TECHNOLOGY TRAINING - MSU COMMUNITY

Faculty and staff use technology every day to support the mission and goals of Michigan State University. MSU IT provides training materials for different systems and applications you may use in your job or studies.

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Online Meetings & Events

Whether you're hosting a small meeting with a few people or a large-scale online event with thousands, it’s important to match the right platform to your needs. 

You’ll need to consider several factors before making your choice, including the size of your audience, scope (internal or external to MSU), language, interactive features, captioning, registration, and others.

Reference the Online Meetings & Events training which will help you discover which online meeting or event platform is right for you, and highlight what you need to know to ensure a smooth and successful online meeting or event of any size.

Online Meetings & Events Graphic 

Spartan 365

Finally, an integrated set of tools that will make our work lives more streamlined and effective! Spartan 365 is a suite of Microsoft Office software customized and configured for MSU’s unique environment that offers robust features, a secure, collaborative environment, and the ability to use on multiple devices.

Access is available by logging in to spartan365.msu.edu with your MSU email address and NetID password.

Find more information about Spartan 365 on tech.msu.edu/spartan365.

  • Dive Into 365

    Audience: MSU faculty, researchers, staff, and students.

    Details: The Dive Into 365 training page provides overview videos of what Spartan 365 is along with most of the products now available in Spartan 365. Other support information and reference material are also provided.

    Check it out now and get started with Spartan 365!

  • Spartan Teams

    Audience: MSU faculty, researchers, staff, and students.

    Details: The main messaging and collaboration tool in Spartan 365 is Spartan Teams. Visit the Spartan Teams training page to see how to get started and learn how to record videos, and schedule and host live events.

  • Spartan Drive

    Audience: MSU faculty, researchers, staff, and students.

    Details: One of the Spartan 365 storage and collaboration tools is Spartan Drive, which offers a way to store, sync and share files with other people and devices across MSU. The files stored in Spartan Drive can be accessed directly from a web browser, from a computer operating system, or multiple mobile devices. Watch short videos on:

  • File Storage

    Wondering where stuff is saved in Spartan 365? SharePoint is the framework that everything else sets on top of. OneDrive and Teams, on the back-end, are all stored in SharePoint. The graphic below helps to identify what stuff should be stored where and how to get to it.

     Graphic showing what files should be stored in OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint.

Zoom

Zoom is a communications tool used for video Meetings for collaboration and Webinars for larger lectures or presentations with minimal participant interaction. Zoom is available to all faculty, staff, and students on campus. Zoom allows you to record your meeting and have public or private chats within the meeting.

Visit the Zoom training page to get started.

 

MSU IT Self Service Portal

The MSU IT Self Service Portal provides faculty, staff, and students with a place to:

  • Report an Issue: Have an issue or question? Get help from MSU IT.
  • Request a Service: See available technology services and request them.
  • Search Knowledge Base: Have a technology question? Search technology documentation and articles.

These options are available to the MSU community after logging in to the Self Service Portal with your MSU NetID and password. Additional training on the portal is also available.

MSU Virtual Desktop

MSU Virtual Desktop provides access anytime, anywhere to specialized software on any device. This system uses Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for broad access to MSU-licensed software on various different devices.

VDI can reduce demand for physical desktop space and provide greater flexibility for campus software requests and licensing, especially for use with student courses.

 

Cascade Server Content Manager

Cascade Server is an MSU-supported content management system used by some departments for updating website content.

  • More about Cascade Server Content Manager Training

    Audience: Content and text contributors and editors using Cascade Server for their websites.

    Details: In this course you will learn about the Cascade Server and how to request and utilize a Cascade Framework site.

    Register: The Cascade Server course is free, but course registration is required. The course is within the D2L learning management system. After you register, log in to d2l.msu.edu to find the Cascade course.

Two-Factor Authentication

MSU uses two-factor authentication for all MSU employees that interact with human resources, payroll, and finance systems that are part of our Enterprise Business Systems (EBS). Additionally, two-factor authentication is being tuned on for other university systems that access sensitive institutional data.

Gartner

Gartner is one of the world’s leading providers of research and analysis about the global information technology (IT) industry. They provide data, advice and opinions to clients worldwide, deliver consulting engagements throughout year, and hold annual events where they review the results of their studies to attendees.

MSU has two agreements with Gartner providing the university community with insights, guidance, and best practices on virtually all areas of IT.

  • Gartner Core Research
  • Gartner for Technical Professionals (GTP)

  • More about Gartner

     

    Gartner Core Research

    Gartner core research tools provide timely, objective real-world examples and content about information technology for MSU students, faculty, and staff, to benefit from. Gartner tools can help:

    • Students looking for advice in digital content management and portal strategies, library systems, and search engines.
    • Faculty and researchers investigating technology tools for use in the classroom and out in the field.
    • IT professionals improving their understanding of long-term trends and issues and gaining valuable insight to the application of technology to business problems.
    • Presidents, provosts, deans, directors, and chairs obtaining objective advice and assistance on developing enterprise business and IT strategies, as well as organization structures, leadership, and staffing.

    How to access

    Current MSU students, faculty, and staff may access Gartner research and reports through the Gartner portal. To access the portal, an MSU NetID and password is required. (Read about the Gartner terms and conditions.)

    Gartner for Technical Professionals (GTP)

    Gartner for Technical Professionals provides a customized experience for IT staff across the university to access knowledge on technical planning, architecture and design, product evaluation, deployments strategies, and more. It also helps to translate complex IT issues into comprehensive advice, meaningful analysis, and education on an anticipated issues. Gartner for Technical Professional can benefit MSU staff members in obtaining in-depth research and analysis information when making many information technology decisions. Staff classified in IT roles now have access to additional tools in Gartner including:

    • Research,
    • Peer and technical insights,
    • Initiatives, and
    • Professional development.

    How to access

    MSU employees in the IT field login into the Gartner portal with their MSU NetID and password to access additional information and resources specific to their field through the GTP agreement.

    See what Gartner for Technical Professionals is all about in the GTP Video tutorial.

MSU Community