Microsoft Stream people timeline retirement

In response to low feature usage during a time of unprecedented growth in Microsoft Stream, Microsoft is retiring the people timeline feature in Microsoft Stream. They will begin feature retirement June 1, 2020, after which time people detection will no longer occur. All people timeline data will be permanently deleted by July 15.

Chat with co-editor feature being retired on Word, Excel and PowerPoint

The ability to initiate a Chat directly with a co-editor of a Word, Excel, PowerPoint document will be retired by Microsoft over several weeks beginning mid-April (across web, Windows and Mac versions of Office).

Moving forward, to communicate with others working in Office documents, we recommend using document Comments when you want to attach a comment to a specific selection within a document (on the Review tab on the ribbon), and Microsoft Teams Chat when you want to communicate with others immediately.

How does this affect me?

Once the change is implemented, when multiple people are in a document at the same time, you will continue to see names of co-editors at the top right of the document window, but the ability to initiate a Chat with one of the co-editors from this location will no longer be available.

Depending on admin settings, some users of Word, Excel, PowerPoint for Windows may continue to see a “Join Chat” entry point for document co-editors that launches a Skype or Teams application window when clicked or tells the user Chat is unavailable.

What do I need to do to prepare for this change?

Rather than using this built-in chat capability from within documents, users can use document Comments and Microsoft Teams chat to communicate with others.

Please click Additional Information to learn more about Microsoft Teams chat.

SharePoint designer feature deprecation impacting custom form creation

Microsoft has identified an issue affecting SharePoint Designer functionality for creating custom Forms within SharePoint Online. After careful examination, Microsoft has determined that there is no known fix for this issue and has elected to disable the custom Form creation feature effective as of 3:00 AM UTC on Saturday, April 25, 2020. This change does not impact the ability to edit previously created Forms or other existing features in SharePoint Online Designer.

After this change was made, users may have received the error: “Could not save the list changes to the server,” when creating new Forms.

Introduction to the SharePoint Online

Have you heard about SharePoint but aren’t sure where to start? This session will provide an overview of the SharePoint Online service and considerations for adoption of SharePoint Online. We’ll demonstrate some of the key features and give participants a chance to ask questions. Topics include:

  • What SharePoint Online is
  • SharePoint strengths and limitations
  • Things to consider when planning for SharePoint
  • What support and resources are available
  • Key features of SharePoint

Resources

OneDrive for Business activity column is being retired

Microsoft is retiring the Activity column in OneDrive and Shared Libraries. The feature, in its current state, is not providing the intended value and experience.

When the feature is removed, the Activity Column in OneDrive and Shared Libraries will no longer be visible. To view recent activity, by yourself or others, use the Activities section in the Details Pane for a selected file or folder.

In The Loop: Receive ITS news delivered to your inbox!

In recent weeks, remote working has become the norm for most of the U of T community. In response to this, Information Technology Services (ITS) is helping keep staff, faculty and students up-and-running by sharing important resources, tips and other technology-related information.

Stay on top of this critical messaging by subscribing to In The Loop, our official departmental newsletter. Since March 2020, its frequency has increased — from monthly to weekly — to keep the community informed of COVID-19-related updates, all in one consolidated message.

For example, the latest issue (published April 28) included remote working tips, resources for faculty teaching online and recommendations on maintaining cyber security while at home.

Subscribe now to receive ongoing updates. You can also read past issues.

Absence declaration – New ROSI Express reports

Date: April 1, 2020
To:
ROSI Users
From:
Student Information Systems
Re:
Absence declaration – New ROSI Express reports

 

This afternoon EASI released two new reports in ROSI Express. These reports will assist divisions and departments in tracking their students who have self declared absences using the ACORN Absence Declaration tool. These reports can be found in the general Reports tab in the ROSI Express Menu. As with other ROSI Express reports, the output can be viewed on the page or downloaded.

Absence List by Department

 This report provides declared absences of students in courses within a particular department or unit on a given date or date range. The output includes Session Code, Academic Activity Code, Section Code, Primary Teaching Method, Primary Section Number, Person Id, Name, Absence Date, Creation Id, Timestamp, Confirmation Number, and Delete Indicator.

“Session Code”, “From Date” and “Primary Organization Code” are required fields. To specify a date range, add a date in the “To Date” field. Add a “Section Code” if you wish to restrict the courses to a particular section type. To restrict the report to a given department, enter a Secondary Org Code or a list of Secondary Org Codes in the “Secondary Organization Code List” field, separated by commas or blanks. In divisions with no units, leave the Secondary Org Code blank.

Absence List by Student

 This report provides declared absences of an individual student or a list of students on a given date or date range. The output includes Person Id, Absence Date, Creation Id, Timestamp, Confirmation Number and Delete Indicator.

Enter the following required fields: a date in the ‘From Date’ field and a student number in the “Person Id List” field to display a declared absence on a specific day for a given student. Enter a ‘To Date’ also if you wish to display a range of dates. To display more than one student, enter person ids separated by commas or spaces.

Please refer to field help on both screens. We are also preparing a knowledge base article in the Enterprise Service Centre (ESC).

A third report for an individual course will be released later. That information can be obtained now with all courses in the unit in the Absence List by Department report.

EASI – Student Information Systems

Adjustments to summer Y and F course locations, delivery mode

Date: April 7, 2020
To: ROSI Users
From: Student Information Systems
Re: Adjustments to summer Y and F course locations, delivery mode

 

Hello colleagues,

The Provost’s Office and the academic continuity group has asked that all full summer and first summer term course information be updated in ROSI and ACORN to reflect the current arrangements for instruction this summer.  Accordingly, ACE, UTM, and UTSC have removed location information for all Y and F courses for which they had previously allocated classroom space. EASI is in the process of updating the delivery mode on all Y and F courses to “ONL” (Online). Once this is completed the information will appear in ACORN (student personal timetable, course enrolment screen and enrolment cart, etc.), Course Finder and the Course Information System.

While we are updating this information in bulk to speed the update and reduce manual entries in divisional registrars’ offices, there still are some things that timetabling offices should check on:

  • Only academic activities with a type ‘CRS’ will have the teaching method updated to “ONL”. For other academic activity types this might be inappropriate. Divisions should check these and update them if they do meet the definition of an Online activity. (see the attached list for these exceptions. Note, only applies to FAS, Law, UTSC and SGS).
    Definition
    Fully Online Course: A course is considered to be “online” if it has been designed such that all of the instructional interaction occurs without the student and instructor being in the same physical location, with the exception of final or interim assessment requiring attendance on campus no more than once per term.
  • There may be cases where a course does not meet the definition of “Online” or where the instructor has set a different delivery method, these courses should be adjusted when you have that information
  • ACE has only removed the location on those courses for which they are responsible for room allocation. We have checked to see if there are other courses with locations. At the moment there are none but your office should still check the information and be careful not to add any.. (You can find all of your course information in the Academic Activities download (1 D A or 1 D B)).
  • We have made no change to the TBA indicator on courses. You may want to check that this information is accurate.

We have not included S courses in these changes. If these arrangements are extended to July/August offerings we will advise you before making similar changes. We are taking all steps possible to support divisions and avoid local data entry for these mitigations.

N.B., the delivery mode and evaluation settings will copy forward when you perform your activity rollover for next summer.

Please let us know if you have questions about any of this.

EASI – Student Information Systems.

MROL has moved to My Research Portal

Date: March 26, 2020
To: MROL Stakeholders
From: Renee Brost, Chief Administrative Officer, Division of the Vice-President Research and Innovation
Re: MROL has moved to My Research Portal

 

MROL Stakeholders,

The link to My Research On-Line (MROL) has been removed and all users will access MROL via the My Research portal  with their UTORids. This consolidation streamlines access to the system, and is part of the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program.

To access My Research On Line (MROL) once you’ve logged into the My Research portal, click on the My Research tab and then on the My Research On Line sub-tab. If you are prompted to enter a User name and Password when you click on My Research On Line, please clear your web browser’s cache and try again.

How will this change impact you?

Principal Investigators:
Previously PIs could access MROL through a direct link using their SAP credentials, or via the My Research portal using their UTORid.  The direct link has been removed and users will continue to access MROL via the My Research portal.

Business Officers and Project Managers:
The direct link has been removed, and users will access MROL via the My Research portal with their UTORid.

 We encourage you to bookmark the My Research login page and to remove any MROL bookmarks that you have previously added to your browser.

Questions? Contact the help desk at (416) 946-5000 or RAISE@utoronto.ca

This change is part of the larger plan to revitalize the Funded Research Digest (FReD) and My Research On-Line (MROL). The Division of the Vice President Research and Innovation has conducted extensive consultations with end users in the spring and fall of 2019 regarding the revitalization of these systems. Please stay tuned for additional information in the months ahead regarding progress on this project.

Sincerely,
Renee Brost
Chief Administrative Officer
Division of the Vice-President Research and Innovation