Martin Philip, Academic Liaison Librarian, offers tips on using Google Q&A to add interest and interaction to your teaching presentations
Shared from the Lib-Innovation blog.
I've always been a default Microsoft PowerPoint user, however Google's recently added Q&A feature to their Slides product may have persuaded me otherwise.
PowerPoint still seems to be the most ubiquitous piece of presentation software. It's certainly the one programme that I've spent most of my student and professional life using and the one I'm most comfortable creating slides with.
Nowadays, however, there are many presentation programmes to choose from; Google Slides, Apple's Keynote, Prezi, Canva to name a few. They all essentially do the same thing which is to present your topic and/or ideas, using, texts, graphics, photos and video.
Read more of this post at: Lib-Innovation: Using Google Q&A in large teaching sessions
Showing posts with label Google Apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Apps. Show all posts
Friday, 10 February 2017
Wednesday, 29 June 2016
Before you leave...
Jamie Clark of IT Support explains what you need to do with your IT account when you're leaving the University.
If you're leaving the University soon, you might have wondered when you'll lose access to your IT account. This depends on whether you are a member of staff or a student. Students can still access
their IT accounts for 90 days after their official course end date. Staff accounts will close one day after their employment ends (as required by research funders and auditors).
We would encourage anyone leaving the University to think about the data you have stored in your account. You might have data in your University filestore, Google Drive or email account. What will you still need after you leave?
Whilst it's tempting to take everything with you, you need to be aware of the University's Information Security policies. You must ensure that you do not take anything that would be considered restricted or confidential information:
A common query we get from leavers is how to export University emails to a personal Gmail account. We recommend a tool called Got Your Back if you want to keep the labels you've assigned to your emails. Got Your Back is a command line tool, so it looks a bit daunting at first, but we've put together step-by-step instructions. Or you might prefer to use the simpler Google Mail Fetcher method, but keep in mind that this is much less flexible. It can't export a subset of your emails (it will take everything in the All Mail section of your account) or keep any labels.
You also need to think about whether you own any files that will still be needed by your colleagues and transfer these to someone else. We often get requests from people who need to access files in a former colleague's closed account. We can only provide this once we have received the appropriate authorisation. This creates a delay which may cause problems for your colleagues.
The same applies to any non-personal accounts. For example, if your team uses a shared email address you need to make sure you get in touch with us to nominate a new owner. If you don't this account will also close when you leave. Then we can only transfer the account after we receive authorisation and in the meantime your colleagues won't be able to access it.
It's best to start thinking about all this as early as possible and make sure you leave enough time to take care of everything before you leave. Don't put it off until your last few days, as this doesn't give us much opportunity to help you if there are any issues.
For further guidance (including instructions on how to export data from your account) take a look at our website:
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| 'Goodbye' by woodleywonderworks used under a Creative Commons licence |
their IT accounts for 90 days after their official course end date. Staff accounts will close one day after their employment ends (as required by research funders and auditors).
We would encourage anyone leaving the University to think about the data you have stored in your account. You might have data in your University filestore, Google Drive or email account. What will you still need after you leave?
Whilst it's tempting to take everything with you, you need to be aware of the University's Information Security policies. You must ensure that you do not take anything that would be considered restricted or confidential information:
A common query we get from leavers is how to export University emails to a personal Gmail account. We recommend a tool called Got Your Back if you want to keep the labels you've assigned to your emails. Got Your Back is a command line tool, so it looks a bit daunting at first, but we've put together step-by-step instructions. Or you might prefer to use the simpler Google Mail Fetcher method, but keep in mind that this is much less flexible. It can't export a subset of your emails (it will take everything in the All Mail section of your account) or keep any labels.
You also need to think about whether you own any files that will still be needed by your colleagues and transfer these to someone else. We often get requests from people who need to access files in a former colleague's closed account. We can only provide this once we have received the appropriate authorisation. This creates a delay which may cause problems for your colleagues.
The same applies to any non-personal accounts. For example, if your team uses a shared email address you need to make sure you get in touch with us to nominate a new owner. If you don't this account will also close when you leave. Then we can only transfer the account after we receive authorisation and in the meantime your colleagues won't be able to access it.
It's best to start thinking about all this as early as possible and make sure you leave enough time to take care of everything before you leave. Don't put it off until your last few days, as this doesn't give us much opportunity to help you if there are any issues.
For further guidance (including instructions on how to export data from your account) take a look at our website:
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
That sinking feeling...
The horror of losing your work can give you nightmares. Tamsyn Quormby and Pritpal Rehal tell you how to save safely and avoid that sinking feeling...
One of the most common problems that the IT Support team come across is people losing their work, or finding that their files have become corrupted.
Recently, a student came to us when she was unable to access the work stored on her USB stick. She'd been working for hours, and saving her files regularly, but when the thin client she was using was accidentally rebooted, the USB stick became corrupted. We used every trick in our armoury, but we weren't able to restore the files for her. She showed remarkable forbearance at receiving this news; a single tear, and a muttered curse. But it was desperately frustrating to know that if she'd been using the virtual desktop to save to her central filestore instead, the sudden reboot would have caused her no problems.
Not everyone is able to be so sanguine in the face of lost work. Every member of our IT support team has had to console a student or member of staff in tears of distress and frustration when their work has been lost - this can happen when a USB stick becomes corrupted or lost, or when a laptop is stolen or irreparably damaged.
Our advice is simple and unchanging:
Don't rely on a USB stick as the main storage method for your work: Not only can the data easily become corrupted, but the device itself is also easy to lose or break.
Don't save the only copy of your work to the local drive of your computer. If work isn't backed up elsewhere, it will be lost if your computer is stolen or damaged.
So, how should you save and back up your work? We recommend the following:
Every member of the University has a central filestore, their H: drive, with 2Gb of storage allocated to them. Your central filestore is regularly backed up and you can access it from pretty much any device (PC, Mac, Linux, mobile devices...) whether you're on or off campus:
Google Drive offers storage 'in the cloud' (hosted and backed up in multiple locations) that you can access via a web interface or an app wherever you are. As a member of the University of York, your Google Apps offers unlimited quota.
If you lose your work, always contact IT support for advice. We'll do our very best to help you. But to avoid disaster, keep your work safe by saving it to your central filestore or Google Drive.
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| See ya later, alligator by Jason Mrachina Used under a Creative Commons license |
Recently, a student came to us when she was unable to access the work stored on her USB stick. She'd been working for hours, and saving her files regularly, but when the thin client she was using was accidentally rebooted, the USB stick became corrupted. We used every trick in our armoury, but we weren't able to restore the files for her. She showed remarkable forbearance at receiving this news; a single tear, and a muttered curse. But it was desperately frustrating to know that if she'd been using the virtual desktop to save to her central filestore instead, the sudden reboot would have caused her no problems.
 |
| A single tear by Lauren C Used under a Creative Commons license |
Our advice is simple and unchanging:
Don't rely on a USB stick as the main storage method for your work: Not only can the data easily become corrupted, but the device itself is also easy to lose or break.
Don't save the only copy of your work to the local drive of your computer. If work isn't backed up elsewhere, it will be lost if your computer is stolen or damaged.
Where to save your work
So, how should you save and back up your work? We recommend the following:
Central filestore
Every member of the University has a central filestore, their H: drive, with 2Gb of storage allocated to them. Your central filestore is regularly backed up and you can access it from pretty much any device (PC, Mac, Linux, mobile devices...) whether you're on or off campus:
Google Drive
Google Drive offers storage 'in the cloud' (hosted and backed up in multiple locations) that you can access via a web interface or an app wherever you are. As a member of the University of York, your Google Apps offers unlimited quota.
Lessons learned...
If you lose your work, always contact IT support for advice. We'll do our very best to help you. But to avoid disaster, keep your work safe by saving it to your central filestore or Google Drive.
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Five reasons to consider buying a Chromebook as your next computer...
Thinking about your next computer? Planning your Christmas list? David Barrett has some advice for you...
Almost everything I do at work makes use of Google tools - Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive
(containing docs, sheets, presentations), or is browser based (Jira, LucidChart, HipChat), so when my Windows laptop needed replacing I decided to give a Chromebook a go.
It's been nearly a year now and I don't regret that decision. In fact,
if you don't need to install and run specialist software as part of your job, I'd recommend doing the same.
Here are five reasons why:
Pre-Chromebook, my use of Microsoft Office was dwindling. Using Excel to enter my working hours into a spreadsheet was the highlight. But now my timesheet is a Google sheet, so problem solved. Drive is a great way to collaborate on, share and store docs and sheets I'm working on. I've found it far more flexible than working off a shared drive.
All I needed to add were a couple of cheap, plug & play accessories; an HDMI to VGA adapter lets me connect to projectors or screens in meeting rooms, and if I need a wired connection, the USB to ethernet adapter sorts that.
But what if you're not online? The Chromebook and Google Drive does a reasonable job of caching recently used docs so you can type away when offline and changes are synced when you connect to the Internet again.
Printing? When I really have to print something I use the York Print Plus EPrint service. This works by emailing a copy of the doc you want to print to ypp-eprint@york.ac.uk. It's as simple as that.
It's also just as easy to take files away as it is on a traditional laptop. The Chromebook has its own internal storage if you really want to store files, or downloads outside Google Drive and my device has an SD card reader, and of course USB for external storage.
A couple of times I've had to attend a webinar using GoToMeeting, or Blackboard Collaborate, both which require a Java client to run. In these cases I've logged onto the Virtual Desktop Service (VDS) and accessed a Windows 7 desktop in a browser tab.
The technology used to access the Desktop is called HTML5 and is a core part of the Chromebook which does not require installing any special software. IT Services have enabled the HTML5 feature on the VDS so anyone on "any client device" can access Windows/Linux desktops and applications.
Chromebooks are really cheap compared to mid-range Windows laptops. The cost of the laptop I replaced could buy six Chromebooks.
From pressing the on switch it's ready to accept your login details in seven seconds. Once logged in, it's another couple of seconds before it's loaded the Chrome browser and you're ready to go.
The battery goes a long way. The longest period of time I've managed to use it without recharging is two days. Its internal storage is a solid state drive, which provides fast read times and low battery demand.
It also doesn't appear to get slower the longer I use it, which seems to be a feature of Windows machines, as updates are layered over each other, week after week.
The device is encrypted, security is built in, and the whole device is self updating. This is all out of the box and doesn't require you to do anything.
So far, so good. I've found my Chromebook to be an excellent bit of kit and easily up to the job.
If you cannot use one for your main day to day computing requirements, it's certainly worth having one for general office use, taking to meetings or conferences. With its low cost and in-built security, it's a much lower risk than taking an expensive laptop out and about, and is also highly shareable.
 |
| Acer C7 Chromebook by Luis Roca Used under a Creative Commons license |
(containing docs, sheets, presentations), or is browser based (Jira, LucidChart, HipChat), so when my Windows laptop needed replacing I decided to give a Chromebook a go.
It's been nearly a year now and I don't regret that decision. In fact,
if you don't need to install and run specialist software as part of your job, I'd recommend doing the same.
Here are five reasons why:
Number 1: It does pretty much everything I need it to do
Pre-Chromebook, my use of Microsoft Office was dwindling. Using Excel to enter my working hours into a spreadsheet was the highlight. But now my timesheet is a Google sheet, so problem solved. Drive is a great way to collaborate on, share and store docs and sheets I'm working on. I've found it far more flexible than working off a shared drive.
 |
| HDMI to VGA Adapter by SparkFun Electronics Used under a Creative Commons license |
But what if you're not online? The Chromebook and Google Drive does a reasonable job of caching recently used docs so you can type away when offline and changes are synced when you connect to the Internet again.
Printing? When I really have to print something I use the York Print Plus EPrint service. This works by emailing a copy of the doc you want to print to ypp-eprint@york.ac.uk. It's as simple as that.
It's also just as easy to take files away as it is on a traditional laptop. The Chromebook has its own internal storage if you really want to store files, or downloads outside Google Drive and my device has an SD card reader, and of course USB for external storage.
Number 2: You can use the Virtual Desktop Service if you really need to use Windows
A couple of times I've had to attend a webinar using GoToMeeting, or Blackboard Collaborate, both which require a Java client to run. In these cases I've logged onto the Virtual Desktop Service (VDS) and accessed a Windows 7 desktop in a browser tab.
The technology used to access the Desktop is called HTML5 and is a core part of the Chromebook which does not require installing any special software. IT Services have enabled the HTML5 feature on the VDS so anyone on "any client device" can access Windows/Linux desktops and applications.
Number 3: Price
Chromebooks are really cheap compared to mid-range Windows laptops. The cost of the laptop I replaced could buy six Chromebooks.
Number 4: Performance
From pressing the on switch it's ready to accept your login details in seven seconds. Once logged in, it's another couple of seconds before it's loaded the Chrome browser and you're ready to go.
The battery goes a long way. The longest period of time I've managed to use it without recharging is two days. Its internal storage is a solid state drive, which provides fast read times and low battery demand.
It also doesn't appear to get slower the longer I use it, which seems to be a feature of Windows machines, as updates are layered over each other, week after week.
Number 5: Security
The device is encrypted, security is built in, and the whole device is self updating. This is all out of the box and doesn't require you to do anything.
Conclusion
So far, so good. I've found my Chromebook to be an excellent bit of kit and easily up to the job.
If you cannot use one for your main day to day computing requirements, it's certainly worth having one for general office use, taking to meetings or conferences. With its low cost and in-built security, it's a much lower risk than taking an expensive laptop out and about, and is also highly shareable.
 |
| Cockatiel sadly not included Acer Chromebook 11 by Kenming Wang Used under a Creative Commons license |
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Fun with Google Apps scripts. (Yes, you read that right)
One of our non-technical staff drank the Google Apps Kool-Aid. In this blog post, Tom Grady shares what he learned when he decided to get automated.
I have come to the conclusion that I must be fundamentally lazy. Why?
 |
| Ground Control to Major Tom by Chris Devers. Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence |
So what exactly have I done? Well, we're hardly talking SkyNet taking over just yet, but I have managed to write some scripts that do the following:
- Collect the most recent stats for my team from several Google Spreadsheets, showing how hard we've worked and what's on the horizon for this week
- Put those figures into a pretty table so you can compare last week with this week at a glance
- Automatically email my boss with them every Monday morning at 10am*
I thought I'd share with you how I did it, in case anyone else out there is as lazy as me.
First of all, let me be clear: as an English Lit graduate I knew I wasn't going to be able to merrily start writing code from scratch. So I did what everyone does: I went to see The Oracles. They're not on a distant mountain top, they're in the Teaching and Learning team in IT Services in the Fairhurst Building. After an hour's overview with Mike Dunn and Tom 'Major Tom' Smith they let me loose, and over the course of a week I managed to cobble together a script that I thought might do the job.
It didn't work.
And then I learned the most important lesson of all: if you don't know what to do, ask StackOverflow and a kind soul somewhere in the world will help. If you follow their no-nonsense rules for asking questions ("This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat.") you actually get some great ideas and, if you're lucky, they'll even throw you some code to take away. For free. And they don't even like it when you say thanks.
My code was copying stats from the spreadsheets OK but it wasn't copying the most recent cells; I could only get it to find fixed rows and columns and this is no good if you update your stats every day. Here's a snippet of what someone suggested.
if (origin.getName() == "Sheet1") {
var r = origin.getActiveCell();
var row = r.getRow();
var numberOfCol = 3;
if( row > 1) {
var numberOfRows = row >= 7 ? 6 : row - 1;
var startRow = row >= 7 ? row - numberOfRows + 1 : 2;
range = origin.getRange(startRow, 3, numberOfRows, numberOfCol);
range.copyValuesToRange(destination, 1, numberOfCol, 1, numberOfRows);
};
On every edit event in Sheet1 this copies the bottom six cells from Sheet1 to Sheet2. I jiggled this into my script and hey presto! It worked. The final piece of the puzzle was to have an old-fashioned formula in another Google Sheet grab the stats from Sheet2 and format them nicely. Then I wrote another script that is triggered at 10am every Monday morning and uses the MailApp.sendEmail function to send the stats.
Apart from being absurdly and unreasonably proud of learning this from scratch, I think this is worth sharing because it's a good example of something that not long ago would have required input from a real developer. I would have had to persuade someone important that it was worth spending time and money on doing, and I'd have have failed because it really wasn't a pressing problem that needed solving. Fiddling with Google Apps scripting liberated me from so much red tape and allowed me to just go off and do it, without much fuss and without much training.
Next I'm working on a script that will churn out blog posts ...
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Google Apps at York
Mike Dunn, from our Teaching and Learning Team, puts your working life in order with the help of Google Apps.
Back in Calendar, if you want to make sure everyone can find the document(s) they need to look at, you can use the Add attachment option in an event to include a link to the Google document(s).
When you’ve finished changing the content, if you need features that are only available in Word, just download the Google document and convert it for final editing.
If you make the form in a shared folder on Drive, all your collaborators will be able to work on it, leave comments, generate charts and so on. And Google Spreadsheets have almost all the same functionality as Excel, plus a few extras to make collaboration easier.
Now where did I put that floppy disc? I need to back-up the Internet . . .
Time for a rant. I get really irritated when my email inbox is filled up with stuff that doesn't belong there. It would seem that some people haven’t yet figured there are other ways to communicate or convey important information. And I don’t just mean Facebook and Twitter:
“When are you free to discuss…?” – please look in my Google calendar and invite me.
“I’ve attached this document…” – couldn’t you just share it with me? Where am I supposed to put it? How many copies do you want hanging around?
“I’ve shared this Google document with you, and in it you’ll see…” – I’m going to read it, so you don’t need to tell me what’s in it, do you? If you want to comment, add comments to it!
“Attached is a form [Word document]. Please fill it in and return it” – I can’t fill it in, you’ve designed it for printing and it doesn’t work on screen.
So how can we connect with each other when we need to manage working and collaborating? Here are some Google thoughts.
Meet me under the clock…
Make sure you share your Calendar with anyone you need to make arrangements with, and that they likewise share with you. If you assign ‘See all event details’ or ‘See only free/busy’ permissions they can see when you’re free but won’t be able to vandalise your events.
When you need to get together with several others, add them to the invite list for the event, but then choose Find a time. This will show you everyone’s calendars together so you can check the time is OK for everybody.
If you’d rather suggest several different times and pick the most popular, you can use an application called Doodle. It’s not part of Google, but you can link the two so all the possible times show up in your calendar as ‘tentative’, and when the final slot is confirmed only the ‘definite’ remains – all automatic.
Can you take a look at this and suggest some changes?
Conventional Word documents are not really designed for collaborative work, but documents on Google Drive are. Suppose you’re working on a group project. One of you makes a Google Drive folder and shares it with everyone else (with Edit permissions). Now every Google document created or moved inside the folder can be viewed and edited by the whole group – even at the same time, and you don’t have to be together (so it’s fine if you’ve gone home for the weekend). No need to start emailing documents about.
If you’re not all working at the same time, that’s fine – you can suggest changes or add comments, and sort it out later. If you’re not all in the same place, you could use a Google Hangout to take a look together. Hangouts let you do video-conferencing without needing any special equipment – just a laptop with a web cam and microphone. You can invite several people, share and capture screens and even add silly hats and facial hair (not normally available on video-conferencing applications).
Back in Calendar, if you want to make sure everyone can find the document(s) they need to look at, you can use the Add attachment option in an event to include a link to the Google document(s).
When you’ve finished changing the content, if you need features that are only available in Word, just download the Google document and convert it for final editing.
Can you fill me in…?
Collecting any sort of information or data from several people can be a chore. Do you email the request? Do you send a document with questions? How will you get it ready for any processing? Google Forms are brilliant for collecting information. You design the form (adding text boxes, drop-down lists, option buttons etc) and send the link to the people you want data from. They fill in the form on screen and the responses are collected in a Google Spreadsheet, ready for you to process.If you make the form in a shared folder on Drive, all your collaborators will be able to work on it, leave comments, generate charts and so on. And Google Spreadsheets have almost all the same functionality as Excel, plus a few extras to make collaboration easier.
This won’t fit through the letterbox
Google Drive has tons of space, and you can upload photos, PDF documents – anything you want to be able to access easily online – with the knowledge you can control exactly who has access. It’s far more secure than using USB pen drives, and gives you the flexibility to work wherever you are, even when you’re doing some collaborative group work.Now where did I put that floppy disc? I need to back-up the Internet . . .
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
A sprint or a marathon?
As they complete work on the new student accommodation interface, Laura Hallett and Kathryn Woodroof provide an insight into their project management style.
Replacing a key enterprise system in any organisation comes with a fair number of challenges. You're faced with a stakeholder group reaching almost 100 who each have their own individual view on life "in the new world", existing enterprise systems to integrate with in a sophisticated manner, and project staff who have their day jobs to manage alongside successful implementation. The project to replace our student accommodation system started in September 2013. It should go live to our returning students applying for accommodation on campus, in November.
There comes a point in any project when you have to knuckle down and get on with the work of developing the product. We talked and consulted, planned and then planned some more, and then KxStudent was installed. Right, time to start moulding it to our requirements. But what's the best way of developing one of the University's essential business systems? How and where do you keep track of all of the detail and the decisions? These were questions that we hoped to answer during the project.
The University moved to Google Apps for Education in 2011. It's fair to say that most people on this project are now Googlephiles. The project team is made up of busy people from five very busy departments. Calendars being what they are, it's not always easy to get everyone together. In order to make the most of our face-to-face time, we have to communicate efficiently in-between meetings. Google Apps has enabled us to do this. The project documentation is saved on our Google Drive. Google Docs can be edited simultaneously, with a full revision history, and you can make comments or chat to your colleagues whilst editing. You can make yourself available for quick questions on Google Hangouts if colleagues are doing a testing session and you can’t make it. Google Calendar gives you an at-a-glance overview of the team’s availability and allows you to schedule repeat meetings easily.
When you do get together, it's important to be efficient - never more so than in our meetings about the interface between KxStudent and SITS. The interface development has been iterative - we're on our eighth version of the specification - it can be easy to lose focus and motivation. Many technical readers will be familiar with the Scrum framework, which is used for complex product development. Whilst we have not consciously adopted the Scrum methodology for this project we do find ourselves using some of the processes sub-consciously. Our interface meetings are a bit like a Daily Scrum. We review what has been accomplished since the last meeting, discuss any blockers and agree what will be done before the next meeting. The development work itself is done between meetings (using Google Apps, of course) in what might be called Sprints. Although sometimes they feel like marathons!
The interface will be completed and signed off soon. But whilst it's the end of this phase of the project, I'm sure it won't be the end of dynamic and collaborative working. We'll take our favoured approaches and the lessons that we have learnt and apply them to the next phase - web development.
Replacing a key enterprise system in any organisation comes with a fair number of challenges. You're faced with a stakeholder group reaching almost 100 who each have their own individual view on life "in the new world", existing enterprise systems to integrate with in a sophisticated manner, and project staff who have their day jobs to manage alongside successful implementation. The project to replace our student accommodation system started in September 2013. It should go live to our returning students applying for accommodation on campus, in November.
There comes a point in any project when you have to knuckle down and get on with the work of developing the product. We talked and consulted, planned and then planned some more, and then KxStudent was installed. Right, time to start moulding it to our requirements. But what's the best way of developing one of the University's essential business systems? How and where do you keep track of all of the detail and the decisions? These were questions that we hoped to answer during the project.
The University moved to Google Apps for Education in 2011. It's fair to say that most people on this project are now Googlephiles. The project team is made up of busy people from five very busy departments. Calendars being what they are, it's not always easy to get everyone together. In order to make the most of our face-to-face time, we have to communicate efficiently in-between meetings. Google Apps has enabled us to do this. The project documentation is saved on our Google Drive. Google Docs can be edited simultaneously, with a full revision history, and you can make comments or chat to your colleagues whilst editing. You can make yourself available for quick questions on Google Hangouts if colleagues are doing a testing session and you can’t make it. Google Calendar gives you an at-a-glance overview of the team’s availability and allows you to schedule repeat meetings easily.
 |
| OK, not this sort of scrum. Scrum by David - used under a Creative Commons license |
The interface will be completed and signed off soon. But whilst it's the end of this phase of the project, I'm sure it won't be the end of dynamic and collaborative working. We'll take our favoured approaches and the lessons that we have learnt and apply them to the next phase - web development.
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