Come Visit Us!

Over the break, we gave our training space an upgrade with a fresh coat of paint, new computers, and digital displays.

Come enjoy a cup of coffee while learning about:

• Getting to Know Canvas
• TurningPoint Cloud Basics
• Cloud Storage Options at UTK
• Office 365 Overview
• And more!

Your Clicker Support is Expanding

Office 365 Featured App: Sway

Sway, one of the apps in Office 365,  is a visually dynamic story-telling presentation tool. Sway allows you to create modern-looking presentations, reports, and photo spreads quickly and easily. Because Sways live in the cloud, you can easily share them with colleagues by providing a link.

You can create new Sways in minutes. It's easy to add content to cards, which are Sway's equivalent to PowerPoint slides. Use Sway's built-in search function to add Creative Commons images, as well as embed audio files, Tweets, and YouTube videos into your cards. 

You can make existing PowerPoint presentations more visually striking by uploading them to Sway and using the Remix tool to give them a whole new look. 

Word documents can also be edited in Sway to create paper presentations or even resumes that stand out. Best of all, your Sways are stored in the cloud so you have access anytime, anywhere through the Sway mobile app for tablets and smartphones. 

Check out our short, OIT 3 video to see a quick demonstration on how to use Sway or sign up for the Office 365 Special Topic in April to learn more.

OIT supports Office 365 apps like Sway, so if you have any questions feel free to contact the HelpDesk online or at 865-974-9900.

Making Accessibility Happen

The IT Community of Practice (ITCoP) theme for 2016-2017 is to make learning accessible for all.

Please join in the demos and discussions this spring semester as we focus on multi-modal assignments, accessibility tools and features, and transitioning to Canvas. All meetings are held on the 4th Wednesday of each month from February through April, at 12:20 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. in the Hodges Library Practice Presentation Room (220E).

In February, join us for a discussion on multimodal composition that will look at universal design for learning; accessibility challenges and tips; and the use of graphic design, images, video, and audio in course assignments.

Spring topics are:

• February 22: Multimodal Composition
• March 22: Accessibility Demo
• April 26: Canvas Demo

Bring your lunch and a colleague! Visit the ITCoP webpage for more details each month's topic.

Grant Opportunity Opens for GTAs

Spring 2017 GTA@OIT Grant Deadline: Friday, March 3

OIT offers Graduate Teaching Associates and Assistants (GTAs) an opportunity to receive a GTA@OIT Grant. Recipients must be an instructor of record for a summer or fall 2017 course. This grant is for enhancing a course with technology by redesigning a course or course component for web-based delivery.

The grant includes one-on-one instructional design consulting, Technology-Enhanced Classroom (TEC) training, and help in using Canvas and Zoom features related to communication, assessment, evaluation, and online instruction.

Recipients of this grant also receive a monetary award to be used for travel and/or professional development purposes. Grant recipients must complete course content in the spring for summer or fall implementation.

For more information, visit GTA@OIT.

Create 3D Maps Using ArcGIS Pro From ESRI

ArcGIS Pro is the next-generation GIS application for creating and working with 2D and 3D spatial data. One great advantage of using ArcGIS Pro is the 3D GIS capabilities built into the app. Using the ribbon interface in ArcGIS Pro, users can create 3D representations of data. ArcGIS Pro 3D maps are referred to as scenes. Scenes created in ArcGIS Pro allow users to visualize data from any angle. With ArcGIS Pro, you can view 2D and 3D representations of your data at the same time by docking a map view and a scene view side-by-side.

Interested in learning more?  OIT will offer an ArcGIS Pro workshop on February 22 from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Register now to learn more about making maps using ArcGIS Pro.

Mathematica Updated to Version 11.0.1

Over the past few years, Mathematica’s popularity has increased substantially on campus and the recent release of the software will help provide additional functionality to fields outside of mathematics. Mathematica 11.0.1 represents a milestone that significantly extends the software’s capabilities in audio support, image processing, and machine learning. 

Mathematica 11.0.1 will include the following features that many people on campus may find useful: 

• More than 500 new functions significantly broaden scope in new and existing areas
• Ability to algorithmically generate, import, and directly print 3D models to local or cloud 3D printers
• New computational audio synthesis, processing, and analysis for applications in music and speech
• New neural network framework gives access to GPU-accelerated deep learning
• Expanded and enhanced machine learning functionality, including feature extraction and Bayesian optimization
• Expanded geographics, including new geo data entities, map backgrounds, projections, and more
• New computational photography, plus more tools for image and signal processing
• New and improved support for random matrices, time series, and quantities in probability and statistics
• More powerful text and language processing, and increased multilingual support
• Real-time spellchecker augmented with dictionaries for technical terms, proper names, and support for some 25 languages

The full patch notes can be found on the Mathematica 11.0.1 features site. 

OIT’s Research Computing Support group can help you utilize Mathematica. For assistance, contact the OIT HelpDesk online or at 865-974-9900 or stop by our walk-in area in Greve 517. View our walk in support schedule to see when would be a good time for you to come.