CLS Orientation - Technology Guide

Owned by Adam Dinnes
Last updated: Feb 24, 2022
6 min read



Welcome to Beloit!

Luckily, you can enjoy 21st-century technology alongside Beloit’s ancient Indigenous mounds and historic 19th-century buildings. Here’s some important information on how to get plugged in on campus.

Photo of Mayer Hall



Getting Technology Help

If at any point in your campus adventure you run into a technology roadblock, reach out to Beloit Information Technology Services (LITS), for help.  Support requests can be submitted through our Help Desk ticketing system (preferred), or by email, phone, or walk-in.  LITS is located on the second floor of Mayer Hall and is open from 7:30am - 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. 

Need after hours help? Check out our self-service technology help articles on the LITS Knowledge Base.

Help Desk Technician Icon



Accounts and Passwords

LITS Beloit College IT system passwords serve several purposes, such as preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information and helping faculty, staff, and students prove their identity to campus computer systems.  LITS uses a central account/password directory to authenticate sign-on to most of our systems. Use your Beloit College account to access: Moodle, The Portal, campus computers, BCNet wireless network, G Suite apps (Gmail, Calendar, Drive), Belcat (Library catalog), campus directories, and more.

For more information on passwords at Beloit College, including information on guidelines and best practices, enrolling in Password Manager, changing your password, resetting a forgotten password, and more, please visit:



 



What Type of Computer Should I Bring?

All students can utilize Beloit’s many computer labs. However, most students also choose to bring their own desktop, laptop or tablet computer.  LITS maintains an article detailing our hardware standards for faculty and staff campus computer purchases - this may be a good place to start when considering what type of computer you may want to bring to campus. 



Campus (FREE) Software

Beloit provides some necessary communication, collaboration, productivity, and security software to current students at no cost.  Abbreviated information on some software is available below - for more details on campus software, please visit LITS Service Catalog - Software & Applications.



Antivirus

BITS requires that any computers connecting to the campus network have antivirus software with up-to-date virus definitions installed. You are welcome to use any antivirus software that you prefer. LITS offers Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) to any currently enrolled students for use on Apple or Windows-based computers. Installation instructions and file download links can be found at the link below.  You will be required to provide your current Beloit College account credentials before proceeding to the download page.



G Suite

Beloit College uses the Google G Suite for Education (formerly Google Apps or GAE) platform for email, calendaring, productivity, and collaboration.  To access campus G Suite applications, navigate to mail.beloit.edu and use your Beloit account credentials to login.  Gmail will be displayed by default, but other G Suite applications can be accessed from the app launcher in the upper right corner.  For more information on G Suite applications:



Internet Access on Campus

The Beloit College campus offers wired and wireless networking in all campus buildings.  There is also significant outdoor wireless coverage accessible outside of Pearsons Hall and on the residential quad. The wireless network for students, faculty and staff is called BCNet.  Parents, friends and other visitors are able to utilize our guest wireless network by connecting to BCGuest. 

For help connecting to our wireless networks, see:

Each residence hall room has a wired network port; to utilize this connection, you will need an Ethernet cable, either 14’ long (most rooms) or 25’ (some special cases). You may obtain a cable at no cost from LITS.  Wired network ports can be easily identified by the color-coded orange or blue connection port and the Dxxx label.  White or almond colored wall ports are for landline phone connections and have a Vxxx label. Devices that will be connected to the campus wired network must be registered once per academic year.

Since our BCNet and BCGuest wireless network is available in all academic and residential buildings, LITS does not allow personal wireless routers on campus.  Please review the Personal Wireless Router Policy for more details.



Moodle

Moodle (an acronym for modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment) is the open-source online learning management system (LMS) used by Beloit College. Moodle can be used for posting syllabi, course readings, class forums, assessments, grading, creating online activities for students, and more.  Moodle is maintained and supported by the Instructional Technology office in the Library.

Beloit College maintains several separate instances of Moodle:

  • Moodle - for all current academic year courses

  • Moodle Archive - for past courses (only accessible on campus)

Please visit the Moodle Help course for tutorials and other information about working in and with Moodle.  The Moodle Help course contains instructional guides for both instructors and students with information to help you get started using Moodle.

The Portal

The Portal (portal.beloit.edu/ics) is the web interface to the Jenzabar administrative database system. CLS faculty will need to enter student grades at the end of the grading period through the Portal and students will access their grades through this interface following the completion of the course.






Campus Computer Labs

The Beloit College campus has several computer labs and public computer areas available to current students, faculty, and staff for general-use or for specific academic disciplines.  Many labs have specialized, discipline-specific software for student coursework.  For more details on campus computer labs, including available hardware and software, please visit the Computer Labs article on the LITS Knowledge Base.



Campus Printing

Beloit College has print and copy locations available for students in many campus buildings and computer labs, as well as a cloud-based printing solution which allows students to upload a document to a campus printer from their personal laptop or mobile device.

In an effort to encourage sustainability and reduce wasteful printing, Beloit College has implemented a print management program for students, faculty, and staff. As part of this program, students receive a printing page allocation each semester.  Students can log in to the Equitrac user dashboard using their Beloit College account credentials to monitor their printing balance.  Document print job release is managed at the printer and is secured via a unique Printing PIN number.



Loaner Equipment

LITS offers short-term loaner equipment to members of the Beloit College community. The LITS loaner pool also has: HD projectors (movie night!), Chromebooks, sound systems for lectures (and maybe...parties?), high-quality audio and video recorders, presentation remotes, tripods, conference phones, a plethora of a/v cables and adapters, and more.  Visit the LITS Support office in Morse Library to see the full selection. Remember to bring your Beloit College ID card to checkout equipment.