Spring 2023 CIS Service Reminders

January 11, 2023

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Welcome back! We hope you all had a good winter break. We’re sure you have many questions, especially about technology in the classrooms, so please read below and feel free to send us an email at the Help Desk if you have more questions or concerns. 

Course Mailing Lists

Course mailing lists have been created in Google Groups. You can see your course mailing lists in your My Groups list or get a full list of all course mailing lists at: Spring 2023 Course Mailing Lists on Google Groups. We have also created a “master” Google Group for all courses that have multiple sections. For example, bio-23@g.hmc.edu contains all faculty and students associated with all 5 sections of Bio 23. Master lists will be automatically maintained just like the other Google Groups for courses. 

Classroom technology

You can find a full list of which rooms have what equipment in this document: AV Equipment in HMC Class/Meeting Rooms. There are 9 Shanahan classrooms with audio amplification and wireless microphones. The Galileo Auditoria also have audio amplification and wireless mics. Mics should be worn outside your mask, if you are using one, to avoid problems with noise from rubbing against the mask. We have extra mics available in case you would like your own mic to use in these rooms.

We have also purchased some personal voice amplifier sets that can be used in classrooms and labs that don’t have built in audio amplification. Our testing, and testing at the other Colleges, indicate that audio amplification is not necessary in the smaller 24-person classrooms, but may be useful in the larger 40- and 50-person classrooms. 

Please email the Help Desk at helpdesk@hmc.edu if you’d like to try out or check out one of the personal voice amplifier sets or if you would like a personal wireless mic. 

Other technology available for use in the Shanahan Center includes:

  1. Laptop carts
  2. Video cameras for displaying experiments

More details on these other technologies can be found below:

  1. We have several laptop carts, which are stored on the second floor of the Shanahan Center for use throughout the building. Laptops are made available on a first come, first served basis so please let us know as soon as you can if you need laptops for your class. Also, consider carefully how many laptops you need or if at some point you realize that your class is using fewer laptops than you requested, please update your requests so that the systems can be made available for other classes. If you’d like more information about the laptops and how to reserve them, please visit  the Laptop Cart Reservation Service Catalog Page. You can find a full list of the software that is included on the laptops and the CIS lab computers in this document: Lab Software in CIS Managed Labs and Carts.
  2. Many faculty also like to be able to project a demonstration or experiment from the front of the room to one of the big screens. The document camera is capable of doing this or you can use a video camera, either one of the built-in video cameras available in the lecture capture rooms listed above, or CIS can set up one for you.

If you are planning to use technology such as laptop carts, clickers, lecture capture, document camera, DVD player, or laptops in your class this semester, please don’t wait until the last minute to submit requests. To request the use of any of the technologies described below please send an email to the CIS Help Desk at helpdesk@hmc.edu or use the CIS AV Request form. We need at least 48 hours notice to serve you well.

Lecture Capture

We currently have 8 lecture capture recorder devices on campus. As you can see in the list below, three are dedicated to the Galileo Auditoria. One recorder is dedicated to the Lecture Hall in the Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning. We also have two recorders that switch between 5 other classrooms in the SCTL. I.e. there can be up to two simultaneous recordings in any two of those 5 classrooms. We also have one recorder in the Aviation Room in the Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons. All of these rooms have a video camera and a wireless microphone. In addition, we have a mobile recorder that can be set up with a video camera and tripod in other classrooms. We have installed additional lecture capture services in two rooms and continue to work on the configurations for the devices. You can visit the CIS web site for more information at the Lecture Capture Service Catalog Page.

  • 3 recorders in Galileo, one for each separate room
  • 1 recorder dedicated to Shanahan 1430 (Lecture Hall)
  • 2 recorders that can be switched between Shanahan B460 (tiered classroom), B480 (Recital Hall), 2455, 2460, 2465
  • 1 dedicated to the Aviation Room
  • 1 mobile recorder

Sakai

Spring 2023 Sakai course sites were created and have been populated with faculty and students. Sakai will synchronize with the portal three times per day at 12:30 pm, 5:30 pm and 2:30 am. If you have not yet requested your ubercourses, this would be a good time to do so. If you’re having trouble finding and organizing your sites in the Home site, please read our Tips and Tricks for Organizing Your Sakai Sites. 

If you’re still working on your course site and don’t want students to be able to see it yet, you can temporarily unpublish your site by going to Site Info/Manage Tools.

As part of the College’s website accessibility initiative, we have added a link to the HMC Accessibility web page on all HMC Spring 2023 Sakai course sites. This is one of the requirements for compliance with accessibility requirements. If you’re using a web site other than Sakai to host course materials, we’d appreciate it if you would add a link to https://www.hmc.edu/website-accessibility/ to your site as well. If you’d like to learn more about how to make your course materials more accessible, please contact us at the CIS Help Desk helpdesk@hmc.edu or 909 607 7777. We also now have an accessible syllabus Word template that faculty can use. You can find it linked from our Web and Document Accessibility Consulting service catalog page.

Course Mudd Shots

Course Mudd Shots, including photos of students from other colleges, have been updated and are available in the HMC Portal. More information and links are available on the Mudd Shots Service Catalog page.

Gradescope, Piazza, and Zoom

We currently have institutional licenses for Gradescope, Zoom, and Piazza. The licenses cover all faculty, staff, and students at HMC. All three tools are integrated with Sakai. Please be sure to read the documentation on how to integrate these tools with Sakai since there are a few gotchas! More documentation is also available on the CIS Gradescope service catalog page, the CIS Zoom service catalog page and the CIS Piazza service catalog page.

VPN

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is required to access a small number of on-campus resources if you are located off-campus or on the wireless network. These include On-premise file servers/shares (e.g., TempStorage), Financial Aid PowerFAIDs, Cognos, OnBase and the CX Servers. Last spring we added Duo multi-factor authentication to the VPN login. If you have any trouble logging into the VPN you can visit the CIS VPN Service Catalog page or email the Help Desk.

CIS Help Desk

The help desk will be open from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday for walk up, email, chat and phone support.

We can be reached via the following methods:

  • Email: helpdesk@hmc.edu
  • Online chat: helpdesk.hmc.edu 
  • Phone: 909.607.7777
  • Sprague 1st Floor