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Over the past several years several committees have been examining the future role Distance Education is to play at Coastal. A new initiative is underway to increase the availability of courses offered via distance learning and more than 12 new courses are being offered in the Fall 2002 semester. By definition, Distance Learning or Distance Education is "formal education process in which the majority of the instruction occurs when student and instructor are not in the same place. Distance education may employ correspondence study, or audio, video, or computer technologies."

In order to better serve our students and provide faculty training in critical areas several new resources are available:

• An expanded support staff ready to help faculty develop and implement distance learning courses.
• A new WebCT support site for faculty designers and students.
• A training program consisting of curriculum development and WebCT modules.

Plans for the Fall 2002 semester include:

• A computer lab and resource center devoted solely for the development and support of distance learning courses.
• In person and phone support of student users of the WebCT software during and after the regular business day.
• Increased support and training for other methods of course delivery including using audiovisual course components, advanced graphics and publisher provided tools.

Visit the new Distance Learning web site to learn all about this exciting new opportunity for students and faculty!

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This may very well be the most important piece of information that you receive today!

The ITS Network Administration team has put certain safeguards in place to filter out unsolicited commercial e-mail messages (SPAM). No system is foolproof however and those clever spammers find ways to our collective Inboxes. There is something that you can do to decrease the likelihood that you will be deluged with many, many unwanted e-mail messages.

It's really very simple. When you receive an e-mail message from someone that you don't know or who is obviously trying to sell you something simply don't open it. If you do open the message you may see some wording in the message such as "If you do not want to receive any more messages of this type click here" or "click here to unsubscribe". Here is the trick: DO NOT RESPOND! Understand that these spammers send out thousands, perhaps millions of e-mail messages at a time. Of those messages sent a large majority of the e-mail addresses are no longer valid or used by anyone. If you reply to the unwanted e-mail the sender knows you are a real person with an active e-mail address. This will just about guarantee you will stay on the original list and end up on many others.

Just Friday, April 5th, approximately 100 Coastal employees received a message with the subject header "Jewelry Sale Invitation". At the bottom of the message were the words "If you would not like to receive these announcements, please send me an e-mail". It is highly advisable that you do not reply to this sender! To view this message click here.

Spam is a necessary aggravation of using e-mail, but with certain precautions we can keep the hassle of unsolicited messages to a minimum.
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IBM or Mac? Microsoft Word vs. WordPerfect? Internet Explorer vs. Netscape?

Most of us have been using personal computers long enough to have established software and hardware preferences. I love Dell computers, Macromedia's Dreamweaver web software and think most Microsoft products are OK! When deciding on a browser, though, a bit more than what you happen to prefer needs to be considered.

When Coastal first started providing Internet access for faculty, staff and students the browser of choice was Netscape. The reason was primarily due to price (lack thereof) and the popularity at the time of Netscape. As the number of users on our network and complexity of our own Internet and Intranet have increased the shift has been towards the use of Microsoft's Internet Explorer on university workstations.

Several reasons can be sited for this move:

• Netscape has changed their user interface noticeably at least six times in recent years. Although the interface is attractive and easy to use, users must continually relearn the application.
• As newer releases of Internet Explorer are incorporated into the operating system (which in part cost Bill Gates a day or two in court!) this can be an advantage for the consumer. Upgrades and patches seem to install faster on Internet Explorer and this advantage is attributed to IE's compatibility with the operating system (assuming you are running Windows).
• It has been our experience that Netscape is more likely to distort complex web pages and not display the HTML code the way the designer intended. Sometimes this is as simple as misplaced table or incorrect word-wrap. In some cases interactive elements such as database browsing will not work as well in Netscape resulting in frequent errors on inability to use the online database.
• WebCT, our online teaching tool of choice, works more efficiently with Internet Explorer.

This recommendation is in no way intended to disparage Netscape. Both Netscape and Internet Explorer have merits and both have failings. If a choice has to be made for campus computing, however, the choice would have to be Internet Explorer.

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New automated procedures are not always apparent to the university as a whole. For those who have been dealing with the system generated paper phone bills over the years our newest automated process is a welcome relief! Due to an upgrade in the Microcall call accounting package we have been using our Communications Manager, Kay Alford, can now deliver each department an electronic listing of their monthly phone bill broken down by extension. This means many hours of work and many pounds of paper will be saved! The new method for delivery bills began in February. For January and February both the electronic and paper bills were sent to each department to ensure the new system was working correctly. The test phase was a success so no more paper phone bills will be distributed. The March bills are currently being compiled and will be out very soon via e-mail..

The electronic bill isn't fancy but it is functional! To see a sample click here. The bill is viewable through your Internet browser and can be viewed, saved or printed from this screen.

The process still involves some manual steps in order to run reports, parse extensions and distribute to designated contacts via e-mail. Future plans include more process automation that will improve efficiency and make total use of the call accounting package.

If you have any question please contact Kay Alford via e-mail or phone (X2130).
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Here at Coastal we are primarily an "IBM shop", meaning we use brands like Gateway, Dell and Compaq. Then there are the Macs (Macintosh, Apple). Until recently the Mac's use was limited to special areas like Marketing, Art, Journalism, Music, and Marine Science. These areas use Macs as their disciplines require software applications made only by Mac or considered superior to those applications for the IBM-based systems. The influx of Macs recently has caused some concern on the part of ITS primarily due to network compatibility and user support.

Our campus network uses Novell software and special testing and configuration must be completed in order to add Apple computers to the network. Mac machines do not share files or printers across the network the same way IBM based machines do. In certain cases E-mail is implemented and managed in a different way. Without special software media cannot be shared between Mac and IBM users. Of considerable concern is the difficulties experienced by some users in accessing our administrative software application, Datatel. There are several ITS staff members who understand the Mac systems and their special needs, but the majority of the staff do not.

ITS is recommending the limited purchase of new Macs in the future. With each successive Novell system upgrade comes a new series of Mac-related compatibility issues. It is advisable due to the number of workstations on our network to keep the workstations as consistent as possible.
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• DELETE or SAVE Attached Files: The quickest way to "slim down" your in-box is to delete e-mails with attachments. You can save the attachment to your "My Documents" folder if it's one you need to keep.
• REALLY Delete those Messages: Make sure that when you delete e-mail messages that they are really deleted. Outlook Express, for example, contains an option to view deleted messages. If this option isn't checked, you may be deleting messages without "purging" them. In Outlook Express and Outlook, mail messages are marked for deletion using the keyboard's "Delete" key or by clicking the "X" in the tool bar. To remove the e-mail completely, go to Edit and select "Purge deleted messages."
• Rearrange the SORT Order of your e-mail folders: You can arrange your e-mail inbox different ways to facilitate deleting e-mail. Click on "Received" in the e-mail inbox window to display the e-mail in the order it was received. Clicking again will reverse the order. This is helpful if you want to delete your oldest e-mail since it will be listed chronologically. If you know the name of a sender whose e-mail you want to delete, click on "From" in the e-mail inbox window. This will order your e-mail by sender name. This is especially useful if you're a Spam victim.
• Selecting MULTIPLE messages:
  • Using your mouse, click once on the first e-mail you want to delete. Hold down the shift key on the keyboard and click once on the last e-mail you want to delete. This will select an entire block of e-mails that you can delete at once.
  • If you want to select non-adjacent files for deletion (as in the figure below), click each e-mail with your mouse while holding down the "Control" key on the keyboard.

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