Tech News - November 2022

Welcome to the November issue of Tech News.

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2022 University eWaste Day

On the 14th of October International eWaste Day collection events were held at our Hamilton and Tauranga campuses. ITS would like to thank all the University of Waikato teams and staff that made a huge effort to return much of the accumulated cables, appliances, computers and electric pencil sharpeners we have gathered over the years for recycling and sustainable disposal.  The day was a great success! Some of the more notable items returned included:

• A 12 inch black & white Compaq laptop circa 1992
• A Cherry Red original Apple iMac
• An electric stapler

The most interesting item and winner of the Samsung 32" 4K Monitor was an IBM Electric typewriter, complete with original dust returned by Malcolm Mathews from WMS.

The faculty or division that returned the largest volume of eWaste was Division of Education who received the Xiomi Electric Scooter.

Our spot prize winners of the Skullcandy Wireless Earbuds are Kelly Hare, Sarah Cowley, and Sean Oughton. And spot prize winners of the Sennheiser Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones are Tania Mallett and Vicki Smith.

Thanks to everyone who helped make eWaste day a success, including our ITS Service Operations and Procurement teams who collected and processed the waste, our PB Tech partners who donated their time and some amazing prizes to support the event, our communications and marketing team who helped us promote the event, and the many University staff who located and delivered eWaste from across both campuses for responsible disposal.

We will be running future eWaste day events but as always you can log an eWaste disposal request at any time in Kuhukuhu.

Teaching Rooms and Audio Visual Spotlight

In the last Tech News we spoke about the advantages of using lapel microphones when they are provided in teaching rooms.  This time we are talking about the microphones that are mounted in the ceiling. You can recognise these by looking at the ceiling, usually near the teaching desk, and you'll see a square vent like structure with a green light in the corner.

About half our teaching rooms have these ceiling microphones, and we are continuing to install them as we refresh the technology in the teaching spaces.

The ceiling microphones are configured to pick up the voice of the person teaching from wherever they are in the class.  It also picks up the voices of the class participants wherever they are sitting in the teaching room.  This is ideal for when people are joining the class remotely e.g. a zoom call.  The remote participant can hear the questions and discussions of the class members in the teaching room.

One important point to note is that ceiling room microphones do not amplify your voice.  So if you need to do this (in a large room perhaps) then you'll need to use a lapel or handheld microphone. The ceiling and other microphones work together to give a seamless experience.

If a ceiling microphone would be important to your teaching, please contact Timetable about booking a room with this technology.

If there are any issues during your teaching, make sure you call 6066 using the teaching room phone. These calls are answered immediately. Feedback about teaching rooms can be sent to teaching_rooms@waikato.ac.nz.

ICT Services - what’s new and what’s changed

Changes to Google storage

Google is removing its provision of unlimited free storage for users in the education sector, which means the University needs to reduce its Google ‘footprint’. You will still be able to use Google storage, but there will be a 100GB quota for individual staff accounts implemented at the end of November.

There are three things you need to do before the end of November to contribute to reducing our Google footprint:
- Review and reduce your file storage on your University Google Drive
- Review and reduce your mail storage on your University Gmail account
- Review and reduce your file storage on your University Google Photos account

If you need more information or support to do this, please visit the ITS webpage on changes to Google storage.

We have been working with students and alumni on reducing their storage use also. From the end of October Students will have a quota of 300GB which will be further reduced to 30GB by January 2023. Exceptions can be made to these quotas where necessary.

OneDrive for staff is coming

We are leveraging our Microsoft campus agreement by enabling Microsoft OneDrive for Business for all University staff by the end of November this year! OneDrive for Business provides 1TB of storage per staff member, helping those staff who are struggling with the new Google storage quota’s being implemented. Keep an eye out for instructions and support to help you set up your OneDrive.

Printer change-out starts 15th November

The physical printer change is scheduled to start 15th November and will run for a 3 week period. Fuji Film will be deploying 5-10 printers per day, on a building by building basis, across the University. Communication outlining when you can expect Fuji Film in your area will be circulated in advance.

During this transition period there will be two printer queues to select for printing which will possibly cause some confusion. To use a new printer, you will need to first select the new printer queue:

Old printers can still be printed to by using the current staff (and student) follow-me queues. Once the rollout is complete the old print queues will be removed.

Wherever possible Fuji Film will complete the installation and removal of old printers at the same time, but in some cases the older printers may remain overnight.

This is a large logistical programme which will unfortunately cause some disruption during the rollout. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience. For assistance or if there are any issues, please contact the Service Desk - 07 838 4008, or email help@waikato.ac.nz.

Cybersecurity induction training for new staff

A new cybersecurity online training course is being rolled out for all new staff as part of their induction to the University. New staff will receive an email asking them to complete the short online video based course that involves a series of short quizzes. This takes about half an hour to complete, and needs to be done within four weeks. If you have any questions about this training please contact the Service Desk - 07 838 4008, or email help@waikato.ac.nz.

Evaluating our digital workspace

• ITS will soon begin a process of evaluating how we can expand our offering of digital technology tools to best meet the current and future needs of staff and students.
• In particular, this will include investigating how at some stage in the future we might expand our use of Microsoft tools.
• Any opportunities to further leverage Microsoft in future years need to be carefully planned and managed. Therefore, the current focus is on understanding how we could enhance our digital environment in the context of workloads, competing priorities, the impact of potential change and the support that would be required.
• ITS will engage with staff over coming months to develop this understanding. If you have any questions or feedback, please email microsoftfeedback@waikato.ac.nz.

Zoom Marketplace Apps

• Appointlet - When someone books a time to meet, Appointlet Zoom integration generates a meeting link and delivers it to both parties via email and SMS. Need to reschedule or cancel? No problem; any changes made to your booking will automatically update your meeting in Zoom. As you approach the scheduled date, Appointlet will send out reminders.
• Kahoot! - Host and join interactive quizzes and presentations directly within Zoom, and make virtual meetings, lessons, and social get-togethers awesome!
• Mentimeter - Create meaningful engagement with live Polls, Q&A & Wordclouds for students and meeting participants with interactive presentations directly in Zoom.

The Zoom Marketplace has third party apps that are integrated with Zoom.  These can be found at marketplace.zoom.us. To filter the list for UOW Approved applications, tick the setting Approved Apps (in Add Permissions).

He Whatu Pūmanawa - update

The Oracle Cloud project is one of the major digital projects currently underway, their next update newsletter will be in the second week of November, meanwhile you can book your training session now.

Staff training for the new Oracle Cloud system is being held between 14 November and 24 February.

There are six training modules available:

• For all staff:
  • ‘Empowering Employees’ - learn about the Oracle environment and the access you have to your personal information.
  • ‘Claiming an expense’ - learn how to make staff expense claims.
• For PCard holders:
  • ‘Claiming an expense’ - learn how to code PCards and make staff expense claims.
• For People Leaders, including those who hire casual, sessional and contingent workers:
  • ‘Empowering People Leaders’ - managing your team with Oracle, including viewing vacancies, completing actions and creating reports.
  • ‘Empowering hiring managers to lead recruiting’ - recruiting new candidates through a faster approval process, accessing existing candidate pools, and digital forms.
  • ‘Managing employee movements’ - managing staff transitioning to, from and throughout the University.
  • ‘Approving purchases’ - managing the automated purchasing process in Oracle.

For more information and to register to attend a training session, visit the Oracle Cloud - He Whatu Pūmanawa project webpage.

Network Upgrade Project - update

Current status in G Block:
- All access controllers, printers and AV equipment migrated to Arista
- All users (including RESNET users) are now on the new Arista network (wifi and wired)
- RESNET and WAND have been decommissioned

Current status in FG:
- All access controllers and printers migrated to Arista
- Majority of users are now on the new Arista network (wifi and wired)
- Some test devices remain on the old network

Current status in R:
- Physical infrastructure upgrade underway
- Migration of users to the new Arista network to begin this week (wifi and wired)

What’s next (from 1st November)
For C, D, E, and F Blocks:
- Complete physical infrastructure upgrades

Upcoming ICT Training

There is no training in December or January of the following year. However, there will be a range of refresher courses on teaching technologies available in the week prior to A Trimester start.

This list is subject to change, for the most up-to-date information please view the Professional Development page which has the calendar and registration form. If you have any questions or would like a specific course developed, please email its.training@waikato.ac.nz or contact the Service Desk.

Kuhukuhu Improvements

Kuhukuhu is getting a refresh! And we’re releasing some new functionality - watch this space!

Planned Maintenance