Technology gets smarter and more intuitive with every passing year. If you have no memory of slogging your way through a word processing program that looked like this (right), then consider yourself lucky.

But even as technology has gotten more advanced, you still occasionally run into a snag and have no idea how to resolve it. Fortunately, Pitt IT has a wealth of resources to help when you run into a problem. Here’s our top six.

Welcome (back) to campus, Panthers! When you were considering Pitt, many of you took a guided tour of the campus. During Welcome Week, you’ll be exploring your new home for the next four years, figuring out where to eat, where your classes are, and where the fun stuff takes place.

Technology is a huge part of your life and your education. Knowing where to find the technology resources you’ll need should be an important step in your orientation. Here’s a recommended tour of your on-campus technology resources.

Attending Pitt gives you many advantages: a world-class education, exceptional research opportunities, a supportive environment, and a global network of Panther alumni. Pitt IT is here to support that mission with some great benefits of their own. Get all these awesome IT perks to enhance your Pitt experience.

Many universities use the term “arrival survival” to describe the return to campus. Though with a little planning, there’s no need for survival techniques to make your move-in seamless. Here are a few key IT tasks to complete before or shortly after you arrive to make sure you get connected and stay in the know.

Putting together an exceptional course is not easy. As you put together your syllabus or Canvas site for your exceptional fall classes, remember to include information about applicable technology resources available to your students. Consider the following suggestions from Pitt Information Technology:

One of the more common questions Pitt Information Technology fields is how to create a registration page for an online event or webinar, instead of manually inviting specific people via a meeting invite. With a publicly accessible registration page, you can create attention-grabbing promotional materials to attract a wider audience, as well as gather important info about participants and their interests, track who will be attending, and eliminate manual processing of RSVPs. You can create meeting registration pages in Teams, Zoom, and Qualtrics.

A Conversation with CIO Mark Henderson

Technology never stands still, and neither does Pitt IT. Behind the scenes, the department is continuously replacing and upgrading infrastructure, hardware, and systems to ensure that the University is operating on the most up-to-date and secure technologies. Here's a rundown of some of the IT projects from the first half of 2022:

With the first day of summer just around the corner, you may be preparing to take a much-needed vacation. But completely disconnecting from work isn’t easy. In a 2022 poll by Qualtrics, nearly 50% of workers reported working at least an hour a day while on vacation, with about a quarter of respondents working at least 3 hours daily. The University of Pittsburgh encourages faculty and staff to fully rest, relax, and recharge while on vacation. You shouldn’t be working during PTO time … period.

With many students taking the summer term off, most faculty having a lighter teaching schedule, and some departments enjoying a less structured schedule, the next few months give many students, staff, and faculty a perfect opportunity to engage in personal learning and professional development. Here in Pitt IT, we recommend brushing up on your tech skills so you can work more efficiently and effectively in the fall and beyond.