Learn how to use the photo and video editing software in Creative Suite 6 (CS6) at free workshops with Adobe experts on May 23 at UW Seattle. Three CS6 sessions, hosted by UW-IT's workshop program, are being offered: Premiere and After Effects (9:30–11:30 a.m.), Basic Photoshop (2:30–4:30 p.m.), and Advanced Photoshop (7:00–9:00 p.m.). Current UW students, faculty, and staff can get details and sign up to ensure a place.

Looking for a broader perspective on your UW research or group project that can help you design for your audience? UW User Experience (UX) professionals offer a free, one-hour design review consultation at any stage in your development cycle (but the earlier the better). The UX team can provide feedback on everything from concepts and high-level workflows and processes to information architecture, usability, visual design, and beyond. Learn more.

UW-IT continues to expand the core UW Google Apps service (Email, Calendar, Docs, Sites, and Talk) by enabling new apps you can choose to activate. Those added recently include Chrome Sync, FeedBurner, iGoogle, Latitude, Map Maker, News, and Places. Earlier this year, Blogger, Google+, Google Code, Picasa, Voice, YouTube, and more were added. All undergo a UW enterprise risk review process first. These apps are not covered by the existing UW contract with Google that ensures certain student data protections. Support is provided by Google. Get more information.

MyPlan, an online academic planning tool in development for Fall, will provide UW students with a new option for developing a multi-year academic plan, searching for and tracking courses, assessing their progress toward a degree, and having more productive discussions with their advisers. In addition to conducting usability tests with students, the MyPlan team is seeking feedback from undergraduate and graduate advising staff and have scheduled live MyPlan demos for them on April 6 and April 11, and a Webinar demo for graduate advisers on March 29. Information on the demos and MyPlan is online. This effort is part of the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative.

Now UW departments can list surplus equipment on the new uSwap online service, and also search for or request items before buying new equipment. Provided by UW Finance and Facilities, uSwap is for UW use only and is UW NetID secure. The site guides units through transferring UW-owned computers and accessories, audio/video equipment, and other items in compliance with UW rules, promoting reuse and saving money.

UW students can now access all the Adobe Creative Suite software—Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, and more—online 24/7 using ViDA (Virtual Desktop Access), right from the comfort of home, dorm, or coffee shop. ViDA works on laptops, iPads, iPhones, Androids—almost any Internet-connected device. More software is coming soon, thanks to UW-IT and the Student Technology Fee Committee partnership. This effort is part of the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative.

UW faculty who report effort on a calendar-year cycle now are able to certify their effort reports electronically. This faster, easier, online certification replaces the paper-based process and meets compliance-based reporting requirements for grant research. (Those reporting on the academic cycle can begin online certification in April.) This latest phase of the Electronic Faculty Effort and Cost Sharing (eFECS) project improves timeliness, security, online status tracking, and integrated calculations for cost share adjustments. Feedback from user focus groups informed this effort by eFECS advisory groups and UW-IT.

Starting Spring Quarter, UW professors and lecturers can participate in a UW-IT electronic text (eText) pilot in one or more of their classes to experiment with this new technology, help improve student learning, and contribute to this research effort. Two eText platforms (CourseSmart and CourseLoad) are provided, allowing flexibility and side-by-side comparison. Attend an informational meeting on January 26 at 9:30 a.m. in Odegaard Undergraduate Library 220 or February 1 at 3:30 p.m. in Mary Gates Hall 241, both at UW Seattle, or send email to help@uw.edu. During the pilot, students will receive eTexts at no cost. Get details.

This quarter, UW instructors who teach with laptops can try out a new technology that supports teaching and learning. Tegrity, a cloud-based lecture capture service, lets instructors easily record lectures and other class activities from a laptop (or any device with a Web connection). Then students can review the materials online using a Web browser or mobile device. Learn more.

Did you know that individual UW faculty and staff can purchase computer services through UW-IT’s Nebula Managed Desktop service even if their unit is not subscribed? Nebula provides a centrally managed, supported Windows environment for UW faculty, staff, academic and administrative units for a monthly fee. Pay-as-you-go, on-demand user support and secured file space also are available. In addition, Nebula provides group access to your secured file space with UW Groups, and Mac users who upgrade to OSX Lion, the UW-licensed Apple operating system, will find it easier to access Nebula’s protected file server drives. See the UW-IT Service Catalog for details.

WebQ now provides greater participant management features so you can track who has started, viewed, or submitted your online survey, and when. You can use WebQ to quickly build and administer online surveys and quizzes, and either view results online or download them for further analysis. WebQ is one of the Catalyst Web Tools, designed to aid communication and collaboration in teaching, learning, research, and everyday work for anyone in the UW community. Learn more about tracking survey participation.

Beginning Summer Quarter 2011, all UW faculty and instructors are required to submit final grades online and can do so quickly and easily with a new Catalyst Web Tool, GradePage. For those not already using Catalyst GradeBook, available since 2009 for optional online grade submission, GradePage provides a simple alternative. It was developed by UW-IT with the Office of the Registrar, and instructors can access GradePage from MyUW.

Going on vacation? Looking for a good book? Graduating? Searching for work? Get summer tips from UW Libraries on how to renew your books online and continue borrowing, including thousands of DVDs and audio books available.

This May, the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) saw a 32 percent increase in election votes, over its previous high in 2010. The ASUW has used online voting via Catalyst WebQ for the last ten years, since 2002. The convenience of online voting and the proliferation of devices enabling 24/7 Internet access, as well as a rise in student engagement, likely all played a part in the upsurge this year.

A new financial aid status self-service helps current UW students track their financial aid progress. The service, launched by the UW Office of Student Financial Aid and UW-IT in late April, provides messaging that alerts students to actions they need to take and documentation they need to submit. Improved site navigation makes it faster and easier to find critical information. UW Financial Aid Counselors and students collaborated on designing this service, and further enhancements are planned for late summer.

With UW Groups you can manage lists of team members and collaborators in a single place. Now, if you can view the membership of a UW Group, you can use UW Groups in Catalyst Tools in WebQ, QuickPoll, Collect It, CommonView, GoPost, ShareSpaces, etc. You can also now activate UW Groups for use in UW Google Apps to share Google documents, sites, calendars, and other resources with members of UW Groups.

Do you need to analyze UW financial data to answer multi-faceted questions? The UW Financial Activity Cube is a data analysis tool that allows quick and easy manipulation of complex data. Each cube contains data from one UW biennium that can be sliced and diced in many combinations, for example, to find out how much money was spent by fiscal year, by organization, by budget, by expense object, etc. Best of all, you don’t need to know about database structure or query languages to get your answers.

Using Catalyst CommonView to keep everything you need for your class or project in one convenient location? You also can embed Twitter or Flickr feeds into your CommonView workspaces to display tweets or photos posted by colleagues, or links shared via Delicious. Learn how to add RSS feeds to your workspace.

The newest release of MyUW now provides a personalized set of resources for you, relevant to what you do at the UW. Based on your UW affiliations (such as student, faculty, staff, alumni), you will see tabs for Academics or Working or Teaching, etc. If you are a student and staff, for example, you will see relevant tabs for both. You can add and remove tabs, too, to make MyUW a more powerful portal to your UW resources.

Now you can reconcile your UW budget transactions in real time with Financial Desktop Initiative’s new online reconciliation tool. Part of a collaborative UW effort, this enhancement to MyFinancial.desktop (MyFD) eliminates the need for printed copies because all online reconciliation information is kept according to UW records retention policy.

Learn about Web publishing, digital audio/video, document creation, computing fundamentals, spreadsheets, graphics, presentations, and more. UW-IT is offering seventy free workshops Autumn Quarter. Most are walk-in; just bring your UW NetID and Husky card. See details and schedule.

Join Tom Lewis and his team to hear how Catalyst Web Tools and cloud computing resources contribute to campus eLearning. Sign up for a one-hour open house at UW Seattle on September 24, 28, or 29 to learn how the university portal, cloud computing, and mobile applications might have a role in filling your course management needs. Also, register for Catalyst Web Tools workshops, which run through October 8.

Check out the new campus-wide electronic portfolio solution -- the "Google Sites Hub" -- in CommonView. This solution enables instructors and students to build and share rich electronic portfolios using the Google Sites page creation tools, and helps instructors to manage the process through the Catalyst Web Tools. Also new to CommonView is public views and announcements in a workspace. And new to Your Groups, you can now include lists of people when creating or editing a group to control access to your Catalyst tools.

UW Information Technology has worked with UW's Human Subjects' Division to create a guide for researchers who wish to use GoPost, CommonView, Collect It, and ShareSpaces -- four Catalyst tools that can be used to exchange anonymous and confidential data among research team members. Learn more.

The UW offers you two UW-branded sets of online collaborative tools that include calendaring, email, chat, storage, and more. Read about what you get with UW Windows Live and UW Google Apps, and then sign up at your Manage UW NetID Resources page. You can sign up for both, but select just one for your email.

Going on vacation? Looking for a good book? Graduating? Searching for work? Get summer tips from UW Libraries on how to renew your books online, continue borrowing, and more.

As of June 30, UW Information Technology (UW-IT) will no longer offer its UW Computer Training program. Walk-in workshops geared toward students will still be offered on digital audio and video, Web publishing, graphics and presentations, the Catalyst Web Tools, and other computing fundamentals. Custom workshops can be arranged.

LST's high-end videoconference studios offer significantly more functionality than either online technologies or desktop equipment. Featuring professional technical support through the entirety of your event, these flexible studios can connect you with up to 20 standards-based videoconference sites at one time. Let LST staff focus on the technology so you can focus on the topic.

Email messages are public records when created or received in the transaction of public business. To help all UW employees handle email in accordance with UW records retention requirements, UW Records Management has published new guidance. See UW-GS 5 Electronic Mail for Email Best Practices on managing, deleting, creating, and retaining email.

Staff and faculty working with UW institutional data can find answers to questions about the Enterprise Data Warehouse on a new Decision Support Web site. It provides a central set of data and tools, standards, and best practices, including how to access the data warehouse, what data is available, how to connect to the data, and how to develop and write reports and queries.

Can't make it to a computing workshop? Need help now? Check out the handy "How-To Guides" in Learning & Scholarly Technologies' Online Help Center. You'll find step-by-step instructions for over 75 computing topics, including Catalyst Web Tools, Web site creation, podcasting, and more.

In operation for over 20 years, the UW Computer Maintenance Group (CMG) provides desktop, laptop and printer repair, software troubleshooting, data recovery, and computer upgrades for UW departments. Rates are affordable, and can be paid for by UW budget number or ProCard. CMG is a warranty service provider for Apple computers and HP PC’s and HP Printers. See the UW Technology Service Catalog for details.

Students at UW Seattle can borrow a laptop as well as a digital camcorder, camera, or voice recorder, projector, audio system, and more. Checkout is three business days; some can be loaned for seven days. See the detailed list of equipment and photos online. UW Bothell and UW Tacoma run similar equipment loan programs.

This fall, the School of Medicine began supporting first- and second-year courses online with two Catalyst Web Tools, CommonView and GradeBook. Faculty have found the tools flexible and easy to use, and students have benefited from a consistent experience across courses. Read the full story.

Volunteer a few hours a year to be on a Client/User Engagement (CUE) team and have a voice in Catalyst Web Tools development. Sign up for the Technology Spaces CUE team to weigh in on the evolution of Learning & Scholarly Technologies' computer labs, collaboration studios, and videoconferencing and audio/video editing facilities.

Choose from over 30 free workshops offered by Learning & Scholarly Technologies for UW students, faculty, and staff. Topics include using software from Microsoft and Adobe, publishing a Web site, working with digital audio and video, and more. Check out the schedule.

For the first time ever, the UW is offering email, calendaring, and other collaborative tools "in the cloud" for students, who can sign up for UW Windows Live and UW Google Apps beginning Sept. 28. Both vendors will be at the Student Tech Fair on Sept. 28, along with UW Technology, to showcase the services and answer questions. You can sign up online or at the fair!

If you would like to get your course online before Autumn Quarter begins, attend one of our free September workshops. You can learn how to give your course an online presence, set up a WebQ survey or quiz, or use Catalyst GradeBook to track and submit grades. These workshops are free to anyone with a UW NetID, but registration is required.

The all new Catalyst Web Tools account page will help you find what you need quickly and focus on what is important to you, whether you are managing a course online, working on a collaborative project, or accessing course materials, resources, or grades. You can view a brief video tour of the changes.  

As part of the UW Reputation Building Initiative, MyUW will release a new version in September that has a new graphical design by UW Marketing. A number of improvements by UW Technology make the site more user friendly. Now you can preview the new version and give your feedback via a short WebQ survey.

At UW Seattle, the knowledgeable Learning & Scholarly Technologies' student Help Desk consultants provide the computing assistance you need. Visit the Help Desks, located on the 2nd floor of Odegaard Undergraduate Library and in Mary Gates Hall 131, to gets answers to your computing-related how-to questions. Also, the Computer Vet service there can help you remove viruses and spyware from your personal computer.