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Division of Information Technology
P.O. Box 6888
Radford, VA 24142
Phone: 540-831-5173
Fax: (540) 831-6217
Email: cio@radford.edu

Division of Information Technology
Radford University

RU Student Email Migrated to Live@edu

To improve service, enhance efficiency and reduce hardware, and maintenance costs, student email accounts have been moved from a locally hosted exchange system to the Live@edu Exchange environment, which is hosted by Microsoft. The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has transitioned more than 9,200 email accounts to the new system, which provides 10 gigabytes of email storage for each user - approximately 170 times the previous storage capacity allocated for students. The Live@edu Exchange environment also provides Radford University student users 25 gigabytes of online file storage on its "SkyDrive."

Radford University student users will continue to access email by logging into the MyRU portal and clicking on the "E-mail" icon. Users may also connect to this system using the exchange connector available on most smart phones and Apple iOS devices.

DoIT Increases Faculty/Staff Email Storage Quotas

With the recent migration of student email to the hosted Live@edu environment, DoIT is now able to allocate additional space for faculty and staff email. On Oct. 3, the default email quota for faculty and staff was raised from 600 megabytes of storage to 1,100 megabytes of storage. User mailboxes that were already exceeding the new quota and using more than 40 percent of their available storage were also increased by 500 megabytes. While DoIT strives to provide additional storage as needed, users are encouraged to review their mailboxes for large items on a regular basis. The deletion of three or four messages with large attachments can have the same impact as removing thousands of small messages. DoIT recommends the Mailbox Cleanup tool that can easily search for messages with large attachments.

To use Mailbox Cleanup:

• In Outlook 2007—Click on Tools -> Mailbox Cleanup In Outlook
• In Outlook 2010—Click on File -> Info -> Cleanup Tools -> Mailbox Cleanup

In the Mailbox Cleanup screen, select the option to "Find items larger than" and enter a value of 1024 kilobytes, and then click the Find button. A list of large email messages will then be displayed for review and deletion. Deleted messages are still calculated in your quota until the trash is emptied.

New MyRU Personal Info Channel On-line Now

DoIT has introduced a convenient new feature to the MyRU portal—the Personal Information and Emergency Contacts channel. The new channel can be found in the My Accounts tab of the MyRU portal where it displays current individual users' address and emergency contact information. The Personal Information and Emergency Contacts channel will now permit users to add or update address and emergency contact information online without submitting paperwork or forms to the Human Resources Office.

Users should keep their address, phone, email and emergency contact information current for three reasons:

• emergency situations that require notification of a friend or family member
• distribution of important, time-sensitive benefits information
• maintenance of an accurate, Radford University Directory of current on-campus address and phone numbers

Please contact the Human Resources office at pers-web@radford.edu or 831-5008 if you experience problems viewing or updating address and emergency contact information on-line.

Technology Training Opportunities Abound for Faculty and Staff

DoIT offers a variety of technology workshops for faculty and staff throughout the fall semester. Registration and a complete list of workshops can be found at the Training and Development System calendar. Upcoming workshops include the following:

• Making the Most of Classroom Technology (Nov. 2, Nov. 17)
• Using Vision to Control Computers in Labs (Oct. 26, Nov. 8, Nov. 18, Nov. 30)
• Microsoft Outlook (Oct. 28, Nov. 15)
• Banner Finance/ eVA (Nov. 3)
• Internet Native Banner General Navigation (Nov. 7)
• Navigating Within D2L (Nov. 2, Nov. 17, Nov. 30)
• D2L Open Labs (Oct. 25, Nov. 4, Nov. 10, Nov. 14, Nov. 29)

RU Hosts Mid-Atlantic Banner Users Group Conference

Thanks to the following staff members, pictured above, for helping to make MABUG 2011 a success: left to right, Allison Pratt, Gregg Shadel, Jackie McNabb, Jay Flynn, Carrie Silliman, Ariel Pena, Alicia Dials, Stephanie Jennell, Janice Linkous, Tanya Ridpath and Lisa Blackwell.

Radford University and DoIT welcomed more than 300 college and university administrators from more than 50 different regional academic institutions for the Mid-Atlantic Banner Users Group (MABUG) Conference Oct. 2–4. The conference, one of the largest in MABUG's 12-year history, featured more than 80 sessions about Banner use in a wide range of settings, including admissions, financial aid, student records, accounts receivable and advancement. Among the highlights was the pre-conference training session for technical attendees that covered details about the architecture of the Banner suite of products.

Walker Technology Center Computer Lab Reservations

The Walker Hall computer labs are available for ad-hoc reservations by faculty. These labs fill up quickly, especially during exam period, so please make reservations now. To do so, log into MyRU and go to the "My Accounts" tab, then click on "Lab Reservations" in the Quick Links channel in the right-hand column. The Walker 216 lab now includes dual-boot iMac computers, offering faculty the ability to reserve a lab for use with either PC or Mac.

Window Closing for WebCT to Desire 2 Learn Course Migrations

Throughout the Desire 2 Learn (D2L) training and implementation, faculty have had the opportunity to migrate content from their old WebCT courses to D2L. Faculty should see all of the WebCT courses that have been requested for migration to D2L in their listing of "migrated" courses. If there are any old WebCT courses that do not appear in that list that need to be migrated, please send an email to acadcomp@radford.edu with the exact course title along with the year and semester. After Thursday, Dec. 1, DoIT will be unable to migrate old WebCT courses to D2L.

As a reminder, the IT Knowledge Base is available with several D2L resources and video tutorials to help with common tasks. The Training and Development System also has a calendar with a full list of workshops and sessions to assist with D2L use.

Great Web Content is Great … But Can Searchers Find It?

Having great content on your website is the first step toward an effective online presence. However, if no one can find that content, the great content doesn't matter. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of creating or editing web content to help search engines properly categorize and identify it as relevant for people using a search engine. When done correctly, this helps web searchers find content easily. The algorithms used by search engines such as Google change frequently, but good SEO is relevant regardless. Following are some basic SEO best practices:

• Provide original content that is relevant to your audience.
• Carefully and strategically include keywords in your content. Keywords are the words and phrases visitors may use to try to find the information on your site. To test out keyword ideas, visit www.google/trends. You can test multiple words or phrases there. To see a stark example of how Google Trends works, try testing "BSN programs" versus "nursing programs." You will see that the phrase "nursing programs" is searched significantly more frequently than "BSN programs." Therefore, "nursing programs" would be a superior keyword option.
• Optimize your site for people first—through clear, concise writing—and for search engines second. Implement SEO without turning your text into nonsense.

When deciding how to place keywords on a page, keep in mind that content is far more than just the text that appears. Everything on your page is optimizable—even things that do not appear, such as the file names for images. Unfortunately, the most important content to be optimized is also the most likely to be ignored. Make the following areas a top priority when optimizing your site for including keywords:

• page title
• page description
• headers
• content
• lists
• links
• URL name

Web Communications offers SEO workshops and other topics of interest to those building websites. Contact webcomm@radford.edu for notification of upcoming sessions.

Meet the DoIT Staff

Reggie Williams
Manager, Computer Repair Shop

How long have you been employed in the Division of Information Technology at Radford University?
I've been with Radford University for 17 years and about nine years with DoIT.

Family:
I've been married to my wonderful wife Shirley for 27 years and have a daughter, Michelle.

Hometown:
I'm from Dublin where I graduated from the new Pulaski County High School. After a few years working at different jobs, I enlisted into the Air Force and for the next six years they gave me most of my electronics education and training.

Education:
A.A.S. in electronics technology from New River Community College.

Interests/Hobbies:
I really love designing and building electronic circuits. I like using my lathe and mill machine to shape metal parts and working with wood too.

Favorite Vacation Destination:
We love to vacation at the beaches in North Carolina and in the mountains here in Virginia.

Favorite part of your job:
Working on classroom technology to help faculty provide a better teaching environment in the classroom for the students. It is amazing what kinds of technology are out there which can help faculty bring more information into the classroom to share with their students.