Wednesday 14 March 2018

Student Newsletter Issue 64

Phishing and spam emails

You should have received a message from IT (sent to you by a key contact in your School) about the high number of spam and phishing emails in circulation. In case you missed it, guidance is as follows:

• These emails should be reported directly to Microsoft.
• If you've interacted with a phishing/spam email you should change your password immediately.
• If you've interacted with a phishing/spam email on a University Staff Desktop, contact the Service Desk for advice.
• If you've interacted with a phishing/spam email on a personal device, run an anti-malware software (Malwarebytes for example) from a reputable source. Perform a scan on your device and remove any threats.
• If you haven't interacted with one, you should delete it immediately after reporting it, then empty your 'Deleted' folder.

There are some helpful tutuorial videos on Lynda.com and an Information Security Awareness module has been added to My Dundee under the My Organisations tab. Take the time to go through these and educate yourself.

Converge Challenge applications open

Converge Challenge is open to students of all Scottish universities and research institutes, and it has a prize fund of over £150,000.

The 2018 competition closes for entries Thursday 29 March - apply now!

April / May exam timetable

The April / May exam timetable is now available online. 

Learning analytics

The University is participating in a pilot project to use learning analytics. Our first step is to look at assessment data to see what it can tell us about attainment across the University. We have asked Turnitin (who provide our system for the online submission of assignments and our plagiarism detection software) to send the required data to JISC (an organisation that provides digital services and infrastructure to universities) so that we can use their secure learning data hub.

We wanted to let you know that some of your personal information such as your name, matriculation number and University email address will be transferred along with your submissions and associated data from Turnitin. Eighteen months of assessment data will be transferred to JISC for use in the pilot project.

The University’s Executive Group has considered and approved our participation in this initiative and UoDIT has reviewed the security arrangements for your data. The University has signed a contract with JISC governing the use of your information.

During the pilot project, we will be looking at what the system can do and how learning analytics can provide us with additional insight. One example of how we would like to use the system concerns the scheduling of submission deadlines across modules and how we might ease the pressure around clashes between courses. 

After this pilot project, we will think about whether we should undertake analysis of additional data in the learning analytics space. This will be considered carefully by the University and we will keep you updated on our progress.

If you would like to discuss how your information will be used in this project, please let Alan Bell in Information Governance know – dataprotection@dundee.ac.uk.

If you would like more information on learning analytics, please contact the CITL team in the Library and Learning Centre (ctil@dundee.ac.uk). 

Micro Computing demolition works

Works to demolish the Micro Computing Building started on Wednesday 7 March until Wednesday 23 May. The site compound is set up in the Park Wynd car park.

There will be no vehicular disruptions however the walkway from Smalls Wynd to Park Wynd alongside the Micro Computing Building will be closed off for the duration of the works. 

See the diagram of works.

Parkinson’s patient raises £70,000 for research

Marc Van Grieken, from Perthshire, has lived with Parkinson’s for more than a decade. To celebrate turning 60 last year, he set himself a challenge of raising £60,000 for Parkinson's UK with his family and friends by undertaking a year of cycling challenges, fundraisers and marathons.

He quickly smashed his target, and £70,000 of the money he raised has now been awarded by Parkinson’s UK to the University’s research team. Marc visited the Medical Research Centre Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) to present the £70,000 to our researchers, and find out more about how the money will be spent.

Read the full story.

Lord Provost becomes 200,000th SHARE signatory at celebration of global diabetes partnership

On Monday the Lord Provost of Dundee, Ian Borthwick became the 200,000th signatory to a unique database helping researchers to carry out ground-breaking medical research.

He signed up for the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE), a University of Dundee-led initiative that provides researchers with a database of suitable and willing recruits. SHARE also uses blood left over from routine testing to help improve treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and asthma.

Read the full story.

Building the Boat: Designing our communities with young people (24 Mar)

Louise Macdonald is Chief Executive of Young Scot, the award-winning youth information and citizenship charity which works to support young people aged 11-26 in making informed decisions and choices.

Here she’ll talk about the importance of involving young people in policy making and encouraging companies to work with youths from a broad range of backgrounds in order to ensure positive change for the future.

Book tickets.

How to Understand your Personality Type (Tue 20 Mar)

Using a personality assessment tool provides a positive framework to explain how you interact with the world and can contribute to career planning and workplace success. 

Sign up.

Carnegie Trust Vacation Scholarships - applications close 31 March

Are you thinking about doing some research during the summer vacation as part of your undergraduate studies? You may be eligible to apply for a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship. Apply before Saturday 31 March. Find out more.

SAAS closing soon for 2017/2018 applications

Applications will be closing for 2017/18 funding applications on Saturday 31 March 2018 for all students funded by SAAS. 

You have to apply every year for your funding package, but you don't have to send in your supporting documents by snail mail! You can upload them to SAAS’s online service.

For more information or to chat about your funding, get in touch with the Student Funding Unit. 

American accents needed for video

Lizzie Day is a level 4 Fine Art student who is looking for participants for her Degree Show project - she needs people with American accents for a video. If you or a friend are American please respond via Lizzie's survey and she will be in touch.

Peer Connections recruiting now

Peer Connections, the University's welcoming, buddying and mentoring scheme run by Student Services, is looking for new, friendly student volunteers to help with activities in academic year 2018-19.

Free training will take place late August / early September.

Application and further details.

Email Peer Connections (peerconnections@dundee.ac.uk) for more information.

Diary of a postgrad – when the meltdown is not about snow

A heartfelt blog post from one of our Masters in Psychological Research Methods students, Dawn.

Read the blog.

Design sprint #2 review subject pages

Danny Cassidy, Web Content Manager, tells us about the latest web design sprint with a focus on our subject pages.

Read the blog.

Are you following us on Instagram?

We regularly post original and user-generated content on Instagram, so feel free to tag and share your Dundee photos with us. @dundeeuni #dundeeuni 

If you wish to communicate around the University, this fortnightly newsletter is just one way to do that. Please check our Methods of Internal Communication webpage, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

The next newsletter will be distributed on Wednesday 28 March - the deadline for information to be included is 4pm on Friday 23 March.