As some people have noted, the issue first started yesterday evening.  Email that was sent from outside the district during the outage should now be delivered to your mailbox.  The problem was related to network configuration on our email server.

If you encounter any further problems with your district email account please open a help ticket with ITS athttp://www.smccd.edu/accounts/portal/

Basics

How To Change Title Description & Logo

How To Apply a New Theme

How To Add a New User

How To Set Email Alert

How To Delete an Email Alert

How To Use Explorer View

How To Restore Deleted Item

Permissions

How To Set Doc Permissions

How To Set Library Permissions

How To Set List Permissions

How To Set up Anonymous Access

How To Create a Group

Web Parts

How To Add Web Parts

How To Content Editor Web Part (Add Outlook)

Create

How To Create a Meeting Site

How To Create a Blog Site

How To Create a Team Site

How To Create a Wiki Site

How To Assign Tasks

How To Deassign a Task

Templates

How To Create a Site Template

How To Create List Template

Video Tutorials created by Frontpage Hosting

Pleased be assured that ITS is aware of the ongoing brief interruptions in phone and network access at Cañada and Skyline College.  We understand the interruptions have become increasingly frustrating.  We apologize for the inconvenience and are continuing to work on a resolution as soon as possible. 

The problem is highly intermittent which has made troubleshooting and repair very difficult.  ITS is currently running continual test on the network in an attempt to locate the source of the interruption when it occurs.  We have also engaged our network provider AT&T to provide assistance in solving the problem.  We are continuing to meet with AT&T and are escalating the issue to expedite its resolution as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience, understanding and support.

As always, if you do experience a phone or network outage, please report the problem to the ITS Help Desk at http:/www.smccd.edu/accounts/portal/ or by calling 574-6543.

You need sharepoint designer software in order to do a full backup of your site. If you do not have sharepoint designer on your computer please submit a case to our helpcenter and a technican will install it for you.

Tutorials on backing up your entire sharepoint site in sharepoint designer.

• Microsoft Tutorial: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA100699391033.aspx
• Video Tutorial: http://www.fpweb.net/sharepoint-tutorials/SPDBackupSite.asp

If you only want to backup the files you do not need sharepoint designer.  You can easily connect to sharepoint using webdav.
Instructions: http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/portal/index.php/posts/sharepoint-drag-and-drop-files/

Recyling Bin

If you accidentally delete an item you can recover it from your sharepoint recycling bin within 24 hours:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA100214341033.aspx

I contacted Microsoft and it turns out that it’s an IE bug.  They said that my Internet Explorer settings were corrupted and provided a fix.

Now if these instructions start to make you queasy and you are a SMCCCD employee on a computer in your office then you can contact our ITS helpcenter. http://helpcenter.smccd.edu

Microsoft instructions for fixing page displaying issues in IE8

1. Close all open windows including Internet Explorer.

2. Click on Start.

3. In the Start program and files box at the bottom left, please type in: inetcpl.cpl and press Enter.

4. Internet Options window will open.

5. Click on the last tab at the top with the name Advanced.

6. Under Advanced, click on the Reset button at the bottom.

7. It will open a new window which will ask you ‘Are you sure you want to reset?’

Note: Please make sure that you remember and write down all your saved passwords, before you perform a browser reset, because it will delete all the browsing history, temporary internet files, cookies and saved user names and passwords.

8. Please check the box Delete personal settings.

9. Click on ‘Reset again at the bottom.

10. It will perform a browser reset and at the end of it, you will have four check marks on all the four options.

11. Click on Close and then try to open Internet Explorer and check if you your pages load correctly.

When you reset your browser it will change a few things that may be confusing.

1) It will reset your homepage to MSN.
To change that go to “Tools” and “Internet Options” and type your preferred homepage address.
Mine is the Portal: http://www.smccd.edu/portal

2) It will hide your tools menu.
To get it back, right click anywhere on the IE top gray bar.  A menu will appear and select ‘Menu Bar”

3) It will set your search in the upper right hand corner to Bing.
You may want to reset it back to google.

• Select the down arrow next to the search box.
• Select “Find More Search Providers”
• Look for “Google Search Suggestions” and click the button to “Add to Internet Explorer”
• Check the boxes “Make this my default search provider” and “Use search suggestions from this provider”

http://smccd.edu/phone

Getting Started on WebAccess (or just a refresher)

I recommend checking out the WebAccess quick start guide available on the CTL website: http://www.ctlonline.net/WebAccess/WAQS1_Intro.pdf
There are quick start guides available for every WebAccess feature as well as video tutorials on the CTL website: http://www.ctlonline.net/WebAccess/index.html

Getting WebAccess Support

As many of you know, due to budget cuts, we no longer have a Centers for Teaching and Learning to offer one-on-one support and workshops for faculty and staff.  If you or your students are having technical difficulties with WebAccess please contact our WebAccess support center: http://smccd.mrooms.net/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=8949 If you are an instructor using WebAccess and would like assistance with best practices, pedagogical questions or teaching strategies then please contact our Distance Ed Coordination, Peter Bruni bruni@smccd.edu

Importing Course Materials from Previous Semesters

The import function allows you to import pieces of any existing course on your account into a new course on the same account.  To use the import function login to WebAccess, click on your Spring 2010 course and select “import” from the admin menu.  It will ask you to select the course you would like to import. Next it will give you the ability to select individual modules from that course or allow you to select everything.  Depending on the size of your course the import could take several minutes.

Making your WebAccess Course Active for Spring 2010

About 2 months before every semester we create all the empty course shells.  By default these course shells are “not available to students” and will appear grayed out in your class listing.  When you are ready to allow students to login to your course you will want to do the following:

• Logging into WebACCESS http://smccd.mrooms.net
• Click on the grayed out course link in your course listings
• Under the Admin Menu select “settings”
• Scroll down until you get to the availability drop down menu.  Select “This course is available to students”
• Scroll down again and click the button “Save changes”

Making it Easy for Students to Find Your Website

If you want an easy way for your students to find your course website you can have it show up automatically in the WebSchedule of classes: https://websmart.smccd.edu/webschedule

It’s a quick 2 minute process that we encourage all faculty to do.

1)      Login to WebSMART: https://websmart.smccd.edu

2)      Click on the Faculty Tab

3)      Midway own the page click “Faculty Website and Syllabus”

4)      Type your website address into the URL box and click “Update”

Previous Semesters Hidden

On Jan 14^th, 2010 in preparation for Spring 2010 I made all courses from previous semester “not available to students”  When you login to WebAccess these courses will not show as “grayed out.” If for any reason you need to make your previous semester course available to students you can do so by:

• Logging into WebACCESS http://smccd.mrooms.net
• Click on the grayed out course link in your course listings
• Under the Admin Menu select “settings”
• Scroll down until you get to the availability drop down menu.  Select “This course is available to students”
• Scroll down again and click the button “Save changes”

Resetting your Courses

If you are using WebAccess for labs or orientations you may want to clear out all student data before the start of the semester.  You can do that by selecting “Reset” in the admin menu. Reset allows you to empty a course of user data, while retaining the activities and other settings.  Please be warned that by choosing items you will delete the data forever, if you need that data for state reporting ensure you have gathered all your reports first.  I would recommend doing a backup of your course and all the user data then downloading that backup to your computer BEFORE doing a reset.

Enrollment Management System

Fall 2009 we implemented a new enrollment management system that is more integrated with WebSMART and enrollments are now handled 100% through the new system.  For every WebACCESS course that has a CRN, the new system will automatically add and drop students every two hours.  You no longer need to manually manage your list of students via “assign roles.”  If students need to add and drop they must do it via WebSMART.

There are some roles you can still manage yourself under “assign roles”

• Temporary Student –  If students need immediate access to your course, and for some reason cannot get to WebSMART.
• Banned Student – If you need to ban a student from your course, but they are still registered in WebSMART.
• DSPS Student – If you have a student with special needs who needs unlimited time on quizzes.
• Teacher – If you are co-teaching a course with another teacher and would like them to have all the same privileges in the course that you have.
• Non-editing Teacher – If you would like to give your teacher or Dean access to your course but do not want to give them the ability to make changes.

Backing up Your WebAccess Courses

Although we do our own backups we only have enough storage space to keep your courses for two years.  Also, if you make a dramatic change to your course and our backups run that night, we cannot restore the previous version of your course. We recommend you backup your WebAccess courses every semester and download it to your computer as well as doing backups before making any major course changes.

To back up a course with students and their data:

1. Select the course you want to backup.

2. In the Admin menu, click “Backup.”

3. Select yes for everything

5. Follow the on-screen instructions until the backup process is complete and the backup (*.zip) file is created.

6. Download the zip file to your computer.

To back up a course without students and their data:

1. Select the course you want to backup.

2. In the Admin menu, click “Backup.”

3. Click on “None” at top of the “User Data” column to uncheck all User Data boxes.

4. Scroll to the bottom and set Metacourse to No, Users to None, Logs to No, User Files to No, and Course Files to Yes.

5. Follow the on-screen instructions until the backup process is complete and the backup (*.zip) file is created.

6. Download the zip file to your computer.

Restoring your WebAccess Course

1. If you don’t have a copy of the backup file on your computer yet, download the backup file (zip file) of the course you wish to restore.

2. Go into the blank course shell where you wish to bring in the data from the backup file.

3. Under the Admin section, click on Restore.

4. Click on the Upload a file button to upload the backup file (zip file) you downloaded in step 1.

5. Once the backup file is in the course, click on the Restore link next to it.

6. Follow the on-screen instructions until the restore process is complete.

Note: Be careful not to restore users and user data unless you’re sure you want to re-add all your old students and their data.

What many of you may not know is Google Apps for Education does far more than just email!  In fact it could completely revolutionize your life!  There are so many amazing tools but today I am going to focus on one of my favorites which is Google forms.

Jaz, what is so great about Google forms?

Well, Google forms allows you to easily create an online form to collect information and stores it in a google spreadsheet that you can easily export into excel.

But Jaz, why would I want to collect data from people?

Good question.  I am going to give you some examples.

1. You are hosting an event or workshop and you would like people to register.
2. You are throwing a holiday potluck and you would like people to sign up to bring a food item.
3. You are raffling holiday gift baskets and you would like people to sign up to buy raffle tickets.
4. You have been paying for survey monkey and with budget cuts you would love a free solution.
5. You would like to gather feedback from your students, your staff or your community about their concerns or suggestions.
6. You would like a way for students to vote online for something.
   Hold a virtual election or get their votes on budget items affecting them.
7. You have a bizzillion paper forms and would like an easy way to allow people to submit online.
   Imagine how much better life would be if you didn’t have to do all that data entry of paper forms?
8. You can create your own support request form.
   Would you like people to submit requests for your department online?

I think you get the idea.

That sounds awesome, can you show me an example?

Here are  examples of a potluck sign-up form.

Google Form – There are dozens of themes you can choose from to jazz up your forms.

Google Spreadsheet – After someone submits the form it automatically goes into the google spreadsheet.  For this example I published the spreadsheet to the world so you could view it without logging it.  It will automatically update the web version every 5 minutes.

Previous Responses – You can open it up so everyone can see previous responses.  Everything is automatically tallied for you.

You sold me, how do I get started?

The first thing you will need is a @my.smccd.edu email account.  You can request an account by going to the IT Services Request Form on the portal page.

Once you have your account you can login at:  http://my.smccd.edu

Click on “Docs” in the upper right hand corner and you are on your way.

There are an insane amount of online resources and tutorials available to help you.  Here are the ones I recommend:

1) Step by Step on Google Forms – http://kinetiva.com/tutorials/creating_online_forms_with_google_forms.pdf

2) Video -  Introduction to Google Forms in 5 minutes – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFYu4r0q25k

3) Google Apps Interactive Tutorial – http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews/welcome/topicWelcome/index.html

4) Video – Why Google Apps for Education? (Great introduction) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRYRbPCHTck

5) Google Docs for Teachers – http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134592

Jaz, I am truly inspired and cannot wait to get started!  Can you do a presentation at one of our department meetings next Spring?

Yes, we can do a roadshow on your campus at a department meeting.  We would like to customize the presentations to suite your needs and hopefully have a finished form by the end or the meeting.  Make sure you have an idea in mind on how your department might like to use google forms.

Please fill out the form to secure the date and time: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEdOSmpINEhKRVNyeXNxVkdrbmFDbFE6MA

Now I’m a google forms pro, can I do anything more advanced with it?

If you’re not a huge tech/web geek you may want to skip this part because it’s pretty advanced.

You can create a self-graded quiz using google forms and formulas in your spreadsheet.  video tutorial

You can event create your own HTML forms and submit to the google forms.   http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/portal/googleformexample.html

Since you can submit your HTML forms directly to Google that means google spreadsheets can now be your back-end database!
You can query the spreadsheet and display your results: http://ouseful.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/using-google-spreadsheets-as-a-databace-with-the-google-visualisation-api-query-language/