Good morning, everyone.

Last week I let you know about an upcoming change across UT with regards to email, collaboration, file storage, etc. Shortly after sending the newsletter, I got some questions about things the UTIA community has been using directly with their UTK Google accounts. I asked some questions about these things and want to share with you what I was told.

Upcoming Changes

• Microsoft 365 Transition
  • In last week’s newsletter I told you about the University transitioning from Google to Microsoft as the supported university-wide platform for email, collaboration, tools, and storage.
  • Again, I would like to make it clear that “Gmail” and “Google” being mentioned here refer to the UTK Google app.
  • I had gotten a couple of really good questions about specific apps that you use with your UTK Google account, so I did a little digging.
  • Here are the questions and the responses I received:
    • We have a license with Nearpod and it works directly with Google. Will we still be able to use Nearpod in the way we have been?
      • One of the UTK trainers has told me that, while they no longer support Nearpod, they have found that it does work with Microsoft.
      • She gave me this link Microsoft Integrations | Nearpod to share with you all so you can read more about integrating Microsoft with Nearpod.
      • She also said that if you have questions about learning Microsoft products and how to use them, you can call the UTK OIT HelpDesk at (865) 974-9900, and they can help you find the training you need.
      • She also added that if your department will volunteer to go early, the department will have better control when the overall transition is done. (I highly recommend this, as well.)
    • Our county agents have used their UTK Google accounts to create educational YouTube channels for subscribers. How will the move away from Google impact these YouTube channels?
      • The person with whom I spoke at the UTK OIT HelpDesk told me that OIT recommends that official UT channels be converted to a brand account.
      • She said that additional information about this process will be available soon and no action is needed until the new guidelines are available.
      • She did add that if there are non-university business YouTube channels you may have concerns about, these need to be converted to a personal account. (I know that you are asking about the university-business accounts, but I wanted to share this, too.)
      • She also shared a link with me that I had not seen last week for FAQ: Transitioning From Google Services that has some really good information.
  • To learn more about what will happen, please visit UTK’s OIT site Transition to Microsoft, as there are resources available to help you prepare.
  • I will continue to share information about this transition as I find out about it.

Important Security Tips

• Managers of Shared Mailboxes
  • When people terminate from UTIA or transfer to a different department or campus, I remove access to UTIA Active Directory (AD) groups.
  • There are certain AD groups for which I cannot remove accesses and this includes shared mailboxes.
  • If you manage a shared mailbox and you know someone in that group has left, please remove them from the mailbox.
  • If you manage one of these shared mailboxes but have no way of knowing when someone leaves your department, please send me an email and I will send those names to you when I see the access is there.
  • Email access does not go away immediately, so the people in those shared mailbox groups will continue to receive those emails until they are removed or until their NetID/email account expires.
  • While we don’t want to think a coworker would do anything detrimental, it is a possibility.
  • Continuing to receive emails from these groups could easily provide information they should not have access to regardless of why they left.

Thank you all for everything you do. I appreciate that you pay such close attention to potential issues and you do everything possible to help keep the Institute’s data safe, as well as the University’s and your own. I am always here to help you, so please let me know if you ever have a question or concern!

Sandy

Important Note: Thank you so much for sharing these e-newsletters with family, friends, clients, students, and anyone else who may benefit from the information. I would like to stress that you should keep your students in mind, as non-employee students will not get this information without someone sharing. If anyone else has an email group for students who are not employees of your department, please let me know that address and I can include it. I do this as a blind copy so student names and addresses will not show up!