Hong Kha About Us, Faculty, Resources, Services, Students, The Basics

Free and Discounted Software for Students: Microsoft, Adobe and Windows

Being a Pepperdine student has a variety of perks, ocean view, Olympic swimming pool, close access to the beach, and now either free or discounted access to software such as Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Microsoft Office 365

As a Pepperdine student, you can sign up for free access to Microsoft Office 365 and earn access to Microsoft Office tools like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Simply go to the Microsoft online store and enter your Pepperdine email address, then follow the prompts to set up your free account and that’s it! Simply download the Desktop apps to your computer and you will be writing in style in no time.

Adobe Creative Cloud

With your Pepperdine student email, you can download Adobe Creative Cloud and earn access to software like Acrobat PDF, Photoshop, InDesign and more for $19.99/month instead of the standard payment of $52.99/month. To purchase the subscription, visit their website for more information.

For more information on student discounts provided to you, please click here to be redirected to Tech Central’s page. Thanks for being a Pepperdine Law student and we hope you enjoy your free and discounted software with an ocean view.

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Resources

Panopto: Class Recording

Interested in recording your class? Panopto is Pepperdine University’s lecture capture system integrated into Courses by Sakai and will archive your course session recordings for up to five years.

Courses hosts the Panopto features which are automatically linked with Zoom’s recording features when accessed through Courses’ Zoom Pro Tool.

If you plan on recording your class more than once a semester, you can easily set this up through Zoom Recording.  The recordings you save with Zoom will be automatically saved to Panopto. Zoom recordings will only save videos for six months so Panopto acts as an automatic backup that saves videos where they can be accessed for much longer.

Videos can also be recorded and edited within Panopto. There are different recording options, such as:

  • Audio– all recordings capture audio by default
  • PowerPoint– records the presentation slides you show on the class computer by default
  • Video– available for classrooms with cameras, records the front of the room only
  • Primary Screen– records any applications you use on the class computer, such as  Documents, Web pages, Excel Files, Courses pages, etc.

For more specific informational videos on Panopto, please refer to the links under the “Faculty” heading of this page. If you have questions or assistance please reach out to us via [email protected] and a member of the Information Services team will be glad to assist you.

Gilbert Marquez About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

Pepperdine Passwords and Password Managers

True or False: It is against Pepperdine policy to reuse your Pepperdine password for any other web service.

It’s true, it is against Pepperdine policy to reuse your MyID password for other accounts or sites.

When you reuse your Pepperdine MyID password on Internet sites or accounts, you are making yourself vulnerable to attacks on your Pepperdine account, finances, grades, and more. In 2011 alone, millions of passwords were stolen from Internet sites like Sony Entertainment and Gawker. In 2012, more than 6 million LinkedIn passwords were compromised.

If you use the same password over many sites, the security of your password is only as good as the security of each individual website you use that password. And if one site is compromised, your entire web presence is compromised. Your author actually uses a different 20 digit passphrase for every single website he uses and its actually quite easy to manage using a Password Manager.

Password Managers

A password manager is a software program that securely stores many passwords and IDs with the goal of making multiple passwords easier to access and use. A password manager can be very helpful to people who have lots of passwords. Read more about password managers here.

http://community.pepperdine.edu/it/security/password/passmgrs.htm

If that seems like too much work, its probably because it is, but that all depends on how you value your security. Strong passwords take a hacker with lots of computing power a very long time to guess. And if all your passwords are different, having your password compromised on LinkedIn just means that you only have to change that password and not have to worry about your Pepperdine account, Bank account, or whatever password that you may also be using that password on.

If the thieves find a connection to Pepperdine, they will use your account to send spam or attack your identity. This has already happened at Pepperdine!

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students, The Basics

Pepperdine Google Suite

Welcome to the incredibly usefully and incessantly expanding world of Google! Here, you will learn about some of the relevant Google Apps that may help you throughout not only your education career, but also your future life.

You can access Google Apps through your @pepperdine.edu account. For more information on accessing your personal account, please visit the Community page by clicking here. Google Apps includes the following components: Gmail, Sheets, Calendar, Sites, Google Drive (formerly Google Docs), Hangouts, Groups, Contacts, and many more. To learn more about these components and how they will be useful to you at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, please watch the video at the bottom of the page.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a very useful tool that can be accessed anytime, from anywhere, via the internet or the Google Drive App. Some of the feature of Google Drive allow you to:

  1. Share files with people, such as meeting minutes, class notes, and task lists
  2. Collaborate on conference presentations with colleagues
  3. Edit student papers with in-text comments
  4. Backup files (you can never have too many copies!)
  5. Work from home without the need of Remote Desktop or your Work Computer
  6. And more…..

You can even use Google Drive to create and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online. Although Google Drive has its own applications, you can download the Google files to your desktop and they will open in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Collaborate on projects without the hassle of emailing files and version tracking. Multiple Users can edit the Google files at the same time, without conflict. Revisions are saved automatically and Google Drive has a revision tracking feature so you can see what changes were made, when.

Google Drive can also be used as an online repository for all of your important school-related documents. These documents can then be accessed from any computer with Internet access at any time.

GOOGLE DRIVE NOTE:  The Google Drive service allows up to 50gb of storage (combined storage encompasses all Google Suite modules including your Pepperdine email account).

Our friends at University IT have put up some helpful guide information. Check it out today.

Here’s another great article on Google drive with helpful video. Anson Alexander has done great work to make the product accessible to new users–very thorough.

Google Docs

Google Docs is the informal predecessor of Google Drive, if you will. Google Docs allows you to create documents from scratch or from pre-set templates as well as sort your already created documents.

Through Templates, folks at Pepperdine using Google Apps can now share private templates for presentations, documents (like stationary or departmental memos) and spreadsheets. We now have our own private template gallery. Anything you make in Google Docs (or import into Docs from Word, etc) can be offered as a template, shared and rated by the Pepperdine community.

If you’ve never used Templates before in Google Docs, here’s a link to their help page: Google Help: Google Docs Templates

Google Docs has also upped their collaboration tools through quick and easy comments that can be placed on selected portions of a document. If you’ve been staying out of the Cloud, there are some real incentives to get in now.

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a free online spreadsheet tool that is similar to Microsoft Excel. This tool has fewer formatting features that its software-based counterpart, but can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. You can also share spreadsheets with others and save the spreadsheet as multiple file formats including (but not limited to) XLS, PDF, and HTML.

Google Slides

Google Slides is a free, online presentation tool that you can use to create, edit, present, and share slideshows. It is very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, with fewer formatting features. Much like most other Google Apps, Google Slides allows you to collaborate on slideshow presentation with unlimited users.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is Google’s scheduling calendar service that can assist you with time-management through easy organization and helpful reminders. This is nothing short of the most open and configurable calendar offering available today. And while there is a wealth of things you might never do, it never feels like that power gets in the way. If you just want to login and check your appointments and type in new ones you can do that. If you want to go a step farther and have it email you a daily appointment list, that’s available. If you want your cell phone to alert you, that’s just another click away.

Google Chat

Google Chat is an intelligent and secure communication and collaboration tool, built for teams. From ad-hoc messaging to topic-based workstream collaboration, Chat makes it easy to get work done where the conversation is happening.  For more information on Google Chat, click here.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share webpages as well as a nice place to brainstorm and manage projects. Its an easy basic wiki with almost no ramp-up time needed due to no real training being required. Just decide a name for your knowledge base and go. To learn more about Google Sites, click here.

Hong Kha About Us, Faculty, Resources, Students

Login to Panopto with your WaveNet Credentials

If you’ve ever had to miss class before, then you may have asked the professor to have the session recorded via Panopto. You then received a viewing link to view the recording and all you had to do was click on the link and Presto! the recording appeared. Only one small issue with that… a little thing called “security”.

In an effort to ensure a more secure environment for all class recordings, the Panopto service has now moved to an online authentication that prompts you to log into the service with your Pepperdine WaveNet credentials.

This means that when you get a viewing link now, you may have to “login” before you can view the session. This is super easy as long as you have a current Pepperdine network ID. All you have to do is follow the 3 steps listed below to login and “Viola” you’re watching your riveting class recording in no time!

1. Select the drop-down menu for the “Sign-in using” box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Choose the “Pepperdine Network ID” option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Then choose “Sign In” and sign in through the Pepperdine Portal to be connected.

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

Install the LiveSafe App today!

 

 

 

Go ahead and take a moment to go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and download the LiveSafe app onto your mobile device.

The “LiveSafe” app is designed to improve communication between our University community members and Public Safety, and allows for faster emergency response in distress situations.  The app is free and available to all members of our community: students, faculty, staff, parents, visitors, and friends.

Through LiveSafe, you can submit information and chat with Public Safety in both emergency and non-emergency situations, and you can look out for your friends and loved ones by watching them get to their destination safely with SafeWalk. If you need a medical or security escort on the Malibu campus or a ride back to the Malibu campus, you can call Public Safety using the SafeRide feature.  When you submit a tip, you can attach a photo, video clip, or audio clip, and you can submit all of this information anonymously if you choose.  And, when you use LiveSafe to call 911 or contact Public Safety in an emergency, the app can track your location, which helps first responders know exactly where help is needed.

We’ve also loaded critical information resources into the app, so you now have emergency response information and contact information for key University services at your fingertips anytime, anywhere—even internationally.[i]

Here’s how you can get the app:

  1. Open Google Play or the Apple App Store on your phone. Search for “LiveSafe” and download the option with the blue shield.
  2. Tap “Sign up.” Fill in your profile information and create a password.  (You are welcome to use your personal, non-Pepperdine e-mail address. We suggest that you do not use the same username and password as you use for the Pepperdine Central Authentication Server.)
  3. “Pepperdine University” may pop-up if you are close to the campus. If so, tap “Yes.” Otherwise tap “Change” to select “Pepperdine University” as your institution.

[i]  Most of the app’s features will work internationally, so long as you have a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection.  You will still be able to submit tips and information to Public Safety, and you will be able to utilize the SafeWalk feature.  However, the “Call 911” option is programmed for US emergency dispatch only and will not automatically route to local first responders. In an emergency situation overseas, it will be important to dial the correct 911-equivalent number for your location. You can find this information at http://travel.state.gov.

[Above text pulled from http://emergency.pepperdine.edu/livesafe/ on 8/15/2017]

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

Change Your Password

Login Form Image

You’ve probably seen or heard of the myriad of recent news headlines where popular organizations like Twitter or Evernote have been hacked. These organizations assure us that our data is not compromised, and advise us to change our passwords or they promptly change our passwords for us to reduce the amount of damage a hacker can do. There is often more to the story, and even passwords we think are quite clever may be cracked with relative ease. The blog Ars Technica featured a couple of stories recently about passwords, which I recommend you read. There are a few examples of presumably safe passwords that were cracked with relative ease. The first article described how a blog editor managed to crack passwords with some basic tools, and can be found here. The second is a follow-up article, where the consulting hackers took a shot at the same list. You can view that one here. They are both fairly detailed but I encourage you to read all the way to the end.

There is a convenient graphic that illustrates the complexity of certain passwords, which I also encourage you to read. It can be found here.

Safe passwords are hard(er) to crack. You cannot rely on a website to properly encrypt your password, as we have seen in the news so often lately. Password managers can be a useful tool to generate random passwords for you, if you are concerned you cannot come up with a good password. The downside is that these passwords will be nearly impossible to remember, which then requires a master password that you can remember. There are a number of password applications out there, KeePass and LastPass among the more popular options. Which one you choose is up to you. Be sure to look for apps for your chosen smartphone as well, so you can be safe from whatever device you are using.

Our own Julie Tausend also recently wrote a post on information security. In it, you’ll find links to university services and policies that can be useful to you in securing your information. You can also go straight to the source for passwords and other types of security at community.pepperdine.edu/it/security.

Be safe out there, and be sure to CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS!

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

MyID Password Reset Errors

The Password Reset- Error Messages includes screenshots of various error messages that may be seen in MyID when attempting to reset a password.

Note that the https://myid.pepperdine.edu website provides some additional resources, including a link to verify/update your MyID profile, a link which can be used to change a known password, and a short training video.

1. The user’s profile information is blank.

myid7

2. The user doesn’t recognize the email or phone number that the PIN was sent to.
myid8

3. The system doesn’t recognize the user.
myid9

Note: All of these messages direct you to go to: https://myid.pepperdine.edu/help

This URL will:

  • Link to our new Password Reset Request Form.
  • Generate a help desk ticket for Anytime Support.
  • Anytime Support (the Password Reset Group), will help people update their profiles.