News

Adobe Captivate is an easy-to-use authoring software tool that can create and maintain online training or instructional modules right out of the box. It is extremely user-friendly and does not require specific technical skills to start immediately producing rich, interactive eLearning content for presentations, training, quizzes, or demonstrations. Captivate also has the ability easily import existing PowerPoint presentations or capture screen images from your computer and enhance them with voice over options, captions, and other interactive elements. Captivate is currently installed on our Media Workstations located in the Enrollment Services Operations (ESO) office on the second floor, as well as in the Communications Processing Center on the fifth floor. For more detailed information about Captivate features, please visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/products/captivate/.

ESO will also be offering several Captivate workshops on 9/17/2010 and 9/31/2010. Please check our flyer for RSVP details. In addition, Van Owens will be available as support resources.

ESO and USC were upgraded to the Office 2007 suite on January 30. We will be contacting other departments throughout the spring to set up weekend deployment times that suit their business schedules.

See our Communications Plan for an overview of what to expect.

Two high-end media workstations containing the latest multimedia development tools have been deployed for your use. They are located in the Enrollment Services Operations office on the second floor, as well as in the Word Processing Center on the fifth floor. Each workstation has an HP flatbed scanner, Office 2003 & 2007, Visio, Adobe CS4 Design (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Acrobat), Adobe Captivate, Nero for CD/DVD burning, Paint Shop Pro., color printing, microphone and headset. Currently, service is available on a walk-in basis.

In the coming months, ESO will be working with department directors to discuss the transition and roll out schedule to Office 2007. The Office 2007 Professional suite includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher. In addition, since many users already use Office 2007 at home, we will also be looking for some “early adopters” from each department to aid with the transition process.

ESO is continuing to go Green in the following areas:

• A limited number of new computers and flat panel monitors are currently being deployed to update the oldest systems in our unit. These new computers and monitors are very energy efficient and come with the highest ENERGY STAR rating currently available.
• The network server room has now been updated with an occupancy sensing light switch. It saves energy by automatically turning off the lights when no one is the server room. The light turns back on when someone enters.
• ESO is working with Admissions to establish an online drop-box for the various weekly reports they provide.

Microsoft SharePoint is now available to all Enrollment and Student Affairs (ENSA) departments. It offers many capabilities such as collaboration, content and document management, and information sharing which improves business effectiveness. Explore the possibilities on how your department can get better connected.

We are pleased to offer a hands-on technology orientation to introduce new BU employees to functions like accessing their BU network account and Exchange e-mail, file storage and password management. An overview of ESO's help desk support services will also be included. Supervisors should call the NetHelp line at x3-7328 or contact us at ESO-Nethelp@bu.edu to schedule the orientation at a convenient time during the employee's first two days on campus.