Bulletin Updates: Articles, Page 8 | Library

Bulletin Updates

Tip Tuesday: Limit the Number of Responses in a Google Form Question

By Doug Anderson January 19th 2021

Some in our campus community have asked how to limit the number of responses to a question in a Google Form. Here’s how.

In your form, make sure you choose “Checkboxes” for the type of question.
In the lower righthand corner, click on the three dots to show the “More” menu. Choose “Response validation”.
Choose “Select at most”.
Fill in the maximum number of responses you want each respondent to give, and type in an error message that the form can give if the respondent exceeds the maximum.
Alternatively, you can limit the number of responses to a minimum instead of a maximum–for instance, if you want each respondent to indicate at least two answers.

Learn more about Google Forms in the Google Workspace Learning Center.

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Introducing Research Thursdays Newsletter

By January 14th 2021

LITS is rolling out a newsletter about research sources at the library! Stay up to date by subscribing to the LITS News and Updates. New posts will be published on a biweekly schedule.

Since this is the first week, we’d like to highlight Adam Matthew Digital, an essential database for primary source materials that hosts millions of primary source records across many different disciplines. The Adam Matthew Digital database organizes material into curated subject areas. In addition to primary source access, each subject collection offers access to data visualizations, copyright information, and information about institutions who contributed materials.

Users who are new to Adam Matthew Digital can orient themselves with the detailed interface by viewing instructional videos created by Adam Matthew support staff.

Tip Tuesday: Use Breakout Rooms in Google Meet

By Doug Anderson January 12th 2021

With Allegheny College’s newly implemented G Suite Enterprise for Education, faculty and other employees can now use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups during video calls in Google Meet. Breakout rooms must be started by moderators during a video call on a computer. Any employee who schedules or starts a meeting will be the moderator. Breakout rooms currently can’t be live streamed or recorded.

You must be signed into your Allegheny Google account to participate in breakout rooms.

How to Create breakout rooms

On your computer, start a video call in Google Meet.
In the top right, click Activities Breakout rooms.
In the Breakout rooms panel, choose the number of breakout rooms.
Call participants are then distributed across the rooms.
To manually move people into different rooms, you can:
- Enter the participant’s name directly into a breakout room.
- Click the participant’s name. Hold down the mouse, drag the name, and then drop it into another breakout room.
- To randomly mix up the groups again, click Shuffle .
You can also choose whether to rename the rooms by clicking on the room name itself.
In the bottom right, click Open rooms.

Use a Breakout Room Timer

You can set up a timer for your breakout rooms. Each room will display a 30 second countdown before the timer ends.
At the top of the breakout rooms panel, click Timer.
Set the timer amount then click OK.
You can edit or remove the timer at any time. On the breakout room panel, click Timer to edit.

You can also close breakout rooms manually:

- In the Breakout rooms panel, at the top right, click Close rooms .
- In the notification window that appears, click Close all rooms.

Learn more about Using Breakout Rooms in Google Meet.

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Tip Tuesday: Set Your Status as Away in Google Chat

By January 5th 2021

Did you know can choose from several status options in Google Chat? You can set your status as available, away, or busy until a set time. When you set your status to away, you will appear offline to others even if you are using Google Chat. This can be a useful way to communicate to others that you are not available.

To adjust your Google Chat settings, follow these instructions:

Go to your Gmail or Google Chat account.
Look for the Google Chat status menu. The default setting is Active.
To change your status, click the menu and select a new status from the dropdown list. In Gmail, the dropdown menu will look like this.
In Google Chat, the dropdown menu will look like this.
If you want to be away long-term, set your status to “Away”. Otherwise, select “Do not disturb” for up to 24 hours.

RefWorks Scheduled Maintenance

By Doug Anderson December 18th 2020

RefWorks will experience a downtime for a short period of time so that ExLibris can conduct scheduled maintenance. We are expecting a down time of up to 2 hours. This will be communicated to all users through an in-app announcement.

When: Starting 11:00 PM Saturday December 19, 2020 Eastern Standard Time and for up to 2 hours.

Tip Tuesday: Schedule messages in Gmail

By Doug Anderson December 15th 2020

You can schedule messages in Gmail to be sent at a later date. This can be useful for reminders to yourself or others, or for communications where the time and date of delivery are especially important. Here’s how.

On your computer, go to Gmail .
At the top left, click Compose.
Create your email.
At the bottom left next to Send, click the dropdown arrow .
Click Schedule send.
Choose one of the suggested options, or click Pick date & time.
You’ll see an alert pop up that says that your email has been scheduled.

Possible Phishing Attempt

By Doug Anderson December 10th 2020

LITS has received reports of a possible phishing attempt. Employees have reported email messages similar to the following:

Good Morning, I have a student here that is in need of your help. Would you be able to schedule a time for us to talk more, so that I can provide additional information? Thank you!!

The sender typically claims to be connected with another college or university, but the sender’s email address is not from a .edu domain associated with that institution.

If you receive a similar email, especially if you do not recognize the sender’s name and have not interacted with the institution they claim to be from, it’s best to report the email as phishing.

LITS thanks those who brought this most recent attempt to our attention. If you have questions or concerns, please email the InfoDesk or call us at 814-332-3768.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Translate Closed Captions in Google Meet with Chrome

By Doug Anderson December 8th 2020

You can translate the captions in Google Meet to another language using the Chrome browser.

First, turn on captions for any Google Meet you are attending. Move your mouse over the screen, and a white bar should pop up at the bottom. Click on Turn on Captions.

Screenshot of Toolbar in Google Meet

Then right-click on the lower part of the screen, where the captions appear, and choose Translate to English. (This part is a little confusing, because it should already be in English. Bear with us!)
Screenshot of Google Meet Caption area

You’ll notice a small Google Translate icon appear in the address bar at the top of your Chrome browser (where the URL appears).

Click on the Translate icon, and then choose the three-dot menu:

Screenshot of Google Translate dialog box

Click on Choose Another Language… You will be given a choice of dozens of languages.

Screenshot of language selection options in Google Translate.

The captions will automatically translate into the language you choose. (So will any chat posts in the Meet.)

Bear in mind that automatic computer translation is prone to errors, so don’t rely on this to provide a perfect translation.

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Tip Tuesdays: Recording Your Presentation

By Doug Anderson December 1st 2020

As we near the end of the semester, here’s a reminder for faculty and students that you can record a presentation using Google Meet.

A few things to bear in mind:

You can use Meet to record video of yourself, or to record audio over a slideshow or other presentation that you’ve prepared. This is a great way to add audio to your Google Slides presentation, for instance.
Meet recordings are automatically saved to your Google Drive in a folder titled “Meet Recordings” and can be shared like any other file in your Google Drive.
You have unlimited storage for Meet recordings.
If other people are participating in your Google Meet, please remember to get their permission to record.

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Tip Tuesday: Change Your Voicemail Greeting

By Doug Anderson November 24th 2020

While out of the office for any extended period of time, you may wish to change the greeting that callers will hear before leaving a voicemail. Employees can change their greetings in the campus phone system whether on or off campus.

From off campus: Dial your extension’s full number (e.g., 814-332-xxxx, where xxxx is your 4-digit extension)
From on campus: Press the voicemail button on your desk phone.
Press the pound key (#) when the recording starts.
Enter your 4-digit extension.
Press the star (*) when the next recording starts.
Enter your voicemail passcode (PIN). If you aren’t sure what your PIN is, please contact the InfoDesk at infodesk@allegheny.edu.
Press 8 for user options.
Press 4 to change your greeting.
Press 7 to record a new greeting.
Record the greeting, then press the pound key (#).
Press 7 to listen to the new greeting.
Press 3 to discard and try again, or 9 to save the new greeting.

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