Learning Resources Help

Ink2Go :

• Ink2Go lets you write, draw, or highlight any content shown on the desktop from any app, be it a webpage, a slideshow, a running video, or even the presentation modes of Keynote and PowerPoint.
• Save the current desktop with your annotations as an image. Image formats are as follows: PNG, JPEG, Bitmap, or GIF (for Windows), and PNG (for Mac OS X).
• Record high-quality videos of the entire desktop together with your annotation as a video.
• Video formats: WMV (for Windows) and MOV (for Mac OS X).
• Lets you define a region of interest on the screen and only record within that region.
• Record your voice from the microphone.
• Allows pause and resume during a recording session.
• Toggles the webcam view on/off for recording. For a video presentation, showing your webcam view might help you connect better with your audience.
• Ink2Go toggles between your desktop screen and a whiteboard or blackboard with just a single click. This is helpful when you want to quickly show your idea on a clean page.
• Lets you create a new page to annotate without destroying the current annotations. You can easily go back and forth between the created pages.
• Allows you to annotate on extended or mirrored monitors.
• Allows you to type text.
• Ink2Go has a floating toolbar that can be moved around and switched between horizontal or vertical so that it never gets in the way of your presentation.
• Has 8 pens, 4 highlighters, and 3 erasers of various colors and sizes for your convenience.
• Ink2Go has a mouse mode that lets you control other applications normally while your annotations remain visible on top.
• Use Hotkeys to quickly switch among different tools without accessing the toolbar. The hotkey combination can be configured in the Preferences menu.

An online subscription library, LIL offers more than 2,000 videos on a wide range of subjects, including business skills, photography, music/video editing and production, animation, and web design and development. New courses are added weekly. You can access the LIL library 24/7—even from your iPhone, iPad, Android device, or mobile phone—using your Mason NetID and Patriot Pass Password. LinkedIn Learning courses are also available for employees in MasonLEAPS.

To access the LinkedIn Learning training library, log in at lil.gmu.edu using your Mason NetID and Patriot Pass Password. See step-by-step instructions for logging in to LIL.

Access is limited to Mason-registered students, faculty, staff, and authorized guests. The customer must abide by all university, state, and federal policies, procedures, and laws associated with the use of this service.

• All registered students, faculty, staff, and authorized guests are eligible for mason.gmu.edu server accounts.
• Host and manage personal, departmental, school, center, and organizational websites.
• Host various applications, programming languages, and tools.

Access This Service

Your mason.gmu.edu server account is created automatically.

Accessing your account requires a Mason NetID and Patriot Pass password. To set your password, go to the Patriot Pass Password Management website.

You must also be on the wired or wireless Mason network or use the Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access and edit content on mason.gmu.edu. You will need to use Cisco Secure Client to connect to the VPN. Downloads and instructions are available:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) service page
• What is my VPN Group?

Viewing (HTTP/HTTPS) mason.gmu.edu websites, as well as anonymous FTP access, will not require a VPN.

Once installed, enter your desired URL for your VPN group in the format vpn.gmu.edu/.

Mason Employees

If you do not know your specific VPN group or do not have one, you may enter “vpn.gmu.edu” and click Connect. Select “GENERAL” from the Group list and log in with your NetID and Patriot Pass password. You will need to use two-factor authentication (2FA).

Students

If you do not know your specific VPN group or do not have one, you may enter “vpn.gmu.edu” and click Connect. Select “STUDENT” from the Group list and log in with your NetID and Patriot Pass password. You will not need to use two-factor authentication (2FA).

For complete instructions for accessing and using the VPN, visit Using 2FA with Cisco Secure Client VPN and What is my VPN Group?

Server accounts require a Secure Shell client (ssh) or Secure File Transfer client (sftp) for access. Microsoft Windows ssh clients are available under related downloads.

Instructions for connecting to server space for your personal account and setting up a Mason website are available at the Mason Cluster.

Additional Information

The following web utilities are available for download:

• NVU, a complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users.
• Brackets HTML & CSS Editor, a modern, open source text editor that understands web design.
• Cyberduck, a libre server and cloud storage browser for Mac and Windows with support for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure & OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox.
• FileZilla, a free FTP solution for Windows and Mac that supports FTP, but also FTP over TLS (FTPS) and SFTP.

The following browsers are available for download:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari: Please note that Apple no longer offers Safari updates for Windows. Safari 5.1.7 for Windows was the last official version and is now desupported and outdated.
• Opera

Presenters can access activity reports and incorporate participant engagement into their gradebook with a few clicks. With Poll Everywhere Teams, activities can be shared, including combining results in reports. Poll Everywhere offers the following:

• Synchronous and asynchronous polling of audiences
• Compatible with all web conferencing tools, including Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom
• Activities include multiple-choice, word clouds, Q&A, clickable images, surveys, competitions, and more
• Blackboard integration for roster and grade book syncing
• Can be set to only accept registered users or anonymous polling
• Poll Everywhere app can put live slides in PowerPoint and other slide software
• Create reports and access archived poll responses
• Pin questions for a backchannel Q&A during any presentation
• Share activities among presenters with Poll Everywhere Teams

Poll Everywhere features :

• Students and faculty are given participant and presenter accounts, respectively, when they log into Poll Everywhere using their Mason credentials.
• Staff and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) may request a Poll Everywhere presenter account by submitting the form.
• ITS offers support for Poll Everywhere.

Instructors seeking to add a collaborative element to their course material might create a group blog on WordPress, but manage grading and other sensitive information within Blackboard. Course Blog sites are available for faculty to use for academic courses and are intended to use for active courses, not as a host for personal or departmental sites or organizations, or as an archive for materials.

Course Blogs is intended to be a self-service tool. ITS offers assistance in setting up sites, adding users, and saving your sites' contents, but will not be able to provide advanced training or design consultations.