FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions of the Learning Technologies Team

If you cannot find the answer to your question here, please contact ltt@truman.edu

These answers are aimed at Truman’s Faculty & Staff; students often have very different questions, solutions, and resources.  For student FAQs, please visit our Student Computing page.

For Brightspace information, please visit the Brightspace FAQs page.

Truman has a network of support for faculty and staff at Truman. 

  • IT Service Center – 660-785-4544
    Have a general question, need to report a problem, or don’t know who or what to ask for?  – Visit the IT Service Center (aka The Help Desk) on the web or call them at 660-785-4544.  The IT Service Center is also open for walk-in support in in PML 203.
  • Classroom Technology Emergency Hotline – 660-785-4911
    Need help during class with the audiovisual or computer technology in a classroom? – Call the Classroom Emergency Hotline and your issue will be reported to the Building Support Team with a high priority. We encourage faculty to report all classroom tech issues immediately, but to also have alternative teaching plans at the ready as it may take several minutes for a tech to arrive.   For health or safety emergencies, always call 911!
  • Building Support Team
    Technical Support Specialists and specially trained student assistants provide support for desktop computing issues and AV/IT problems in classrooms.  Visit the Tech Specialist in your building or call the IT Service Center (660-785-4544) to open a ticket.  A Technical Support Specialist will reach out to you to resolve the issue.  Many problems can be addressed over a Zoom call or other remote access, while others may require an in-person visit.
  • Learning Technologies & Instructional Design – 660-785-7750
    Want to learn more about the audiovisual equipment in your classroom, or how to use web-based teaching tools?  Need to learn about how “flip” your online pedagogy?  Want to redesign a course for hybrid or online delivery?  Want to schedule a videoconference to bring in a remote expert to your class?  For assistance with all of this and much more, visit the LTT website or email the team at ltt@truman.edu.
  • IT Services Main Office – 660-785-4163
    Do you have an idea to share with the CIO, do you need a report from the student information system?  Our main ITS office is located in MC111.  Our CIO, Donna Liss, is also the campus designated DMCA contact person and is active in sustainability initiatives among her other IT-related duties.  Find out the latest ITS news or learn more about campus IT support by visiting http://its.truman.edu

 

You may access your Truman email via software on your computer or via the web using Outlook 365.  Outlook is not only a mail reader, but also a robust calendar, contacts list, notes and task tool.  You can use this application to share your calendar, request appointments, set up signatures, and filter & flag your email in a variety of ways.

To access your email from the web, go to:

    • https://outlook.office.com
    • Use your Truman username and password to log-in
    • *NOTE*  Truman does protect you and our campus network by requiring multifactor authentication through Duo Security.  This does add a few extra steps to access your email.
      • Users must approve a log-in alert or enter a passcode to complete the email log-in process.  If you are not already set-up with Duo, you will be prompted to do so the first time you attempt to access your email.
      • Users can choose to use an app on a smart phone or tablet, SMS text messaging on a standard phone, or can obtain a security key fob.  See More Information on Setting up Duo.

Get help and tips for getting the most out of Outlook 365 on the Web

Sometimes it may be necessary to email your whole course roster, or a few selected students in a certain course. Rather than looking up each individual student, there are easy ways to access each course roster in just a few clicks.

  • Via TruView – http://truview.truman.edu
    • Go to the My Students channel in your Faculty Tools option.
    • Click the link for Class / Wait List Menu
    • Choose one of the listed reports for the desired course
    • Once the report is generated, click the option at the top left to email all, or choose the option by each name to email selected students.
    • Choosing the option to email all will launch a new message in your default email application with the BCC field populated with your students’ email addresses.
    • This method records the sent message in your sent folder as a normal message.
  • Via Brightspace – https://learn.truman.edu
      • Truman’s learning management system, D2L Brightspace, also provides tools for communicating with your students.
        • On the course menu (purple ribbon), select Classlist > Email Classlist > Send Email
        • Compose your email and click Send (note emails and included attachments may not exceed 20MB).
        • You may also select individual students in the Classlist and then click the Email “button” to begin composing your message.
        • For more information on these options, review the Classlist tool in Brightspace Documentation.

You are encouraged to store, or at least back-up, your files on one of Truman’s network drive options.  It is critical to understand that the files you save to your My Documents, (or similar location) on the hard drive of your primary workstation are NOT backed-up through any automated process.  Important files such as research, thesis drafts, course work, etc. should be saved or regularly backed-up to:

  • Your Truman-provisioned Microsoft OneDrive – https://onedrive.com
    • You can also access this from https://office.com –> log-in –> click the “waffle” icon in the upper left corner –> choose OneDrive
    • Storage for all types of files
    • Accessible from anywhere with Internet connection
    • Visible only to you
    • Can make files available off-line
    • Access can be shared at the file or folder level to individuals in or outside of the Truman domain.
    • 100GB quota (across all MS applications)
  • Your Truman-provisioned Google Drive – https://googleapps.truman.edu –
    • Storage for all types of files
    • Accessible from anywhere with Internet connection
    • Visible only to you
    • Can make files available off-line (*NOTE* – you cannot use offline file-syncing for BOTH Google Drive and MS OneDrive – you must choose one system or the other for this feature.)
    • Access can be shared at the file or folder level to individuals in or outside of the Truman domain.
    • 300GB quota (across all Google applications)
  • Y-drive
    • Your personal storage drive on Truman’s network/visible only to you
    • Access cannot be shared to others
    • Must be connected to the Truman domain to access (logged in on-campus or connected from off-campus via View or VPN)
    • 4GB quota
    • Accessible via My Computer / or via File → Save As
  • W-drive
    • your department’s shared storage drive on Truman’s network – all files visible to your entire department,
    • access cannot be shared with others outside your department
    • Must be connected to the Truman domain to access
    • 4GB quota per user
    • Accessible via My Computer / or via File → Save As
  • More information about Truman’s Network Drives.

Truman ITS technicians will connect your computer to the appropriate departmental printer when you receive your computer.

Please note that faculty can print only to the office/department printers individuals are affiliated with for budgetary reasons, (network printer names here). Classroom and library printing is restricted to students as those resources and hardware are budgeted through student funds.  

For business cards, letterhead, posters, and other more elaborate printing projects, be sure to check out University Printing Services located in BT1214.

Truman classrooms are set-up to meet a variety of teaching and technology scenarios.  While all classrooms support a lecture/seminar style and provide lecture capture technology, specific classrooms are available to support “huddle”, “theater”, “enhanced sound”, “simulations”, and other teaching techniques.

Classrooms at Truman are equipped with:

  • A teaching console with computer
  • A data projector (some rooms have two or more)
  • A digital document camera that doubles as a webcam for live streaming and lecture capture
  • A “guest” connection for a laptop or other display device (some rooms have VGA, some have HDMI)
  • Most rooms have some option for digital ink/interactivity (some rooms have touchable boards, some rooms have boards that utilize a stylus and software; some rooms have touch-screen monitors)
  • Many rooms have enhanced sound provided by an amp and multi-directional speakers
  • Specialty rooms feature some combination of the above feature set along with discipline-specific technologies.

Each room has an AV control tool.  For most classrooms, that tool is a “Pixie”.  The Pixie system typically sits on the teaching console.   A few rooms utilize a projector remote control device.

Our largest classrooms and many specialty rooms utilize an Extron Control Panel which is a push-button or touch-screen panel built into the teaching console.  These devices provide additional options to control the wider range of technologies available in these higher-tech classrooms. 

Truman provides each user (faculty/staff/students) with an M365 (formerly known as MS Office) account which includes cloud-based and desktop productivity tools to use along with extensive web-based storage space and communication tools.  M365 includes Email, Calendaring, Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and more.  Each of these tools has sharing options that allow you to specify view access only, or edit access  – making the M365 suite of applications great for group projects and peer editing.  Access the full suite at https://office.com Once logged in, choose your favorite application from the left-hand menu, or click the “waffle” icon for even more tools.  Faculty & Staff have Office365 installed on their Truman-owned computers automatically, and may choose to download the Office suite to a limited number of personally-owned devices as well.

Additionally, Truman offers the G-Suite for Education at http://googleapps.truman.edu .  Be sure to sign in, not with your personal/private account, but with your Truman network credentials so that you get the extensive storage space and expanded feature set available to Truman users.

Note:  Truman does not license the Google+ apps or Gmail for Faculty/Staff/Students.  Truman email is available on the web via Outlook at https://office.com 

For sharing files with confidential or PII information, Truman has a special higher-security, file-sharing service called SendFile, access that at https://sendfile.truman.edu   Be sure to use SendFile to keep confidential information secure!

 

The university “portal” is the web-based entry to all internal services and information for students, faculty, and staff here at Truman.   This includes payroll and benefits, student timecards, links to Brightspace, the bookstore, parking tags, and a host of additional information and resources.

We call this portal, TruView!  Point your browser to truview.truman.edu and use your Truman username and password to log-in.  Choose the tab or link for your role (Faculty, Employee, Student, Etc.) to reach customized information and resources.

Truman State University’s virtual desktop environment is a web-based tool to provide access to the same licensed software and resources available in our computer labs and classrooms right on your personal computer system whether you live (or work) on-campus or off!  The software list includes important tools such as SPSS, Mathematica and many more.

Using this tool will make it appear that you are working on campus computer lab system. You can access any of the software on the current image, access your Y: drive, etc.

To access the virtual desktop, simply go to:  http://view.truman.edu and log-in using your Truman username and password.

D2L Brightspace is Truman’s Learning Management System (LMS).  This is the web-based tool that faculty can use to provide content, assignments, assessments, discussion forums and more to facilitate classes taught via all modes:  on-ground, hybrid, or fully-online.

To get to Brightspace, go to https://learn.truman.edu and log-in using your Truman credentials, or you can find a link to Brightspace inside the Truview portal.

It is recommended that all faculty use Brightspace to, at a minimum, post the syllabus and their gradebook for students to have ready access 24/7.   Brightspace is a robust tool that also supports class communications, assignments, a sophisticated electronic grade book, learning outcomes, text-book integration, multimedia integration and much more.

The Learning Technologies Team can provide workshops or other training upon request.  They often host drop-in Zoom office hours.  You can contact the team at ltt@truman.edu to submit a question, to schedule a training session, or to learn more about Brightspace features.  Watch for current workshops or drop-in office hours in the Truman Today newsletter.

Access Truman’s Brightspace training page to help you utilize our LMS.

If you are a self-help / on-demand kind-of-learner, then we have lots of options for you here at Truman.

  • Brightspace Training  –  Recorded workshops, documentation, and many more resources.
  • Video Techbreaks  – Short videoclips on a wide variety of instructional and productivity tools and software.
  • Teaching Online At Truman  –  Training and resources for instructors wishing to get themselves and their courses ready to teach online
  • There are many, many more resources on various websites here at Truman, to help locate training on your specific topic, please contact the Learning Technologies Team here at Truman for a more personalized tour of your options.