Cooper  IT  Resources and  News: Fall 2020

Welcome back, 

The Department of Information Technology (IT) has several new resources and updates to share with you for on campus and remote teaching and learning for the fall semester. 

Introducing the new IT Website! Here you can find quick access to the following information and more: 

New Technology coming for students and faculty: AWS AppStream 

Amazon AppStream is a fully managed application streaming service. With AppStream, IT can centrally manage and provide access to desktop applications to any number of faculty and staff or students across the world. This flexibility will allow IT to provide remote access to high-end computing and rendering power like never before. As we roll out this new technology to the community, IT will provide updates on access and availability. 

Classroom Teaching Technology: As a reminder, Cooper Union offers three teaching platforms. You can refer to our website IT Training Resources for more information. Here is a quick overview. 

Microsoft Teams Classroom - This is Cooper Unions main application for virtual instruction. A Teams Classroom is collection of, conversations, files, and tools all in one place.  Here you can have video sessions, share files and collaborate with your students. There will be a separate Teams Classroom for every class you are registered to teach. The Teams classroom is made available automatically to you in the Teams application based on information from our school information system. Students who are registered for the class will already be assigned to the Team.  

By now faculty should see your most, if not all, of your classrooms populated in Teams. As the registrar makes changes (edits, adds and drops) IT will be updating this information in Teams daily. 

Note:  If you haven’t done so already, please ensure you activate your Teams classrooms so that your students are fully enrolled (see attachment). 

Zoom – Zoom is selectively available upon request to use as a virtual video solution, however there is no file storage, file sharing, classroom assignment or robust chat capabilities. Aside from the co-annotation feature, Teams offers all other features. Email ITsupport@cooper.edu to request a Cooper education license. 

Moodle - Moodle is a full learning management solution (LMS). This is a legacy system that Faculty still like to use. You can add your syllabus, weekly topics, assignments and quizzes to this page. Moodle does not offer video and screensharing capabilities.  

You are not required to use all these solutions. For example, you can use Teams for video/file sharing and Moodle for more advanced LMS features.  It is up to you and your department what best suits your style of pedagogy.   

Teams and Zoom Training: In addition to self-guided Training Resources, IT will be hosting training sessions for Microsoft Teams and Zoom over the next few weeks. For one-on-one introductory training in Teams or Zoom, please email ITSupport@cooper.edu. 

Departmental pedagogical support is on the way, stay tuned for details on when those are scheduled for your department. 

As always, if you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to us by email (ITSupport@cooper.edu), Microsoft Teams Chat or by phone. 

Regards, 
Cooper IT Team 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.