ITS provides a number of services to support teaching at the U of S. Explore the services available to you:
PAWS Campus Portal – paws.usask.ca
PAWS (Personalized Access to Web Services) is your gateway to academic and administrative services and information, customized to meet your needs. Login to PAWS.usask.ca with your NSID username and password to get secure access to campus services like course tools, the student information system, e-mail, calendar, Blackboard (WebCT), etc. You can make your own tabs, add content to existing tabs and organize the content the way you want. Make regular visits to the University's web Portal to know what's happening on campus and to conduct basic University business. More on PAWS Campus Portal »
Instructor E-mail – mail.usask.ca
As an instructor at the U of S you receive a mail.usask.ca e-mail account for as long as you are an employee. You receive 100 MB of space for e-mail with this account. The default address format is nsid@mail.usask.ca but you can personalize your address using MITS to firstname.lastname@usask.ca. You can access your e-mail account from the Internet at paws.usask.ca, webmail.usask.ca or by using your favourite local e-mail client (e.g. Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) This account can turn into e-mail for life once you retire. You will never have to worry about switching Internet service providers and losing your e-mail account.
While you are an instructor at the U of S you are responsible for reading and attending to e-mail sent to your U of S e-mail address in a timely manner. The University administration will send messages to this e-mail account with timely, sometimes critical, announcements. If you prefer to use a different e-mail service, you must be sure to forward your "mail.usask.ca" messages. More on E-mail »
Individual File Storage – Cabinet
Cabinet.usask.ca provides U of S instructors with the ability to store and share academic, research and business information. Cabinet is backed up nightly and can be accessed as a mapped or mounted drive at your office or from anywhere you have an Internet network connection. More on Individual File Storage – Cabinet »
Calendar
The PAWS Calendar is a web-based calendar provided to U of S instructors, researchers, employees and students. It enables you to access and manage your daily, weekly and monthly schedules and coordinate events with others at the U of S anywhere, anytime. More on Calendar »
Course Management Tools
Blackboard Learn provides online tools for use with classes. It adds a number of aspects to online course work, like discussion forums, online quizzes, and so on. All BBLearn courses are accessible through links in PAWS. More on Course Management Tools »
Clickers
Clickers enable instructors to create a more active and participative learning environment, in both large and small classrooms. Clickers enable students to express their opinion or demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter anonymously.
Clickers can also be registered to students so that they can be used to quickly and efficiently quiz them on the material delivered during a lecture. More on Clickers »
Networked Classrooms
Connections to the Internet are provided in most University classrooms, meeting rooms, offices and labs. A number of classrooms have multi-media consoles. More on Networked Classrooms »
Conferencing & Collaboration Tools
A number of tools are available for conferencing and collaboration. Audio, video and web conferencing can enable real-time discussions or virtual meetings. Blogs, wikis and discussion groups are also available to support collaboration. Using conferencing and collaboration tools can engage students in fully interactive, online learning experiences (e.g. lectures, discussions and tutoring) or to work with colleagues from across the bowl or around the world. More on Conferencing & Collaboration Tools »
Discussion Groups
Build online communities and share ideas and information using PAWS Group Studio. PAWS groups are available to all members of the Campus community, to either set up a group, or join one. Many existing campus clubs, groups and organizations already have a publicly available group in PAWS. More on Discussion Groups »
Blogs – blogs.usask.ca
As part of ITS' electronic communications strategy, a blog hosting service is provided as an effective means for the distribution of information. This service is provided to you to help collaborate or communicate with peers, students, etc. More on Blogs »
Individual Webpages – homepage.usask.ca
All instructors receive space for individual webpages on the server homepage.usask.ca. This service is provided to you to help share your research and for collaborating with your peers. More on Individual Webpage – homepage.usask.ca »
Web Survey Tool
Create and administer web-based surveys for research and administrative purposes. Unofficial or formative course evaluations can be done with this web survey tool. The survey tool is integrated with PAWS My Courses and PAWS Groups. More on Web Survey Tool »
Wiki.usask.ca
Wikis are important educational and collaboration tools through which students and instructors, can participate in developing and sharing knowledge locally (or globally) using the web. The objective in using a wiki is to collaboratively build a shared repository of knowledge, with the knowledge base growing over time. A well-known example of a successful wiki is Wikipedia. More on wiki collaboration tool »
Computer Marked Exams – OMR & Custom Form Design
Computers can be used to mark exams using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) when responses are submitted on optical scanning (OpScan) sheets or custom-designed forms. Information can be collected on a form with people marking "bubbles" to indicate their answers to questions. OMR scanner and form technology is ideal for instructors for exam processing, student evaluation of teaching and data collection. More on OMR & Custom Form Design »
Quizzes, Examinations & Final Grade Entry
IT support for quizzes and examinations is available. From the Instructor Services section of the Academics tab in PAWS, you can find electronic copies of class lists and submit final grades electronically. More on Quizzes, Examinations & Final Grade Entry »
SiRIUS
SiRIUS is the U of S student information and registration system. It manages enrolment for students in all credit courses here at the University. While departmental and central administrative employees carry out most of the tasks involving SiRIUS and can answer most of your questions about it, it may be helpful for you to review the information about SiRIUS-related training (both in-person and online). More on SiRIUS »
Software Downloads
Software is available from a variety of locations for downloading. This software is free for employees of the U of S. Instructors also qualify for special discounted pricing on some commercial software through the Campus Computer Store. More on Software Downloads »
Computer & Equipment Repair
If your computer requires repair or maintenance you can have this done on campus by going to Technical Shop Services. Technical Shop Services provides both warranty and non-warranty service on a variety of computers and printers for a variety of problems. More on Computer & Equipment Repair »
Desktop Services Support
Many departments and colleges have contracted ITS' Desktop Services to provide support for computers used by their instructors, researchers and employees. Support details differ from group to group, but support can include routine hardware updates, routine maintenance, per-incident emergency support, departmental IT coordination, and consultation regarding ongoing departmental IT strategies. More on Desktop Support Services »
More ITS Announcements »
