New Employee Systems Training (NEST)

Welcome to MVNU! Whatever your job is on campus, there are a few things regarding technology that everyone needs to know. In this article you’ll find links to several other articles with information ranging from submitting your time digitally (or on paper as needed) to logging in to the VPN to access Colleague from home.

As always, should you have any questions or need help in any way, ITS is available and willing to assist in any way we can. All requests or questions come through “The Hub” our initial contact point for ITS. Our hours of operation and contact information are found on the landing page of this knowledge base.

Your Account

Assuming you received a link to this article as part of your hiring paperwork, your MVNU login credentials have been created. This username and password is used across a majority of equipment and software on campus meaning you should only need to remember a single password to access whatever you need. The account has been established with a default (temporary) password as well as multi-factor authentication (MFA for short).

MFA (multi-factor authentication)

Before you do anything else, you should sit down at a computer and go through the MFA setup. Once finalized, MFA will provide a second layer of protection for your account so that not only a password is required to sign in when off campus. Due to repeated security issues, the need to institute MFA across campus has become standard and is shared among most businesses & universities.

Password

After getting your MFA set up, we recommend changing your password to something easier for you to remember. Visit password.mvnu.edu and you should be able to follow the directions to change your password using the new MFA solution you just finished.

Information Security

As an employee of MVNU it’s important to protect your account and it’s access. This includes being aware that threat actors are constantly trying to “break in” to our systems. There are several pieces that you should be aware of.

1. Learn how to recognize and respond to a phishing email.

   1. Phishing occurs when criminals try to get us to open harmful links, emails or attachments that could request our personal information or infect our devices. Phishing messages or “bait” usually come in the form of an email, text, direct message on social media or phone call. These messages are often designed to look like they come from a trusted person or organization, to get us to respond.

      The good news is we can avoid the phish hook and keep our accounts secure with these tips.

2. Treat all data as it should be.

   1. PII or private identifiable information should be handled with care. This is information such as Social Security numbers, MVNU ID numbers, address, phone number, names, credit card, or other forms of information. Use care when communicating about these types of information. Never forward these to off-site email addresses. Before proceeding, ask your department what practices are used to keep this data safe.

3. Stay up-to-date on training and awareness.

   1. Look for the monthly ITS newsletter that includes IT announcements and an Information Security article.

   2. Look for announcements from ITS on training that is sent out annually.

   3. Stay alert for phishing campaigns sent out by ITS to see how our community is doing. If you get caught, training will follow.

   4. Install updates on your MVNU owned computer. Windows updates are pushed out monthly and Mac computers get updates several days after their release.

More information about information security can be found here.

Portal

MVNU centralizes a large portion of our documentation and paperwork on a website (called the Portal) which can be visited at portal.mvnu.edu. This site includes pages for nearly every department on campus which can be found under the “menu” at the top left of the page (just under the MVNU logo).

Information on navigating it and different features can be found on our Portal KB Article.

Submitting Time

All non-exempt employees must submit time through the Portal. This article outlines the necessary steps for submitting your time. In the event that you aren’t able to submit your time through the Portal, HR also provides a paper timesheet that can be found and downloaded here (under “Payroll Forms” → “Time Entry Forms”) on HR’s Payroll Portal Page.

Exempt employees must instead submit their time off through a monthly form which can be found here.

Questions or problems with submitting time can be sent to payroll@mvnu.edu

Approving Time

If you are a supervisor and have staff (full-time, part-time, or students) you will also be expected to approve their timecards. Information on this process as well as a video have been created and can be found here:

• Hourly Employees time entry

• Salaried Employees time entry

MVNU Equipment

Hardware

All Full-Time employees are provided an MVNU-owned Windows laptop as well as any necessary software / access for accomplishing their job. Information about our policy on what type of computer and its refresh schedule can be found on the portal on ITS' Page but we will sum up some of the major points here:

• Our standard equipment is a Lenovo Windows Laptop computer with the following additions:

  • Docking Station

  • Wired Keyboard & Mouse

  • Secondary Display

  • Portable AC Adapter

• If you want/need an Apple computer instead, a request must come from your Director/Dean to the Assistant Director of Technical Support via email or service request.

• If you want to increase the computer specifications of your computer, the cost must be covered by your department, and the request must come from your Director/Dean to the Assistant Director of Technical Support via email or service request.

Software

All computers come licensed with an up-to-date version of Windows which includes monthly software updates and requires an annual update/upgrade to the newest version of Windows. This annual update can take several hours and you can work with the Hub to check-out a loaner computer while yours is updating. Each computer comes equipped with the following software standard:

• MS Office 365* (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)

• Papercut (Printing Account Management)

• Sophos (Antivirus/Antimalware)

• Forticlient VPN

• Adobe CC

• MotherBoard Remote Control Software (for technical support)

SharePoint / OneDrive

MVNU provides cloud storage to all employees and students to minimize the possibility of losing any information. ITS recommends saving to these sources exclusively to prevent any loss of data in the event of a computer crash, theft, or any other unforeseen circumstance. There are two areas specifically that you need to know about and understand how they operate.

SharePoint Online (SPO for short) is the file repository that any files/folders that need shared are placed. Information specifically about navigating SPO are found on the site itself sharepoint.mvnu.edu

OneDrive is the file repository that any personal files/folders are stored and can be mapped to your existing desktop, documents, pictures, etc… Information in detail can be found in various articles in the knowledge base regarding accessing, navigating, etc but we recommend you start here in setting it up.

Most Common Training

While this Knowledgebase was created with the sole purpose of providing documentation and how-to guides for everyone across campus, we recognize there is a lot to go through which can be daunting. Because of this, we’ve curated a small list of articles that most employees find helpful early in their time here at the University.

Information Security

All day, every day, we’re inundated with security concerns across any and all aspects of technology. From viruses, to SPAM, to Phishing, most of us have either been a victim or know someone who has been a victim of identity theft or at least has fallen for some attempt to collect personal data. Employees for MVNU are no exception and we’ve curated the following list of things to consider and remember as you work for the University:

• Don’t trust off-campus emails unless they are specifically called out to be from MVNU services from MVNU trusted people (please contact IT if you need help with that list).

• Does it contain an offer that’s too good to be true?  

• Does it include language that’s urgent, alarming, or threatening?  

• Is it poorly crafted writing riddled with misspellings and bad grammar? 

• Is the greeting ambiguous or very generic?  

• Does it include requests to send personal information? 

• Does it stress an urgency to click on an unfamiliar hyperlinks or attachment? 

• Is it a strange or abrupt business request? 

• Does the sender’s e-mail address match the company it’s coming from? Look for little misspellings like pavpal.com or anazon.com.

Physical Security

While ITS is concerned with and oversees the operations of cybersecurity on campus, there is also an aspect of physical security that an entire department (Campus Safety) is dedicated to ensuring. Campus Safety utilizes some technology for mass awareness and notification and articles in enrolling in those products can be found here.

Printing

Printing on campus is available in each building, often in each department. There are several articles on installing and using printers which can be found here. Color printing is generally done by our Printing & Mailing department due to the added cost of maintaining color toner and cartridges.

We also utilize Xerox multi-function copiers for printing, scanning (to email) and copies.

Phone / VM

There are two primary things you need to do with your phone. First, you need to log in to it and change the password to something you can remember. Secondly, you need to set up your voicemail along with the greetings. A guide for doing so can be found here. Look on the left side for the different tabs for the directions for phone items.

The phones also have a web-interface for modifying specific settings, preferences, and for faxing. Details on using this interface are found here.

VPN

VPN is necessary for accessing specific sites/programs while off campus. Information for installing and configuring it can be found here.

Email

The most common method of communication on campus, email is housed/managed by Microsoft through their Outlook client. It can be accessed on your computer, through the web, and even set up on your phone. Instructions for each can be found here.

Report Phishing

For any emails you receive that seem risky, ITS requests you report them to us so we can confirm/refute their legitimacy and so we can monitor for similar (or the same) emails across all the other accounts. There is a button added to every email account in the toolbar that looks like the example here to the right. Clicking this button will remove the email from your inbox and flag it for our cybersecurity team to evaluate.

Teams

A newly available tool for department and inter-departmental communication, Teams can be utilized for channel-based messaging, audio and video calls, as well as ties in to MS OneDrive, Sharepoint, and Outlook Calendar. Several articles have been created detailing the use and function of this software and can be found here.

Requesting Assistance

Create a Ticket

Any problems or requests you have for either the ITS department, Facilities services, or Housekeeping can be logged in our work-order ticketing system, Jira. Follow this article for step-by-step instructions on submitting a ticket.

Contact Methods

Alternatively you can contact the aforementioned departments using the following methods:

Faculty-specific

Moodle

Moodle is MVNU's online classroom setting. You will use it in order to keep up with assignments, see syllabuses, and stay up to date on where you are in your individual classes! You can do also take quizzes, submit papers, and post in a discussion forum, if your professor chooses to use Moodle in these ways. An article about accessing it and basic navigation can be found here.

Also, campus has a Center for Innovative Excellence. They have many courses and information avialable on Moodle by clicking here.

Classrooms

ITS has worked hard to do what we can to universalize a majority of classrooms on campus so that professors know what to expect when they go in to any room. An article specifically focused on Covid provides great information on how classrooms are set up and a breakdown of what to expect and can be found here.

Deepfreeze

DeepFreeze is the software we use to keep certain computers from getting junked up with personal files from a large number of users.  When DeepFreeze is on, it essentially freezes the computer so that every time the computer is restarted any personal files that have been saved to that computer get wiped so that upon restart, only the things IT has put on that computer are on there.  On any computer that has DeepFreeze, we put a warning on the background of the computer that tells users that data is wiped so it's important that they save any files to a flash drive, OneDrive, iCloud, or something similar. More information on this software can be found here.