Frequently Asked Questions by Faculty

FAQs

A P number is a number the college uses to identify you and your records. It is a capital letter P followed by 8 digits.

A Pellissippi State username is generated for students when they are accepted to the college. Your username will include one or more initials, your last name and sometimes a number. This username is used to access PSCC resources.

Look up your username and P number

Look at our Problems Logging In page for suggestions and information.

• If you are logged in on a PC on campus, you can press CTRL+ALT+DEL, and choose “Change a password” from the menu that appears.
• In Outlook Web Access, click the settings wheel in the top right, and “Change password” will appear as an option on the settings menu.
• Go to our online Password Change Utility page (also available via the Problems Logging In page).

The main HelpDesk office is on the Hardin Valley campus in the Educational Resource Center (ERC) in room 319.

The HelpDesk also has site campus locations in student open computer labs at all site campuses.

• Blount County Campus -Room174
• Division Street Campus - Room 208
• Magnolia Avenue Campus - Room 140D
• Strawberry Plains Campus – Room 2654

Pellissippi State provides several options for storing your digital files and projects.

OneDrive

Microsoft's cloud-based storage option, OneDrive, is included with the Office 365 subscription of each PSCC student, faculty and staff member. It provides:

• 1 TB storage space for each user
• Ability to access files from any supported web browser on any device on or off campus
• Option to edit files using online version of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote
• Option to sync OneDrive files with your personally owned device running Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Android or iOS

How to access your PSCC OneDrive

How to share files on OneDrive

H: Drive

When on campus, all Pellissippi State students, faculty, and staff have access to a networked file storage area called the H: drive. Your personal H: drive and any files you save to it will be accessible to you when you login to any campus computer. Your H: drive provides:

• 500 MB storage space (Faculty and Staff may get access to more space if needed)
• Ability to access files quickly from any PSCC computer on campus, including classroom computers, lab computers, and instructor workstations for presentations
• The H: drive is not available when using personal laptops and mobile devices connected on campus via a PSCC wireless network.

Using your PSCC H: drive

Filelocker

Faculty and Staff are eligible for a PSCC Filelocker account, which provides a secure method to share files with others both on and off the PSCC campus.

How to use Filelocker

In college policy 08:13:01 COMPUTER USAGE, the policy states:

All laptops and peripheral storage devices such as thumb drives must be encrypted. All mobile devices that access college e-mail or FERPA information must have a passcode.

College Laptops

Every College-owned laptop and portable storage device should be encrypted. Encryption will offer an added level of security in case of theft or loss of equipment. Data protection is essential and required for all Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is the federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It is our goal to encrypt every College-owned laptop during this FY. We are now using BitLocker as our encryption tool for laptops and flash drives that do not have built-in encryption. It is advised that you keep private records on our SECURE network servers. Your H:\ drive is an example of a safe place to store this data if your job requires such storage. Please refer to policy:

Flash Drives

To avoid risk of accidental loss of sensitive college information from portable media, all such devices should be encrypted. Two options are available for this encryption.

• Purchase an encrypted flash drive.
• Download Bitlocker's free software to encrypt your flashdrive (Bitlocker To-Go)
  • About Bitlocker
  • Bitlocker To-Go Download

While on campus, you should be able to access the Pellissippi State wireless network from any internet accessible mobile device.

Faculty, staff and students should choose the PSCC wireless network and enter your PSCC username and password when prompted. Checking the "Connect automatically" option will eliminate the need to enter your username and password each time you connect in the future. However, when your password changes, the automatic connection will fail, and you will need to enter your new password on your device.

Pellissippi State guests should use the PSCC_Guest network and enter a valid email address on the registration page. Registration for this network will allow access for only 24 hours.

More detailed information about PSCC wireless networks is in our knowledgebase article.

The address is fac_staff-L@listserv.pstcc.edu, and we suggest always typing this address completely out and not allowing auto-complete to enter the address. The listserv is maintained by NTS to include all full-time and part-time employees. It is moderated so messages may be delayed getting distributed.

Items which have been in the Deleted Items folder longer than 15 days will automatically be removed.

Items which have been in the Sent Items folder longer than 60 days will automatically be removed. If you would like to keep copies of your sent items longer, you can move them to a different folder. Sent Items and Deleted Items are the only folders which are automatically cleaned out by the email system. Items in all other folders will remain until you delete them.

You can access your email account by opening the Pellissippi State home page and clicking the Webmail link from the Resources menu at the top right of the page.

If you are full time or are currently on contract with PSCC, your accounts will be active between semesters. If you are not currently teaching or are not on contract with PSCC, your accounts will be inactive, and will not work for most services.

Due to Pellissippi State policies, none of our technical support staff are allowed to work on equipment which is not owned by the college.

Send an email request to helpdesk@pstcc.edu.

Other employees cannot access files on your H: drive, but if you need to share files with other PSCC employees, a shared drive can set up for you separate from your H: drive. Your department may already have a shared drive which will meet your needs.

You can also share files shared on your OneDrive (from Office 365) with others - both inside and outside of the college. You can also control how long files are shared and if they are editable or just viewable.

To get access to a shared drive, or to request a new one be set up, please send an email request to helpdesk@pstcc.edu. To learn more about Office 365 and sharing files on OneDrive, view our Knowledgebase article.

There is no standard size limit policy on the files in personal H: drives. As you see free space getting low, the system should allocate more space for you. If you find you are out of space, please contact the helpdesk.

Passwords expire every 120 days. Faculty and staff are welcome to change passwords before they expire, to prevent possible stress of password expiration during a crunch time of the semester. If you login to your account on campus, you will receive a reminder notice to change your password beginning 14 days prior to expiration date. If you login only from off campus, you will not see these warnings.

Faculty and staff can enroll in a PSCC service called Virtual Desktop, which enables access from off campus to personal H: drives and shared departmental network drives, and allows operations in Banner which are not otherwise accessible from off campus.

Users can sign up for this service by following the instructions in our Virtual Desktop knowledgebase article.

Complete the APS Security Request Form which is found in myPellissippi, on the Employee page, under the College Forms section.

Detailed instructions with screenshots can be found here.

1. The person requesting access should complete all the required fields (marked with red star).
2. If requested permissions are identical to those of an existing employee account, this may be specified by typing the employee username in the "Duplicate security" box.
3. Please mark the checkbox for each access requested and click the "Next" button at the bottom of the form.
4. Details for each requested access will appear on subsequent screens.
5. The requester should continue through all screens and add their electronic signature on the final screen.
6. At submission, the request will be forwarded to the Helpdesk, who will disseminate the individual request(s) to the appropriate Data Owner(s) and APS Analyst(s).
7. A member of the APS group will set up the requested security and inform the requester by e-mail that the security has been established.

Through our licenses with two vendors (Microsoft and Adobe), we are able to offer employees software to use at home through a “Work at Home” option. As we start gearing up for the final push through the semester and into the summer, we thought it would be good to remind you how to access these packages for your home use.

Microsoft Office is available at no cost at home by going to your Office 365 account (log in at office.com) and clicking the “Install Office 2016” button in the top right. You can load Office on up to five devices including desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The PC suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, Publisher, Outlook, Skype for Business, and OneDrive for Business. You can also download Office for your Mac, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Skype for Business and OneDrive. Remember: if you need an Office upgrade for your office computer, please contact the Helpdesk. Downloading and installing the Office 365 version will not work on our network.

Adobe Creative Cloud is available at home for employees as well.

This includes access to all or part of the Creative Cloud suite of applications including:

• Photoshop® CC [Image editing and compositing.]
• Lightroom® CC [photo organization and editing]
• Illustrator® CC [Vector graphics and illustration.]
• InDesign® CC [Page design, layout, and publishing.]
• Dreamweaver® CC [Websites, app design, and coding.]
• After Effects® CC [Cinematic visual effects and motion graphics.]
• Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC [Video production and editing.]
• Adobe Muse™ Pro CC [Website design without coding.]

And there are LOTS more applications in the Creative Cloud suite.

For more information about using Office 365, contact the Helpdesk or visit the Office 365 overview knowledgebase page

For instructions on the Adobe Creative Cloud home purchase option, contact the Helpdesk.