As of this morning, the TCU Cable TV channel lineup has changed slightly. If you have a television that is connected to the TCU Cable TV system, it is important that you have your device rescan for channels in order to pick up all of the recent changes.
What changed with our Cable TV service?
Earlier today we added several new channels to the system and some of our existing channels have moved to new locations in the lineup. All you have to do is rescan for channels on your TV in order to pick up any changes to the system.
If you would like a list of available channels and information about our Cable TV system, please reference the link below.
In the early part of 2021 we are going to be replacing the Two-Factor authentication system in myTCU with something called Okta Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Many of you are probably already using Okta MFA to connect to the VPN and the faculty and students have been using this tool in D2L for several months.
In order to prepare for this change, we recommend that you follow the process below to pre-enroll in Okta MFA. The process only takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete so don’t wait to get this done.
Note: If you have already enrolled in Okta MFA to use another service like the VPN then you can ignore this message.
How do I complete the enrollment process?
Once MFA is enabled, you will connect to myTCU just like you normally would, but the system will now prompt you to confirm your identity via a push notification or text/phone message when you login from an off campus device.
All you need to do is enroll in Okta MFA so you are ready to go once the change is in place. Please, use the following steps:
Step 1: While using a laptop or desktop computer, go to it.tcu.edu/okta and review the information on the page. Make sure to have your cell phone handy.
Step 2: Click Begin Enrollment to start the process and follow the on screen instructions. Make sure to enroll in ALL of the options that are presented to you (Text/Phone message and Okta Verify).
Step 3: Once you complete the enrollment, you will be ready for the change in 2021. Just have your cell phone available when you connect to the myTCU once we turn Okta MFA on.
Apple recently released its newest operating system named macOS Big Sur (version 11) for their laptop and desktop computers. The Information Technology division still needs to test key applications and University systems before releasing it to campus machines.
While macOS Big Sur is free, we have a process in place that will keep you from being able to perform the upgrade on your TCU-owned machine until we have completed the testing phase. This is a standard process and one that applies to all releases of new operating systems (including Windows machines).
Note: If you have not upgraded your computer to macOS Catalina (currently the latest macOS that TCU has approved), click here for the upgrade instructions. If you need help upgrading your computer, please contact the IT Support HelpDesk.
Big Sur Release Process
We already have some common software applications that have reported issues with Big Sur and it is customary for vendors to take 60 to 90 days to fully support the release of a new operating system.
Once the new operating system has been tested for compatibility/security and approved by the macOS Committee, then we will send out a message about how to upgrade your machine. As long as we don’t find any problems, we expect this upgrade to be available by mid-Spring.
Warning: If you decide to upgrade your personal machine at home to Big Sur, you could run into compatibility issues until the campus is ready to support this new operating system.
Wednesday evening, TCU was again the target of a two-step phishing email campaign. Phishing emails are fake messages that try to steal your personal information.
Please, take a few minutes to review the information below about the recent phishing attacks to help determine if you need to take any action.
Examples of the Recent Phishing Attempts
First Phishing Email from 9-30-2020
The goal of the first phishing message was to gather TCU credentials. The message looked something like this.
The link led to a generic site used to harvest usernames and passwords. We were able to isolate those that we believe fell for this phishing attempt but if you entered your TCU password on this form, you need to change your password immediately.
Second Phishing Email from 9-30-2020
After successfully gathering passwords from individuals who responded to the first message, a second message was sent involving a fake employment scam.
While there were no links to follow in the second message, replies were configured to be sent to an external Gmail address. If you responded to the solicitation and you have received a reply from this address, please contact ITSecurityServices@tcu.edu.
DO NOT continue any conversation with the phisher via personal email or text.
Fake employment scams often offer tempting pay in exchange for relatively little effort. Scams often attempt to move communication outside of TCU systems so we cannot detect or block the correspondence. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
We will likely continue to see similar phishing messages and scams in the weeks ahead. We appreciate your continued vigilance and assistance preventing the spread of these fraudulent messages. Please, send all suspected phishing email to phishing@tcu.edu.
Last week, we announced that we were moving forward with forcing passcodes on all NEW Zoom sessions since Zoom was going to force the same change at the end of the month to all existing meetings. Once we turned this on, it started creating some unintended issues with recurring meetings and we immediately rolled the change back to allow things to continue as normal.
After working with Zoom, they identified a bug that causes a problem with recurring meetings and in response to schools like TCU, they have retracted their plans to force this requirement at the end of the month.
While this means that you are not required to take any action, we encourage you to review some of the security settings below.
What can you do to protect your meetings?
We still recommend that you add a passcode, turn on a waiting room, or limit your meetings to only TCU users in order to minimize Zoombombing attempts.
If you would like to address this change on any pre-existing meetings, you can do the following:
Open the Zoom app and login with your TCUusername and password.
Click on Meetings at the top.
Select the meeting that you want to update and then click Edit.
Check the boxfor Passcode, Waiting Room, or Only authenticated users can join under Advanced Options(make sure to set it to Only TCU accounts) in order to add an additional level of security to your meetings.
Communicate the change to your attendees so they are prepared.
What if I created a recurring meeting for my class?
If you created a recurring Zoom meeting in TCU Online, you have a few options since the course calendar will not update in TCU Online when you modify an existing meeting:
You can delete the existing recurring event and create a new one with a passcode turned on. This will update the TCU Online course calendar which many students use but we recommend that you notify your students once you do this.
You can manually add a passcode using the instructions above and just communicate the passcode to each class. They will still be able to use the link in the course calendar and will be prompted for the passcode when they join.
You can go into your meeting in Zoom and turn on a waiting room or check the requirement so only authenticated users can join (make sure to set it to Only TCU accounts). This will add an extra layer of protection to your Zoom sessions but will not require the course calendar to be updated as the students will be able to join with the existing information.
Note: You will have to manually admit each student into the session if you enable the waiting room option.
On Sunday, September 27th, Zoom will be adding a requirement that all meetings have a passcode enabled for each session. To prepare the campus for this change, we are turning that requirement on NOW (for new sessions) so meetings that you create going forward will have this functionality in place.
Zoom is adding this requirement to help enforce some best practices that limit Zoombombing and protect your meeting.
If you have any existing meetings that are planned to occur after September 27th, please review the information below as you may have to take action to address this change.
Preparing For This Change
Once Zoom puts this requirement in place (on September 27th), any existing meetings that don’t have a passcode turned on will automatically have a waiting room enabled.
Note: This means that if you don’t take action, you will need to be prepared to manually allow each of your users into your session(s).
If you would like to address this change on any existing meeting that you have, you can do the following:
Open the Zoom app and login with your TCUusername and password
Click on Meetings at the top
Select the meeting that you want to update and then click Edit
Check the box for passcode (modify the code if you wish)
Communicate the passcode to your attendees
What if I created a reoccurring meeting for my class?
If you created a reoccurring Zoom meeting in TCU Online, you have three options since the course calendar will not update when you modify the meeting:
You can delete the existing reoccurring event and create a new one with a passcode turned on. This will update the TCU Online course calendar which many students use but we recommend that you notify your students once you do this.
You can manually add a passcode using the instructions above and just communicate the passcode to each class. They will still be able to use the link in the course calendar and will be prompted for the passcode when they join.
Take NO action and just allow Zoom to force the addition of a waiting room after September 27th. If you select this option, you will have to manually allow each student into your class sessions.
On August 11th, we will bring a new cable TV service online at TCU. You will have the ability to access the channels using teh traditional coaxial cables as well as a new streaming feature via SpectrumU. Learn more about this service at tv.tcu.edu.
Faculty/Staff, visit our new virtual classroom training site at virtualclassroom.tcu.edu to learn more about how to use the new cameras and mics that we installed in a large portion of the classrooms across campus.
We are running a few more zoom training sessions on the week of August 10th. Visit https://it.tcu.edu/events/categories/zoom/ to sign up for one of these sessions if you want to learn more about zoom.
We have recorded a series of videos that will help you in your journey to successfully working from home. Most of these are recordings of the webinars that we did as everyone was transitioning to an off-campus environment. Visit http://it.tcu.edu/keepworking to get access to the following content.
As you work through your courses online you may find the need to access some of the powerful tools that TCU provides to its students. TCU provides all current employees and students with access to these tools so they can install and use them on their personal devices. Learn how to access these tools on the Keep Learning website.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced a mass amount of people to work
and learn from home. One of the tools that is making this possible is
the video conferencing software Zoom. Unfortunately, nefarious
individuals have found new ways to hinder the Zoom experience.
ZoomBombing is the name given to gate-crashing Zoom meetings and
broadcasting explicit content and disturbing imagery through the tool’s
screensharing feature.
We realize that using you email will be an important part of the your success over the next few weeks. As such, we have increased default email quotas for faculty/staff by 60% in order to ensure that you can communicate at this critical time.
We just launched our new Keep Learning website to help students prepare for online learning. Visit keeplearning.tcu.edu to learn more.
Prepare to transition to a new learning environment by focusing on three key areas. Prioritize your health, and care for your physical and mental well-being. Stay engaged with your courses and Familiarize yourself with key tools such as TCU Online and Zoom
As part of our plan to help faculty and staff with the transition to remote work, we have changed the default starting quota for new users to 150GB (up from 100GB). We have also taken the opportunity to increase the custom quotas that we had in place for people that had asked for extra space by 50%. This should reduce your need to ask for extra space during this trying time.
In order to ease the burden on moving to remote/online work we have extended the password expiration window for all of our users.
Passwords for faculty/staff/students will not expire for at least 90 days from today.
If your password was 120 days old you get another 90 days. If you just changed your password, it won’t expire for 210 days. This means that everyone got a 90 day extension on their password expiration date.
This is temporary and we will revisit this change at the end of semester.
Take Your Desktop/Laptop Home – You are welcome to take your desktop/laptop computer home during this time if needed. Check out our instructional video about how to pack up a desktop computer and put it back together again.
Personal Devices – Keep in mind that your personal computers and mobile devices can access a number of TCU resources that will allow you to continue work from both on and off campus. Make sure to review the keep working site to learn more about your options.
Loaner Devices –This week we will work with Faculty to help get a limited number of loaner devices out (this is not available for staff at the time). Once your Instructional Continuity Facilitators (ICFs) are online, we will provide them with information on how to tap into this resource if needed.
We understand that giving you tools to help with video and audio conferencing will be key to your success in the next few weeks. As such, the Information Technology division has purchased a site license for Zoom Pro through August of 2020. This will now give faculty, staff and students the opportunity to take advantage of the advanced functionality in a Zoom Pro license. You can now have larger meetings without time limits as well as a ton of additional options.
We have heard overwhelmingly positive feedback about this change and hope that you will take some time to learn more about the tool and consider using it as you work to deliver content online. Visit https://it.tcu.edu/zoom to learn more.
In order to ensure that you have the opportunity to learn more about some of the tools that will help you in delivering content online, we are providing multiple live webinars next week.
Take advantage of our live
webinars by signing up using the links below:
Don’t forget that the Koehler Center has built a TCU Online: Ramping Up Rapidly webpage to assist faculty members in increasing their use of TCU Online resources as well.
As many of you gear up to work in different environments, we put together a site that helps provide guidance on how to prepare to work remotely. It is important that you take the time to review the best practices and technology checklist on this site since being prepared is the best way to bring about success when working remotely.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges that many Americans will face in the coming months, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai recently announced the Keep Americans Connected Initiative. In order to ensure that Americans do not lose their broadband or telephone connectivity as a result of these exceptional circumstances, he specifically asked broadband and telephone service providers, and trade associations, to take the Keep Americans Connected Pledge. So far, over 200 companies and associations have signed the Chairman’s pledge to Keep American Connected.
The Information Technology division has put together several pieces of information to help faculty/staff as they work through the COVID-19 situation. These resources range from newly available technology to information about live webinars and support. Please, review the information below and share with your organizations.
1. Keep Working Campaign
As
many of you gear up to work in different environments, we have a site that
helps provide guidance on how to prepare to work remotely. Visit
https://keepworking.tcu.edu to learn more about this
campaign.
2. Zoom Pro Site License
We
understand that giving you tools to help with video and audio conferencing will
be key to your success in the next few weeks.
As such, the Information Technology division has purchased a site
license for Zoom Pro through August of 2020.
Visit https://it.tcu.edu/zoom to learn
more.
3. This Week We Are Doing Live Online Training
We
are providing multiple live webinars next week for zoom, working remotely and
box.com. Click on the links below to
sign-up now.
Take Your Desktop/Laptop Home – You are welcome to take your desktop/laptop computer home during this time if needed. Check out our instructional video about how to pack up a desktop computer and put it back together again.
Personal Devices – Keep in mind that your personal computers and mobile devices can access a number of TCU resources that allow you to continue work from both on and off campus. Make sure to review the keep working site to learn more about your options.
5. Getting Technical Help
The
IT Support HelpDesk and Instructional
Support
teams will be available this week to assist with your technical needs. Keep in mind that we will try to do work
remotely as we are experiencing a high volume of calls at this time.
6. TCU Online: Ramping Up Rapidly
Don’t forget that the Koehler Center has built a TCU Online: Ramping Up Rapidly webpage to assist faculty members in increasing their use of TCU Online resources. Check out their events page to learn more about training opportunities.
Information Technology Division announces the launch of Apple’s newest operating system, macOS Catalina, to the TCU campus. The new version is now available for all on campus Macintosh computers and has been approved by the macOS Committee. Please, see the information below about the upgrade process.
Why should I upgrade now?
We encourage you to upgrade at your earliest convenience so you have the opportunity to plan for the transition. Otherwise, the upgrade will be mandatory this summer and will be pushed out to machines that have not yet completed the upgrade and it might not be a convenient time for you.
Upgrading also presents you with a series of enhancements that will help to improve your overall experience. Check out the latest features on the following website: https://www.apple.com/macos/Catalina/
The process is very simple, but it is important that you understand what needs to be done before you begin. Please, review the following reminders before opening the attachment.
Here are a few important reminders:
This upgrade will take up to 90 minutes to complete so plan accordingly.
If you use Microsoft Office 2011, you will need to install Office 2019 from the Self Service app in the Applications folder because Office 2011 does not work with Catalina.
Backup any important data in case you run into problems during the upgrade.
Laptops should be connected to power and a wired network connection before starting the process.
Your machine must already be running Mac OS 10.9 or later to be eligible for the upgrade and must meet the minimum requirements.
Be prepared to upgrade any specialized third-party software that you installed on your machine in case the version that you are running is not compatible with Catalina.
**Starting with macOS Catalina, 32-bit apps are no longer compatible with macOS. The attached document explains how to check if you have 32-bit applications on your current computer.
The IT Support HelpDesk will be more than happy to answer questions about this change, but the process is easy enough that you should be able to complete the upgrade on your own.
In order to improve information security and mitigate 3rd party risk to the University, the Information Technology division is going to start enforcing the use of Okta Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all instructors using TCU Online. This is very similar to the Two-Factor Authentication system that we use when accessing secure pieces of information in myTCU.
This change for TCU Online instructors will be enforced starting Tuesday, February 4th which means that you will need to complete the enrollment process in order to continue to access TCU Online from off campus. Please, review the information below to prepare for this change.
Note: If you have already enrolled in Okta MFA then you can ignore this message.
How do I complete the enrollment process?
Once MFA is enabled, you will connect to TCU Online just like you normally would. When connecting from an off-campus device the system will start prompting you to confirm your identity via push notification, text message, or security code.
All you need to do is enroll in Okta MFA so you are ready to go once the change is in place. Please, use the following steps:
Step 1: While using a laptop or desktop computer, go to it.tcu.edu/okta and review the information on the page. Make sure to have your cell phone handy.
Step 2: Click Begin Enrollment to start the process and follow the on screen instructions. Make sure to enroll in both of the two options that are presented to you (SMS and Okta Verify).
Step 3: Once you complete the enrollment, you will be ready for the change on February 4th. Just have your cell phone available when you connect to the VPN once we turn Okta MFA on.
What will my experience be?
Please, take a few minutes to review the video at http://it.tcu.edu/okta below to learn more about what your experience will be like when we turn Okta MFA on for TCU Online.
