The Force is better and stronger than ever!

By Dr. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Student Computing Services Manager

Many of you have been using the SmartForce Computer Based Training offerings of Academic Computing Services for the past year. I have completed the update of the SmartForce Campus system which offers many new features and improvements. The UNT SmartForce Website has been completely updated to reflect these changes and I encourage everyone to read it thoroughly for more information.

SmartForce courses are now JAVA-BASED. That means no more downloading of their proprietary plugin! SmartForce is now recommended for the Internet Explorer 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x browser. SmartForce also works with Netscape 4.x but does not work with 6.x. SmartForce still only works reliably on Windows machines. However, we are continuing to test it on the Macintosh and Linux platforms and will let you know if and when we achieve positive results. Anyone using SmartForce should have the latest players for Realplayer, Flash, and Shockwave installed with their browser. Links to these plugins are provided on the UNT SmartForce Website.

All login information and interface information remains the same so SmartForce "veterans" should see no difference in the interface. "Newbies" to the system should read the UNT SmartForce Website thoroughly before beginning use.

More courses have been added to the server including offerings in Windows/Office XP, Linux, Oracle 9i and Solaris 8. We will also continue to expand our Linux offerings as more courses are developed. These courses were added to the server at your (the UNT community) request. :-)

New Courses

Here is a list of the NEW courses found on the SmartForce server:

• Linux: Basic System Administration I (listed under the title "Administration Tasks")
• Files in Linux (listed under the title "Managing the Filesystem")

• Introducing Oracle9i Database
• Reducing Downtime in an Oracle9i Database (listed under the title "Availability")
• Joins, Expressions and Subqueries in Oracle9i (listed under the title "Development Platform")
• The Oracle9i Database SPFILE (listed under the title "Manageability Enhancements")
• Oracle9i Database Index Usage and Monitoring (listed under the title "Scalability and Performance")
• Oracle9i Database Security (listed under the title "Security Overview")

• Solaris 8: Installation
• Solaris 8: System Operators
• Solaris 8: User Administration

• Windows XP: Fundamentals
• Windows XP: Advanced

• Common Features in Microsoft Office XP
• New and Enhanced Features for End-Users in Office XP
• New Features Review
• Office XP for the Advanced User

• Basic Features of Excel 2002 (note: "2002" and "XP" both refer to components of Office XP)
• Advanced Data Management in Excel 2002
• Advanced Data Manipulation and Analysis in Excel 2002
• Optimizing Excel 2002

• Introduction to Access 2002
• Intermediate Access 2002
• Advanced Database Design in Access 2002
• Advanced Database Features in Access 2002

• Creating Documents in Word 2002
• Working with Documents in Word 2002
• Advanced Document Features in Word 2002
• Advanced Formatting and Navigation in Word 2002
• Collaborative Features in Word 2002

• Building and Modifying Web Sites in FrontPage 2002
• Enhancing and Managing Web Sites with FrontPage 2002
• Enhancing and Publishing Web Sites in FrontPage 2002
• FrontPage 2002 Basics

• Creating Presentations using PowerPoint 2002

• Introducing Outlook 2002
• Managing Outlook 2002

CDs?

Many of you have also taken advantage of the pre-packaged CDs I have created of these courses. The new courses will NOT be available on CD for another couple of weeks. If you have any additional questions about SmartForce training please do not hesitate to contact me at: ehinkle@unt.edu