CGU Email Spam filter

CGU uses the Barracuda Firewall to block spam messages. It's a great way to cut down on spam messages in your CGU inbox.

If you are using MS Outlook 2010 software you can also use the built-in junk email filters.
Open the Microsoft Outlook 2010 application and select the home tab from the window. Now choose the Junk option from the home tab. Then select the junk e-mail options. Now the user should select one tab from the three options; safe senders, safe recipients and blocked senders. Enter the e-mail address of the domain in the space provided. Click ok and repeat the steps if more e-mail addresses are there. After entering the addresses, click on ‘Export to file option’ and press ok by giving a particular name for the folder. Repeat the steps for the other two tabs also. In the future right-click on a message and select junk from the shortcut menu options and Outlook will start to block future spam.

Instructions for settings for the CGU Barracuda Spam filter
http://www.cgu.edu/PDFFiles/oit/helpdesk/CGU_SPAM_Control_User_Documentation.pdf

Blended Learning

One strategy for infusing technology into the classroom is to use webconferencing such as Blackboard Collaborate (aka Elluminate). Replacing 'seat time' with a webinar for students not only utilizes technology but reduces the time and expense of driving to campus. As adjunct faculty teaching fully online, I use webconferencing to enrich my class with experts in their field. These guest speakers may or may not be local but add another dimension to the learning experience. The webinars are well attended and receive high ratings and feedback.

Certainly CGU has many adult learners who are making a long commute in challenging circumstances with LA traffic! Additionally, this presents valuable opportunities to include guest speakers from around the world. In all likelihood, students are already extremely familiar with this commonly used tool through work or other environments. Therefore, implementing the strategy in your course would be fairly easy.

Academic Computing can assist you with getting comfortable and setting up your sessions. You will see Web Based Conferencing listed on our OIT Services page. Just email cgu.learning@cgu.edu for information and orientation to Elluminate/Collaborate.

Carleen

Ever wish you could add more storage to your laptop without having to take it apart or replace any internal components, but you still want to do it yourself rather than waste your money on Best Buy or Fry's 'geeks?' Do you have an unused SD card slot? Well NOW YOU CAN! : ) Look HERE. Take a look at a new way to make use of your existing hardware to potentially drastically increase your computer storage capacity.

Technology Webinars @ CGU

July is vacation time at CGU and many faculty and staff take time off with family to travel and enjoy much-needed relaxation. As a result, Professional Development opportunities are adjusted to reflect low enrollments and attendance but will 'ramp up' again in the fall. However, that does not mean there are no available webinars for your consideration! We have added past recorded sessions on a variety of topics to our OIT Professional Development page. By doing so, you can access and review at your convenience new or previous topics for additional information. A sample of topics includes: Diigo, Dropbox, Evernote, Blogs & Wikis, Twitter & Google Reader, or iPad Tips & Tricks. Please take a few minutes and find a topic of interest and 'tune in' to one or more of our webinar recordings!

Happy Listening!

Carleen

Summer Time

Now that summer is here make sure you take the time to back-up your important data. Four ways to back your data up 1) External Hard Drive or Flash Drive: Western Digital My Passport USB 3.0 Hard Drive, 1TB sells for about $100 2) Cloud: use a service like DropBox to save data to the cloud 3) A different computer: take your data from your desktop and save to your laptop 4) Optical Media: you can always burn your data to a DVD or CD disc.