Microsoft Office Suite Now Available for Free to All Active Students, Faculty, and Staff

Create, collaborate, edit, and view files – even when you’re on the go. Office 365 is anywhere you need it to be: your PC or laptop, tablet or phone.

In keeping with our mission of developing academically and professionally successful leaders; St. Thomas University is proud to announce we've begun to offer the Microsoft Office Suite to active students for free through Office 365. The office suite will also be made available at no cost to Faculty and Staff members.

View the InstallationGuide

What is included with the Office Suite?

•   Office 2016 for PC (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)

•   Office 2016 for Mac (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)

•   Office Mobile for iPhone

•   Office Mobile for Android

How many machines/devices can I install Office on?

Each subscription license allows you to run Office 365 Pro Plus on up to 5 devices - Mac, PC, or mobile (iOS, Android, and Windows Phone).

Is this a full version Office and is it available for offline use?

Yes, this is the full Office suite on the PC, Mac, iPhone, and Android platform. All are available for offline use; however, users must connect to the Internet once every 30 days to verify they are still eligible for the program.

Do I need a login to use any of these applications with Office?

Yes, students will need to log in with their STUAccount@stu.edu to activate their devices.

What happens when I'm no longer a student or graduate from STU?  What happens if I'm no longer employed by the University?

Only actively enrolled students and actively employed Faculty/Staff are eligible. To continue using Office, a license or subscription must be purchased directly from Microsoft. You can also uninstall Office and use a substitute of your choice.  The documents that you created will still accessible and can be read by software compatible with Microsoft Office.

Please note that you DO NOT need a product key.  You should activate your Office installation with your STU account (STUAccount@stu.edu) and STU password.

ProctorU – Online Proctoring

St. Thomas University is pleased to offer its students the opportunity to take midterm and final exams (if needed) at home with online proctoring. Using a webcam and a reliable high-speed internet connection, students can take their exams anywhere. ProctorU is a 24/7 online proctoring service and is now available to the STU community.

For Students

If your instructor requests that you use the online proctoring service, you are required to schedule an appointment through ProctorU to do so. Your instructor will specify a time-frame for which you are able to schedule and take your exam.

ProctorU allows you to take exams from any location. The service connects you to a real person who you can see and hear. This person will walk you through the exam process and help you if you run into any problems. Click here for detailed information.

For Instructors

ProctorU is a 24/7 online proctoring service. Proctors connect with the test-taker via a web cam, monitor the test taker's computer screen in real time, and authenticate the test taker's identity using a multi-factor process to replicate the face-to-face proctoring experience over the internet. Setting up your exam is easy. Online workshops will be available for anyone who is interested in using the service for his/her online exam. Please check your email for the workshop invitation or just send an email to the helpdesk@stu.edu to reserve a spot.

Helpful Links

How it works: http://proctoru.com/howitworks.php
Test-Taker Process PDF: Test-Taker Process
Sign up here: https://go.proctoru.com/registrations

For Students: https://www.proctoru.com/forstudents.php

For institution: https://www.proctoru.com/forinstitutions.php

STU ProctorU Portal: http://proctoru.com/portal/stu

Technical Requirements: https://www.proctoru.com/tech.php

Equipment Test: http://www.proctoru.com/testitout/

Questions about your equipment? After testing it yourself, contact Proctor U. 

Frequently Asked Questions: http://proctoru.com/faq.php

Ellucian Recruit and CROA

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) at St. Thomas University would like to announce our upcoming initiatives to expand the existing Ellucian Colleague infrastructure with the addition of two major components:

1.  Ellucian Recruit

Recruit delivers key features that prospective students (traditional, graduate, certificate, etc.) expect on your web site, including: online inquiry form; campus visit scheduler; Student Concierge Portal with social media integration and personalized program information; fully configurable, integrated online application(s) for admission; web based event registration management and more. We expect this product to be deployed by the end of the Fall 2016.

2.  Ellucian Colleague Reporting and Operating Analytics (CROA)

Colleague Reporting and Operating Analytics is a higher education business intelligence module that delivers self-service access to pre-packaged analytic reports, ad hoc templates, and dashboards with more than 150 metrics that can be used out-of-the-box to help make better decisions and deliver more for less. We expect this product to be deployed by the end of Spring 2017 semester.

We will continue to update our community on these initiatives as project updates become available.

Instructions for Using SharePoint Team Site

Many departments are using SharePoint Team Site to share and exchange files with other members of their department. New users should follow the instructions below to access and edit documents stored on Team Site.

Instructions

For Team Site (SharePoint) documents use Internet Explorer for best results.

1.  Open https://stuedu.sharepoint.com and login with your STU username and password.

2.  Under Team Sites, click on your site's name.

3.  All folders you have permission to access within your site will appear on the left of the page.

4.  Under All Documents, open a folder then click on a document to open and view it.

5. If you have permissions to modify this document and need to edit it, click the drop down arrow at Edit Document then choose either Edit in Microsoft Word or Edit in Browser. The latter allows you to make quick changes to the document.

6. Any changes you make to the document are saved almost immediately so there is no need to use the Save button

Download these instructions. 

Follett Discover is Available via Ember

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) would like to inform you that the Follett Discover is now available via Ember.  We invite you to take a look at the Follett Discover instructional video and encourage you to login and enter the textbooks information for your courses. 

Should you have any questions, please contact our Help Desk at HelpDesk@stu.edu or by calling (305)628-6610.

New MyBobcat Portal

The Office of Information Technology would like to announce a new MyBobcat portal to be published on Monday, December 14th, 2015, as part of an upgrade to our Student Information System.  The new MyBobcat portal will serve as the main access point for our future Student Planning and Financial Aid Self-Service modules scheduled to enter service in early Spring 2016.

In preparation for the new MyBobcat portal, please be advised that WebAdvisor will not be available from Friday, December 11th, 2015, at 5:00PM until 12:00AM Monday, December 14th, 2015.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Respondus LockDown Browser Instructor Training

In October, Respondus is offering training sessions for LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor. Each 45-minute webinar provides a live demo, plus tips to get started using these applications to deter cheating during online exams.

We encourage you to sign up to these training webinars at www.respondus.com/webinars.

UPCOMING SESSIONS

LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor: Instructor Training
Wednesday, October 7th at 3 pm ET
Thursday, October 15th at 8 pm ET
Tuesday, October 20th at 2 pm ET

New MyBobcat Login Page and Directory Location

In the next few days, you may notice a new login page for MyBobcat. The new page was designed from the ground up to be fully responsive and facilitate mobile device usability. All the links under the old page’s Guests section can be found under the Guests link on the new page.

Also, in our continuing efforts to service our community, we have added a new employee directory link to the www.stu.edu webpages. This directory can be used to search by first name, last name, or department. To access the directory, scroll to the footer section at the bottom of a www.stu.edu webpage and click on the Directory link on the right hand side. 

Network Upgrades and Maintenance

During the last few months St. Thomas University has embarked on a campus-wide network upgrade focused on delivering improvements to speed, reliability, security and ease of use. Our Internet access has been greatly augmented through new hardware purchases and a partnership with Florida LambdaRail (FLR) and Internet2. These new partnerships will provide enhanced services to popular websites like YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and many other popular destinations. 

Every building has also received new network switches and there are new wireless Access Points (WiFi) in every classroom and dorm room on campus.  Network security was also greatly improved by the upgrade of our Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and the deployment of a Network Access Control system which will protect and help safeguard computer usage while on our network. 

We plan on completing all of these upgrades by the second week of August, and we will continue to fine-tune the new network environment throughout the Fall Semester. 

Introduction to Canvas

We would like to announce the addition of Canvas training to our list of instructional technology resources available to our faculty on the following Canvas topics/components:

• Login
• Canvas Requirements and Recommendations
• Contacting Technical or Student Services Support 
• Dashboard
• Course Navigation
• Profile & User Settings
• Communication
• Course Announcements
• Discussions
• Files
• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Grading
• Course Statistics
• People (roster)
• Collaboration

Canvas LMS is now supported by OIT as part of our STU-HotChalk online learning project.  For additional information on Canvas LMS, please visit the Instructor Guide.

To schedule a training or learn more about our services, please send an email to the OIT Training Center at oitat@stu.edu.

Quicker, Easier Remote Desktop Connection

A VPN connection is no longer needed to connect to you STU computer from off campus.

Utilizing a Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway), STU users can now connect to their campus desktop computers without having to set up virtual private network (VPN) connections. The RD Gateway not only simplifies your connection process, but also helps create a more secure, encrypted connection.

Follow the instructions below to set up a Remote Desktop connection from any off campus computer.

Note:  You must be off campus in order to establish this type of connection.  

Remote Desktop Connection Setup

  

1. Open your Remote Desktop Client or (if using Windows 7) click on the Start button and start typing “Remote Desktop” to find it.

  

2.  Enter the name of the remote computer and input your STU User name: 

3.  Click the Advanced tab to make additional changes:

4.  In Advanced settings, select Connect and don’t warn me on the drop down and then click Settings under Connect from anywhere

5.  Under RD Gateway Server Settings, select Use these RD Gateway server settings:

6.  Input remote.stu.edu as the Server name. 

7.  Check the Use my RD Gateway credentials for the remote computer box. 

8.  Click Ok

9.  Click Connect

10. Enter your password.

You should now be logged onto your campus computer.