Work from Home Resources for Faculty and Staff

In the event of emergency such as snow storms or any other disrupting events, it is important to stay in communication with your colleagues and students while working from home.  William James College provides various tools to maintain communication and operation.  However, we encourage you to plan ahead and learn how to use these resources before a situation requires you to work off-campus.

PLEASE NOTE - if you work with financial information, student records or other confidential information, you are required to access these data via a computer with proper encryption.  All school issued laptops and lending laptops are properly encrypted.  If a situation arises and you need a lending laptop, please see information about lending laptop)

When You Need Any Support

IT Helpdesk is always available via support@williamjames.edu by email, and http://support.williamjames.edu via the web for helpful instructions and tips. The WJC IT Helpdesk has remote support capability via GoToAssist/RescueAssist to set up a remote troubleshooting session.

Productivity Tools and Email (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook is available for all faculty and staff via online access.  (Learn More about Office 365)

Personal File Storage and Access (OneDrive)

If you have migrated your files to OneDrive, you can access all your files online and remotely, as well as sync your online files to your computer.  If you haven't, you should plan the migration ASAP so your files can be backed up and access remotely.  (Learn more about OneDrive)

Team Communication and Collaboration (Microsoft Teams)

Most of the departments have moved to the Teams platform.  From Teams,  you can access and sync your department files remotely to your computer, instantly chat with your teammates and colleagues, set up a phone or video conference, as well as collaborating a document online.  Any department that has not yet migrated to Teams platform should plan to do so ASAP.  (Learn more about Teams

Voicemail and Call Forwarding

If you have a designated WJC phone extension, any voicemails you received will automatically be emailed to your WJC email account as both an audio file as well as transcribed message if able.  You may also want to update your voicemail greeting to inform callers for any important message you wish to notify.  (Learn more about updating your voicemail remotely)

Phone calls to your phone extension can be forwarded to any external phone number with some quick configurations.  Please note, the call forwarding does not work for workgroup calls.  (Learn how to set up to forward your call).  Please Note - if you are redirecting calls to your personal cell phone, phone usage fee may be applied to your cell phone account.  Forwarding call is not necessary if you have installed goto connect app on your smart phone or on your computer.  You can use the GoTo Connect app to receive incoming office calls or dial outgoing calls using your office extension or direct dial number.  (Learn how to set up Goto Connect)

IMPORTANT - we strongly recommend you to call your team member and colleagues using Teams to reduce the the phone usage fee incurs on your personal phone service.  (Learn about Calling with Teams)

Sending and Receiving Fax

If you already have an assigned fax number, your incoming fax will still be sent to your email account without any issue.

If fax sending capability is critical while you are working remotely, the WJC IT office can set up a temporary fax number for staff to send fax remotely. There is a limited number of accounts available therefore please refrain from request one unless it is absolutely necessary.

Video or Audio Conferencing

Zoom, which is integrated with Canvas and YuJa, is now available to all faculty.  Zoom allows you to have online meetings with anyone who has an internet connection, including mobile users.  (Learn more about Zoom)

However, for a quick video conference meeting with your colleagues online, Teams is available to all WJC members.  To video chat or screen sharing with a colleague in Teams, it is literally 3 clicks away. (Learn more about Chat and Video conferencing function in Teams)

*We always recommend using a headphone during video or audio conferencing for better audio quality.

Learning Management System (Canvas) and YuJa

For instructors to keep in touch with the class, record lectures via YuJa, publish assignments, and many other features to allow instructors to conduct classes online.  Don't forget to email / inform the class using Canvas to keep them informed of the situation.  The Office of Online Learning has published several options to replace Traditional Class Teaching Methods (See Traditional Class Replacement Options)

(Learn more about Canvas or Learn more about lecture capturing with YuJa)

(Learn more about communicating with the class using Canvas)

Update Your Emergency Notification

WJC sends out emergency alerts to your phone or SMS via Rave Alert.  If you have not signed up or would like to update your contact info, you can learn more about Emergency Alert here.

Have more questions? Submit a request

Comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Powered by Zendesk