News

IT Update

Dec 16, 2016

Posted in: IT

By Gareth Griffiths

IT Support System
In October 2016, 87 new Work Orders were received into Track-IT. Of these, 75 are now closed (85% completion rate). Overall we closed 77 Work Orders in the month. There are currently 38 open Work Orders. Don’t forget to email support@gdins.org for any new requests. In the event that an email cannot be sent for any reason, please call a member of the IT Team, who will log the support Work Order for you.

Direct West Facebook Advertising
With the discontinuing of mysask411.com, we are partnering with DirectWest and moving our promotional budget into Facebook advertising. Depending on the type of promotion needed, this will take one of two forms: News feed paid advertising or boosted posts. Both of these are targeted to a specific demographic and location.

In November, we boosted two posts and got great results. The Gabriel Dumont Institute-University of Regina Master of Education program achieved a reach (number of times it appeared in peoples news feeds) of over 35,000. There were over 2,000 post engagements (number of likes, shares, comments, post clicks, etc).

The ‘Lest We Forget’ Remembrance Day post was boosted to a reach of over 51,000 with an engagement of almost 3,000. The usual post reach is between 500 and 2,000.

Video Conferencing
Video conferencing is now setup in five Institute locations. It uses software called join.me which allows up to 10 video feeds, and 250 audio participants. The system works on almost any device and integrates with Outlook for scheduling meetings. Other features include window sharing, the ability to pass mouse control or presenter role to another participant, and interactive whiteboards on iPads. We will be setting up information sessions for video conferencing and a quick start guide has been written, with a full manual to follow.

Website
Overall, there were 26,678 Page Views over 8,257 sessions (52% of these were new visitors) in October 2016. The website homepage saw 4,625 Page views. Some highlights of activity: 17% of visitors to the home page, 8.0% clicked on What We Offer, 4.0% went to the Job Posting page, and another 4.0% visited the Training and Employment page.

Social Media Summary
The following are some brief stats from our Social Media channels for October.
Facebook: Total number of people liking the page grew by 23 to 1,695. Total Engagements (number of links clicked, likes, or comments) was 111 over four posts. The total reach of posts (number of people that saw a post in their feed) was 2,794 with 6,639 impressions (number of times a GDI page appeared in others’ news feeds). The most popular post was the “Prince Albert Continuing Care Assistant Prep” poster, reaching 1,784 people with15 post clicks and four likes, comments, and shares.

Twitter: 34 tweets earned 15,700 impressions. There were 20 new followers in the month, 45 mentions, and 498 profile visits. The top tweet was “Orange Shirt Day in Saskatchewan,” earning 903 impressions. Top mention was the “Hello from the nursing students” by MP Peter Julian with 42 engagements. Top media tweet was “Only one other institute in Sask graduated more practical nurses…” with 401 impressions. We currently have 919 followers.

Phishing/Virus
Just a quick reminder to be vigilant on all emails received. Please be wary of emails asking for account or password information (phishing attacks). The most recent reported one is from the RCMP saying you have a speeding ticket and to click the attached link. The RCMP has confirmed they will not issue any violation notice by email and to delete it.

A couple of tips to identify a phishing email. 1) Look at the ‘From’ email address. Usually, this has no reference to the organization it purports to be from. For example, if the address was rbc.support@hotmail.com.co. and it really was from RBC, the chances are the email would be .@rbc.com or ..@rbc.ca. 2) If there is a link in the email, hover over it, and look at the address it is sending you to. Again this usually bears no relation to the company it is supposed to be to.

If you suspect any email to contain a phishing attack or a virus, don’t click any of the links or reply to it. The safest option is to delete it. You are always welcome to contact IT for advice on how to deal with any suspicious emails received. Just to reinforce this. No reputable company will ask for confidential information such as passwords by email.

Closing Thought
Pavlov is sitting in a bar having a beer. The phone rings. He jumps up, runs out saying “I forgot to feed the dog.”

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