IT News
Fall 2010
Division of Information Technology
IP Telephones Coming soon!
Information
Technology
Voice over IP phones (VoIP)
may be coming to your office
area soon. In addition to providing a cost savings to EMU,
VoIP phones have many advantages for users. For instance:
Help Desk
Regular Fall Hours
M-TH 8:00 a.m.—8:00 p.m.
F 8:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.
Call Us
734-487-2120
Visit Us
106 Halle Library
Email Us
it.helpdesk@emich.edu
In this issue:
 a light displays on the
handset, visually alerting you that a voice
message was left while
you were out
 an LCD window provides
caller ID
 ability to leave an alternate
custom voice message for
callers when you are away
from the office. This message can be programmed to
end on a specific date and
revert automatically back to
your default message
 view information on missed,
received and placed calls
for the last several years. Glenna
Frank Miller, Assistant Vice President, Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, who was
involved in the Student Center
project from its inception said,
“The transition from
McKenny to the new
Student Center was
very smooth, not
just moving into
the new building,
but the transition from
using the old University phones
to the voice-over-IP phones
(VoIP) was much easier and
more convenient than anyone
imagined. I think staff members
in the Student Center really
appreciate and enjoy the VoIP
phones.” She attributes this
smooth transition to their decision to utilize extensive training
provided by the Division of IT.
IT Exam Scanning
Window Location
2
The Student Center and the
ground level of Pray-Harrold
have successfully utilized VoIP
CyberSecurity
2
New and Improved eTraining
Course Calendars
Now on EagleMail
2
Ms. Miller believes that users
appreciate the new phone technology because of the functional-
ity. “If I am sitting at my desk
and my phone rings, I can tell the
person calling by the phone number. If I’m out of the office and
return and see my red light is on,
I know I have a message. It’s
very easy to retrieve my voicemail messages [and] I can touch
a button and share the voicemail
message with any other VoIP
user in the building. I can also
speed up my messages or check
a directory or an emergency
alert. There are so many additional features.”
VoIP implementation for the rest
of the campus begins with the
new addition to the Science
Complex and the renovations of
Mark Jefferson and Pray-Harrold.
As time and funds allow, VoIP will
be implemented across the rest
of the campus. For more information and updates on when the
Division of IT will be installing
VoIP in your area go to http://
it.emich.edu/voip/
In June 2010 the Division of IT upgraded eTraining, providing a streamlined interface and many new features. eTraining is comprised of 4000 Skillport courses and 6000 Books 24x7, free to all faculty, staff and
students.
New to courses
Faculty Spotlight
3
 Simplified user interface with site tours, user guides, live help and technical support
 Improved ‘Search&Learn’ capability
 eTraining Community featuring Message Boards and a Chat Room
 Improved catalogue features
 All new ‘My Plan’ with ability to drag and drop a course from the catalogue into My Plan without losing
IT Staff Promotions
4
 Evaluation forms for courses are available to provide feedback for improvement
IT Lab Locations
4
your place in the catalogue
New to Books 24x7
 ‘Books 24x7 On The Go’ allows access to Books 24x7 on a mobile device. (In Books 24x7, click on the
Mobile Users icon in the upper right corner to learn how to gain access)
 inGenius is a set of social learning features that enables you to find, share, and create knowledge and
expertise with EMU colleagues.
Emergency Alerts
4
Take a look at the latest version of eTraining by entering etraining.emich.edu into your browser’s address
bar and log in with your my.emich username and password. For more information on adding courses or
books to your curriculum and receiving students’ progress reports contact Diane Lawrence at
diane.lawrence@emich.edu.
Page 2
IT News
Exam & Survey Scanning Window—New Location
New Location for IT Exam Scanning Window!
For your exam and survey scanning services and supplies, come to 123 Structure Drive (lower level of parking structure).
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) provides an optical scanner service to scan and score full-size Scantron
answer forms. The forms called “DoIT Exam Sheets” are available at the IT Exam Scanning Window. Some department
secretaries also stock them.
If you wish to use the IT exam scanning service, please request a “Test Processing Request” form at the IT Exam
Scanning Window. Return all forms and exam sheets to IT Exam Scanning Window when they are filled out. We will be
able to generate the following reports based on your request:

Standard Item Analysis

Roster Report

Class Response Report
The reports may be in paper form, or the data sent as an e-mail attachment upon request.
For more information please go to http://it.emich.edu/teams/nss/ops/index.cfm.
Open Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
If you have any questions, please call us at (734) 487-1492.
CyberSecurity
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Cyber Security is our shared responsibility. Eastern Michigan University
will be joining universities, businesses, and organizations in promoting security awareness during October. The Information
Technology security staff would like to invite you to peruse our web site (it.emich.edu/security) for information about safe computing and links to additional reference material that may be helpful in securing
your home machine as well as EMU’s computer environment.
Watch EMU Today and the student newspaper for upcoming announcements about how you can participate
in National Cyber Security Awareness month. We are going to have contests and you might be a lucky
winner of an iPod. Week 1 winner of the iPod Touch is Ramona Meraz. Week 2 contest is available at
it.emich.edu/security until October 17th—participate once each week through October 30th.
Seven practices for safer computing are:







Protect your personal information
Know who you are dealing with
Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software as well as a firewall and regularly update them
Be sure to set up your operating system and web browser software properly, and update them regularly
Protect your passwords
Backup important files
Learn who to contact if something goes wrong online
For additional information on each of these practices go to www.onguardonline.gov/pdfs/stopthinkclick.pdf or test your knowledge at www.OnGuardOnline.gov.
Fall 2010
Page 3
Faculty Spotlight
Clickers in the Classroom at
EMU.
By Michael McVey
Classroom response systems (or
“clickers”) are gaining popularity on
campus. Clickers are used to
ensure students understand fundamental concepts and to engage
them in classroom discussion.
Some faculty members equate
clickers with just-in-time-teaching
as they adjust their instruction
based on student responses. Two
faculty members have found it very
valuable in their teaching strategy.
Dr. Anne Casper is an Assistant
Professor who teaches Introductory
Biology for Majors and is an ardent
fan of clickers in the classroom.
With almost 25 students in the fall
and 160 in the winter semesters,
she has found clickers to be an
excellent way to engage students in
learning.
During the course of a one hour
lecture, Dr. Casper asks from four
to five questions on topics she
believes need reinforcing. This not
only serves as a review of key
concepts, but gives students hints
at how test questions might be
phrased later. She can immediately
see if the students are lost or if she
has misconnected with them somehow.
Once the question is posed, she
employs a countdown timer set to
one minute and allows students to
talk with each other about the
question before they input their
choice with the clicker. Excitement
is palpable, students are engaged
as never before, and the process
opens them up to the asking
questions of each other and the
instructor.
Dr. Casper notes that despite finding lost students, engaging her
Dr. Anne Casper
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
class, having comfortable dialogues
and just plain fun, writing good
clicker questions is hard work. She
needs to not only find the element
of the content that might cause
students problems but also figure
out how to elicit a conversation of
sorts using this tool. She also finds
she has to sell the concept of using
the clickers to her students
The use of clickers varies slightly
among campus users. The fifty
students in Frank Fedel’s Anatomy
and Physiology class are required to
purchase an iClicker device from
the EMU bookstore for about thirtyfive dollars but many students
arrange to pass them along to those
in the next semester’s class. Fedel
chose this particular device
because there was no separate
registration fee and since there is
no display screen there is very low
battery use and they seldom need
to be replaced.
Students associate themselves with
their device either online or during
the first day of class. The software
is standalone and requires only a
small hub device to be connected to
the computer via a USB connection.
Fedel has his students use his
clickers every day beginning with
warm-ups and review questions
then working up to more comprehensive and complicated questions
requiring in-depth discussions with
students when they show signs of
not understanding key concepts.
“Students respond very favorably to
the clickers in course evaluations,”
Fedel added.
Faculty members interested in
giving the clickers a try should
contact John Bruenger at 734-4874575, or jbruenger@emich.edu. He
has several sets of clickers he can
loan out for a week or longer. The
sets consist of the student clickers,
an instructor remote, and a wireless hub. John also provides training and classroom support for
interested faculty.
Page 4
IT Computer Labs
Locations and Hours
Morell D. Boone
Computing Commons
G07 Bruce T. Halle Library
Phone: 734.487.2121
PCs: 108 Macs: 24
Fall 2010
Monday—Thursday 7:30 am-1:45 am
Friday
7:30 am — 10:45 pm
Saturday 10:00 am — 10:45 pm
Sunday
1:00 pm — 1:45 am
MultiMedia Commons
First Floor Bruce T. Halle Library
Phone: 734.487.2687
PCs: 30 Macs: 13
Fall 2010
Monday—Thursday 7:30 am–11:45 pm
Friday
7:30 am — 5:45 pm
Saturday 10:00 am — 5:45 pm
Sunday
1:00 pm — 1:45 am
Owen Computing Lab
101 Owen Building
Phone: 734.487.2241
PCs: 90
IT News
IT Staff Promotions—New Senior Directors
Dr. Carl Powell, EMU’s Chief Information Officer, has reorganized the IT
division into two major directorates:
Bob Goffeney has been promoted to the Senior Director of
Enterprise Systems. He and his staff support the core
academic and administrative applications (including the
Banner ERP system) used across the campus community. He
oversees the departments of Enterprise Application Services,
Enterprise Operations, and Network and System Services.
Ron Woody has been promoted to the Senior Director of User
Services. He and his staff are responsible for all primary
support and service to students, faculty, and staff. He oversees the departments of Enterprise Support, IT Computer
Labs, IT Security, and Advanced Projects.
IT Governance
The primary governance committee for the Division of Information Technology
is the IT Steering Committee (ITSC). The primary goal of the ITSC is to
ensure that IT initiatives and proposed projects contribute to the University’s
strategic goals and objectives. Members of the ITSC include the University’s
Chief Information Officer (CIO), President of the Faculty Senate (or designee),
Provost (or designee), Chief Financial Officer (or designee), Vice President for
Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, Academic Dean, University
Librarian, and faculty IT experts.
The ITSC has also chartered three sub-committees:
Fall 2010
Monday—Thursday 8:00 am - 9:45 pm
Friday — Sunday Closed

The Academic IT Advisory Committee handles all matters associated
with using IT to enhance teaching, learning, or scholarly activities
including classroom instructional technologies, online collaboration
tools, and support services for faculty.
Student Center Computing Lab
270 Student Center
Phone: 734.487.1365
PCs: 43

The Non‐Academic IT Advisory Committee handles all matters associated with non‐academic systems including the Banner ERP system, all applications that interoperate with the Banner system
(including the my.emich portal), IT systems used by multiple units
of the University, and support services for employees.

The IT Infrastructure Advisory Committee handles all matters associated with wired and wireless networks, network services (such as
firewalls and directories), and general purpose IT equipment such as
computers and servers) used by multiple units of the University.
Fall 2010
Monday—Sunday Open 24x7