Welcome back bobcats
Find information here that will help you navigate new and changing services for the start of spring instruction.
Welcome Nick Dugan
UC Merced's First Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer
On January 3, 2023, Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz announced Nick Dugan as the university’s first Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer.
Many of you may already be familiar with Nick. He joined UC Merced as a computing systems support specialist for the School of Engineering in 2010 and has since held a number of leadership positions in the Office of Information Technology. In 2014, he was named UC Merced's first Chief Information Security Officer. He also served as Deputy Chief Information Officer beginning in 2016 and was named Interim Chief Information Officer in February 2022. Before joining UC Merced, Nick served in IT roles on three University of California campuses. Nick says, "As a first-generation college student who has benefitted greatly from the promise of a UC education and career, I connect deeply with the mission of higher education, particularly here in my long-time home of the San Joaquin Valley. As a local high school student in the 1990s, I was heavily influenced and intrigued by the competition to secure a home for and begin building the 10th UC campus. Some 25 years later, the fruits of that labor have been realized as most of our incoming students this year have always lived in a world where UC Merced exists. It is the honor of my career to continue my work as the first Vice Chancellor for Information Technology in this place of 'firsts' for myself and so many others!"
Classroom Technology in the time of CoViD
As we return for the Spring 2023 semester, we are continuing to address concerns and impacts from COVID-19 on all our lives.
In alignment with university policy and campus needs, Academic and Emerging Technology (AET) continues to make adjustments to classroom technology to support teaching and learning while still taking precautions.
We maintain a web page to keep faculty and staff informed of current restrictions and precautions, which we keep updated as guidance changes.
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 has added a number of features you may find useful:
- Advanced polling offers more question types like matching and ranking
- Dual screen sharing allows multiple people to share their screens at the same time
- Non-verbal feedback and emoji reactions have merged into on place: Reactions
- Spotlight allows you to set what videos participants see
- Machine-generated automated real-time captions and transcriptions
- Co-hosts can now perform most host actions like managing wait rooms and breakouts
The OIT System Status Page
In 2021, OIT released a new status page that tracks the functionality of all major campus IT systems, including a number of key vendor-hosted services such as Office 365, Zoom, 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 our 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.
OIT Behind the Scenes
During the 2021-2022 academic year, OIT launched our OIT Behind the Scenes webinar series and hosted 10 webinars about various OIT technologies and service groups.
We also created a Behind the Scenes webinar page where you can browse session recordings, slides, resources, Q&A, and more.
Though we've completed our initial webinar series, we've maintained resources from each webinar to serve as quick reference about the topics that are most interesting to you.
We've linked directly to past webinar recordings and noted highlights from some of our favorite sessions below. We invite you to browse and take a quick peak...this is fun way to catch the highlights and get refreshed on key information!
UC Merced CONNECT
UC Merced Connect is our campus app, desktop portal, communications platform, and one-stop-shop for access to key campus systems and information.
This year, you'll see more event-based content and more communication happening in the Connect platform. Join us as we build a more Connect-ed campus!
What You'll FIND in CONNECT
Tap MY MERCED to find:
- Persistent log in: sign in once with your UCMNetID and move seamlessly between most platforms from Connect
- 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
Created due to urgent need during remote instruction, 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.
Comprehensive Searchable Database