Microsoft Exchange – How to change your password
Microsoft has recently changed the look of the Outlook Web Access page at http://outlook.belmont.edu, it now contains a password reset request link labeled:
Can’t access your account?
This generates a request for your account but does not provide us with information to contact you after the password reset.
To change your password on your own please login to the portal at https://my.belmont.edu, click Menu, click My Account, then click Change EMAIL Password on the left side of the screen. You will not need to know the old password to make this change. If you change your password be sure to change it on your mobile devices also.
If you have problems or need to speak with someone regarding your password change please contact David Elder at x5469 or Randy Capps at x5448 and we will be happy to assist you.
MyBelmont Portal Upgraded to support heavy load of Pre-registration
One of the busiest times of year for the network and systems on campus is fall pre-registration. Over a 5 day period thousands of students are trying to get that one class they need at the right time. Last Monday morning at 7am over 2300 students were eligible to register and it was a challenge for the new MyBelmont portal. While the portal did slow to a crawl it did allow most students to register successfully. However, it was a big problem. IT worked with the portal vendor, CampusEAI, and identified several problems in the configuration. Those changes were implemented early Wednesday morning of this week. With the tweaks to the portal we were able to handle the load both Wednesday and Thursday. This morning over 650 students were able to register in the first 3 minutes registration was open. That is good news!
Below is a graph of visits to the MyBelmont portal. It shows that average daily visits grow by 30% or more during registration week. While these unusual loads occur only 3 or 4 times a year the portal has to accommodate spikes in usage. We are fairly confident we have solved the load issue….but until we have gone through a few terms our confidence will be stronger.
We apologize to those students who were frustrated with the delays and thank you for your patience as we resolve problems that will hopefully make for a better portal experience moving forward.
Randall
Tegrity Usage for Fall 2012
Tegrity is the campus service that faculty use to record classroom activity. Tegrity works within Blackboard and enables a faculty member to record their desktop. Students can view the class recording from their PC or Ipad. This is the second term the campus has used Tegrity for classroom recording. Growth from Spring of 2012 to Fall 2012 shows that more faculty are using Tegrity. Usage by students continues to be strong with students viewing materials for 5383 hours for a total of 224 days. The numbers do add up and show how essential Tegrity is to the academic program.
Summary of usage.
Spring 2012 – 53 faculty created 413 class recordings for a total of 372 hours; Students viewed the materials 11,925 times or 6342 hours or 264 days
Fall 2012 – 72 faculty created 545 class recordings for a total of 369 hours; Students viewed the materials 12,039 times or 5382 hours or 224 days
Introducing MyBelmont: A New Online Campus Experience (announcement Nov 9, 2012)
Dear Students:
Currently, you use BIC/ MyBelmont to access a variety of online platforms (Banner, Blackboard, BruinLink, etc.) that assist you in your life under the tower. To upgrade and improve that system, Belmont has recently joined the Campus EAI Consortium, an effort which is enabling us to build a new, safer and more effective online home for our students, faculty and staff. The new My.Belmont.edu will have all the same BIC functions that are you are used to but will also provide:
- Better online security
- One click access to the things students regularly use
- A one-stop shop that streamlines services and clarifies resources
- A single-sign-on system for numerous software platforms (no more logging into to multiple programs!)
- A more appealing user experience
Staff from Information Technology, Communications, Student Affairs, Marketing and the Registrar’s Office have been working on this project for nearly a year now. Students have been consulted at various points in the development process and their input has shaped the direction of the portal. This new portal is in the beta-testing stage now (see images below of both the Log In page and the Student home page in the new MyBelmont).
The switchover between BIC and the new MyBelmont will become operational in late December, between semesters. When you are redirected to the new site, you will go through a short first time user experience that will replace your current BIC login. This will automatically update all your applications to a single sign-in process. Remember, after logging into My.Belmont.edu, you won’t have to login again to access information and services on Banner, BruinLink, Blackboard or gmail.
In anticipation of the changeover, you can expect some additional emails with more details in the coming weeks. Please note this changeover will not interrupt the upcoming registration process and will occur after Fall 2012 grades are posted. You will receive additional communications about the specific timing of the changeover.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at becky.spurlock@belmont.edu. I look forward to talking to you!
Dr. Becky Spurlock
Associate Dean of Students
Belmont University
New MyBelmont Log In Page:
New MyBelmont Student “Home Page”:
New Portal to Launch in December Announced – Steve Lasley
Colleagues,
Currently, you use BIC/ MyBelmont to access a variety of online platforms (Banner, Blackboard, BruinLink, etc.) that assist you in doing the business of Belmont University. To upgrade and improve that system, Belmont has recently joined the Campus EAI Consortium, an effort which is enabling us to build a new, safer and more effective online home for our business functions. The new My.Belmont.edu will provide:
- Better online security
- Greater functionality and flexibility, while retaining all current BIC functions
- A one-stop shop that streamlines services and clarifies resources
- A single-sign-on system for numerous software platforms
- A more appealing user experience
A MyBelmont Steering Team—consisting of April Hefner (chair, Office of Communications), Paul Chenoweth (ITS), Becky Spurlock (Student Affairs), Matthew McCrickard (Registrar’s Office), Jon Blankenship (University Marketing and Special Initiatives) and Bob Teeple (ITS)—was created to guide both the structure of this new portal and a phased rollout of the resources it will offer. This team has been researching current usage and reaching out to various areas on campus for input. Several focus groups are now being invited to beta test and provide additional suggestions for MyBelmont with the scheduled switch over to the new system planned for the week before Christmas.
This team reports directly to me with its recommendations, and I encourage you to contact any member of the team if you have an idea to share or any questions about this project. You can expect to receive more information on specific plans for the new MyBelmont next month.
Thank you,
Steve
Steven T. Lasley
Vice President Finance and Operations
Campus Use of Internet Bandwidth Update Fall 2012
Over the last several years I have chronicled the growth of Internet bandwidth usage at Belmont. Since we started purchasing our bandwidth from the state network or NetTN at a much more reasonable price we have been able to meet the bandwidth needs of a fast growing campus. To meet the demand we have increased the amount of bandwidth available to campus users by 17 fold from 44mb in 2008 to 750mb today at nearly the same cost. In addition, the number of physical networks at Belmont have grown to include two wireless networks, a campus security video network and the general campus network for faculty and staff. Since we opened up the Belmont campus wireless network in 2010 usage has grown in both numbers of visitors and devices. All of these campus networks share the available bandwidth from our connection to the state NetTN network.
Below I have attached a few graphs that are snapshots of Internet usage taken on October 30th and Oct 31st over a 48 hour period. Because our campus operates 24 hours a day the actual consumption of bandwidth by faculty and staff and by residential students is complementary. The graphs tell us several things about our dependence on the Internet to do our work. The peaks and valleys of the graphs also show us when we are actively using the Internet. When faculty and staff are asleep at 1am our students are actively using the Internet. Likewise, when faculty and staff are working at 8am and students are in class (or should I say 10am) student usage is much lower. So, its fortunate we work different shifts at Belmont. Network Services continues to monitor the usage of bandwidth and we are actively looking at when we will need to expand yet again the available bandwidth for everyone. Kudos to Randy Capps, Network Services Manager, for supplying the nice pictures.
To view each of these graphs in a larger format, simply click on the graph.
The Campus Network graphs usage over a 2 day period on October 30 and Oct 31st.
The Belmont Guest Wireless Network (available in classroom buildings and open areas on campus)
The Residential Wireless Network or RESNET graphs student usage of wireless in the residence halls.
Peak usage times are from 11pm-1am which is not surprising I think.
The Residential wired network or RESNET graphs student usage of wired internet in the residence halls.
Fall 2012 off to a successful start
The Fall Term move-in in Residence Life for IT was very successful this year with the addition of Dickens Hall. RESNET now supports over 2500 residential students for network, wireless and cable TV. We continue to upgrade our campus network to support student access to the Internet. Several IT projects were completed over the summer in preparation for the new term. The campus has a new and upgraded wireless network that will support more devices at greater speeds. We are also piloting PaperCUT for print management in the Law and Pharmacy programs this academic year. We are hopeful to roll out the new student print management system starting Fall 2013. A major project for IT is a new campus portal. More information will be coming out this fall as the portal project progresses. So, stay tuned!
Faculty and Staff Email Required Upgrade Notice
This is the final reminder that our email system is being upgraded this weekend.
Please remember after the transition to change your mobile device “server” settings to m.outlook.com. If you have problems you may need to remove and recreate your account using the new server.
To check your email on the web you will continue to go to http://outlook.belmont.edu. You will also be able to change your password at this link, after the transition you will not need to go to http://home.microsoftonline.com any longer to change your password.
If you use Outlook please remember to sign back in to the sign in app one last time Monday after the transition. After that you will open Outlook directly.
For more information click http://www.belmont.edu/its/info/office365.html
Thank you,
David Elder
Network Services
615 460-5469
Summer Computer Classes for Faculty and Staff
User Services has put together an extensive schedule of summer computer classes. The Office 2010 Basic is a good overview for Faculty and Staff members who are having their computers rotated this summer; and the XP sessions will be appropriate for non-rotating users. Below is the link to the class schedule. Simply click on the date of the class you wish to attend to secure a seat. We look forward to working with you this summer.
Here’s the link: http://www.belmont.edu/hr/training/index.html
Leilani Rector
GND Computer Proficiency Administrator
615-460-5422
Blackboard upgraded to 9.1
Thank you for your cooperation and patience throughout this upgrade to Blackboard 9.1.
Blackboard 9.1 is now live and can be accessed through the Blackboard link in your MyBelmont account.
Here is a list of supported browsers and operating systems for Blackboard 9.1.
Please read through this information before accessing your course(s) in Blackboard:
Blackboard 9.1 is not fully integrated with Banner at this point. Summer courses will not be instantly updated when a faculty member is added to a course in Banner or when a student registers for a course. If there are students on your BannerWeb roster that are not in your Blackboard course OR if you are missing one of your courses then please email our Blackboard Administrator, Kevin McClung, at kevin.mcclung@belmont.edu. Please include the 5 digit CRN of the course, the course title, your BUid, and the BUid numbers of any students that are missing.
Training opportunities for faculty teaching fall courses will be sent out via email in June. Sessions will be offered in June, July and August.
Please follow the important steps below once you enter your course(s) and as you prepare your course(s) for students to access:
Understanding Course ID/Term codes and Course Availability in Blackboard 9.1
Edit your course list to organize by term and/or hide old courses
Check the course roster for enrollments
Clean up the Course Menu on the left in your new courses
Choose the Entry Page for your course
Copy an old course into a new course
Copy only Tests/Questions from an old course into a new course
Test questions need to be checked and some will need to be edited in the new system
Online training – short video tutorials designed to get you familiar with a feature in minutes
The following links may not apply to all faculty:
How to use Respondus Lockdown Browser for test security in 9.1
How to link to Tegrity for lecture capture in Blackboard 9.1
How to link to Turning Point Technologies in Blackboard 9.1
Claudia Myrick, MBA
Instructional Technology Coordinator
Belmont University
615.460.6699