New Format Makes Student Bills More Understandable
03/24/2005
Student bills now appear in a new format that is more understandable for students and their families. The new eBill process was implemented in StuInfo, MSU?s student gateway to academic and financial records, beginning with the spring monthly student bill created on March 17, 2005. (Old bills ? those created prior to March 17 ? are still available for access within StuInfo; they remain in the old format.)
The improvements include:
-Less dependency on Adobe PDF formatted documents
-A more streamlined view of the bill
-Help pages for certain functions
-Use of color within the page to assist in understanding transactions listed on the bill.
Outstanding balances may still be paid via credit card, online check or mail-in payment. If a paper copy of the bill is needed, there is a “Printer Friendly” link on the Web page that will provide a PDF version of the bill.
The bill includes the following information:
– Prior Bill Amount
- Payments
- Financial Aid
- Charges and Credits
- Minimum Amount Due (MAD)
- Methods of Payment
- Billed Activity Detail
- Payment Plan Information (if it pertains to the account)
- Holds information
- Messages
- Contact Information
Students and their guests can check out the improvements at http://stuinfo.msu.edu by clicking on the View Bills menu link. (Students can set up ?guest? accounts for parents or guardians to view billing information online.)
Organizing Collections of Digital Photographs
03/16/2005
WKAR’s Scott Pohl discusses how to organize and manage your collection of digital photographs with ACNS senior information technologist Rich Wiggins. Listen to the conversation at:
http://wkar.org/newsfeatures/story.php?storyid=692
SBC Awards to Recognize Uses of Technology in Teaching and Learning
03/16/2005
Responding to the growing use of online technologies for instruction at Michigan State University, Libraries, Computing, and Technology announces an annual awards program to both recognize and encourage best practices in the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.
This awards program, funded by a generous endowment gift from SBC, will recognize outstanding contributions to the use and development of information technology for teaching and learning in credit-bearing courses at Michigan State University
Two first place monetary awards, one from each of the following two categories, and two runner-up “best practice” certificates for both categories will be given in 2005:
Category One: Fully Online Course
(A course offered in 2003-2005 which meets wholly or mostly online, i.e. not in the classroom, and demonstrates effective and innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning)
Fully Online Course Application Form
Category Two: Blended (Enhanced or Hybrid) Course
(An in-person course offered in 2003-2005 where online tools are used effectively to enhance teaching and learning, i.e. Web-enhanced course, and sometimes to replace some of the in-person class time, i.e. hybrid course)
Blended Online Course Application Form
Eligibility:
Individual MSU faculty and staff (and more often, teams of faculty and staff) who have developed and offered fully online, hybrid, or enhanced credit-bearing MSU courses at least once between 2003-2005.
Nominations:
Recipients will be selected based upon nominations from the campus community. Self-nomination is encouraged, because completing a nomination requires detailed knowledge of and access to the developed materials. Nominations will be screened by a committee of faculty and staff, which shall give due regard to the University’s commitment to diversity as well as to the University commitment to outstanding instruction and elegant effective design and integration of technology.
Please submit nominations using the entry form corresponding to the category of the entry. The entry forms specify details of required sections for a submission and clarify criteria to be applied in selecting the winners.
Prizes:
The first place winning individual or team in each category will receive an award of $1000 provided in a University account to be used in ways that contribute to their professional instructional expertise and capabilities (e.g., training, conference travel, software tools, etc.).
Deadlines:
Entry materials must include a completed application form and may be either electronic or print. Physical entry forms should be submitted to room 400 Computer Centerand electronic entry materials should be submitted via email to Carrie Heeter (heeter@msu.edu) no later than 5pm on March 31, 2005 .
Awards:
Winners will be announced in mid-May, 2005. It is expected that recipients will take advantage of all opportunities to share and demonstrate their award winning courses.
The awards process will be administered by the Vice Provost for Libraries, Computing, and Technology. Questions may be addressed to Carrie Heeter (heeter@msu.edu), Barbara Beckmeyer (beckmey3@msu.edu) or Joan Predko (predko@msu.edu).
Don’t Miss Microfest Technology Fair, Wednesday, March 16, Union Ballroom
03/15/2005
Microfest, MSU’s annual information technology fair, takes place Wednesday, March 16th from 9 a.m to 7 p.m. in the MSU Union Ballroom.
Stop by for vendor demonstrations. Vendor representatives from Adobe, Apple, Dell, IBM, and Gateway will give informative presentations.
Drawings will be held for iPods, a PDA, software and more.
For more information go to http://cstore.msu.edu or call the MSU Computer
Store at 432-0700 (8am-5pm, M-F)
Credit Union Warns Phishing Attack Sought Account Information
03/06/2005
On Thursday, March 3, at about 6:00 p.m., members of the MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) began receiving suspicious e-mails asking for account information. Indeed, the e-mail was fraudulent — a case of “phishing” — in which someone tries to induce account holders to visit a Web site and enter personal information such as bank account or Social Security numbers.
MSUFCU took action. They found that these “phishing” e-mails originated from an Internet service provider (ISP) in Chicago, and worked with the ISP to shut down the account of the perpetrators. MSUFCU also changed a key linked graphic on msufcu.org so that members would see a fraud alert instead of the credit union’s logo when they read the fraudulent e-mail.
The credit union emphasizes that:
- MSUFCU’s computer system was not breached; security of customer records was not compromised.
- Customers need take no action unless a member responded to the email and released personal financial information such as account, VISA card numbers, Social Security Number, or PIN number.
In the few cases where members responded to the phishing e-mail, MSUFCU is changing account numbers as a precaution. Any MSUFCU member who responded to the phishing e-mail — or any member with any concerns — should contact the credit union.
For details, please see: https://www.msufcu.org/phishingexample.html
Phase One of Computer Center Upgrades Completed on March 5
03/06/2005
[Editor’s note, March 5, 2005: Physical Plant completed Phase 1 of the Computer Center machine room power improvements as scheduled. Core computing services were online by 8:30 a.m.]
Computer Center Power Upgrade Rescheduled for March 5
On Saturday, March 5, 2005, Physical Plant will make much-needed improvements to electrical systems in the Computer Center machine room. This will be phase one of such improvements. These changes will require a total shutdown of electrical service. Customers should anticipate that many of the university’s core computing services (mail.msu.edu, www.msu.edu, magic.msu.edu, afs.msu.edu, etc.) will be unavailable from 3:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m.
We anticipate that Internet and campus network access will remain online during this outage. Barring any unforeseen problems, all mission-critical services should be restored by 9:00 a.m.
Electrical distribution in the Computer Center machine room is antiquated, with some cables and connectors dating back 40 years to our earliest mainframe. As a result, ACNS will make further improvements to Computer Center electrical systems in the future. These upgrades will necessitate further outages; we will, of course, try to minimize the frequency, duration, and impact of these outages.
Note that March 5 is the first Saturday of Spring Break.
For more information, please see:
http://techbase.msu.edu/viewpathfinder.asp?id=2947
Note that these improvements were originally scheduled for December 29, 2004, but had to be postponed due to an unrelated outage at the Power Plant.
