Each week, the Continuity & Community digest includes information about new and changing UC Merced services and platforms, tips for how to use existing services more effectively or efficiently, and feature resources that may be of value.

Be sure to visit the OIT pages dedicated to Educational Continuity For Instruction , Continuity For Learning , and Continuity for Remote Work . These pages, along with a broader set of crowd-sourced, curated resources for faculty , students , and staff are being updated frequently with new information to aid your transition.

WEEK 2: April 8, 2020

IN THIS ISSUE

ZOOM

UPDATE YOUR ZOOM VERSION

OIT strongly recommends that you upgrade to the most recent version of Zoom.

The latest Zoom version was released today and includes a new security tab that allows you to quickly allow or disable chat, share screen, and lock or unlock the session right from the meeting interface.

Not sure if you need an update? Log into the desktop client and check in the top right menu. You can also click below for more detailed instructions.

UC CIO's STATEMENT ON ZOOM

In light of recent news highlighting potential issues with Zoom, the University of California CIOs have put out a joint statement on Zoom security concerns.

UPCOMING SECURITY CHANGES

In the coming days, OIT will be releasing a number of features and security enhancements to your Zoom account to reduce the likelihood of "Zoom bombing" and other disruptions.

We are planning to enable Single Sign-On, which will allow you to log in to Zoom the same way you access other UC Merced services and applications, while protecting your account with 2-Factor Authentication. We will also enable new meeting control features, which will allow users to restrict meeting attendees to UC Merced accounts and protect meetings with passwords by default.

Stay tuned for specific communications on these changes, including when they will go live, early next week—or click the link below for current UC Merced Zoom alerts at any time.

UPDATES FOR FACULTY

REPORT INCIDENTS OF "ZOOM BOMBING"

By now most of us are aware of the disruptive and hostile phenomena of 'zoombombing.' Should you experience zoombombing in your class or meeting, please report the incident via the link below.

Reporting your zoombombing incident allows us to track the occurrence and alerts the Associate Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Dean of Students, and the Chief Compliance Officer, who will able to respond as needed based on the severity of the incident.

ZOOM HELPER SERVICE

As a result of the current COVID-19 situation, faculty are facing the challenge of managing new technology to deliver instruction in an unfamiliar format, all while trying to provide a sense of community for their students.

To enable faculty success, OIT is offering “in-class” ZOOM Helper support for synchronous Zoom class sessions.

By request, OIT can provide course assistance for a single class session or multiple sessions, allowing faculty to reduce the effort required to manage Zoom technology and instead focus on instruction and interaction with students .

RESEARCH CONTINUITY WEBINAR

Friday, April 10, 2020 at 3:00 PM Pacific Time

Mark your calendars for an upcoming UC Merced webinar on conducting research during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Webinar Hosts:



The webinar hosts will address questions posed by the faculty prior to the webinar and (time permitting) any additional questions that arise in real time. Please send your questions in advance to Sam Traina .

RESPONDUS LOCKDOWN BROWSER

Respondus Lockdown Browser is a special web browser that prevents students from navigating to other websites or programs on their computers while taking quizzes in CatCourses.

An instructor can enable Respondus LockDown browser in a CatCourses course to use in conjunction with the CatCourses Quizzes feature.

PRODUCING AND USING VIDEO CONTENT

UC Merced Professor Tanya Golash-Boza discusses some best practices for when to create your own instructional videos.

Dr. Golash-Boza's blog post, below, includes more information about how to make effective videos for online instruction.

Ready to get started in streaming video content or creating your own videos for remote instruction? OIT offers multiple solutions to make the process easier.

Kaltura is a cloud-based video streaming solution that allows instructors and students to upload and view videos for classes and is available through CatCourses as an add-on tool.

Instructors can enable the Kaltura tool in each course via the Navigation tab under settings, allowing students to then view uploaded videos within their course site. Kaltura also provides closed captioning.

The Learning Glass is a transparent lightboard available for use while recording instructional videos in the Learning Glass studio. Instructors can write notes or illustrate content directly on the glass while maintaining face-to-face contact with their students.

The Learning Glass studio is located in Promenade and faculty may request Consultation/Training by appointment.

CURATED RESOURCES FOR FACULTY

Have a great resource that you'd like to share? Tell us about it!

UPDATES FOR STAFF

CALM APP ACCESS COMING SOON

OIT, in partnership with the UC Merced Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Professor Suzanne Sindi, is arranging the distribution of the app Calm for all faculty, staff, and students.

Calm is the No. 1 app for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation and has been named by the Center for Humane Technology as "the world's happiest app." 

Look for news about the release of Calm for UC Merced on social media and watch this space next week for details on how to access the app for free with your UC Merced email address.

IT HEALTH CHECK APPOINTMENTS

OIT is now offering quick technology Health Check appointments via Zoom. Request your appointment to make sure that your system is running well and to troubleshoot common issues.

REMOTE WORK RESOURCES

The UC Merced Office of Human Resources has posted a number of useful resources on the OIT Continuity for Remote Work page. Be sure to visit the Human Resources site for even more information and helpful links!

GET STARTED WITH TEAMS

OIT is quickly working to officially launch Microsoft Teams as a supported University tool to help faculty, staff, and student groups facilitate collaboration and communication among their classes, labs, administrative units, and student groups.

Teams is the de facto successor of Skype for Business (SfB), UC Merced's instant messaging platform. SfB will be decommissioned in 2021, so now is the perfect time to make the move to Teams.

If you're looking to get started with Teams, use the form below to volunteer for the OIT Teams Beta test group and be among the first to learn about Teams features.

Interested in learning more about teams? Check out this Microsoft blog post: Everything you need to connect with your teammates and be more productive

CURATED RESOURCES FOR STAFF

Have a great resource that you'd like to share? Tell us about it!

EXPLORE PAST CONTINUITY & COMMUNITY DIGESTS

Missed an issue? Explore past issues of Continuity and Community

to look back on important news and updates.

Week 1 - April 1, 2020