Bring your questions to Drake Learn Ultra Office Hours for hands-on practice offered in a virtual open house format.

No sign-up required. Simply join this Course Room during one of these times:

• Wednesday, 8/11 | 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Thursday, 8/12 | 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• Monday, 8/16 | 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, 8/18 | 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
• Thursday, 8/19 | 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, 8/25 | 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Thursday, 8/26 | 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

— Christina Trombley, Drake Online and Continuing Education

You are invited to stop by Old Main 202 on Tuesday, Aug. 24, to have some cake and share your hopes for the coming semester.

While much is still unknown, we do know fall semester is fast approaching, students will be arriving, and Drake will be a hive of activity in just a few short weeks. As our community gathers to do the work and share the joys of another academic year, the Provost invites you to pause and consider: What are our best hopes? What are we particularly looking forward to this semester? How will we reconvene as a community?

Drop by Old Main, outside Office 202, for a piece of cake and to write a sticky note for the wall. As you do, read what others have to say, and add a sticker to those that resonate with you.

— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost

A password is typically composed of ten or fewer letters, numbers, and symbols. It could be a single word like “yourname”, a word that is obfuscated with other characters like “Dr@ke123”, or a string of random characters such as “B@3!&O$$”. Those examples go from least secure to most secure in terms of password choice, but EVERY password fewer than ten characters can be cracked within three weeks using modern computer technology.

A passphrase, however, is longer than a password and can contain spaces between words. An example would be “The road to success is always under construction!” A passphrase doesn’t have to be a proper grammatically correct sentence, but passphrases often have spaces between words and are always significantly longer than the average password.

So why would you use a passphrase instead of a password?

1. Passphrases are easier to remember. You are more likely to remember a phrase you create than a short but complicated password.
2. Passphrases satisfy complexity rules easily. The combination of upper- and lower-case letters as well as punctuation in passphrases usually meet systems’ password complexity requirements.
3. Passphrases are much more difficult to crack.Most highly efficient password cracking tools break down around ten characters. These tools cannot guess, brute-force, or pre-compute passphrases, especially if they are more than 15 characters.

Are passphrases always better?

Not necessarily. A long password – 14 characters or more – comprised of random uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols is just as difficult to crack as any passphrase, but it’s much harder to remember. If you are using a password manager, which will allow you to securely store and easily retrieve passwords, the security and usability differences between passwords and passphrases will not be significant. However, if you are setting passwords that you must remember and enter by heart, then passphrases will always be better choices.

Recommendations for creating and using passphrases:

1. Ensure your passphrase is a minimum of 15 characters.
2. Include at least four words, though five is even better.
3. Use punctuation in the passphrase. Including a number further increases the complexity and is required by some systems.
4. Don’t create passphrases from common quotes, sayings, or songs. It should be meaningful to you, but not easy to guess.
5. Use a unique passphrase for every account you own. That way, if one passphrase is compromised, your other accounts will remain secure.

Regardless of how complex a password or passphrase is, hackers will still attempt to trick you into divulging login credentials, often via email.

Because of this ongoing threat, ITS simulates phishing and will assign training to those most susceptible as part of our larger cybersecurity strategy. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to) for next steps.

— Christopher Mielke, ITS

Drake printers/copiers are leased from and maintained by Laser Resources Inc. (LRI) and we are entering into a new agreement with them this summer.  

A project team, made up of staff members from ITS, Student Services, Finance, and LRI representatives, has been meeting weekly. In June, LRI staff held initial meetings with representatives across campus to discuss printing, scanning, and copying needs for their departments. 

LRI is currently scheduling follow up meetings with departments to let them know about expected printer changes and the replacement timeline for their area. The printer order has been placed, but we don’t know when the new devices will arrive on campus. Much like other electronics, there have been global supply chain issues that may cause delays. We hope, however, that they begin arriving by mid-August. 

As printers arrive, we will be prioritizing installation in academic and student areas. Our intention is to switch over the devices of each department or area all at once, rather than having a mix of devices. We will also be updating our step-by-step printing guides as the new devices arrive on campus. 

Want to learn more? We’ve created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page at drake.edu/its/printing. Additional questions and answers will be added as the project progresses and more information becomes available. Also, more information including which devices will be in each location, and other changes, will be shared in future OnCampus articles.  

—Kris Brewster, ITS 

Since the spring, our project team has been working on an update to move campus from using the MyDUSIS system to using Drake Self Service. On Thursday, Aug. 5, we will release the employee dashboard and link it from myDrake.

We’re excited to launch this cleaner and more modern interface to campus. From the employee dashboard you’ll be able to submit or approve time or leave reports, view your tax information, review past jobs, access pay information, and more.

A few items to remember as we launch the employee dashboard:

• Faculty and staff must use Duo Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to access the employee eashboard. For help with Duo, see the Duo guides in the IT service portal.
• The processes for submitting timesheets and leave reports are different than in MyDUSIS.

To help you navigate these changes, we’ve created guides to walk faculty, staff, and student employees through the new processes, step by step, all including screenshots and/or screen capture videos:

• Reporting Time or Leave in Self Service (How-to)
• Approving Timesheets and Leave Reports for Managers (How-to)
• Setting up Direct Deposit in Self Service (How-to)
• Filling out Timesheets for Student Employees (How-to)

On Wednesday evening, Aug. 4, the My Employee Dashboard link will be added to the Human Resources section of myDrake replacing a number of current links. For student employees, the employee dashboard link will be found in the Student Employment section.

We acknowledge that it will take a bit of adjustment to adapt to these new processes, so if you encounter any issues with using the employee dashboard, please contact drakehr@drake.edu.

— Kris Brewster, ITS 

The Office of Global Engagement is excited to launch DICE – Drake Intercultural Community Exchange. This new volunteer program will match faculty and staff (and their families) with an incoming international student for a term (or longer), with the goal of fostering meaningful connections beyond the classroom. The program is launching at the start of the Fall 2021 semester.

DICE hosts would be expected to reach out to their student two or three times a semester to grab a meal, participate in a shared interest, or meet up at DICE/ISSS-sponsored events. Participating as a DICE volunteer is open to ALL Drake faculty and staff. The only requirement is that you have a strong interest in developing an inclusive community and the desire to make our international students feel welcome.

If you are interested in becoming a DICE host, please complete our online application: http://drake.qualtrics.com/DICE_HostApplication

If you have any questions about the program, please send inquires to Jorona Johnson, international student advisor, at jorona.johnson@drake.edu.

— Jorona Johnson, Global Engagement

What’s New? 

• Announcements are pop-up notifications inside a course. 
• Class Conversations allow talk about assignments and assessments for questions without creating specific discussion boards. 
• Group Discussions are no longer built inside of groups but are housed under discussions. 
• Messages replaces the ability to email from courses. 

How do I create items? 

• Organization with Modules and Folders. Remember, you can only build two levels deep.  
• Content (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 
• Assignments (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 
• Tests (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 
• Discussions (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial; Best practices) 
• Journals (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 

Best practices for communication:

• Announcements: Announcements allow you to post critical time-sensitive information and may include push notifications, emails, and/or pop-up notifications. 
• Messages: From a course, you can access messages from the navigation bar. The course messages page shows all messages from the course you’re in. 
• Conversations: Allows students to contact their instructors and peers for questions about specific assignments, or assessments, if made available. 
• Journals: Students can express their thoughts, questions, and concerns privately with instructors. 
• Discussions: Students can share ideas, gather feedback and refine opinions and plans with their classmates. 

Course Storage and Retention Policy Updates:

• From now on, we are only retaining two years of course history on Blackboard. An additional three years of course archives are available upon request. You must provide both the course term and CRN. 
• Courses are limited to 5GB of storage space. To save space, please use Panopto to host your videos and link them to your Blackboard courses. 

The next OnCampus will feature how-to tips for rosters, accommodations, and gradebook setup.  

— Karly Good, ITS