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Tech Services to Support Your Pitt Journey

As the spring semester begins, so does my last semester of college – ever. Through thick and thin, Pitt IT’s tech support has always been there for me, whether it’s receiving aid from the Technology Help Desk or installing Adobe Creative Cloud or utilizing Microsoft 365.

If you're a Pitt student, faculty, or staff member, you may not be using all of the tech resources available to you. Read on to learn more about what has supported me during my college career, and maybe you’ll discover something you want to try.

Back to the Academic Basics

Canvas

If you’re a Pitt student, Canvas is essential as the academic hub for your schooling. Canvas is used to access all of your syllabi, assignments, and grades. One of my favorite Canvas hacks is changing the titles of my courses to their functional names to make them easier to find. Most semester I take multiple courses from the same subject, labeling them by their course name eliminates confusion on the Canvas dashboard.

PeopleSoft/HighPoint CX

PeopleSoft is another must for all things Pitt. Through PeopleSoft, you can access your transcript, build your schedule, and search for classes. One of my favorite features is preparing for an upcoming semester with the Schedule Builder. This tool makes the daunting process of putting together a class schedule simple, while providing different combinations of classes that meet your graduation requirements.

Student Computing Labs

The Pitt IT computer labs offer me a safe haven all throughout the year. Not only do the spaces provide a comfortable place to focus on work, but using desktops with larger screens can be particularly helpful when I need to manage multiple browser tabs or edit videos.

For Your Free Time

Kanopy

Kanopy is a great streaming resource if you love movies, and it’s free to Pitt affiliates. If you find yourself scrolling and can’t seem to find something for movie night on your typical streaming platforms, Kanopy has a great selection of documentaries, foreign films, and classics.

LinkedIn Learning

If one of your 2023 resolutions is to learn a new skill, or you need some additional help for a class, LinkedIn Learning can teach you everything you need to know. If you’re a senior like me, you might see that some jobs require certain skills that you don’t have yet. LinkedIn Learning can teach you what you need to know to put your best food forward as a prospective employee.

To Support Your Courses

Adobe Creative Cloud

As a communications and media major, I’ve taken many courses that require editing film, photos, or audio. Luckily, you can download Adobe Creative Cloud for free through Pitt and obtain access to design tools like Photoshop, Audition, and Premiere Pro. Even if editing isn’t a part of your major but you’ve always wanted to learn, you can download the software easily at Adobe Creative Cloud for Students.

OneDrive

OneDrive is the must-have tool for keeping, transferring, and sharing files. Powered by Microsoft Office, it makes it easy to access your files from any device, whether it’s on your laptop, a computer lab desktop, or through the app on your phone. Having a reliable and easy-to-use service to hold my various files throughout my years at Pitt has helped me to stay organized and efficient. It gives me way more storage than Google and it’s free. I just need to make sure I transfer the files I want to keep before I graduate!

Microsoft Teams

If you’re not using Microsoft Teams yet for communication, you should get started, because it’s one of the main platforms for collaboration used by businesses all over the United States. Through Teams you can videoconference, chat, view shared files, and more. As a student worker, Microsoft Teams has made it easy to get in contact with my supervisors and view my shifts.

Good Luck

If you’re not already using these free tech resources, I hope you found something new to aid you during your college career. I know that without these resources, my time at Pitt would not have been as enriching.

Pitt IT wishes everyone a happy and techy spring semester!

--By Vivian Zauhar, PITT IT Student Blogger