In the past year, Pitt students have showed tremendous resilience. Now, the Class of 2021 is ready to don their caps and gowns! Between finding a job or preparing to start graduate school, to saying goodbye to college friends and moving into a new place, what happens to the tech services you were using probably isn’t your top concern. But before you Ctrl-Alt-Shift from student to alumni, here are some tech considerations you need to know.

When Jeremy Olin came to Pitt as a computer science major, it seemed only logical to get a job in the Student Computing Labs. It offered flexible hours, and it enabled him to gain experience working with customers with varied levels of computer skills. Olin enjoyed the work because it forced him outside of his computer science bubble. “Having a student-facing job gave me a little more perspective on other students with different skills sets,” says Olin.

Remember Zoom bombing? It was all over the news as the pandemic began. Unfortunately, it is still with us, particularly in these fraught times. When your meeting or class is small, it’s easy to keep an eye on who has connected and what they are doing. But in bigger meetings, there are more chances for people to cause havoc. So pay attention to your options when setting up a meeting. Here are eight ways to keep unwanted behavior from disrupting your class.

When Max Novelli joined the Rehabilitation and Neural Engineering Lab (RNEL) as a programmer, RNEL’s data was stored on a local storage device sitting in a closet. He took on the role of server and system management to ensure the integrity of their critical research data. Now RNEL’s head of informatics and data, he needed to ensure that managing storage servers didn’t take over his whole job.

Imagine yourself walking on a path through Schenley Park. The earth is soft beneath your feet. With each step you take, your mind relaxes a little more. In the distance, you see a panther. He is gentle, beckoning you toward him. “You will be become part of my pride, a Panther for life,” Roc tells you. Take a deep breath, as you imagine … graduation.

At Pitt, Microsoft Teams is the preferred videoconferencing solution for meetings, while Zoom is the recommended tool for remote teaching and learning. Each app has been making significant feature enhancements on a fairly regular basis to make them even better. Last week, the Panther Bytes blog was all about Zoom’s new Live Transcripts functionality. This week, let’s focus on Team’s latest upgrade … Breakout Rooms.

Following along during a videoconference isn’t always easy. It can be hard to hear people, especially if your audio quality isn’t particularly good. That’s where captioning can help. As of Friday, Feb. 12, Zoom has added a live transcript feature, in addition to generating audio transcripts for recorded meetings and webinars.

Enhancing Access to Virtual Events

In September 2019, there was nearly always a student standing at the Pitt Print stations inside the labs, residence halls, and academic buildings. In offices all around the Pittsburgh campus, the sound of printers was the white noise of a busy department. Heat and the scent of toner emanated from the machines, while documents emerged at a remarkable rate. That fall, students printed over 6.1 million sheets of paper, while Ricoh multifunction devices in Pitt offices processed a whopping 15.5 million sheets. What a difference one year and a global pandemic make.

The University is in the planning process for migrating from Box to OneDrive. Pitt IT will provide additional information about migrating to Microsoft OneDrive for personal cloud storage as the project moves forward. In the meantime, whether you’re new to OneDrive or have been using it for ages, here are some neat features to make the most of working in the cloud!

The start of a new term is a great time to reassess whether you have all the technology resources you need to be successful. It’s even more important when virtual teaching, learning, and working is the norm due to the pandemic. Here are some tips for starting the semester strong.