All posts by Carla Herling

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Stay safe while shopping online

With everyone staying home and buying household essentials and gifts online, it’s even more important to pay attention to shopping safely online:

  • Shop at sites you know and trust
  • Keep an eye on your credit cards and account statements and watch for suspicious purchases
  • Be sure to shop using a network that you know is secure

For more cybersecurity shopping tips, check out this guide from the National Cybersecurity Alliance.

ITS will continue to simulate phishing and assign training to those most at risk. If you’d like to discuss any information security issues, please feel free to reach out to ITS or email informationsecurity@drake.edu.

— Information Security, ITS

Campus Announcements Archive

Mark your calendars: International Education Week 2020

Join us virtually Nov. 16–20 to celebrate Drake’s global engagement and international programs during International Education Week! Global and intercultural learning is a key objective of Drake’s Continuous Improvement Plan, supporting our mission of responsible global citizenship. Join in to discover more about Drake as a global institution. There will be events for students, faculty, and staff—with some of our partner institutions joining from around the world.

Mark your calendar for these featured events. A full list of #IEW2020 events is posted to the IE Week Calendar.

IE Week Photo Contest
Now open for submissions! Deadline: Nov. 9
Learn More

Town Hall: Global Engagement at Drake
Monday, Nov. 16, 9 a.m.
Learn More & Register

Drake & MUBS (Uganda) Virtual Exchange (students)
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 a.m.
Learn More & Register

Funding for Global Projects (faculty/staff)
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 10 a.m.
Learn More & Register

International Trivia
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m.
Learn More & Register

Global Partner Spotlight: Kosovo
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 3 p.m.
Learn More & Register

Global Career Talks (students)
Thursday, Nov. 19, 4 p.m.
Learn More & Register

— Hannah Sappenfield, Global Partnerships Coordinator

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Register for November Design Dialogue

Drake Online Design Dialogues provides the opportunity for faculty and staff to learn more about designing and delivering classes using Blackboard.  We have had over 50 faculty and staff attend at least one session.

The final meeting for this calendar year is Thursday, Nov. 19, at 11:30 a.m.  We will not have a topic this month, but rather allow participants to ask questions and help problem solve.  If you have specific questions or issues, please send those to christina.trombley@drake.edu and we will go over them together.

Register for November’s Design Dialogue. You will receive a confirmation with the Zoom link. We will continue these sessions again in January.

— Christina Trombley, Executive Director, Online Programming

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Blackboard Learn Ultra instructor orientation course Module 3 and sandboxes now available 

About Module 3: Module 3 is being released this week. This self-paced module is expected to take about one hour and is focused on the navigation of the new Ultra Course View. All Fall 2021 courses will be built using the Ultra Course View. 

As of this week, you should have Ultra course sandboxes available to you via your “Courses” list under the “Assorted Dates” area or under the “Sandboxes” group of courses. The names of these courses  follow this formula- Ultra Sandbox #: Drake ID. These sandboxes allow you to practice new features in the Ultra Course View. Please choose one of your sandbox courses to complete the “Things to Try on Your Own” sections of the orientation course (Module 3 and beyond). As you are learning your way around the Ultra Course View, the sandboxes provide you with a student-free working space so that you can begin developing and designing courses in the new look and feel.   

Need assistance with your Ultra sandbox courses? 
If the sandbox courses in Ultra course view are not showing in your Courses list, please request assistance by submitting a  Blackboard Site Creation request in the IT Service Portal. 

What’s Next? 
Next week, Module 4 will be released, and it will introduce new content creation features in the Ultra Course View.   

— Karly Good, ITS

HR Information Archive

Benefits open enrollment begins Oct. 30

The annual open enrollment period for Drake University benefits will begin Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Initial enrollment information regarding Drake’s health, dental, voluntary life insurance and flexible spending account plans will be provided Friday via the DrakeHR email account. Benefit elections for the 2021 plan year must be made by 11:59 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, 2020.

— Marlene Heuertz, Human Resources

Campus Announcements Archive

Log into the eduroam network with your Drake email address before Dec. 1

Although we’ve encouraged logging into our eduroam campus wireless network using your Drake email address, it hasn’t been required. This is changing on Dec. 1. In order to better maintain our network and to ensure that credentials are passed properly to access eduroam at other affiliated institutions, we are changing our network settings.

Following this change on Dec. 1, you will not be able to log into the eduroam network using your Drake ID and must use your Drake email address.

Later this week we will send emails to the students, faculty, and staff who are currently logged into eduroam using their Drake ID. These individuals need to forget their current network on any device where they are connected (see Forgetting a Wireless Network (How-To) if you need instructions), and log in again using their Drake email address. This should be done as soon as possible to avoid encountering issues on Dec. 1 or upon returning from winter break.

Need a reminder on how to log into eduroam? Follow the instructions at Connecting to the eduroam Wireless Network (How-to).

If you’re working, learning, or teaching entirely remotely, you’ll need to make this change when you return to the Drake campus.

— Chris Mielke, ITS

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Modules 1 and 2 now available in the Learn Ultra Instructor Orientation course 

In Blackboard, as a part of the Courses list in the Assorted Dates area, you will find the Blackboard Learn Ultra Instructor Orientation course to help you prepare to use Blackboard Learn Ultra. If you have a large number of active courses, you may need to search for the course by its title. Each week, for three weeks, you will be notified of a new module to complete. 

The Orientation course activities won’t be graded or reviewed. The course is made up of self-paced activities to help you transition from using Original Course View to the Ultra Course View. Additionally, by completing this orientation course, you will gain insight into the experience your students will have when we switch to the Ultra Course View in Fall 2021. 

On November 3, you will also have Ultra Course View sandboxes available to you in your Courses list in the Assorted Dates area or under the Sandboxes group of courses. These sandboxes will provide a space for you to experiment with new features in the Ultra Course View while completing modules in the Orientation course. 

In next week’s OnCampus we will share more information about Module 3 training and the upcoming course sandbox availability.  

— Karly Good, ITS 

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Donate items to scholarship fund auction

Do you have unique Drake items that you want to find a new home for?

Consider donating your Drake memorabilia and treasures to the Office of University Communications and Marketing to auction off for their scholarship fund. Their unique fundraising efforts caught the attention of The Chronicle of Philanthropy in this article.

The office has collected pieces of Drake memorabilia over the years and auctioned them off on their scholarship Facebook page. Many Bulldogs on campus have expressed a generosity of spirit in donating items they have once found joy in, but are now ready to let go after binging the Marie Kondo series.

Some past items have included a piece of the blue oval, Bulldog bookends, flags, bobble heads, Drake basketball sketches, signed Bucksbaum posters, and even non-tangibles like tennis lessons or dog sitting.

If you have any items to donate, or want to make a financial contribution, please email us at socialmedia@drake.edu. Details about the auction will be published in a future issue of OnCampus, giving you a chance to secure your rare Drake items!

— Niki Smith, University Communications and Marketing

For Students Archive

Wellness is hiring; intramural deadlines

Wellness is hiring GroupX instructors and personal trainers. No experience is needed to teach GroupX, certification is required for personal training. If you are interested or have questions contact wellness@drake.edu

Several intramural deadlines are approaching:
Trivia: Deadline Oct. 27—sign up before it begins that day
Badminton Doubles: Deadline Nov. 7
Badminton Singles: Deadline Nov. 6
Super Smash Bros: Deadline Nov. 6

— Emily Madsen, Recreational Services

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Call for proposals: Equity and inclusion in higher education

Drake is partnering with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) to host a virtual conference on equity and inclusion in higher education March 3–5, 2021.

The 2021 Global Citizen Forum will bring together educators, students, policy makers and citizens from around the world to explore the struggles, strategies, and solutions for creating a more equitable and inclusive higher education field.

Call for proposals
We invite proposals for practitioner and paper presentations; workshops and interactive sessions; posters; and roundtable or panel discussions. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are encouraged to apply to present. Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis with final decisions made by Nov. 30, 2020.

To submit your proposal, please fill out this Google Form that asks for:

  • Presenter(s) information
  • Title and description of presentation or workshop
  • Methods for participant involvement (i.e. discussion, effective practice sharing, case study analysis)
  • Audience: faculty, staff, students, community members
  • Ideal session length
  • Copy of relevant files (if applicable)
  • Website (if applicable)

Visit our webpage to learn more about the conference, submit a proposal or register as an attendee.

— Hannah Sappenfield, Global Partnerships Coordinator