Training

Faculty Winter Training 2008

Fall sessions will be over before you know it and the Spring semester will be upon us. Before that happens, Scott Badger (Senior Programmer USS), and Dick Evans (Assistant Professor, School of Management) will host the Annual Winter Training Camp (January 14 through 18). Winter Camp is a week long series of technology workshops designed to assist faculty in preparing for the Spring Semester. This year’s program offers the faculty an upgrade path to the new Microsoft Office 2007 suite http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX100487411033.aspx with training sessions in Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Outlook 2007. The Microsoft Word 2007 session includes an introduction to the radically different Office 2007 menu system, the “Ribbon”, and should be considered a prerequisite for PowerPoint 2007 and Outlook 2007 training. Please register for Word 2007 training if you plan to attend the PowerPoint 2007 and Outlook 2007 training sessions.

Another new training class for 2008 is “Introduction to the Faculty Digital Repository” (FDR). The FDR is a web server and storage repository for academic content such as PDF's, PowerPoint's, and streaming media for Windows Media Player. Faculty may also use the FDR server to store their private files for use on and off campus. The FDR server will be closely linked with our WebCT server and any future course management system to supply storage for streaming audio and video content, image files and large PowerPoint presentations. By using the FDR, faculty will be able to upload and manage their own streaming content both on and off campus. In addition, the FDR may be used to make class materials now stored on the J-drive available to students from off campus locations. The security of streaming data and off-campus class materials can be further protected by requiring authentication with a RIC username and password in order to access the content. The FDR becomes available for faculty use in the Spring Semester.

Please register as soon as possible to reserve a seat in one or more Winter Camp sessions and help USS staff anticipate the number of attendees for each session. All training classes will be held in Alger 101. The schedule of activities is as follows. AM is from 8:30 until 12:30 noon; PM is from 1:00 until 4:00 PM.

Please RSVP via email to ittraining@ric.edu or call the Help Desk at Ext. 8803 by Friday, January 4th to reserve your seat. The Office 2007 training sessions are limited to 15 attendees. When responding by email, please include your name, phone extension, and email address. If you are registering for a WebCT 1 on 1, please include the course number, section number, course title of your Spring WebCT course, and a description of what you would like assistance with. Complete course information is necessary to ensure that everyone attending will have an active WebCT course for training purposes. Don’t worry if you don’t have an active course yet, just let us know before January 4th and USS staff will create one for you. Seasoned WebCT users who want to restore and refresh a previous semester’s course for use this Spring may attend a 1 on1 for help with the transfer. If you would like to add content to your WebCT course or migrate existing content to FDR, we are happy to assist you. For more information about WebCT, please visit http://www.ric.edu/toolbox/webct_faculty_support.htm.