |
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Jessica Duffy, Business Architect for the Center for Institutional Effectiveness and the leader of the new Student Dens project (which is built on the Teams platform), encourages staff and faculty alike to adopt an attitude of curiosity and experimentation with tech platforms and tools.
Simply 'playing' and trying things out may help you find solutions for your short and long-term needs for remote work, productivity, and collaboration.
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If you’re interested in learning more about Teams in particular, Jessica has created a publicly-available Team for staff or faculty to experiment with. Just follow the instructions to Get Started with Teams below, then search for the 'Playing with Productivity' Team to join. |
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RESPONDUS LOCKDOWN BROWSER
ADD-ON: RESPONDUS MONITOR
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Respondus Monitor—an automated proctoring service—is now available to help meet instructor's unique needs for remote instruction and assessment.
Respondus Monitor is an add-on to the Respondus Lockdown Browser service which monitors for instances of potential academic dishonesty. Note that in order to use Monitor, students must have a webcam.
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RESEARCH DATA SECURITY
ASSURANCE CONSULTATION
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The Data Security Assurance Consultation for Research Data addresses the information security requirements for any internal or external research project where UC Merced faculty, staff, and students participate.
This consultation service includes guidance and education about compliance with UC-wide the Information Security (IS-3) policy and other relevant regulations and laws provided by the information security and research computing teams.
Through this consultation, faculty members can expect to gain:
- a knowledge of the data security requirements associated with their research
- a plan for implementing those data security requirements (including service and support options for data storage & management solutions)
- relevant letters for compliance, support for grant proposals, and research contracts
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STREAMING VIDEO ACCESS & SUPPORT |
Integrating video into your course this semester? The Library offers a guide that highlights frequently-used streaming video sources and available support for using video in your courses. |
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The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) offers high-quality video demonstrations focused on the fields of naturals sciences and engineering.
Visit our JoVE guide for details on adding video content and associated quizzes to your CatCourse site.
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One new addition to JoVE is the Encyclopedia of Experiments. This collection features research techniques for the model organism Drosophila melanogaster.
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CURATED RESOURCES FOR FACULTY |
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Have a great resource that you'd like to share? Tell us about it! |
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CURATED RESOURCES FOR STAFF |
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Have a great resource that you'd like to share? Tell us about it! |
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Missed an issue? Explore past issues of Continuity and Community
to look back on important news and updates.
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