Welcome back
bobcats!
Find information here that will help you navigate new and changing services for the start of fall instruction.
a note from Vice chancellor Nick Dugan
Dear faculty colleagues,
It is my privilege to welcome you back to campus for the 2024-2025 academic year and we look forward to supporting your teaching and research needs to the best of our ability. Over the past year we have worked to reinvigorate the UC Merced Teaching Commons in partnership with the Division of Undergraduate Education, including the deployment of new One Button recording studios and other functions to support course delivery. We are excited to showcase this new space on the third floor of the Kolligian Library and would love to show you around.
As the “AI” drumbeat reaches a fever pitch, I will be working with a variety of campus partners over the academic year to organize a series of engagements to inform, educate, and discuss the opportunities and use cases for AI across the organization – particularly in the classroom. I look forward to hearing how OIT can help you leverage these emerging technologies – and cut through the noise and hype where necessary – in support of our shared mission of Teaching, Research, and Service.
OIT will be working diligently over the coming year to respond to evolving cybersecurity threats. In early 2024, President Drake issued a memo detailing a list of cybersecurity investments required of locations over the coming year. Some of these requirements will result in fundamental changes to the way we manage our campus network and the devices attached to it. A comprehensive communications effort will begin early this fall, and I am looking forward to deep engagement with the faculty to ensure these changes are carried out in a minimally disruptive way.
We continue to build out the OIT Service Hub with information and resources to support your technology needs - I hope you find this guide to be a useful overview of our services. Whether it’s helping to establish a research data security plan, procuring a piece of software, or connecting you with local High Performance Computing resources or cloud computing providers, OIT is standing by to assist in any way we can. As always, if there is something I can be doing to support your work directly, I would love to hear from you. Nick Dugan Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer
Newly Opened One-Button Studios
ACTS is happy to announce the opening of two One-Button Studios! Located at the Teaching Commons in KL 350 and 352, the One-Button Studios are built to allow faculty to easily record instructional videos. Each studio has a camera, microphone, laptop hookup, sound dampening, and studio lights. Faculty can chose to record their videos to USB or have them immediately uploaded to their Kaltura MyMedia accounts for easy sharing in CatCourses.
All Things Zoom
OIT maintains a Zoom information page to keep users informed about key features and issues.
There, you'll find a searchable, interactive database detailing the level of Zoom capability of campus classrooms and meeting spaces, documentation for commonly used features, best practices, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
New Features
Zoom & Kaltura integrations in CatCourse have been updated this summer. The new integrations are more secure and come with the additional features:
Zoom
- Syncing Attendance from Zoom to the CatCourses Gradebook (Learn More)
- Create Zoom breakout rooms based on CatCourses (Learn More)
- Creating Assignments with Zoom Polling Results (Learn More)
Kaltura
- MyMedia has moved out of Course Navigation and into the Account tab.
- Students can embed Kaltura videos into Group pages and discussions.
The OIT System Status Page
The OIT System Status page tracks the functionality of all major campus IT systems, including a number of key vendor-hosted services such as Office 365, Zoom, network health, and more.
The Status page provides campus users quicker and more accurate information during outages, as well as increased transparency into the significant amount of work we do maintaining campus systems, platforms, and technologies.
Visit the page or subscribe to automatic alerts via the method of your choice: email, webhook, RSS, Teams, or Slack.
What You'll FIND in CONNECT
Tap MY MERCED to find:
- Quick links to popular campus applications like email, Box, and Zoom
- Employee resources like UCPATH, APO, TRS, and more
- Faculty-specific resources like Digital Measures and Academic Case Management System (ACRS)
Tap TEACH to find:
- Access to course & student management systems like CatCourses, GRIP, Banner SIS, and Slate
Tap CAMPUS RESOURCES to find:
- Key campus resources all in one place: Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS), Office of Information Technology (OIT), Campus Safety, Library, plus many more
Remote Lab
RemoteLab is a service that allows faculty, staff, and students to connect remotely to computing environments and specialized instructional software. With one or two exceptions, the software available via RemoteLab is identical to the software installed in OIT's physical computer labs.
You don't have to download any special programs to access the RemoteLab environment - it's all available through your web browser!
OUR Spaces:
As you return to campus (or arrive for the first time!), we encourage you to take a look at Our Spaces, an interactive database that details room status, updates, and features of the over 350 campus classrooms and spaces that AET supports.
- Click on a room to bring up more details about the space.
- Click on the magnifying glass to use the Filter, Sort, and Search functions to find spaces with specific features or to get insight into your spring classrooms or conference spaces.
- Find links to report technology or facility problems in your room, reserve the room, or even request event support.
A Comprehensive Searchable Database
