Imagine the results of turning your course materials into exciting digital movies, narrating slide shows for your lectures, or even introducing yourself to your students over the Internet. Through the Faculty Multimedia Center (FMC), these are some of the opportunities that you have at your fingertips here at Penn State.
The FMC is Penn State's resource for faculty to learn about the methods and benefits of incorporating multimedia into teaching and learning environments. Recently, the Faculty Multimedia Center relocated, added several new services, and expanded current services to better serve faculty.
The FMC is now located at 212 Rider II Building on the corner of Burrowes and Beaver Avenue, a location recognizable to many as the previous home of Svoboda's bookstore. Some of the new services available through the FMC are the addition of a digital video studio as well as a digital camera copy stand for large-format scanning.
Digital Video Studio--In addition to digitizing analog videos, faculty can now record an original digital video with audio in the new FMC video studio. The video studio is a private, sound-resistant room, equipped with a high-quality digital video camera, a gray screen backdrop, a green screen for special effects, and video lighting for faculty to record digital videos for various purposes.
Some of the possibilities include recording an introduction for your course or a biography to help students get to know their professor. Videos can be added to your Web site, placed on the FMC's streaming server for access any time, converted into a seamless computer-based presentation, burned onto a CD or DVD for future use--you can even do a Webcast that can be filmed live and viewed around the world.
While the studio does not provide the equivalent quality of a professional television studio, it does provide faculty with a better alternative to home videos, according to FMC manager Kim Winck. "With the new video studio, we want to provide faculty with a place where they can record just about anything for their courses in a dedicated and quiet space," said Winck.Large-Format Scanning--Faculty can also take advantage of large-format and 3D scanning capabilities via the recent addition of a digital camera copy stand. The professional-quality Nikon digital camera can be attached to the copy stand to produce high resolution "scans" of oversized originals or even 3D objects. A bank of lights on each side provides even illumination, and a removable glass panel keeps originals flat to the copy board. The wide-angle lens can capture originals that are as large as the width of the copy board (approximately 36"). The camera is mounted on an adjustable vertical arm for close-up or wide-angle shots.
"We're excited about the new scanning capabilities," said Winck, who indicated that the cost of a large-format scanner had prevented them from offering this service in the past. "It is an affordable way for us to offer a valuable service to those whose scanning needs transcend the capabilities of the smaller flatbed scanner," she said.
In addition to adding new services, the FMC has expanded many other components and services, including the multimedia lab. The new FMC lab features the latest versions of many multimedia software packages and offers a more functional work environment with increased privacy, better lighting, and less traffic.
The upgraded multimedia software in the lab, including iMovie and iDVD, will help faculty to edit their movies and perform other multimedia tasks more efficiently, according to Pat Besong, FMC multimedia specialist. He said that a lot of faculty members are using the FMC to digitize video and create their own DVDs to show in class, and he noted a recent trend whereby more faculty members are using DVDs, as opposed to VHS or CDs. According to Besong, the trend is likely due to the additional storage space, better quality, and longer life of the DVD.
Other services include expanded flatbed scanning and digital photography capabilities. You can now scan multiple items at the same time, including transparencies, positive and negative film, and slides, in addition to traditional photography and artwork.
If you choose to photograph your own artwork, the FMC's professional quality digital camera can be used for a photo shoot in the new video room with the gray screen as a backdrop. Using the multimedia tools at the FMC lab, you can edit the images and create a slide presentation to post to your course Web site, for example.
One interesting project that the FMC staff has recently undertaken is that of helping faculty to create digital slide presentations of their traditional lectures by synchronizing slides with pre-recorded lecture audio. FMC staff is further exploring this method to address some issues that faculty members must face when teaching large lecture courses.
According to Besong, the nature of the traditional large lecture course can make it difficult for faculty to reach every student in the course. In response, FMC staff created a method of combining animations and audio to produce multimedia presentations that enhance course content and can be delivered online. These online presentations can be used to augment the traditional classroom lecture or even serve as an alternative.
The goal of this project is to personalize the course experience for students, thereby enhancing the learning experience. "The added visual stimulation combined with the audio can help students relate to the materials more comprehensively and hopefully learn more effectively," said Besong.
These are just a few examples of the type of work that faculty members can learn to perform on their own through the FMC, which was established almost ten years ago to help faculty adapt to the changes in teaching and learning brought about by the technological age.
Faculty members who have used FMC services seem to be pleased with their results, according to Winck, who said that much of their clientele consists of faculty members who have used FMC services in the past. "It's a great service for instructors, like myself, who rely on technology," said Dr. Sam Richards, senior lecturer in sociology and co-director of the Race Relations Project. "In fact, there is no way I could have increased the enrollment of my class with continued positive evaluations had it not been for the FMC," he added.
With the increased presence of technology in just about every aspect of daily living, along with constant developments and evolution in the uses of technology, the methods used for teaching and the ways in which students learn are shifting, according to Besong. "The traditional classroom environment is undeniably changing, and the Faculty Multimedia Center is here to help," he said.
FMC services are available to all Penn State locations. An open house event showcasing new and existing services available through the FMC took place at the new location on September 24. To view the presentation "Faculty Multimedia Center: Overview of Services," go to http://tlt.its.psu.edu/fmc/teach/.
To make an appointment at the FMC, e-mail fmc@psu.edu or call 814-863-7051. To learn more about FMC services, visit the FMC Web site at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/fmc/
A $1.1 million grant, recently awarded to Penn State by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, will enable the University to partner with the Internet2 consortium in the development of a technology called LionShare, an innovative tool that will facilitate legitimate file-sharing among institutions around the world through the use of authenticated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks.
Though P2P technologies are typically associated with the well-known controversial file-swapping networks recently highlighted in mainstream media, the LionShare project has been designed to promote responsible file-sharing by providing a way for faculty, staff and students to exchange academic, personal and work-related materials on an officially sanctioned P2P network.
"It's vital for higher education today to make a concerted effort to develop technologies that encourage responsible file sharing," said J. Gary Augustson, vice provost for information technology. "We believe that LionShare will lead the way in this effort by providing a model for the positive ways P2P technology can be used for legitimate educational purposes."
According to Michael J. Halm, principal architect of the project, a prototype of LionShare already has been constructed and is functioning in test form at Penn State as part of a previous University Libraries/Mellon initiative known as the Visual Image User Study (VIUS). New funding from Mellon will be used to extend LionShare's capabilities on a global scale, creating a collaborative network that will enable individuals from a diverse range of institutions to connect to the same secure P2P system.
The unique structure of Peer-to-Peer, which allows a high level of bandwidth and computing power to be shared equally among a community of network users or "peers," will make it possible for participants to extract specific resources from fellow peer computers, while simultaneously ensuring that these interactions are secure. LionShare also will provide a means for users to access well-known, large-scale repositories that contain digital video, images and other data throughout the U.S., Europe and other locations.
Halm also points out that a critical element of the project will be the participation of university teams in the Internet2 consortium in the creation of Open Source, or freely shared and distributed, software releases of LionShare. These groups will work closely with Penn State researchers on implementing the project's conceptual design, creating the software development plan, ensuring security and testing the completed system at their respective institutions.
"One of the best features of P2P is that it optimizes bandwidth consumption by distributing it throughout the community of network users - an aspect that will make it possible for an oceanographer, for example, to use this system to request and acquire a complex animated representation of sea floor spreading within minutes from the LionShare network. Hence, researchers and academics will be able to exchange extremely large files via LionShare that just would not otherwise have been transferable. We believe the knowledge Internet2 member institutions have acquired in this area will be essential in fine-tuning the system for academic interests of this nature," he said.
Two additional partners under the plan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Open Knowledge Initiative and a Canadian group known as eduSource, will collaborate with Penn State to create bridging technologies between LionShare and the centralized international digital repositories such as Merlot, SMETE, CAREO and EdNA, so that data from these centers can be interpreted and shared universally on the system's P2P networks.
In addition, Augustson said that project developers are designing LionShare's services to be flexible, enabling the network to accommodate both small private groups or large public organizations depending on specific needs. He also emphasized that the system will track user identity to ensure security, so that participants will never appear as "anonymous" to fellow network members when they're on the system.
"We envision that it will soon be possible for a physicist at Penn State to collaborate with a group of colleagues from different institutions around a specific set of scholarly resources using LionShare, and do this in an entirely secure and seamless way," he said. LionShare will demonstrate that P2P truly provides an exciting new tool for scholarly collaboration and synergy."
By John Wagner
Okay, so you have a nice Windows XP desktop machine in your house, connected to a modem or cable modem, and you're sitting pretty. Internet access, lots of file space on your multiple disks, a backup strategy; life is good. But one day, after succumbing to temptation at the computer store, you come home with a new addition--a laptop (or laptops). Worse, your spouse comes home with a laptop that has an Apple logo on the lid. Agonizing questions begin to fly: What now? Who gets to monopolize the phone line (or cable-modem ethernet cable)? How do you transfer files among the machines? What good is a laptop if I have to go down to the basement and plug in the network connection to get Internet access? What's the meaning of life?
Contrary to the pronouncements of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, no software vendor has yet come up with the answer to the last question. But for the others, a wireless home network may be just what you need. Here's an introduction to how you can do it.
To begin with, this article assumes that your home desktop machine is running Windows XP. That's not because it can only be done with XP; the functionality I'm describing can be managed with an OS X Mac or Linux box. And in fact, if you're willing to spend the money, you can even buy dedicated hardware for this purpose (Apple, just to name one, will happily sell you a dedicated device called an "AirPort Base Station"). But Windows is undeniably the dominant home computing platform (for better or worse), so that's the angle from which I'll be approaching.
Likewise, the wireless hub shown in my examples is a Linksys WAP54G.
At the time of my test installations, this was the least-expensive (about $129) 802.11g wireless hub available, and it's proven reliable and stable since then. But the process I'm outlining can certainly be implemented with other vendors' products--read the fine print before you buy.
The first question you need to ask is: does my laptop (or laptops) even have wireless network capability? Most of the newer ones have it built-in, and almost all older PCs will easily accept wireless networking cards that plug in to the PCMCIA slot on the side. New Mac laptops usually have built-in wireless capability by default; if you have an older laptop Mac without wireless, you'll have to see if it can be upgraded or not.
The second thing you need to know is that not all networks are created equal. There's an old joke that the nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from, and wireless networking is no exception. For practical purposes, we'll limit our choices to the two most common current wireless standards, 802.11b and the newer 802.11g. The "B" standard has a theoretical maximum data rate of 11mb/sec, while "G" has a theoretical maximum of 54mb/sec. The two standards have other differences besides speed, but that's about all that we need to be concerned with for most home network planning. My own advice would be to go with 802.11g equipment as long as it's not radically more expensive, but that's your call.
The first hardware you'll need is a wireless hub (also called an access point; the Linksys unit is a wireless hub/access point). For those unaccustomed to networking terminology, a "hub" is a place where network data arrives from one or more sources and gets forwarded out in some other direction. In our case, network traffic from your wireless laptop client machines is going to be channeled through the access point to the XP workstation, which will route it to the wider internet when necessary.
The wireless access point itself connects to the workstation with a crossover cable, which is just a length of standard ethernet cable with an RJ45 connector on each end. However, the strands within the cable are "crossed over" so that their order is the same on each end. You can buy these from Radio Shack for about $10, or, if you know what you're doing and have a crimping tool, make your own. This cable connects from the access point's RJ45 port to the ethernet port on your XP workstation. It should look something like this:
"But wait," the impatient will begin to whine, "I can't get to the Internet yet!" Well, Sparky, actually you can't get to anything, yet. All we've done so far is the hardware setup. Before you can start networking, some configuration is required, both on your laptop(s) and your XP desktop machine.
First, the desktop machine will have to be configured as either an Internet Gateway (if you connect to the Net via a dialup modem) or a Network Bridge (if you connect to the Net via a cable modem or direct ethernet).
If that arrow labeled "To the Net" is a cable modem (which has an ethernet cable coming out of it) or a direct ethernet connection, you're going to need a second ethernet port in your desktop machine. That's right, even if your desktop came with built-in ethernet, you'll still need another one. That's because your machine will be bridging network traffic between your external network connection and the wireless hub, so your laptops can use the external connection. Fortunately, the price of a PCI 10/100 ethernet card has dropped to around $10, so the cost isn't going to bankrupt you.
Once you've installed the second network card in your desktop machine, you've got two ethernet ports. Connect your wireless hub to one of them (with the crossover cable, remember), and connect the other to your cable modem or wall ethernet jack. Whichever network interface is connected to the net will have to be correctly set up from the Windows Control Panel, of course (you'd have to do that anyway).
Now you'll have to Bridge the two connections, by entering Control Panel/Network Connections and selecting both ethernet devices (CTRL/click), then right-clicking. The result will be a context menu allowing you to choose the Bridge Connections option.
Having done this, the result will be a virtual device called a Network Bridge. The bridge is the link between your wireless hub and the ethernet connection to the outside world.
The same principle is involved in using a dialup modem--you must span the wireless hub to the connection to the outside world. The only conceptual difference is that the external connection takes place through a phone-line modem instead of an ethernet cable. You'll only need one ethernet connection in this case, and the crossover cable attached to your wireless hub goes into it. The "To the Net" arrow in this case would be a modem connection, either serial-port, USB, or built in to your computer.
To enable Internet Connection Sharing, you must open Control Panel/Network Connections, and select the dialup connection you'll be sharing (note that only one can be designated as shared at one time). Click the "Advanced" tab, and you'll see the Properties box. Click the "Allow network users to connect..." checkbox, and you're in business. And while you're here, it's also an excellent idea to check the Internet Connection Firewall box as well, to protect both the host machine and the clients that will be using its shared dialup connection through the wireless hub. In fact, checking this box is a good idea on general principle.
It's hard to be very specific about configuring the wireless hub, because the setup interfaces and utilities vary so widely from brand to brand. But there are a couple of important parameters that are (or should be) common across the board, and can easily be confusing at first:
1: WEP encryption. WEP stands for "Wired Equivalent Privacy," and is a method of encrypting the packets passing between wireless clients and the access point so that potential spies will have a hard time looking at what's in your network traffic. Note that I said "have a hard time," and not "can't." WEP encryption can be broken (though it's by no means a trivial task). For the average home user, it's pretty unlikely that anyone would bother investing the considerable time and effort required to eavesdrop on you, but you should be aware that even the best current wireless encryption isn't 100% spy-proof.
There are two commonly-used types of WEP encryption, 64-bit and 128-bit. These refer to the lengths of the encryption key supplied by the user. (As a side note, you will also see references to "40-bit" keys. They are functionally identical to 64-bit keys, since the wireless hub itself supplies the extra 24 bits which are called the initialization vector. Likewise, "128-bit" keys are actually 104 bits plus 24 bits of initialization vector. Aren't you glad you know that?)
You can think of these encryption keys as passwords (though they're actually quite a lot more than that) that you'll have to enter from your client machine each time you connect to the access point.
Creating these keys is often a baffling and frustrating process for the novice. Some access point setup utilities let you enter them as ordinary ASCII characters, while others want to see hex characters--requiring you to have a hex-to-ASCII conversion table (easily available with a quick web search) handy.
In either case, the number of characters is important. A 40/64-bit key is five ASCII characters. An example would be "R011$". A 128-bit key is thirteen ASCII characters, for example "MyC0mputerB0x". Obviously, the longer key is the harder one to crack.
So how come a 40/64-bit key is 5 characters and a 104/128-bit key is 13? Because each ASCII character takes up 8 bits, so 8X5=40 and 8X13=104. Simple, though not especially obvious, and not all wireless-hub makers deign to explain it to the hapless user.
On the client side, when connecting, you will enter the easy-for-humans-to-remember ASCII version of the key. But when setting up the hub, you may have to enter the keys in their hex form--which, for the examples given above, would be "52 30 31 31 24" and "4D 79 43 30 6D 70 75 74 65 72 42 30 78" respectively. If your access point requires this, find and download a hex/ASCII conversion chart.
2: SSID broadcast. The SSID (Service Set IDentifier) is a name by which the wireless access point can be identified on the network, just as your computer name identifies your computer. It can't be more than 32 characters long, but otherwise you can make it whatever you want. If this SSID is allowed to be broadcast, other wireless users within its range can see it and attempt to connect to it. Bad idea. So if your wireless hub allows it (most do), you should disable SSID broadcast.
Once you've gotten the server end of your wireless network properly set up and working, it's time to get your client machines ready to go. Neither XP nor OS X are very hard to configure for wireless use.
Under Control Panel/Network Connections, double-click your Wireless Network Connection, then click Properties and the Wireless Networks tab. This will show you the wireless networks in range, and hopefully the one you've just finished setting up will be in the list. Now click "Configure".
Choose WEP for your data encryption method, and enter your access point's key (as ASCII characters).
If your client machine has been assigned an IP address, you must configure it in the TCP/IP section of Network Connection Properties. Otherwise, set your machine to "Obtain an IP address automatically."
It's even easier. Go to System Preferences /Network /AirPort (wireless networking is all "AirPort" to a Mac). Set up your TCP/IP parameters for either DHCP or a fixed IP address (see above; this will usually be DHCP).
Now you're ready to connect. Go to the wireless icon in the menu bar, pull it down and choose the wireless network. Note that if you've turned off SSID broadcasting, you won't see the access point's name here--when connecting, you'll have to choose "Other" and manually fill in the name.
You'll be presented with a box asking you to fill in the WEP encryption key you specified when you set up your access point. Click OK and you're connected.
Ideally, you should now be able to start reaping the benefits of your new wireless network by roaming around your house (or even outside of it) with your laptop(s), using your modem connection or cable modem, free of the constraints of wires, surfing the web, accessing files on your desktop workstation and even printing. Simple, wasn't it?
Well, no, of course it wasn't simple, and it's a rare neophyte who gets it all right the first time. This introduction is very broad, very general, and very condensed to fit in a constrained space (the ITS Newsletter doesn't have unlimited storage capacity). Some experimentation--maybe a lot of it--is still going to be required to get your wireless network configured and running correctly. But hopefully we've exposed some of the obscure points that vendors don't bother to tell you about, introduced you to a few wireless concepts, and given you an overview of just how the whole thing works. And it does work once you pull all the pieces together. This article was created on an OS X Mac iBook and a Dell D600 XP laptop, accessing the two wireless networks in my office and one at home. Why, if everything wasn't working flawlessly at all times, I'd have been cut off while typing, probably right in the middle of a sen--
Wireless standards:
http://www.linksys.com/Products/wirelessstandards.asp
http://www.linksys.com/Products/whichstandard.asp
Wireless security:
http://www.linksys.com/splash/wirelessnotes.asp
Crossover Cables:
http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00009.asp
Flaws in WEP encryption:
http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,857267,00.asp?kc=EWAV10209KTX1K0100440
Setting up WEP keys:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/mixed_wep.htm
A sample ASCII/hex chart:
http://www.satoamerica.com/technical/techtips/asciihex.html
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 314066: Enabling Internet Connection Sharing:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314066
Identity theft is soaring to new heights in America. As many as seven million U.S. adults have been the victim of identity theft-the use of an individual's personal information to commit fraud or theft-in the past year ending June 2003, according to a recent report by Gartner Inc. This is a 79% increase in reported cases over that 12-month period, the report continues.
Surprisingly, victims aren't just falling prey to strangers or gangs of professional criminals. "More than half of all identity theft...is committed by criminals that have established relationships with their victims, such as family members, roommates, neighbors, or co-workers," said Avivah Litan, vice president and research director for Gartner Inc.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, these criminals are able to steal identification numbers by using a wide variety of hi and low-tech methods that include intercepting personal information transmitted over the Internet, illegally viewing business or personnel files, and rummaging through trash for personal data. Regardless of how someone's identity is stolen, it can take the victim years to correct the damage done to his or her personal and financial files.
With the mounting concerns over identity theft and the recognition that Social Security numbers (SSNs) are linked to a vast amount of personal information, Penn State has recently undertaken a project to replace SSNs as the primary identifier of faculty, staff, and students. "An individual's social security number is now considered confidential information. The University's use of it as a main identifier is no longer practical and may be considered by some to compromise its confidential nature," said University President Graham B. Spanier.
The scope of this multi-phased project is such that it will impact academic and administrative procedures across the University, particularly those used by front-line staff to carry out customer requests. Once the project is completed in 2005, the University's use of SSNs will be restricted. Although the University will still be required to collect SSNs for reporting and taxation purposes, their use will be strictly limited and will be outlined in official University policy.
Penn State will be assigning a unique Penn State Identification Number as the new primary identifier.
This new identifier will be a nine-digit number (formatted as 9-9999-9999) called the PSU-ID. To avoid potential confusion with SSNs, which also consist of nine digits, all PSU-IDs will begin with "9" since the Social Security Administration currently does not use "9" as the first digit of SSNs.
For more information about this project, visit the official SSN Project Web Site at http://ais.its.psu.edu/SSN. Updated regularly, the site includes a project overview, a FAQ page, a Decisions That Have Been Made page and more.
Any Penn State instructor, student, or staff member can request an enhancement to Penn State's Course Management System, A New Global Environment for Learning (ANGEL). To do so, go to http://cms.psu.edu/, click "Help," then click "ANGEL Help Form."
If you have ever submitted an enhancement request before, you may wonder whether anyone is paying attention and whether your enhancement will ever be incorporated into ANGEL.
Recently, Jim Kerlin, director of academic outreach for Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) and head of the Penn State ANGEL support team, described how ANGEL enhancement requests are handled. The process is as follows:
Kerlin mentioned, however, that even when a potential enhancement is selected for implementation, there is often a significant lag until it appears in ANGEL. He explained that development speed depends on the complexity of the enhancement, and, he pointed out, "Sometimes testing takes longer than programming."
"If CyberLearning Labs decides an enhancement is not feasible, said Kerlin, "or feels that it's more unique to Penn State than anywhere else, we will develop the enhancement if we have the resources. If we don't, then we just hold it for an opportunity that might arise."
Bixler wished to convey to users submitting enhancement requests that "there is a process and we are listening to people." He pointed out, however, that not every request can be implemented. Current Penn State ANGEL usage statistics as of November 4 show 2,668 faculty members using 3,837 activated course sections to teach 55,619 students-potentially, these users could generate a large number of enhancement requests.
Enhancement requests "are not all going to be applicable across the board," explained Kerlin, "Enhancements that would be of value to a broad spectrum of ANGEL users receive the most attention by CyberLearning Labs."
Each year the Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services, ACM/SIGUCCS, sponsors competitions to recognize outstanding publications developed at college and university computing centers.
The competitions recognize excellence in developing useful and attractive publications and provide SIGUCCS conference participants with an opportunity to review model publications that may help them develop or enhance their own work.
Awards for the competitions were presented at the ACM SIGUCCS Fall User Services Conference in San Antonio, Texas, September 21-24, 2003.
Dr. Margaret Smith, editor, Consulting and Support Services, a unit of ITS, captured Third Place for the "Academic Computing Newsletter" at http://css.its.psu.edu/news and also captured Third Place for the "Your Guide to ITS @ Penn State" at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet.
John Carnicella, William Verity, Consulting and Support Services, a unit of ITS, captured Second Place for the PAC-ITS CD.
Christine Vucinich, Ryan Booz, Cristol Gregory, Krystal Sabol, Vicki Weidler, Teaching and Learning with Technology, a unit of ITS, captured First Place for the ITS Instructor and Instructor Assistant Internal Web Site at http://its.psu.edu/training/internal/.
Hannah Williams, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies, a unit of ITS, captured Third Place for a Graduate Education and Research Services (GEaRS) Brochure, 2002.
At the same conference the 2003 Penny Crane Award was presented to Dr. Russell S. Vaught to recognize his significant service to higher education, the computing profession, and to ACM SIGUCCS.
Background history: A special award was presented posthumously to Penny Crane at the 1999 SIGUCCS Fall Conference to honor her long time service and contributions to SIGUCCS and ACM. Since then the Penny Crane Award was established to recognize other individuals who have made significant contributions to SIGUCCS and computing in higher education.
Dr. Vaught's career has focused on information technology and research in higher education. He is a leader who has served as a mentor to many of his staff throughout his career. He is dedicated to providing high quality user services to his constituents. Russ represents the personal dedication to the profession for which the Penny Crane award was created. He is Associate Vice Provost for Information Technology at Penn State.
For further information please see http://www.acm.org/siguccs.
The Technologies for Learning Forum (TLF) presentation "Engaging Students Online: Tools, Tricks, and Bribes in EGEE 101" will take place on November 21 from noon to 1:00 p.m. in room 141 Computer Building. Jonathan P. Mathews, assistant professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering and fellow of the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, will discuss the tools, tricks, and bribes that are utilized in this course to engage the students and make them think.
Participants are welcome to bring a lunch and a beverage. Space is limited, so please reserve a seat by registering online at http://its.psu.edu/training/. The TLF series is offered by Information Technology Services.
For more information, visit http://tlt.its.psu.edu/fmc/teach/.
Penn State's most comprehensive source for free training has gotten even better. Web-Based Training (WBT), a service of Information Technology Services Training Services, now has a seamlessly integrated interface and plenty of new user-friendly features.
New courses are constantly being added to the WBT repertoire, which now incorporates over 1,200 technology and business and professional development courses–free to Penn State faculty, staff, and students all the time. Now users can log in to their WBT Training Plans without losing access to all of the menus and navigational features within the WBT site. By the spring semester, faculty will be able to assign WBT courses, as required or recommended learning activities, and students will be able to access and run the WBT courses through Penn State's Course Management System, ANGEL.
Shorter targeted courses have been developed to save time and help the user learn only the skills necessary to perform specific tasks. Customized curricula focus learning toward specific skill sets for personal or professional development, and for added convenience, new animated tutorials can help users learn how to use WBT quickly and efficiently.
Most of the additions and updates to the Web site came as the result of requests by WBT users, according to Web-Based Training specialist, April Sheninger, who said, "The entire redesign was based on user feedback and a desire to make the site more friendly."
Improved Accessibility--One important enhancement noted by Sheninger is the increased accessibility of both the WBT Web site and courses. "Accessibility is an important concern for the WBT team," said Sheninger, who was excited to announce WBT's increased compliance with accessibility guidelines. The courses now offer a more accommodating design for screen readers, text to speech feature to enhance course navigation, and keyboard shortcuts for easy access to menus and screen options.
Integrated Interface--Now users have access to the menus and features of the entire WBT site even after they have logged in to their Training Plans. Personal profiles are more customizable and easy to access once the user has logged in to WBT. The navigational menus remain available from the user profile page.
User-Specific Sections--The WBT Web site incorporates sections, which target specific users, including separate pages for faculty, staff, and students. These sections are conveniently accessible via navigational buttons at the top of all pages within the site. Each section has been expanded, focusing on the information that is appropriate for the specified audience.
Help Menu Relocation--The help menu has been relocated for easier access, and all the pages in the site have been redesigned for simplicity and enhanced usability.
Enhanced Search Features--The "Modify My Training Plan" section has been enhanced to expand and improve search functionality. Now users can search for courses alphabetically or within specified subsets of courses and curricula, such as Information Technology, Business and Professional Development, Quick Skills, Certification Exams, and Custom Tracks. Added to the traditional keyword and course and curricula searches, these new methods ease the search process and, like many of the other enhancements, came as the direct result of requests by WBT users.
Custom Tracks--A Custom Track is a group of related courses that have been combined to form a targeted curriculum. The purpose of a Custom Track is to target a learner's development on a certain skill set. Custom Tracks may consist of business and professional development skills courses, technology skills courses, or a combination of both. They have been developed for specific job titles for staff and for various subsets of students. Custom Tracks for students were created to assist and guide students' development during their time at Penn State and to enhance their skills in preparation for their chosen careers. Some examples of Custom Tracks include Administrative Assistants, Skills for Undergraduates, and IT Managers.
Viewlets--Viewlets are animated demonstrations or interactive tutorials, which show the user how to perform certain tasks. Currently, there are several Viewlets available that can help people use the WBT system effectively and efficiently.
Quick Skills--A Quick Skills course is a targeted WBT course that is custom-designed to teach a specific skill or skill set in a shorter time period than that of the traditional course. A Quick Skills course may be ten minutes to one hour in length and typically will focus on only the skill that is necessary to complete a specific task. For example, a Quick Skills course would be appropriate for a user who needs to learn how to use Excel to write a macro for a spreadsheet-not to perform a function that would require more encompassing knowledge of the software program. Quick Skills courses function in exactly the same manner as the regular WBT courses, and they can be customized to meet specific requirements for faculty. Some examples of Quick Skills courses include Saving a Word Document as HTML, Adding Links to a Web Page Using Dreamweaver, and Creating a Simple Web Page Using Dreamweaver.
Additions to Traditional Courses--There have been some exciting new additions to the WBT course roster this fall, including Dreamweaver MX® series, Digital Photography, Home Networking with Windows® XP, and many more. For a full list of new courses, visit http://wbt.psu.edu/NewCourses.asp
ANGEL Integration--WBT and ANGEL have combined to create a simpler and more efficient process for faculty and students to take advantage of WBT courses. The integration of the two systems is currently under development, and by the spring semester, faculty will be able to assign appropriate WBT courses to their students through ANGEL. Students will then be able to run the assigned WBT courses seamlessly within their ANGEL courses, without switching between systems, launching a separate browser window, or logging in a second time.
Initially, instructors will work with a WBT specialist to set up the desired WBT courses within ANGEL. They will then inform students of their assigned WBT courses. Sheninger hopes that by summer, faculty will be able to customize their own curricula and assign courses as appropriate. Students will then be able to e-mail their scores directly to their instructors, if required.
According to Sheninger, this method of integrating WBT with ANGEL will make it easier for faculty to target and enhance necessary skills for their students through WBT courses. "For students, this method will eliminate many of the steps involved in launching a WBT course, saving time and frustration," said Sheninger, who added that "the less time it takes for students to run their training programs, the more time and effort they will be able to spend on actually learning the topic."
Sheninger is excited to launch the new ANGEL integration, which is currently being tested by faculty members. She hopes that WBT will help to take some of the pressure off of faculty by providing the supplemental training that is sometimes necessary to complement any given course topic. "A student in a chemistry course, for example, may need to create a spreadsheet to report results, but they may not have the skills to do that," she said. "WBT can provide the fundamental skills that many students need when completing college-level course work," said Sheninger.
Web-Based Training is constantly being updated, and new features and services are always under development. Information on updates and developments will be available at the WBT Web site.
To learn more about the features and functions of WBT, or to start using WBT today, visit the WBT Web site at http://wbt.psu.edu/.
If you are interested in assisting with WBT and ANGEL integration testing during spring semester, please contact April Sheninger at azs2@psu.edu.
Students, faculty and staff were greeted by a brand new search engine at the beginning of fall semester. The Google Search Appliance (http://search.psu.edu/), a service provided by Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), is based on the same search technology as used by the popular search engine Google Search Engine found at http://google.com/. The change from Ultraseek to Google was based on responses to a search engine evaluation survey sent to the Penn State community for feedback in May 2003. The survey was created and conducted by the University's Search Engine Evaluation Team, which was comprised of individuals from University Relations, University Libraries and several ITS units.
Many may notice some differences in how the new search engine displays results, such as how multiple "hits" for the same site are reduced to two with one nested hit, how most pages have a cached version, or how text versions of non-HTML pages (PDF documents, MS Word documents, etc.) display.
In addition, there are several changes to the way in which a search is performed. These changes include the following:
You can also use OR to combine other attributes such as the site: attribute,
photoshop site:wbt.psu.edu OR site:its.psu.edu/training.
By default, results will be returned as if there is an AND operator between all keywords; returned pages will include all keywords.
For more options and tips, please visit the search engine's main interface at http://search.psu.edu/ and click on the "Search Tips" link.
With the previous search engine, users were required to submit an index request to webmaster@psu.edu; however the Google Search Appliance indexes all sites in the .psu.edu domain unless specifically excluded. Web administrators and content providers no longer need to worry about this extra step. Excluded sites include:
In addition, Google indexes non-HTML document types such as Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf) files and Microsoft Word Document (.doc), as well as pages on Secure Socket Layer (SSL) secured sites with https:// URLs. Please visit http://aset.its.psu.edu/googledocs/filetypes.html for a full listing of indexed file types.
Please also note that webmaster@psu.edu is no longer the contact for search engine-related questions. Inquiries may be directed to search@psu.edu.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow, noarchive">
noindex--Prevents the page from being added to the index. A setting of "index" or omission of "noindex" in the tag will allow it to be indexed.
nofollow--Prevents the search engine from following the links on the page. A setting of "follow" or omission of "nofollow" in the tag will allow the links to be followed. NOTE: This will not prevent the search engine from finding the linked pages from a link on another site.
noarchive--Prevents the page from being added to the cache. A setting of "archive" or omission of "noarchive" in the tag will allow it to be archived in the cache.
For additional information about the rules of the robots meta tag, please visit
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/exclusion.html.
You can increase the usability of your site by providing a custom search form on your site. The HTML code for the basic form is:
<form method="GET" action="http://search-results.aset.psu.edu/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="40" maxlength="2048" value="">
<input type="submit" name="btnG" value="Search">
<input type="hidden" name="client" value="PennState">
<input type="hidden" name="proxystylesheet" value="PennState">
<input type="hidden" name="output" value="xml_no_dtd">
<input type="hidden" name="site" value="PennState"></form>
For full instructions, please visit http://aset.its.psu.edu/googledocs/instructions.html#invoke.
You also may restrict the form to search only pages on your site with:
<form method="GET" action="http://search-results.aset.psu.edu/search">
<input type="text" name="q" size="40" maxlength="2048" value="">
<input type="submit" name="btnG" value="Search">
<input type="hidden" name="client" value="PennState">
<input type="hidden" name="proxystylesheet" value="PennState">
<input type="hidden" name="output" value="xml_no_dtd">
<input type="hidden" name="site" value="PennState">
<input type="hidden" name="as_sitesearch" value="www.psu.edu/dept"></form>
In this example, the parameter as_sitesearch has a value of "www.psu.edu/dept" which can be set to the specific site. For more options and details, please visit http://aset.its.psu.edu/googledocs/instructions.html#restrict
Additional information and details about the new search engine's features are found via the Search Engine Documentation Web site at http://aset.its.psu.edu/googledocs/ This information also may be accessed via the "Documentation" link from the search engine's main interface (http://search.psu.edu/).
Inquiries and comments may be directed to search@psu.edu.
Apple broke the mold of its traditional operating system with the implementation of its UNIX-based operating system, OS X. Functional enhancements include a much more stable environment and a more efficient and reliable method for allocating memory. Multitasking is not only easier, it is finally effective, and system crashes are "virtually" nonexistent, according to Ryan Booz, research programmer for Classroom and Lab Computing (CLC), a unit of Information Technology Services. "The traditional Mac user will also notice a big difference in the look and feel of the streamlined OS X interface," said Booz.
CLC recently installed OS X in the student computing labs on campus. Since the OS X deployment, CLC has noticed an increase in Mac OS usage in the labs. Booz said that the increase in usage may be due to improved space efficiency that resulted from the installation of many iMacs (in which the hard drive and monitor are combined into one, space-efficient unit), as well as the general added efficiency and simplicity of the OS X operating system. "There's just more room at the desks for students to spread out, and that's probably more convenient for them," said Booz.
Booz noted that most of the programs installed on the lab machines are cross-platform compatible, and students may not know that they can perform the same functions on a Mac as they can perform on a PC.
Last semester, a CLC staff member who was working in one of the labs observed students waiting in line to use the PCs, while many of the Macintosh computers remained available for use. When asked what task they were waiting to perform, many students stated functions that could be performed on a Mac, such as printing a document or searching the Web.
"Some students are intimidated by the Mac simply because they are unfamiliar with the platform," said Booz, "when in fact, most of the things a student would want to do on a computer can be done just as easily on either platform."
CLC has customized OS X in the labs to streamline certain functions and simplify common tasks for the user. When a user logs in, for example, the Programs Window will automatically display on the screen. If a user is not up to date on current CLC news, a Newsflash screen will pop up, announcing only those developments that have occurred since the user's last OS X session. Once the user closes the Newsflash window, the Programs window will be viewable.
The Programs window was developed by CLC as a way to simplify commonly performed tasks. It is composed of the following four sections:
Most Popular Programs -- This section lists the most frequently used programs, based on usage statistics. Instead of searching for the application, a user can double-click on the application's name within this window to launch the program.
Browse Programs -- This is a convenient way for users to search for applications. It is designed to save time and frustration for users who know what application they want to use, but who are unfamiliar with how to locate and launch the application in the OS X system. The "Find Programs" application will allow users to perform a keyword search for the application they wish to use.
Network Drives -- This section lists the various storage space options available to all Penn State students. Clicking on one of these options will connect the user to the network drive upon which their storage space resides. The user can save work or personal files in the space provided. Important Note: OS X does not automatically save the user's settings from session to session. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that users save their files frequently in the storage space provided or bring an external storage device, such as a USB Flash Drive, to the lab to save and transfer files.
PSU Resources -- These are links to Penn State Web pages that may be of special interest to students or which may be a helpful resource.
In addition to implementing the Programs window, CLC has customized the OS X dock to provide easy access to popular programs and to simplify the search for other applications. Programs that currently reside in the OS X dock include Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, iTunes, PowerPoint, and many more. To open these programs, the user must click once on the application's icon in the dock.
Users can return to the Programs window by clicking on the Applications folder in the dock. The dock also provides an alternative method for accessing various categories of applications, including chat, mail, Web and all applications.
Many long-term Mac users may find the new operating system to be somewhat foreign, but the increased stability and efficiency of the system makes learning the new interface worth the effort, according to Booz. "Users will find that most of the traditional features of OS 9 are still present in OS X, and they will be pleased to find many improvements to the system as well," he said.
CLC has composed some informational Web pages for those who are new to OS X, those who are moving from OS 9 to OS X, and for Windows users. Visit the CLC Web site for details at http://clc.its.psu.edu/.
This month the University Libraries installed public (self-service) scanning workstations at thirteen University Park locations. In Pattee Library and Paterno Library the workstations are available in the Education and Behavioral Sciences, Business, Social Sciences, Maps, Gateway, Arts & Humanities, and News and Microforms Libraries, as well as in Special Collections and Reserves. They are also available in most of the branch library locations: Architecture, Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Physical Sciences, and the Pollock Laptop Library.
These networked LIAS workstations are equipped with the Microsoft Office XP software including Publisher and Image Composer, as well as Photoshop and are configured to deliver output to cd-rom, zip-drive, floppy disc, student U: drive or upload to PASS space. There is no charge for using the machines, except for printing charges, if applicable. Users are expected to provide their own zip disks or cd-rom's. The workstations require authentication and while they are primarily intended for use by students, faculty, and staff of the University, special arrangements may be made for others who need digital copies from the Libraries collections.
This new service option was designed as a direct response to the perceived needs of library users and to facilitate access to the Libraries' vast print collections. As the nature of research and teaching change and adapt to an increasingly digital environment, the capacity to scan texts and images, rather than photocopying them, has become an important tool. Working within the constraints and guidelines of copyright law, library users will be able to incorporate scanned images from the Libraries collections into their coursework and research.
The University Libraries is working on several things to improve its website, one of which is implementation of a website search engine. Since the Libraries have several no-cost options available to it, we've chosen to perform a limited evaluation of those options and select the best one for release to our patrons after the end of the fall semester. Initially there were only two options, but since Penn State selected Google as a University-wide search engine, we now have a third option.
We installed and configured the Verity search engine, which comes free with our ColdFusion license, and the Novell search engine. We then had a group of Libraries faculty and staff members evaluate both search engines and provide us with feedback. Based on that feedback we are making some changes to the configurations of both search engines. In addition, Google has been added to the mix, a new version of Novell has been released and is being installed, and a new version of ColdFusion MX, which improves the performance of Verity, has been released and is being installed. Once all of these are configured properly we will ask our testers to take another look at them and then a product will be selected for final implementation.
Some of the factors to be considered when selecting a search engine are:
We consider the selection of one or more of these initial search engines to be a short term solution. In the future we will be implementing several new software systems and will re-evaluate search engines once those systems are in place.
Libraries have a traditional sense of "place". They collect materials; provide access to their resources using description as the handle. Whether over the web or over the counter, we've always had a sense of the Libraries as a place of service.
The Libraries aren't unique in thinking of web spaces as "places." Ask any web user and you're likely to hear them speak of "going" to this spot or having "visited" that place on the web. It's part of the standard metaphor of the web: if you're in one place and you link somewhere else, then you're in that place instead (when in fact you've never physically moved).
Since the rollout of the ANGEL course management system last year, a number of librarians have had an opportunity to take a fresh look at the idea of "place" as it relates to providing library services.
Take a look at the Library Resources for IST pages at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/itech/ist/ist_library_resources_home.htm. These are standard html pages-nothing fancy happening here. But, what we've done is to link to these pages from within ANGEL course section spaces. This means that an IST student will have direct links to subject-specific materials when they need them, and appearing in the setting in which they are already doing their work. They don't have to "leave" one context" to come over to "our place", enter it, find what they need and then go back. The idea is to project a library presence, in the form of library-selected subject-specific resources, directly into the IST class environment in which the students need them, when they need them.
We aren't making them come where we are. Instead, we're trying to show up where we think they'll need what we have, at the point in the process at which their need will occur.
This idea of projecting a library presence into non-library places can have a physical counterpart as well. With the coming opening of the new IST building, plans are afoot to place the IST Librarian into the IST building to promote direct interaction between IST students and library resources. "My hope is to overcome the idea that if we build a magnificent library and fill it with resources and experts then we've done our jobs," said IST Librarian Michael Pelikan. "I believe that I can connect more IST students to library resources by going where they are when they need the material, rather than waiting for them to come to me."
The ANGEL pilot project has included subject resource material from a number of Penn State Subject Librarians. Contact the Subject Librarian in your field to find out what we can do to support you and your users, where they are and when they need it.
How can I order my transcripts on-line? Why do you call your men's sporting teams the Nittany Lions? Can I pay my tuition with a credit card? What equipment do I need if I want to start composting? What SAT score do I need to be accepted at Penn State? My password doesn't work, what should I do? How do I apply for a scholarship?
Can one person know enough about Penn State to answer all of these questions, and more? Not likely. However, these represent only a small sample of actual questions people have asked the Penn State Webmaster.
As you might imagine, the Webmaster spent a considerable amount of time looking up the appropriate contact person to answer these types of questions, or the proper procedure to follow to get the pertinent information. In the meantime, the people who sent the messages had to wait for a reply because their questions initially went to the wrong person.
The staff of Information Technology Services (ITS) believed there had to be a better way to get questions routed to the appropriate person for a more prompt response. Thus, the AskPSU service was born.
AskPSU provides a service whereby each unit can develop a customized electronic postcard that will route questions to an email address (or addresses), or a URL (for on-line contact forms) specified in the creation of the postcard. To use the service, you do not need to know HTML, or any other scripting language. You may create your own unit postcard by simply applying for the service, and then filling in web forms to set it up. Once completed, you may link to it from your unit web page at the location where you would have directed inquiries in the past (such as a "Webmaster" or "Contact Us" link).
The decision to change the contact link at the bottom of the Penn State home page from webmaster@psu.edu to the "Ask Penn State" postcard was not easily made. The ITS staff responsible for reviewing and answering the Webmaster email first presented the idea of the service to the Provost, who believed it could prove useful to the whole Penn State community. The group then presented the proposal to the units at Penn State who received the majority of the forwarded questions originally sent to the Webmaster. Surprisingly, these units had experienced a similar phenomenon whereby they received numerous questions that should have gone to another unit, necessitating time and effort to redirect inquiries. This common experience underlined the need for this type of service.
So, how can you tell if your unit could benefit from using AskPSU? Ask yourself these questions:
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should consider taking advantage of the AskPSU service. It is free to any Penn State unit and can be set up quickly and easily by anyone who knows the functions of your unit and the persons responsible for those functions. Of course, should you choose to use the AskPSU service and create your own postcard, you should obtain permission from any of the contacts you specify before using their email address.
Please visit http://ask.psu.edu to apply for your form and view instructions on how to format it. You can also view sample postcards linked from this web site, or see them in use on ITS web pages http://its.psu.edu and http://css.its.psu.edu). Once you apply for the form, ITS staff members will verify your Penn State affiliation, create your form, and authorize you to access it for set-up and maintenance generally within 3 work days. Periodically, ITS will provide free training seminars that will walk you through the process of applying, setting-up and maintaining your AskPSU post card. You can look for these seminars on the ITS Training Services page by going to http://its.psu.edu/training/, following the link for "Technology Seminars," then browsing the seminars list.
If you have any questions about the AskPSU service, please visit our postcard at http://ask.psu.edu/css.html, or email us at cssweb@psu.edu.
In August 2003, Information Technology Services upgraded Penn State's Course Management System, A New Global Environment for Learning (ANGEL), to version 5.6. ANGEL enables instructors to manage course materials, communication, quizzing, and administrative tasks from a single online location without the need to know HTML. The upgrade includes approximately thirty enhancements designed to improve the course management experience for all users.
Some of the additions made in this version are enhancements to existing tools, such as the ability to place students into multiple teams, while others are entirely new to ANGEL, such as the My Notes tool that allows students and instructors to keep class notes online within an ANGEL course.
Following is a breakdown by tab of selected new features in ANGEL 5.6:
Interface as a wholeMy Profile
New icons make it easier to identify courses and groups
Manage multiple course sections using an enhanced Merged Course Manager tool
Syllabus
Upload an existing syllabus file into ANGEL
Link to a syllabus on the Web
Additional syllabus template fields
Calendar
New time duration options range from 5 minutes to 12 hours 55 minutes
Lessons
A My Notes area allows instructors and students to keep course notes in ANGEL
Import Items tool makes importing content easier
Students can save their quiz answers and return to the quiz later
Class
Place students in multiple teams
In Touch
Direct links to team files
Forward new message board postings to an outside e-mail account
Tools
The User Preview Tool allows an instructor to see a course in student view
Improved Import and Export Wizards make it easier to move materials
Several Penn State ANGEL developers, when asked which new features they consider most necessary, mentioned the capability of simultaneously assigning a student to multiple teams. Brett Bixler, lead instructional designer for Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), said, "that was the big one. It allows instructors to use different pedagogical approaches." Allan Gyorke, TLT senior research programmer, who uses ANGEL to help tailor World Campus courses, said this new capability was one the World Campus had wanted for some time. The ability to assign students to multiple teams allows them to rotate people through various teams throughout the length of a course, he explained.
Version 5.6 offers several new options for posting a syllabus in ANGEL. In addition to using the existing built-in template (which now has additional information fields), an instructor can upload an existing syllabus file created in another application, such as a word processing document. If the instructor has already designed a Web page containing syllabus information, he or she can link to it from ANGEL so that the Web page is displayed when students select the Syllabus tab in the ANGEL course. "The new version gives you options when creating a syllabus," said Jim Kerlin, director of academic outreach for TLT. Bixler added, "The ability to put your syllabus up in a couple different ways is a real big benefit. That really has helped a lot of people and allows them to express their own individual teaching style better."
The User Preview Tool is a new feature allowing an instructor who is developing an ANGEL course to temporarily view the course from the perspective of a student. It can also be used to view a course as an individual with any other viewing rights, or as a member of a particular team. Gyorke said the User Preview Tool is "used heavily" by World Campus course developers.
Two new message board options are available in version 5.6. Gyorke noted the ability to forward new messages to an external e-mail account as an important enhancement. He explained that he is either a course editor or a student in several ANGEL courses, and this helps keep him up-to-date on class discussions. Also new is the ability for an instructor to move message threads within a message board. Kerlin said this helps a class better grasp "the thread that's going through a discussion." Gyorke agreed that the ability to move message threads helps keep a message board organized.
New accessibility options have been added to the ANGEL interface. In addition to the existing non-frames display option, a text-only display option is available for those who use screen readers or text-only browsers. A new theme, or style sheet, called "Accessible," that enhances readability is available in the Theme Selector. The new theme allows you to increase the text size displayed by using the "View" controls in your browser and allows text zooming.
Penn State is considering implementing a new version of ANGEL once a year, according to Bixler. He said that version 6.0 will be released by CyberLearning Labs, the developer of ANGEL, to Penn State's ANGEL support team in late fall 2003. The team will then begin developing future implementation time lines and conduct thorough testing of the new release. Tentative plans are to put the next version into production in late summer 2004.
ITS has installed 40 Dell Precision 360's with 19" flatscreens in 316 Hammond that now run Linux RedHat 8.0 as the operating system. The application software includes: Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, ABAQUS, ANSYS, Mathematica, MATLAB, Nastran, and Patran.
In order to use the Linux machines in the CLC Computer Labs, you must have a Penn State Access Account ID and password. If you are a student, faculty, or staff, and can access the Windows, or MAC computers, then your account will work on the Linux machines as well.
Version 1.5 of PsuThesi has several new features incorporating changes made by the Graduate School regarding a new signature page and new committee page. Other new features include cross-file referencing to figure, table and equation caption numbers and cross-references to numbered headings, along with better support for converting numbered headings.
Documentation, subscriber service and the PsuThesi software can all be found at the website http://css.its.psu.edu/theses/psuthesi
This newsletter is published by The Pennsylvania State University, Consulting and Support Services, a unit of Information Technology Services, 214 Computer Building, University Park, PA 16802. The newsletter is also produced as a set of Web pages and Acrobat PDF files at http://css.its.psu.edu/news/ on the World Wide Web. A printed version is mailed to full-time faculty and staff at all locations. Copies are available at the Computer Building at University Park. To obtain copies by campus mail, contact Danette Yakymac at (814) 865-4757 or send e-mail to dxs8@psu.edu.
Information Technology Services encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact us in advance of your participation or visit.
This publication is available in alternative media upon request.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Please contact the editor, Margaret Smith, 214 Computer Building, University Park; (814) 865-4757; e-mail mes8@psu.edu.
Editor in ChiefFall 2003