Training Tuesdays

We are pleased to present our free monthly training classes on OU Campus™ topics of interest. These classes are held the last Tuesday of every month and are open to all OmniUpdate customers (administrators and users). These 30- to 45-minute sessions cover both new and existing OU Campus features and close with a Q&A session.

Suggestions for topics for upcoming Training Tuesday events can be posted on the OmniUpdate Community Network (OCN) forum:

Training Tuesday Topics

Upcoming Training Tuesdays

As part of our preparation for the upcoming version 10 release of OU Campus, we are putting the Training Tuesday schedule on hold. This will allow us to focus on preparing new training materials, including new Training Tuesdays, to accompany the release.

We will resume our regular Training Tuesday schedule leading into the release of version 10. We will also be offering additional OU Campus version 10 webinars on other dates and times as we get closer to releasing version 10. This will allow more of our customers to learn about the new interface and features, as well as take advantage of the live Q&A that is associated with our Training Tuesdays.

Recorded Training Tuesdays

Listed below are all of the Training Tuesdays that we have recorded so far.

April 2013 — WebDAV Integration with OU Campus

Ms. Charity Katz, OmniUpdate Training Manager, provides a tour of the newly released WebDAV integration with OU Campus. This presentation reviews the administrator configuration, developer functionality, and demonstrates how updates are made to content within OU Campus using WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol. The presentation further explains the use of features such as move and copy, as well as explains how content is managed when checked out from within OU Campus versus the WebDAV client. Also covered are authentication methods such as LDAP, CAS, and Shibboleth, and a review of supported clients including a delineation of those with and without file locking support. Here is the link: WebDAV Integration with OU Campus

March 2013 — Creating LDP Forms and Using Advanced Options

Ms. Charity Katz, OmniUpdate Training Manager, demonstrates how to create an LDP Managed Form along with utilizing the standard Advanced field options. This includes the use of datasets, adding classes to the label, and displaying legend text. This presentation is appropriate for user Levels 4 and greater, and is focused on understanding the elements used to construct assets. Here is the link: Creating LDP Forms and Using Advanced Options. 

January 2013 — Configuring and Using RSS in OU Campus

Mr. Andrew Soderberg, OmniUpdate Vice President, Customer Support, presents configuring and using RSS in OU Campus. He guides administrators and users through configuring the RSS feeds initially, which includes creating individual feeds and aggregate feeds. He demonstrates how then to assign the feeds to the directory in which the stories will be created allowing for new items to be associated with newly created pages automatically. He reviews creating items with a news template, as well as without one. He describes editing items, and he provides best practices. This presentation is appropriate for all user levels, but is generally focused on administrative functions. Here is the link: Configuring and Using RSS in OU Campus

November 2012 — OU Blogs: Configuration & Using

This session presented by Ms. Eileen Leese, OmniUpdate Technical Writer/Trainer, and features  OU Blogs™ and how it allows content to be added to blogs utilizing blogging systems, such as WordPress, through OU Campus™. OU Blogs is compatible with almost all well known blogging systems that support XML-RPC. The blogging functionality does include the capability to support any number of users, each with their own blog. This session will demonstrate how you can set up a blog in OU Campus and then manage the blog content directly within the OU Campus Content section. This presentation includes configuration information for administrators of the system and task-oriented procedures for content contributors. Here is the link: OU Blogs

October 2012 — Search Engine Optimization Best Practices 2012 
Presenters Ms. Stephanie Geyer, Associate Vice President, Web Strategy and Interactive Marketing Services and Ms. Jennifer Croft, SEO Specialist from our strategic partner Noel-Levitz. This session provides an overview of the benefits of spending time and energy on SEO and ways you can help your users research and implement strategies quickly. A lot has changed since we covered this topic in 2010, and this includes the latest info available for SEO best practices. This presentation is for all OU Campus users. Here is the link: Search Engine Optimization Best Practices 2012

September 2012 — Creating RSS Page Templates and Sneak Peek of New Support Site 
This session demonstrates how you can create a new page wizard that automatically generates an RSS item at page creation time. The demonstration includes passing the title, short description, and media to the item while also creating the page that will have the news story or event details. The presentation also includes how administrators can empower their users to select the feed to which the item should belong. The training highlights ideas on ways that RSS can be used with server-side scripts to display dynamically and uniquely on your site. At the end of the presentation, Charity gave a sneak peek to the new Support site that will be launching in October. She explains how to navigate through the new Support site and demonstrates some of the new features. Here is the link: Creating RSS Page Templates and Sneak Peek of New Support Site

August 2012 — Source Editor and Clone 
The Source Editor and Site Clone features were explained and demoed by Ms. Charity Katz, OmniUpdate Training Manager. The new Source Editor includes improved syntax highlighting, the ability to toggle to a blackboard view, save-in-place, block-level code completion, and updated asset selection. The Clone feature now allows an administrator the ability to clone all of the files and folders on the staging server, allowing for a replication of the site. This can be used to copy a structure or complete site’s pages in order to create a new site, which can then be independently managed. Clone can be used by level 10 administrators. The Source Editor can be accessed by level 9 and 10 administrators and other users can be granted permissions. Source Editor and Clone 

July 2012 - Mobile Site Option
Ms. Charity Katz, OmniUpdate Training Manager, focused on the new OU Campus mobile site option. The presentation involved a demonstration of the types of pages included in the solution, including a normal page, a news page, a maps module, and a Twitter page. The webinar also demonstrated how to pull content from an existing page on the main site, and how to customize the theme colors of the mobile site. Additionally, the preview options were demonstrated allowing the user to see how the page displays on different mobile devices. This session is appropriate for all user levels, but there will be elements that are strictly administrator-related. Here is the link: Mobile Site Option

June 2012 - Multi-Target Publish
Multi-Target Publish gives users the option to publish to different servers, expanding their options past the production server. Users can extensively test server-side code, new redesigns, or any major site changes on an alternate server before going live on the production server. Users can also upload, compare, and preview pages in different publish targets with the extended OU Campus functionality found with Multi-Target Publish. Administrators can easily determine access rights for which servers a user can publish to, and set the default publish target. In addition, Dependency Manager continues to ensure that links are always up to date, even across alternative publish targets. This webcast recording is appropriate for CMS administrators. Here is the link: Multi-Target Publish

May 2012 - Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)
WebDAV integration gives developers the freedom to access, upload, and modify content on the CMS staging server using their favorite WebDAV compatible applications such as Adobe® Dreamweaver®, <oXygen/>® XML editor, and Cyberduck among others. This class discussed how to work effectively with it in OU Campus, and is ideal for developers and administrators. Here is the link: Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)

April 2012 - Accessibility Check and Assets 2.0
This Training Tuesday covers the Accessibility Check and Assets features in OU Campus. This session is for all CMS users and covers best practices for feature use and implementation. Here is the link: Accessibility Check and Assets 2.0

March 2012 - Best Practices for Using Links and Anchors
During this Training Tuesday class, attendees learned the differences between links and anchors, as well as how to insert them on web pages. A detailed explanation of what an anchor is and when it is used, as well as how to use them across pages and between editable regions, is discussed. The best practice for assigning attributes to links is covered, including where the target page should open and how to style the links using available CSS. This Training Tuesday class is designed for users Levels 1-8. Here is the link: Best Practices for Using Links and Anchors

January 2012 - Template Manager and Template Groups
The new Templates management feature gives administrators more granular control over who can use which templates. Administrators can assign group-based permissions to individual templates so that only members of the group will have access to those templates. This new feature also provides a way for administrators to assign alternate image descriptions for the template icons to support Section 508 compliance, as well as support for a wider variety of image file types for template icons. During the training, you will see how this new feature works and how it can be used in conjunction with Template Groups. This session is designed for CMS administrators and developers. Here is the link: Template Manager and Template Groups

November 2011 - Custom Reports
The Custom Reports feature is a valuable tool that allows Level 9 and 10 administrators to see how their site is being used, confirm that workflow is configured as desired, and manage Page Products and Product Dependencies. This Training Tuesday introduces the following nine currently available reports: Users, Directories, Pages, Sites, Groups, Tweets, Facebook Wall Posts, Product Dependencies, and Asset Dependencies. It focuses on how administrators can configure, manage, and verify workflow and confirm group assignments. Additionally, the Training Tuesday includes details on the differences between Page Products and Subscribers, and how Page Products and Subscribers relate to Product Dependencies. This session is designed for Level 9 and 10 administrators. Here is the link: Custom Reports

October 2011 - Site Check
One of our most highly requested new features, Site Check allows OU Campus administrators (Level 9 and 10) to check all links, both internal and external to the website, with ease. Users can choose to check links for all pages in a site or to check selected pages only. This tool works in conjunction with the individual link checking feature of Page Check. Additionally, the Site Check feature provides users with options to follow link redirects and set link timeout rules to ensure that all links are in an optimal state. Administrators can choose to view reports of broken links by page or by link. A broken link report can also be exported for download or external use. This Training Tuesday, presented by Andrew Soderberg, OmniUpdate's Vice President of Customer Support, will show web administrators how to use these reports to ensure that their websites are free of broken links.This session is designed for Level 9 and 10 administrators.Here is the link: Site Check

September 2011 - Fix Dependencies and Required Actions
Twohelpful features of OU Campus are Fix Dependencies, available to end users, and Required Actions, created for administrators. These tools provide a method by which inconsistencies and broken Assets or links can be prevented on the live site. This Training Tuesday covers how to review the page that has been marked as broken in the Fix Dependencies and Required Actions screens. It reveals the easiest ways for an administrator to find the broken tag(s) and how to repair the element(s) on the page. The training also reviews the Out of Sync Pages, including a discussion of how they might occur, and some new custom reporting features. This session is designed for Level 9 and 10 administrators. Here is the link: Fix Dependencies and Required Actions

August 2011 - Live Delivery Platform Forms
The server-side module of the Live Delivery Platform (LDP) allows users to easily create and manage forms, polls, and surveys. It provides an intuitive user interface that makes it much easier to quickly build form elements such as text, radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down menus, and lists for use on any web page. Collected data is stored in the included database, and OU Campus users with the appropriate permissions can view and export submitted data. During this recorded webcast, Charity Katz, Training Manager, Nilanjan Dey Roy, Senior Web Developer, and Shahab Lashkari, Product Manager, give an overview and demonstration of the LDP Forms module and discuss its uses. This session is appropriate for all CMS users, administrators, and developers. Here is the link: Live Delivery Platform Forms

July 2011 - Live Delivery Platform Image Galleries
Live Delivery Platform's Image Galleries feature allows users to easily create and manage image galleries in OU Campus. Users can upload images into the gallery; provide a title, caption, and description information; and drag and drop images to modify the order. This session reviews the end-user's experience of creating a new Image Gallery Asset and how to insert it into a page within a Gallery Editable Region. This session is appropriate for all CMS users, administrators, and developers. Here is the link: Live Delivery Platform Image Galleries

June 2011 - Dependency Manager
The release of OU Campus 9.9 included Dependency Manager, which is a powerful new tool that manages links to files and directories within management in OU Campus. This session discusses the features, benefits, and considerations of Dependency Manager. It includes a demonstration of what to expect when utilizing it and how the feature works. This session is appropriate for administrators. Here is the link: Dependency Manager

May 2011 - Send to Facebook and OU Social™
The release of OU Campus 9.8 included Send to Facebook and OU Social. This session walks through how to set up the Facebook Page(s) to be used with Send to Facebook and OU Social, as well as a demonstration on how to utilize the features in order to increase the institution's presence on Facebook. Send to Facebook feature allows authorized users to automatically publish wall posts to Facebook Pages. OU Social provides the ability to update social media and web pages simultaneously by editing one file. This session is appropriate for  CMS content contributors and administrators. Here is the link: Send to Facebook and OU Social

April 2011 - Custom WYSIWYG Toolbars
This session walks through the steps to create and manage custom WYSIWYG toolbars in OU Campus. You will also learn how to create and provide access to custom CSS styles, custom font size sets, and more. Additionally, we will describe how to assign custom toolbars to a user, folder, page, or specific region of a page. This session is designed for OU Campus administrators (Level 10). Here is the link: Custom WYSIWYG Toolbars

March 2011 - OmniUpdate Product Development Roadmap
During March's Training Tuesday, Shahab Lashkari, OmniUpdate Product Manager, discussed the company's 2011 product development roadmap. He provides a sneak preview of the important new features and changes you can expect to see in the OU Campus CMS, including Send to Facebook, OU Social, Dependency Manager, Live Delivery Platform, and more. This session is designed for OU Campus administrators that did not attend the 2011 OmniUpdate User Conference. Here is the link: OmniUpdate Product Development Roadmap

February 2011 - Best Practices on Using the OU Campus Permissions System
How to plan for and set both recursive and specific sets of site-wide, folder, and unique file permissions. This will including covering access, toolbars, publishers, approvers, RSS feeds, template groups, and directory variables. This Training Tuesday class is designed for Level 10 OU Campus administrators. Here is the link: Best Practices on Using the OU Campus Permissions System

January 2011 - Document Comparison, Quick Search, and Zip Import
The 9.6 release of OU Campus includes updates to the Document Comparison feature, which allows users to compare a page's changes with any previously saved or published version of that page. This session covered what's new in Document Comparison and how to use it effectively. We also presented a sneak peek of two new features that are coming soon to OU Campus: Quick Search and Zip Import. This session is appropriate for all CMS content contributors, editors, and approvers. Zip Import information is geared toward administrators. Here is the link: Document Comparison, Quick Search, and Zip Import

November 2010 - Sharing and Reusing Content in OU Campus
Central content repositories and the ability to reuse content are increasingly more important in today's higher education websites. OU Campus provides the ability to share and reuse content throughout your site using file includes, Auxiliary Sites, Snippets and the recently released Asset Manager. This session will focus on the differences between these features while also providing best practice information and use-case scenarios for each. This class is appropriate for administrators and advanced CMS users. Here is the link: Sharing and Reusing Content in OU Campus

October 2010 - Asset Manager
The Asset Manager allows for the creation of reusable assets (e.g., text, images, media, code blocks, links, etc.) for use within the WYSIWYG and source code editors. The creation and management of assets is integrated into the OU Campus permission system, allowing administrators to restrict the creation and editing of assets through group access levels. The Asset Manager stores information associated with each asset item that can be used to classify, describe, and support the use of the asset within OU Campus. When a user publishes an update to an existing asset, the system automatically updates and re-publishes all pages that use that asset while still honoring pages in workflow and checked out pages. This session is appropriate for all OU Campus users. Here is the link: Asset Manager

September 2010 - Search Engine Optimization
Stephanie Geyer, Associate Vice President for Web Strategy Services at our strategic partner Noel-Levitz presented on best practices for S.E.O. This session provides an overview of the basics in search engine optimization to improve your results for organic searches. We talk about selecting pages for optimization, the tools you can use to identify keywords and finally strategies for upgrading your content to make the most of your efforts.  This Training Tuesday class is designed for users Levels 1-8. If you were not able to attend (or want to share it because you did attend), here is the link: Search Engine Optimization

August 2010 - Publish to Twitter!
The 9.3 release includes a Social Media Publish feature that allows authorized users to automate the publishing of content to Twitter. The new feature enables users to post or “tweet” from OU Campus in conjunction with the creation or update of a web page. Updates can occur on an immediate or scheduled basis. In addition, users can link to multiple Twitter accounts or publish to only the desired accounts. OU Campus preserves a history of all tweets published from the CMS, allowing administrators to run reports of the tweets made by all users of the system. A related enhancement is support for a URL shortener to link to the published page in the Tweet. This session is designed for CMS content contributors and administrators. If you were not able to attend (or want to share it because you did attend), here is the link: Publish to Twitter

July 2010 - OU Calendar
OU Calendar - OU Campus can include a powerful enterprise calendar based on the Bedework open source project that can be tailored to meet an institution's website needs. We will cover how to use and administer the OU Calendar, create and approve events and sub-calendars, and how it can be integrated into your website. This session is designed for CMS users and administrators. If you were not able to attend (or want to share it because you did attend), here is the link: OU Calendar

June 2010 - MultiEdit (the “Other” Page Editor)
In this session, we will show how MultiEdit, the OU Campus forms-based content editor, allows users to edit content, while ensuring consistency with the custom page layout. Examples of MultiEdit use include faculty and staff profile pages, multi-language pages, and pages that support mixed-mode editing (MultiEdit and WYSIWYG editing). We will cover MultiEdit tagging of editable regions as well as how content contributors use pages with MultiEdit functionality. This session is geared toward all OU Campus users (contributors, administrators, and web developers). Here is the link: MultiEdit (the “Other” Page Editor)  

May 2010 - OU Campus 9.0: New Features How-To
With the recent release of OU Campus 9.0 this Training Tuesday is all about how to use and take advantage of the new features in version 9.0. We covered the admin controls of several of the new features (Page Check, Final Check, Decorative Images) as well as how to create and manage Snippets for your users, and add custom words to the spelling dictionary. We also provided additional background info on Auto-Draft, Save-in-Place, and Directory move and rename. While this session is geared toward Admins and Web Developers, there is also information for all OU Campus users. Here is the link: OU Campus 9.0: New Features How-To

April 2010 - Google Analytics (Guest Presenter: Seth Meranda)
In this webinar, we examined how Google Analytics can best be used to evaluate success (or failure) of content, marketing campaigns, goal conversions and site effectiveness.

Our guest speaker for this month was Seth Meranda. Seth is an associate consultant for Noel-Levitz, Seth offers more than 10 years of experience in Web development, marketing, and e-communications strategies. He is currently the User Experience Architect at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Mr. Meranda is a leader in higher education strategies regarding implementation and usage of Google Analytics. This session is appropriate for CMS approvers, content contributors, editors, and developers. Here is the link: Google Analytics (Guest Presenter: Seth Meranda)

March 2010 - RSS and Media RSS
The January 2013 Training Tuesday regarding adding RSS feeds and aggregate feeds supersedes and is more recent than this presentation. Please see:

Configuring and Using RSS in OU Campus

Creating Tables and Forms in the WYSIWYG Editor
In this session we went back to the basics on “Creating Tables and Forms in the WYSIWYG Editor.” We present best practices on using these two features of the editor. You will also learn how to keep the tables and forms you build ADA Section 508 compliant. To view this session click on the link above. This session is appropriate for CMS content contributors. Here is the link: Creating Tables and Forms in the WYSIWYG Editor

In-Context WYSIWYG CSS Setup (3rd Level Tagging)
In this training session we covered how to create and manage CSS styles listed in the styles drop-down menu, and the preparation and inclusion of background images for in-context WYSIWYG editing. We also talked about CSS styles best practices and how to ensure that what you see in the WYSIWYG editor is what you'll get when you view live published pages. This session is designed for CMS administrators and developers. Here is the link: In-Context WYSIWYG CSS Setup (3rd Level Tagging)

The Global Find & Replace Feature of OU Campus
In this training Tuesday we showed how to take advantage of this new administrative feature. We covered in detail how to use the OU Campus site based Global Find & Replace feature to change any part of a site through powerful regex and literal text string searches. We also covered how what you change can be directly published, and even how to “undo” these changes if necessary. This Training Tuesday class is designed for Level 10 OU Campus administrators and developers. To view the supporting ZIP archive click here. Here is the link for the recording: The Global Find & Replace Feature of OU Campus

Writing for the Web
In this session we covered how you have the very best tools to create and update content on your site. This Training Tuesday contains practical advice on how to write for the Web. We looked at data on how users read online and outlined strategies to ensure that your copy meets user needs and keeps them moving through your site. This session is appropriate for all CMS content contributors, editors, and approvers. Here is the link: Writing for the Web

Workflows
In this session we covered how to use the OU Campus page approval process to setup various types of workflows. We also showed how to use the page approval process efficiently, and how to tailor various types of workflow exceptions to meet direct publishing needs. This session is appropriate for CMS users and administrators. Here is the link: Workflows

New Page Properties
This session addressed the new Page Properties features. We covered how to take advantage of the new functionality while creating and modifying templates. We showcased how you can provide your users with dynamic control over how a page will look and what content objects it may contain. This session is designed for OU Campus administrators and is technically oriented. To view the supporting ZIP archive click here. Here is the link for the recording: New Page Properties