Release:  February 6, 2019

Need Help?  Contact Help Desk

Email:  helpdesk@manchester.edu
Phone:  260-470-2727 (Fort Wayne), 260-982-5454 (North Manchester)
Web:  https://service.manchester.edu
Location:  Fort Wayne 121 & North Manchester Clark 109

Scheduled Internet Outages

Our Internet Service Provider, I-Light, informed us that they need to work on our North Manchester Internet connection on Thursday, February 7^th, from 1:00 to 6:00 a.m. and again on Friday, February 8^th, during the same maintenance window.  Our Internet connection redundancy should prevent an outage, but you should still prepare for possible interruptions in service.

Open Issues

We’re working with the appropriate vendors on issues associated with our learning management system, Canvas. 

• We purchased the interface to automatically maintain Canvas class enrollments based on what information we have in Colleague, our student information system.  However, the interface occasionally fails to drop a student from a Canvas class even when that student dropped the class via the Registrar.  We are manually updating Canvas, but this method isn’t instantaneous like the Colleague-to-Canvas interface is.
• Individual assignment/quiz/test grades that faculty enter in Canvas are not appearing in Starfish, our student success software.  The missing Starfish grades prevent the student success team and advisors access to this information.

Ellucian (Colleague vendor), and Hobson (Starfish vendor), and Instructure (Canvas vendor) are investigating.

Working with Voicemail on the Web

If you have a voicemail account on our phone system, you can manage that account via https://nmuconn01.manchester.edu/inbox/.  Log in to your account using your MU network credentials.  Once you log in, you can manage your voicemail, including deleting them, change your voicemail PIN, etc.

Please bookmark this page for your future reference.  NOTE:  You can only access the page when on either campus or when using our virtual private network (VPN).  If you have any questions about this web-based voicemail self-service capability, please contact Help Desk.

ITS Survey Coming

The ITS team intends to send a survey to all MU community members starting Monday, February 11^th.  The survey will close on Friday, February 22^nd.  We want to know how you feel we’re doing and what’s important to you, so we can make adjustments where we can.

Microsoft Edge vs. Microsoft Internet Explorer

For years, Internet Explorer (IE) was the dominant Internet web browser.  Those days are long behind us, but Internet Explorer still exists.  While Microsoft attempts to phase out IE, it developed the Edge browser for Windows 10.  Edge is also available on Android and iOS, the operating systems that make today’s smartphones and tablets work.

There exists a sizable difference between Edge and IE.  For one, IE is no longer supported or developed to take advantage of newer web technologies.  Microsoft only supports IE versions 11 and 12 on Windows 7, 8 and 10, and only to patch security issues.  Edge has seen substantial development with Windows 10.  To confuse matters more, Microsoft announced that they would transition Edge from its own browser technology to Chromium, the browser technology behind Chrome.  Microsoft hasn’t announced when that might happen, but it’s something to expect.

In the end, you should know that some older sites still depend on IE to work correctly.  However, there are many more sites that require newer browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Firefox. 

Clear as mud, right?

Employee Desktop Printers

As a reminder to employees, we’re phasing out desktop printers in favor of the new Printing@MU system.  As you run out of consumables (ink or toner), please notify the ITS Help Desk, and we’ll retrieve and retire the printer.  By the end of the academic year, we’ll collect the remaining desktop printers.

Microsoft Office 365 (O365) Announcements

Some things are happening with our Microsoft Office 365 accounts.

• Microsoft modified the Home Use program for employees.  While you can still use your MU O365 account to install Office on up to five computers, Microsoft wants you to consider using a personal O365 account for personal use.  As a result, we need to set up everyone on the new Home Use Program soon.  When we do, you’ll receive an email that announces a 30% discount on a personal O365 subscription.  Unless Microsoft makes some changes, the email’s subject is “Save 30% on Office 365”.  That email is valid, from Microsoft, and can be deleted and ignored if you so choose.
• Currently, there are a few ways to access your O365 account online.  To our knowledge, those will still work.  However, going forward, Microsoft will allow anyone with an O365 subscription to log into O365 at https://www.office.com.

Contributions Always Welcome

Do you want to know more about a topic or do you know a helpful IT tip?  Please send topics to Help Desk.