Student IT Skills and Resources

Certain skills are necessary for you to effectively use information technology. A document outlining and explaining these is at:

< http://www.unimelb.edu.au/infdiv/stuskills.html>

Directly after the orientation period and throughout the academic year, a range of IT Skills seminars for undergraduate students is being offered. These seminars are free of charge and run for 1.5 hours. You must book for these seminars online at < http://www.studentit.unimelb.edu.au/bookings/classes/>. When you book, details of your booking and a receipt number are provided on-screen. Note down this receipt number, and the date and time of the course. The number of places is limited, so make sure you book early!

Please note that (with the exception of Introduction to Operating Systems - Windows) these courses are run in Macintosh laboratories. All course material covered is applicable to both Mac and PC users.

Five seminars are available. They are:

There are two seminars offered here, one for the Windows operating system and one for the Macintosh operating system. Both seminars will include the following topics:

Starting a computer and shutting down the computer properly; exploring the desktop; working with icons and windows; managing files and applications; using multiple applications; printers and Help.

This seminar is the same on Windows and Macintosh platforms and will include the following topics:

Starting and navigating through Word menus; creating new documents; entering, editing and formatting text; cutting, copying and pasting text; using styles; formatting headers/footers and page numbering; using tables; spell checking; saving and printing documents.

Obtaining an email account; configuring email; sending and receiving email; using the email directory.

Overview of creating basic powerpoint presentations including creating slides, and incorporating simple text and graphics.

This seminar is the same on Windows and Macintosh platforms and will include the following topics:

Acronyms and terminology; using a browser and downloading files; Internet addressing; discussion of file types (PDF, ZIP); compressing/decompressing files; searching the Internet; and accessing useful resources such as the Library via the Campus Wide Information System.

The seminars also include an overview of:

• The use of Information Technology in learning at the University of Melbourne;
• University Regulations and ethical considerations regarding the use of IT equipment;
• The types of computer facilities available;
• An overview of computer software and hardware available for use at the University of Melbourne.

Check the following URL for more information including seminar descriptions and schedules.

< http://www.unimelb.edu.au/student/IT-skills.html>

A seminar schedule is in Table 7.1. Check the above URL for updates to the schedule throughout the year.

Table 7.1

Self-paced learning materials for common desktop software, are available at the ITC student laboratory (see Section 3.1.2). This laboratory is at the Information Technology Centre at 800 Swanston St. The Centre is open from 8am to 10pm on weekdays during semester. Lab attendants are available from 9am to 5pm.

A virus is a piece of software that installs itself on your computer without your knowledge. Once resident on your computer, the virus replicates itself and does its best to spread to other computers that you may be in contact with. The main way viruses used to spread was by people passing floppy disks around; these days email is the main way that computer viruses propagate.

Some viruses are benign - they don't actually do any damage to your computer. Some, however, are malicious, and alter the contents of files, or even delete files. Some viruses are reputed to be able to erase the hard disk.

Virus Checker programs are programs that specialise in seeking out viruses on computers and removing them.

There are two Virus Checker programs available for use at Melbourne University: VirusScan and Virex. VirusScan is for PC users and Virex is for Macintosh users.

An important note: virus-checking software must be kept up to date. A virus that is developed and spread in the year 2001 is unlikely to be detected by a virus checker that was installed in 1999. You should regularly update your anti-virus software.

VirusScan virus protection software is available to all staff and current students. It can be found at:

< ftp://ftp.unimelb.edu.au/unimelb-only/anti-virus/>

The University is licensed to load VirusScan on all University machines. In addition, all University staff and students are entitled to install VirusScan on their home machines. Once you leave the University, however, you are obliged to delete the software.

Virex virus protection software is available to all staff and current students. It can be found at:

< ftp://ftp.unimelb.edu.au/unimelb-only/anti-virus/>

The University is licensed to load VirusScan on all University machines. In addition, all University staff and students are entitled to install VirusScan on their home machines. Once you leave the University, however, you are obliged to delete the software.

For more information about viruses, read the ITS InfoSheet No. 125: "Computer Viruses: How to 'keep yourself nice'" which is available at:

< http://www.its.unimelb.edu.au/InfoSheets/125/>

The Student Information System (SIS) is one of the most popular websites in the University. It gives you quick and easy access to information of importance to students - from general course information to specific details from your own enrolment record.

Looking up results over the Internet is one of the main attractions of the SIS. All results are published on the SIS - and if you prefer you can also use the SIS to order a Statement of Results to be sent to you by mail. In just one session on the Internet, you can use the SIS to:

• check your subject timetable;
• view your personal exam timetable;
• look up your results;
• change your Enrolment Questionnaire;
• register a HECS partial payment;
• change your fees instalment plan;
• create a personalised booklist for your subjects;
• search for student accommodation and employment opportunities.

Towards the end of the year many students use the SIS to manage their subject selection and enrolment for next year. Another feature of the Student Information System is a useful index of link. The index is a handy way to find information about your course, important dates, student life and the University in general. You will find the Student Information System at:

< http://sis.unimelb.edu.au/>

Figure 7.1

Figure 7.1 shows the SIS homepage, and will give you some idea of the sorts of information you can find on the SIS. The Student Information System is compatible with most browsers; however, for the best results Netscape version 3 or higher is recommended.

The Information Division offers a number of services that students can access through the web. The URL is:

< http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au>

or you can access it from the University's home page.

This page is a gateway to a range of electronic resources, services, information about collections and home pages of the many branch libraries in the university.

Buddy has been developed to make it easy to locate electronic information for essays, research papers and assignments.

Buddy is a web based subject gateway which directs you to a whole range of subject specific CD ROM databases and web databases which index many thousands of journal articles, full text electronic journals, conference proceedings, library catalogues from around the world and the WWW. It can be accessed from any computer on campus. Figure 7.2 shows the Buddy web page.

Figure 7.2

If you have Internet access from your home and have a university email account, then you can access and search the databases via Buddy.

Five of the branch libraries have Buddy workstations and they are located in the following libraries: the Baillieu Library (Arts &Humanities), Brownless Biomedical Library (Medicine, Health Sciences, Botany and Zoology), Giblin Economics and Commerce Library, Education Resource Centre, and Engineering Library. In addition to these sites you can access Buddy from any computer on campus. Buddy can be booked for use during the normal opening hours of each individual library.

Buddy is for use by University of Melbourne students and staff only.

The online catalogue is accessible via the Web. The online catalogue includes the holdings of:

• The University of Melbourne branch libraries
• Victorian College of the Arts
• Melbourne Business School

The catalogues are available over the web at:

< http://cat.lib.unimelb.edu.au/>

Figure 7.3 shows the catalogue web page.

Figure 7.3

The catalogue can be accessed by any laboratory computer in the University, or in any of the branch libraries, the Buddy workstations in the Baillieu, Brownless Biomedical Library, Giblin Economics and Commerce Library, ERC and Engineering library, computer labs or from home via the web. No usernames or passwords are needed.

If you use the Inbound Proxy service as described in Section 4.3, you should be able to access all of the library's information resources over the WWW.

New products and developments in electronic information resource delivery are happening at a very rapid pace. If you need assistance in accessing electronic resources ask a staff member at the Information Desk in your branch library. Online reference help is available at the following web site:

< http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/services/inquiry.htm>

Exam papers are available at:

< http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/unimelb-only/exam/exams.html>

You can search for exam papers by Faculty/School/Department or by subject.

Access is restricted to The University of Melbourne community only. Recent exam papers are in portable document format (PDF). You need to download and install Acrobat Reader (free) to read these files. The Windows version of Acrobat Reader is available from:

< ftp://ftp.unimelb.edu.au/pub/www/helpers/ms-windows/acrobat>

and the Macintosh version is available from:

< ftp://ftp.unimelb.edu.au/pub/www/helpers/macintosh/acrobat>

The Information Division offers students many opportunities to increase information literacy abilities by giving introductory and advanced classes on:

• the catalogue;
• the electronic access point to indexes and journal articles on-line (Buddy);
• searching for journal articles;
• evaluating WWW resources;
• managing references and citations collected for essays and theses,(EndNote);
• literature reviews.

You can look at classes offered, and book into class sessions at

< http://xena.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cgi/libclass>

There is a general introduction to information research at

< http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/catalogues/libresearch/>

and some useful tips and tricks can be picked up at

< http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/catalogues/searching.html>

for catalogue searching.

You can send reference queries to the Information Division at

< http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/services/inquiry.htm>

Division staff are available and willing to help you at all of the branches with any difficulties encountered.

Date Created:  07-Feb-2001
Last Modified: 07-Feb-2001
Authorized by: Director, Client Services, Information Division
Maintained by: Paul Edwards
Copyright © 2001 The University of Melbourne