This site is being developed as a way to communicate technology information within the department.
Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
550 Stadium Mall Drive
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Phone: 765.494.3258
Fax: 765.496.1210
EAS Technology Newsletter - Fall 2009
In this issue:
ITaP makes changes to instructional labs
FERPA certification required for accessing student data
Call for software requests
Guest account creation
Getting outage notifications
Hypocenter backup policy
Software available for personal purchase
SSN scan project update
Requesting support and getting department IT informationITaP makes changes to instructional labs
Last summer ITaP's Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) group announced that Windows Vista would be deployed in the summer of 2009. Instead, TLT will continue using Windows XP and begin work to prepare for the coming release of Windows 7.
Several TLT labs have been permanently closed, including one in JNSN and three in ENAD. However, three new Technology in the Classroom (TIC) sites have been added: JNSN 245, ME 263 and ME 312. Additionally over 700 lab machines (including CIVL 4247) have been upgraded and several labs will have dual-monitor setups.
The Turnitin anti-plagiarism tool is being phased out in favor of Blackboard's SafeAssign product. Either tool may be used this year, but Turnitin will be shut off in May 2010.
Hosted Survey and MIDC Form Designer have been removed in favor of a new survey tool. Qualtrics Survey is available at https://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/qualtrics/.
For more details on the TLT announcements, please see http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/announcements/fall2009.cfm
FERPA certification required for accessing student data
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act restricts the access and use of student data. Purdue requires FERPA certification for certain instructor roles in Blackboard. Certification is available, along with training information, on the Student Services website.
Any special software needs for EAS or ITaP Windows computers should be sent to eas-itap@purdue as soon as possible. The ITaP Teaching and Learning Technologies group has updated many of the software packages on Lab machines. Software currently installed on TLT machines (including the 4th floor Windows computers) can be found at http://www.eas.purdue.edu/resources/it/faq/tlt_software.html.
A list of software available on EAS Linux machines is at: http://www.eas.purdue.edu/resources/it/faq/linux_software.html
Thanks to changes made by the Identity and Account Management Office, the EAS Technology Support staff can now create temporary accounts for guests. These accounts can be given access to a variety of EAS and ITaP resources. For more information, see the Guest Account FAQ.
Several different methods exist for receiving outage notifications for EAS and ITaP resources. The ITaP Notification Service enables users to be notified by email in event of a service outage on a specific ITaP service. You have the ability to select the ITaP services on which to receive notifications. Service selection offerings include: RCAC Pete Cluster, ITaP Data Network, VPN, ITaP Labs, etc. You may sign up for service notifications at: http://www.itap.purdue.edu/infrastructure/operations/change/
Outage notification through the ITaP service is available for EAS file shares and EAS printing. For other EAS resources, there is currently no automated outage notification system. Scheduled outages will be publicized in the EAS newsletter and on the EAS Technology Support website. Unscheduled outages will be announced via a "TECHNOLOGY UPDATE" e-mail, which will also be posted on the EAS Technology Support website, if available.
Over the summer, we have received some questions regarding data handling in EAS. A clarification of the backup policy on hypocenter has been posted to our FAQ section. Please note that hypocenter is the only machine that receives regular backups. Storing data locally (for example, on your C: drive) is strongly discouraged. If you have questions about storing data on hypocenter, please contact eas-itap@purdue.edu. For laptop users who don't always have access to hypocenter, we strongly recommend keeping regular copies of your important files on another computer or an external drive. We would be happy to discuss your backup strategy with you.
Software available for personal purchase
As always, the Boiler CopyMaker in the Purdue Memorial Union has software available for personal purchase at a discounted price. Titles offered include: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Creative Suite. For more information on available software, call 496-3888 or go to https://www.itap.purdue.edu/shopping/online/software/.
Information on software available for University purchases may be
found at the EAS Technology Support web page under "Helpful Links - Software Site Licenses for Purdue".Requesting support and getting department IT information
To request computer support, the preferred method is to send an e-mail to eas-itap@purdue.edu. When you submit your request, please give as much detail as possible (machine name, what you are attempting to do, any error messages you receive, etc.) so that we may quickly assign your task to the appropriate staff member. Please do not e-mail individual staff members to initiate support requests. The EAS Technology Support staff maintains an open door policy, and you are always welcome to come discuss technology issues with us. However, when you have an involved request, we prefer that you send it in e-mail so that it can be properly tracked. This allows us to provide a high level of service to the department.
General IT information can be found on the departmental website at http://www.eas.purdue.edu/resources/it. The answers to frequently asked questions are given, as well as general information about our computing environment. Important technology updates will be posted in the EAS Newsletter (or in a TECHNOLOGY UPDATE e-mail, if necessary) and to the EAS Technology Support website.
