Ever wonder “What’s the Matter With Mold?” or how to create “Presentations That Make A Difference”? These are just two of the currently available online courses at the Cooperative Extension Curriculum Project (CECP) Virtual Campus.
The Cooperative Extension Curriculum Project is an Online Course System sponsored by the Southern Region Program Leadership Network, the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors and the Association of Extension Administrators. The centerpiece of this project, the Southern Region Virtual Campus, is hosted by Texas Cooperative Extension.
CECP’s Virtual Campus is a “one-stop shop”. Use CECP to:
Courses can be “built” within CECP itself, removing the need for a separate design tool. There are a number of helpful resources, including guidelines and suggestions for course development online at http://srpln.msstate.edu/cecp/guidebookfinal.pdf.
CECP currently has open access. Anyone can register and access the site. Some courses allow students to self-enroll while others require approval before the course can be started. Contact the course creator if a course requires approval for enrollment.
The best way to learn more about CECP is to create a username and password and enroll in a course. First , go to http://cecp-online.org. Register on the front page to get a username and password, then click “Course Listing” to view available courses, find a course and click “Enroll”.
When you’re ready to create a course, contact Jill Hughson to have the course title created in the database. Go to http://cecp-online.org/admin and login. Then you’re ready to start creating course modules!
If you need assistance with any aspect of CECP, please contact one of the following: Larry Lippke at llippke@tamu.edu Jim Segers at jsegers@tamu.edu Jill Hughson at ajhughson@ag.tamu.edu Jennifer Jahedkar at jenj@tamu.edu Susanna Coppernoll at s-coppernoll@tamu.edu
Learn more by viewing a recorded Centra session on CECP Online at http://eit.tamu.edu/recordings.html or reading more about CECP at http://cecp-online.org/info.
EIT e-Learning Opportunities
Sessions are offered via Centra Symposium. To enroll or browse events, or to learn more about Centra, click the Centra Symposium link from the EIT webpage at http://eit.tamu.edu. If you miss an event or would like to view it again, go to http://eit.tamu.edu/recordings.html or click the Public Recordings link in Centra to view recorded events.
with Jennifer Identify what good websites have in common and explore best practices in web design. Learn to plan and design for usability, and incorporate appropriate colors and multimedia. Appropriate for TECO and non-TECO sites!
Elementk online training available
We have online training from Elementk available. To request an account or get more information contact Jennifer Jahedkar at jenj@tamu.edu or 979.845.2290 or Susanna Coppernoll at 979.845.2250.
Possible URLs to link from your Websites this Month
FCS - The Healthy Refrigerator - http://www.healthyfridge.org
AG and Natural Resource - Local Harvest - http://www.localharvest.org/
4H-YoungBiz- Teens Guide to careers & entrepreneurship - http://www.youngbiz.com/
Using the < TITLE > tag– how & why - by Jennifer Jahedkar
The title of a webpage defines it, much like the title of a book or magazine. So it’s important to take a few minutes to define it well. Give the page a short but descriptive title in the title tag.
The title is used in a number of ways, including bookmarks, title bar and task bar. :
The title should be short and descriptive. If it’s too long most browsers truncate it, and if it’s not descriptive it won’t be useful to users. Stay away from Special characters, and try not to use the same name for all pages: And don’t forget to title your web-page, or it will be given a name of ‘untitled document’. So take a few minutes to title your webpage – it’s worthy of a decent title, isn’t it?!
Tip of the Month: Speeding up GroupWise- with “caching mode”
by Michael D. Gerst
GroupWise 6.5 has three modes - online, caching, and remote. In caching mode, GroupWise uses a copy, stored on your PC, of your online mailbox. This caching mode copy contains the same messages, calendar items, address books, etc as your online copy. When you use caching mode, you are using this local copy of your mailbox and not relying on the speed of the network connection to display email, look up addresses, or display calendar items.
A benefit of caching mode is that if the GroupWise server is unavailable you can still open, answer, and create messages and calendar items because you are working with a local mailbox copy. This caching mode copy contains your GroupWise items as they were the last time it was synchronized with your online mailbox. In caching mode, if the GroupWise server is available, this synchronization takes place, automatically every 5 minutes, in the background,. If the server is unavailable, items you create will be delivered as soon as the GroupWise server is available - automatically. The first time you switch to caching mode, a local copy of your GroupWise mailbox will be created and GroupWise will show instructions to guide you through this process. You will then be prompted to restart GroupWise to activate caching mode. Note that the creation of a caching mailbox may take a long time depending on the amount of data to be copied from your online mailbox. For users with large mailboxes or slower network connections it could take several hours or even overnight.
Switching to Caching Mode for the First Time
Before you get started, make sure you have the time to create this local copy AND that you do not need to use your PC during this time. This step requires significant CPU and network re- sources and it is best NOT TO USE word processing applica- tions or surf the web while switching to caching mode.
Start GroupWise, you should see the screen indicated in figure 1. If you do not see this, AND you are prompted to enter a pass- word, click “Cancel” to see the screen.
Select the Radio button for “Caching mailbox path” and type in
the location for your local PC’s GroupWise directory.
In the example above, the “
Click Ok, and then confirm the location of your Caching mailbox check when prompted and click OK to continue. Enter your GroupWise Password and Click OK. Your GroupWise folder should not already exist. If it does, STOP by clicking No and call EIT for help. Otherwise, confirm that you want to create the folder by clicking YES. Then Click YES to choose to use your online mailbox password for your caching mailbox. You should see a new window which displays the “Updating Mailbox” information. Please wait until this process is completed before shutting down your PC or starting any other programs. Be patient. This is the step that may take a while. When your caching mailbox has been created, you will be prompted to restart GroupWise. Click YES to restart and enter your GroupWise password when prompted to do so.
Now you are ready to switch to “caching” mode. at the top of the main GroupWise window choose Caching from the Mode drop down list as shown in figure 2 You will be prompted to restart GroupWise. After this restart, GroupWise will automatically startup in “caching” mode.
Note: If you use GroupWise Notify, make sure that GroupWise Notify is turned off. From the main GroupWise Menu, select Tools/Options/Environment - General and make sure there is no check mark in the box by “Launch Notify at startup”.
Tip of the Month: Automating Spybot Search & Destroy
by Greg Thomas
Anti-spyware applications are as essential to healthy computing as anti-virus programs. Without them, your computer will soon be used by others who reach through the internet and take control of it. Like anti-virus software, anti-spyware programs must be updated to remain effective. Most anti-spyware software can be configured to automatically update with no user intervention.
Spybot Search and Destroy is a mature product that offer some measure of protection against spyware. Unlike Microsoft AntiSpyware, which will run on Windows 2000 and XP only, Spybot S&D will run on any Windows operating system. Spybot S&D can be configured to automatically update, and this is recommended.
Although there are a couple of steps to go through in order to automate Spybot, it’s well worth the time and effort. First, start by changing modes from Default to Advanced. To do this, click on Mode in the menu bar in the opening window of Spybot. Select Advanced mode, shown in figure 3, Figure 3: Choosing Advanced Mode then answer Yes to the warning message.
There are four expandable options on the left side of the Spybot window. Click on Settings in options, as in figure 4, then click Settings again in the sub menu. This opens a list of check boxes and radio buttons. Scan down to the Automation section where there are several adjustments to make. Some deal with running an update and scan when the program is started while others control how Spybot treats infections and closes the program upon completion.
Once the changes have been made, minimize Spybot and open the Control Panel. Double click on Scheduled Tasks. Double click Spybot - Search and Destroy and select the Schedule tab in
the Spybot Schedule window. Select the Weekly box and select Figure 6: Fixing Problems Settings in Scheduler a day and time that’s convenient. Then click OK and close the Control Panel.
Return to Spybot and select Scheduler from the Settings expanded options. Spybot should now be scheduled for the day and time that you specified in the Windows Scheduler. Finally, check the two boxes that refer to fixing problems and closing the program as illustrated in figure 6. Spybot is now set to start itself on a particular day at a specific time and automatically update it’s own files. It is also set to scan for spyware, fix any problems and close itself after completing the process - all without user intervention. It isn’t too difficult, and it’s well worth the time. As always, contact one of the helpful folks at EIT if you have questions or need assistance with Spybot.