Remote Working Resources
OIT Support for Valencia College Employees
Where to Get Help
OIT is committed to assisting you in the transition of working remotely. We have a team standing by to provide 1-1 support to help you with any questions or issues you may encounter.
Faculty and Staff Support
OIT Service Desk
7AM – 6PM M-F
Student Support
Atlas Help
Canvas Support
Support Hotline
24x7
Knowledge Base
For self guided help with common questions, visit the IT Help knowledge base.
Information Security
Information security remains a critical priority for us and in times of emergency, it’s easy to let our guard down. Especially with colleagues working from home, it is of utmost importance to use good information security protocols.
- Do not use open/public WiFi networks to conduct college business.
- Use the College’s VPN tool to securely connect to the college network to access services
such as Banner, I-Drive, and S-Drive.
Please note, VPN is not required to access email. - Avoid storing personal information about students or employees on flash drives or personal cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox. OneDrive for Business and Teams, are both available through https://portal.office.com, are the only sanctioned cloud-based file sharing and storage services.
- Use anti-malware protection on personal devices used to access work applications and data. Also, make sure to keep personal devices up-to-date with software and operating system patches and security updates.
- Bad actors are taking advantage of the current global pandemic and are increasing their social engineering attacks. Please be mindful and do not click on phishing emails. If you receive a suspicious email, please report through the Outlook reporting tool available on the desktop and web versions of Outlook.
- Remember to maintain a secure environment when working remotely. Make sure that your computer screen is not visible to others and make sure to sign-off or lock your screen before leaving your computer unattended.
- Never leave your devices or laptop in your car unattended.
Anti-virus Software
Free Anti-virus software for 6 months for employees – It is important to ensure your computer is protected from malicious actors, and even more so if you are leveraging VPN. If you don’t currently have anti-virus software on your personal computer, our partner, Trend Micro is offering this for free for employees for 6 months.
VPN
Remote access to Banner, network drives (I-Drive & S-Drive), and department servers require the use of a VPN. Your supervisor must first make the request by emailing the OIT Service Desk, at OITServiceDesk@valenciacollege.edu, with the name(s) of the individual(s) they would like VPN access granted to. Once the request has been processed, you will need to install the desktop application, if it is not already. There are two sets of instructions depending on your computer operating system platform. Instructions for Windows and Mac computers are available on the OIT Help portal.
A few important things to note.
- VPN is not required to access Atlas, Canvas, or your email. Email, Teams, OneDrive and other Office 365 applications can be accessed at https://portal.office.com. Use your Valencia email address and password to access.
- VPN access may be slower than your on-campus experience. There are multiple factors that are outside the control of OIT, including your home Internet service and the network path back to the college’s datacenters, which may contribute to the slowness or inconsistency of a connection.
- VPN connections may disconnect from time to time. Due to the number of concurrent users and the variables of the connection previously mentioned, if encounter a brief disconnection, try to reconnect. If you encounter further connection issues, please report them to OIT.
- Only connect via VPN when absolutely necessary. We have limited availability and your connection may prohibit others from connecting.
- When VPN is enabled, you are connected to the College network and all traffic will funnel through the College’s internet connections. Thus local network-connected devices at your home, as well as some personal sites and applications may not work while connected to VPN.
VPN is not needed for direct access to SAS. Sign into SAS.
TeamDynamix Knowledge Base
Simplifying VPN requests
In order to simplify and more rapidly fulfil your requests, we have created a direct link for VPN requests. Supervisors, please create a request for your employees that require this access.
Outlook Email
Your Outlook email (username@valenciacollege.edu) is accessible via Office 365. You can most easily connect to it and other Office 365 resources via https://portal.office.com. Simply sign in using your valenciacollege.edu email address and password.
Email: username@valenciacollege.edu
Password: your Atlas password
If you do access this via Atlas and receive an error, you may be attempting to log-in with with your username@mail.valenciacollege.edu email address. Visit this knowledge base article for instructions to assist with this issue.
Microsoft Office 365
We highly recommend you download all Office products to include Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams when prompted. This will simplify your use of the product and enhance your online experience. The easiest way to access Office 365 is via: https://portal.office.com.
Knowledge Base Article:
Microsoft Teams and
Skype for Business
We highly recommend the use of Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business. While either will work for your one-on-one calls or larger meetings, Microsoft Teams is hosted in Office 365 and not subject to any bandwidth constraints. We also recommend using your camera during these calls and meetings to enhance your experience, if available.
Zoom
Zoom is an easy cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat and webinars across mobile devices, desktops and telephones. This is an alternative option to using Skype for Business for video and audio conferencing. Zoom is available to students and employees and integrates with Canvas.
Knowledge Base Article:
Zoom – Best Practices for Meeting Hosts
Zoom – Guidance for Recording on Zoom and Similar Platforms