For Students, Faculty and Staff

 

Everything is changing…time to get on board!

12th September | No Comments | posted by | in For Students, Faculty and Staff, Information Technology News

IT Systems is working on and releasing important updates designed to benefit you and other members of the Lee community. Be in the know about what’s going on!

 

University website upgrades 

Completed website projects: 

  • User-friendly Search bar – Our search bar is now powered by Google, eliminating frustrating jargon you might have encountered in previous searches.

  • Upgraded RSS feeds – You don’t have to visit the website to get news updates! Access Lee news and Lee Athletics updates on any device with an RSS reader.

Projects currently in the works: 

  • Correct design, correct device – Each device (smartphone, tablet, desktop computer, etc.) through which you access the website will have its own user-friendly content layout designed to make viewing easier.

  • iCal feeds – The University Calendar will be available on your smartphone and through the mobile app. You will be able to add university events from the calendar to your personal calendar, which will be updated if times, dates, etc. change.

What else is on the horizon for the website? 

  • An enhanced calendar with more detail and actual calendar views (daily view, weekly view, and a monthly view).

  • Links to a new online directory with enabled searching.

  • A new drop down menu

Other important updates

  • Mobile apps – The New Student Orientation mobile app released orientation weekend was a huge success; now try the Lee mobile app and the GO Flames mobile app for Lee athletics. Download both for free at http://mobile.leeuniversity.edu.

  • Switch from PowerFAIDS to Colleague – Financial aid transmittals are now done in Colleague rather than PowerFAIDS, allowing us to take advantage of Colleague services such as a new Student Finance view and 1098-T’s. It will also prepare us for an upgraded web experience coming soon to Portico and Webadvisor that will give them a new look and feel. The management pieces of Financial Aid will still be handled in PowerFAIDS.
  • Student recruitment – Lee will offer an online admissions application through Target X, a new recruitment software. Target X will also import data from ACT, SAT, and MAT and match it with the appropriate online applications, reducing data entry error and eliminating unnecessary duplicate info.

  • Student retention – Be on the lookout for new initiatives to keep Lee students here all the way through graduation.

Your grades, your schedule, your news feed and more… in the palm of your hand

| No Comments | posted by | in For Students, Faculty and Staff

CRW_9898Lee students, faculty and staff : Starting this fall semester, you can have more important university information at your fingertips than ever before.

IT Systems has just released Ellucian Mobile, a smartphone app for universities that is replacing MOX, Lee’s first mobile app.

The MOX app provided you with instant access to your courses, important numbers, and even a map of campus right on your smartphone, but Ellucian Mobile offers all those on top of a number of new features.

 

With Ellucian Mobile, you can have access to:

 

  • Your day-to-day course schedule

  • Detailed information on your classes, like who your professor is, the class roster, and the location

  • A map with the coordinates of every main location on campus

  • Your grades

  • A news feed of important university updates

  • A list of campus events

  • Important personal notifications, such as a hold on your account

  • A directory with important contact information

  • Lists of important numbers

To download the Ellucian Mobile app for free, visit http://mobile.leeuniversity.edu/ today!

Windows 8.1 – Nine Changes You Need to Know

7th June | No Comments | posted by | in For Students, Faculty and Staff

Windows-8-1Microsoft Windows is turning blue, and we’ve got the details.

Windows 8, Microsoft’s first touch screen-friendly operating system released in October 2012, is already getting a makeover whose preview is set to be unveiled June 26.

That makeover is Windows 8.1, originally codenamed Windows Blue. According to The Verge, a technology and media news outlet run by Vox Media, this upgrade will be the first of Windows’ yearly updates, which it plans to make a norm in the near future.

Previews of Windows 8.1 are arriving in the wake of the International Data Corporation‘s report that worldwide PC sales were down -13.9% in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the same quarter in 2012.

IDC blamed the drop on “weak reception for Windows 8” and “fading mini notebook shipments and competition from tablets and smartphones.”

Here at IT Systems, feelings about Windows 8 are mixed.

LeAnn McElrath, Business Analyst, used Windows 8 for a few days on her PC, but then switched back to Windows 7 because she found it a hassle in the business environment.

“I didn’t like how the Start screen changed,” McElrath said. “In previous versions, you would be able to change the layout to mirror a previous version of Windows, but with Windows 8 you can’t do that without installing apps.”

Director of IT Systems Nate Tucker, by contrast, enjoys Windows 8.

“I love it,” Tucker said. “I run it on my Mac using a software called Parallels.”

Microsoft still believes in the latest version of their software, and plans to continue heading in the direction they took with Windows 8.

“Windows 8 really is revolutionary in that it takes the benefits of the tablet and the benefits of the PC, and it’s able to support both of those,” Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on CNBC’s business news television program Squawk Box.

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft boasts improved mouse and keyboard navigation, new business apps, enhanced mobility, empowered BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) scenarios, and new security capabilities to face modern threats.

But courtesy of The Verge, you will find below some of the specifics you need to know about the tweaks coming with Windows 8.1, beginning, of course, with the comeback of the Start button.

9 Changes Coming With Windows 8.1 that You Need to Know About:

 

  1. The Start button is back: That’s right, Windows’ traditional first step to device navigation has returned to provide you with a familiar reference point. The Start button will transport you to the Start Screen, but you’ll be able to modify this setting slightly. For example, you will have the option to view the Start Screen over your desktop, or for the Start button to lead you to an apps section. The button will work across the desktop mode as well as the Start Screen.

  2. You can boot to the desktop: There will be an option allowing you to always begin from the desktop mode when you start up your computer, rather than the Start Screen’s tile-based interface.

  3. A comprehensive search bar: Windows 8.1’s new search bar will allow you to simultaneously search all things local to the device and on the web. One query will yield results from places like apps, music, files, websites, etc., and it will organize those results by category.

  4. Snap those apps: Clicking a link from an app will “snap” the app so that you can view multiple apps next to each other.

  5. Improved lock screen: Your device will have more capabilities while your screen is locked, including the ability to answer Skype calls and more lock screen display options, such as a collage of photos taken from your device, your Sky Drive and your Windows phone.

  6. Rearranging the start screen: The tiles on your Start Screen have changed sizes to make room for other new tiles, and you have more personalization options for the tiles, like resizing and renaming them. Apps will no longer by default be on the Start Screen, but you can move them there if you wish.

  7. Internet Explorer 11: With Windows 8.1, Microsoft will introduce the latest Internet Explorer web browser, which it claims will work faster and be more touch-friendly.

  8. Totally powered by Cloud and Sky Drive: Windows 8.1 will be completely synced with your Sky Drive, but it won’t bring all of that information to your PC automatically. It will download what you need from the drive as you tell it to.  You can set certain files to download fully so that they will be available offline.

  9. New apps: This upgrade will come with new apps, including a touch-friendly calculator and alarm, and a “Help and Tips” app.

 

Be sure to keep up with our blog for more information on Windows 8.1 as it unfolds.

 

 

 

 

Wireless becoming less of an issue on campus

2nd April | No Comments | posted by | in For Students, Faculty and Staff

Wireless. It’s been a huge issue for years. But it isn’t for lack of work from the IT Department, and they aren’t giving up any time soon.

“We are constantly trying to make it better,” said Chris Golden, director of IT Operations.

According to Golden, some of IT’s biggest investments in wireless have been an increase in bandwidth from 400 to 600 mbps (megabits per second), and the combination of the bandwidth into one “pipe” instead of two.
A system’s bandwidth is how much information can be transmitted over a connection. Increasing it from 400 to 600 mbps means more of that data can be transferred every second, making every click that much more effective.
Golden said this change was necessary for Lee’s wireless system because people use the school’s Wi-Fi to access huge stores of information, taking up over four terabytes a week.
The number one program taking up the bandwidth? Netflix.
That didn’t catch Golden off guard. However, the fact that thousands of movies are being watched via Netflix every week on campus did.

“The sheer amount of data surprised me,” he said.

The runner-up for program consuming the largest amount of bandwidth is YouTube, followed by web browsing and then Facebook. Golden said that typically, when there are complaints about the Wi-Fi, it is because there are problems with these programs.
But the bandwidth increase wasn’t the only change made to improve wireless performance. The combination of all that bandwidth into one pipe (the vehicle through which information is transferred) instead of two has helped as well.
Golden said that in the past, when Lee had only 400 mbps of bandwidth, the bandwidth was split into two pipes with 200 mbps flowing through each one. One pipe was for administrators, while the other was for students.
This was inefficient because the administrators’ half of the bandwidth went untouched in the evening hours, while students on campus battled slow internet throughout the night and the very early morning.

“We used to have people waking up at 3 a.m. to reboot the system,” Golden said of the Operations staff.

The combination of the pipes allows administrators and students to access the bandwidth that they need when they need it.
Be on the lookout for continued wireless improvements from the Operations team.

X