User Support Services Newsettler

User Support Services Fall 2014 Newsletter

How Do Faculty, Staff, and Students Access to Microsoft Office for Their Personal Computers

Faculty and Staff

Rhode Island College has a Microsoft campus agreement that allows Faculty and Staff purchase Microsoft Office 2013 for $15 and the latest version of Microsoft Office for a Mac computer for $15 at the RIC Bookstore.

Students

As of July 1, 2014, matriculated students who have registered for the upcoming semester will have the ability to download the Microsoft Office 2013 online free of charge. Microsoft Office 2013 comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, Publisher, Outlook, Lync and InfoPath. These students also have the ability to download the latest version of Office for MAC online free of charge. Office for Mac comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

If you want to learn more about how students download Microsoft Office, please visit http://www.ric.edu/studenttoolbox/Office_365/officesoftware.htm.

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Do You Know What RIC Students Have Access To?

Students have access to the Office 365 environment which include features such as Microsoft Lync and OneDrive for Business with a 1TB storage limit. They also have access to Horace Mann 140 to practice using e-classroom technology.

Office 365 Environment gives students access to Microsoft Lync 2013, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Web Apps. Microsoft Lync allows the students to have synchronous sessions and OneDrive for Business offers students a rich collaborative environment and storage limit has been increased to 1TB.

Microsoft Lync 2013 "is a unified messaging utility which brings together instant message chat and video communications. In Lync, you can send messages and use voice and video to communicate with others, as well as utilize screen sharing for video conferencing and remote presentations. Lync is available for Windows PCs, Mac computer, iOS and Android devices and on the web via the Lync Web App." (Microsoft) You can go to Microsoft's site to learn more about Microsoft Lync 2013.

OneDrive for Business - "is a place to keep your work documents and other files. Only you can see your files that you store on OneDrive Pro, but you can easily share them with others for reviewing and editing. Your files are safely kept in the cloud with SharePoint Online." (Microsoft) You can go to Microsoft's site to learn more about using OneDrive for Business.

Microsoft Web Apps 

ms webapps

Help with Office Web Apps on Office 365 - http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/online/

Horace Mann 140 Learning Space - User Support Services reserves Horace Mann 140 as a learning space for Rhode Island College students. Students are able to reserve HM 140 to practice their individual or group presentations and to practice using common e-classroom equipment. This room has the following equipment and software:

  • SMART Board
  • Document Camera
  • Projector
  • Computers
  • SMART Notebook
  • Office 2013 and these same software found in all of the RIC computers in any of the open labs

 Please contact the Horace Mann Front Desk at 456-8886 for learning space availability and to reserve the room.

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Do You Have Traditional Paper Tests You Would Like To Place Online?

Respondus Training

If you are interested in converting traditional paper exams into Blackboard online exams (Respondus) and/or would like to learn more about our cheating prevention program for Blackboard (Respondus Lockdown Browser), Respondus is currently offering free webinar training. Each 45-minute session provides a live demonstration of the covered software application, plus tips for getting started.

"Respondus 4.0: Create & Manage Exam Content"

  • September 17, 3pm EDT
  • October 3, 12pm EDT

"LockDown Browser: Prevent Cheating During Exams"

  • September 23, 3pm EDT

You can sign up at: www.respondus.com/webinars. Also if you are interested in these programs but cannot attend the webinars please contact helpdesk@ric.edu for a one-on-one to go over features.

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How to Access the Adobe Creative Suite Cloud for Faculty/Staff

Rhode Island College is pleased to announce that as of July 1, 2014, RIC Faculty and Staff became eligible to lease Adobe Creative Cloud for $9.75 per year (requires a free Adobe ID). In order to take advantage of this discount you must first create an account at the RIC OnTheHub web store, followed by creating an Adobe ID. This software discount is available to any Rhode Island College Faculty or Staff member.