Category: Tech Tips

Did you know you can live chat with the iSchool help desk?

Any time while the Help Desk is open you can use this link to the Tech Chat to ask a question and get connected with a graduate assistant to help you find a solution!

This week we are giving a shout-out to the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning’s (CITL) workshops and consulting for data analytics.

CITL’s data analytics workshops cover how to use questionnaire design, statistical software, and qualitative programs and occur in evenings throughout the semester.

CITL’s data analytics consulting on survey construction and implementation and how to find and prepare data for analysis is available to all University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students, staff, and faculty.

Spending so much time sitting at a computer, it can be easy to forget to mind your posture.

Here are some tips on how to have a better posture.

1. Try to stay aware of your posture throughout the day!
   • This could mean setting an alarm on your phone to remind you to check your posture or even trying one of the apps designed to help you improve your posture.
2. Get up and move!
   • The longer you sit the more likely you are to slouch, so try to take some breaks from the computer and stretch your legs a bit. This is also a good way to prevent eye strain!
3. Move your monitor so that the top of the screen is at eye-level!
   • If you’re able to do this it is an easy way to encourage yourself subtly to sit up more regularly.

It’s not just your spine that needs a little attention! Proper wrist posture when typing will be far worth the effort in the long run as well.

1. Keep your wrists straight and your fingers curved!
2. If you’re able to purchase one, wrist rests can help encourage better wrist posture!
3. Regular hand stretches are also a great way to keep your hands and wrists happy and healthy!

After an instructor expressed their dislike of the lack of interactivity in their online course, the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) responded with ways to add interactivity to online classes, specifically when using asynchronous videos.

Some of the highlights include breaking the videos up and adding them as parts of a Moodle quiz where they are broken up by questions or using Illinois Media Space to make the video itself interactive.

Learn more in CITL’s article here.

Welcome to the new semester!

This week’s Tech Tip covers some of the most relevant and helpful resources and tips to prepare you for the start of the semester.

• 2FA
  • 2FA, or 2-Factor Authentication uses your smartphone to keep your university accounts secure.
  • Learn more about 2FA here.
• Outlook
  • You can access your university email in Outlook once you have claimed your NetID.
  • Learn more about Outlook here. 
• Moodle
  • Moodle is where you will access your course pages. Each course will look a little different, but this is often where you will find your syllabus, assignments, and grades.
  • Learn more about Moodle here. 
• Zoom
  • We use Zoom for our synchronous online classes.
  • Learn more about Zoom here.
  • Join us for our Zoom Workshops here.
• Wiki
  • The iSchool Wiki is a great resource for information about the iSchool. The wiki includes information on student resources, technology resources, instructional resources, research, human resources, communications resources, and more!
  • You can log into the iSchool Wiki here.
• VPN
  • A VPN can be used to gain access to some on-campus resources from off-campus.
  • Learn more about the free Cisco AnyConnect VPN here. 
• Box
  • Box is an online cloud-based storage system that is useful for collaborating and sharing files and for accessing files digitally.
  • Learn more about Box here.

Follow us the rest of the semester for a new Tech Tip each week!

Zoom has a whiteboard feature which is great for allowing participants to share their thoughts with the class or playing games like Pictionary!

You can learn how to use the Whiteboard feature here.

As always, if you have any questions please reach out to us at the iSchool Help Desk!
Email: help@support.ischool.illinois.edu
Phone: 217-244-4903 or 800-377-1892
TechChat: http://ischoolresources.web.illinois.edu/

All your Illinois Zoom meetings recorded to the cloud will automatically be available in MediaSpace. This week’s Tech Tip is about how to trim these videos.

How to trim off the beginning and end of a video:

• Navigate to your ‘My Media’ page. You will see your media arranged in a list. On the right side of the page, each entry will have an ‘Edit’ button. Select this to edit the media.
  • You will also find an edit button on any of the pages where you can view media that you own. It will be below the video on the right, in the ‘Actions’ drop-down menu.
• Select “Launch Editor,” which should appear to the right of the video.
• At the bottom of the editor, you will see the timeline of your video. You can drag the orange bars at either end to trim the beginning and end of your video.
• After setting the start and end times, you can play the vied in the editor to see what the media will look like after trimming.
• You can either “save a copy” of the newly trimmed video, or “save” which will replace the original media.

How to take out a part in the middle of a video:

• Navigate to your ‘My Media’ page. You will see your media arranged in a list. On the right side of the page, each entry will have an ‘Edit’ button. Select this to edit the media.
  • You will also find an edit button on any page where you can view media that you own. It will be below the video on the right, in the ‘Actions’ drop-down menu.
• Select “Launch Editor,” which should appear to the right of the video.
• At the bottom of the editor, you will see the timeline of your video.
• On this timeline, click where you want the cut to begin and then select the scissor, or “split,” tool above where you clicked. This will split your video into two.
• Then click where you want the cut to end and do the same. This will divide your video into three sections.
• Select the middle section, the one you want to cut out of the video, and either hit the delete button on your keyboard or select the trash icon to the top left of the timeline to delete this section.
• You can then watch the video in the editor to see what it would look like after having removed this section.
• You can either “save a copy” of the newly trimmed video, or “save” which will replace the original media.

As always, if you have any questions please reach out to us at the iSchool Help Desk!
Email: help@support.ischool.illinois.edu
Phone: 217-244-4903 or 800-377-1892
TechChat: http://ischoolresources.web.illinois.edu/

With this article making the rounds, this week’s Tech Tip is about Microsoft 365’s Workplace Analytics.

At the University we use MyAnalytics, which is automatically turned on. You can learn more about that here.

You can also follow the instructions here to opt-out of MyAnalytics.