In preparation for the academic year, ITS is releasing a number of updates for Mac computers including updates to Flash and Java. When you connect your Mac on campus, you will likely see a prompt to update. These updates are OK to accept, please do so at your convenience.
Author: Leslie Smith
New Version of Java Available
A new version of Java (Java 8 update 51) was released on 6/15/15. You may see a notification asking if you want to install Java. It is fine to proceed with that update.
As part of the update, you may see a prompt indicating you have older versions of Java on your system and asking if you want to remove them. If you are not aware of having applications that require a prior version of Java, it is fine to say yes and remove those. Banner does NOT require an older version of Java.
Beware of Emails with “Resume” Attachments!
Information Security professionals are warning that there is a new, aggressive “ransomware*” phishing attack going on which uses attachments with fake resumes of a nonexistent girl AND/OR compromised websites to infect your computer. To protect your computer and data:
- Do NOT open any attachments that look anything like a zipped resume.
- Do not go to unknown websites.
- Make sure that all the applications on your computer are up to date.
*Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system and its data until a sum of money is paid.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu.
Office 365 provides Microsoft Office for Your Computer, Tablet and SmartPhone
ITS is pleased to announce that there is a new way for Denison students, faculty, and staff to get Microsoft Office that allows you to…
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Install Office on up to 5 compatible PCs and Macs, plus 5 tablets (including iPad) and 5 phones for free!
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Use the unlimited storage available in Microsoft’s OneDrive to store and access files from any connected device. (This provides you with another cloud-based storage location in addition to your unlimited storage on Denison Apps Google Drive. Learn more here.)
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Use Office Online (online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) on ANY computer. See this feature comparison chart to learn how the online apps compare to the desktop versions.
The new site that provides all these options is called Office 365.*
*Students, faculty and staff have access to Office through Office 365 as long as they are enrolled at or employed by Denison and Denison’s Microsoft campus agreement is in effect. Due to the terms of the agreement, Office 365 is NOT available to alumni or to emeriti/retirees.
To get started with Office365, please update your BigRedID password if you have not done so since April 16, 2015.
Step 1: Change your password if you haven’t changed it since April 16, 2015
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Go to MyDenison (my.denison.edu), and select the My Apps tab and then “Change my BigRedID Password”. TIP: when you change your password, specify an “alternate email address” so you can reset your password yourself if you forget it!
Step 2: Go to Office 365
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Go to office365.denison.edu and sign in with your BigRedID@denison.edu email address (e.g. doej@denison.edu) and your updated password
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To start using Office Online, just click the icon for the desired app
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Step 3: Install Office on your device
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For PC and Mac: once you’ve logged in to Office 365, click install in the “Install Office on more devices” section.
- For iOS and Android:
- Click the link(s) provided in the “Install Office on more devices” section. It will take you to the app store for your device to install the app(s).
OR
- On an iOS device: search for the individual apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) from the Apple App Store
- On an Android device: search for Office Mobile from the Play Store
If you have any questions or problems, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu.
Beware of Fake Email Alert Titled “Your Email Account”
The email pretending to be from “alert@denison.edu” with a subject of “Your Email Account” is a scam. Please do NOT click on the link to “review your information to protect your Email account here” (http://denison-edu.weebly.com/) and do NOT respond to the message. The message is NOT from Denison–it is a “phishing” attack attempting to steal your email account information.
If you are using Denison Apps Mail, please open the message and click the down arrow beside the Reply button. You will see a selection marked “Report Phishing” in the menu that appears. This will report the phishing attack to Google and help improve the identification and blocking of future phishing attacks. Please note, this option is only available in the web (Gmail) interface for Denison Apps, it is not available if you are using Apple Mail or another client to access your Denison Apps email.
If you replied to this message in any fashion, please change your BigRedID password immediately by going to MyDenison and selecting “My Apps”, and then “Change Your BigRedID password”. Please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@denison.edu or 740-587-6395 if you have any questions or concerns.
Limited ITS Support on May 20 and May 21
The Office of Information Technology Services staff will be off campus for an annual retreat on Wednesday, May 20th from 11:30AM to 5:00PM and all day on Thursday, May 21st.
The ITS Help Desk will be open and operating with student staff. If an urgent / critical issue requires full-timestaff attention, we will respond as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we spend this focused staff development and team building time planning for future needs and service improvements.
As always, should any technology issues arise, please don’t hesitate to contact the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu. If the issue is urgent, please make sure to make note of that so our students can enlist assistance appropriately.
Completed: Planned Blackboard Migration Complete and Service Fully Restored
Update 5/29/15 3:30PM
The migration has been completed successfully and Blackboard is now available for use including making changes to course content. If you encounter any problems, please report them to the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu.
Update 5/27/15 11:45AM
The move to a new hosting provider for Blackboard is nearing completion and ITS has conducted preliminary testing to ensure that all is well. Now we need your feedback.
If you have an opportunity, please go to courses.denison.edu (or click the Blackboard icon in MyDenison) and take a few minutes to review your course list and your courses and let us know if you see any missing courses, missing content, or other issues.
Faculty & staff, please DO NOT MAKE CHANGES to course content yet. Another update will be posted when the migration has been validated and you can begin to make changes.
Please notify the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@
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Original Post:
Blackboard Unavailable from 5/20/2015 until 5/29/2015
Denison’s Blackboard site will be unavailable from May 20th to May 29th as we move the system to a new hosting provider. There are no functional changes occurring to Blackboard. All courses and content will be moved over during the process and will be available to access on May 30th. Please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@denison.edu or 740-587-6395 if you have trouble accessing Blackboard on or after May 30th.
Teaching Faculty: Download Your Grades from the Blackboard Grade Center
Seniors are purged from our Blackboard system every year. If you use the Blackboard Grade Center, you need to download your grades before May 20, 2015 to maintain a copy. For a 1-minute video on how to download from the Grade Center go to: https://youtu.be/l6yr7kbbXmM
Technology Services Survey Reminder
You have until midnight on April 30th to submit your Denison technology services satisfaction survey. Search your email for a message from cio@denison.edu with the subject “ITS Needs to Hear from You!” for your personal link to the survey. Thank you!
Resolved: Potential Blackboard Slowness
Update 4/29/15:
We have not received word of any further problems from the host site or through reports from faculty, students or staff. Please contact the ITS Help Desk if you experience any problems with Blackboard.
Update 4/27/15 10:00AM:
We have received an update from our Blackboard host site indicating that connectivity issues popped back up on Saturday 4/25 & Sunday 4/26. Additional action was taken on Sunday 4/26 to correct the issue and monitoring so far has indicated no further problems. Please contact the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu if you experience Blackboard slowness or any other issues.
Update 4/23/15 4:30PM:
Per Denison’s Blackboard host site, the network issues were resolved mid-day and monitoring throughout the afternoon has revealed no continuing issues. Please contact the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu if you experience Blackboard slowness or any other issues.
Original Post:
Denison’s Blackboard host site has reported that network monitoring has revealed network issues that may result in slow Blackboard performance and timeout issues. They are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Updates will be posted here as they become available.