What's New in PAWS

The U of S Survey System -- a new tool recently released by Information Technology Services (ITS) -- is integrated with PAWS and can be used to conduct surveys from within the University web portal. From PAWS courses, instructors can use the tool to easily poll their students. In PAWS groups, group leaders can use the survey tool to poll group members. Because the tool's database does not connect answers with respondents and the data is hosted in a secure environment, Survey allows for anonymous responses, making it useful for gathering feedback on a wide range of subjects.

The tool can be found in both Course Tools and PAWS Groups applications in the left-hand Course and Group Tools menus. Instructors and group leaders can administer surveys through the Manage Surveys link in the left-hand Content Tools menu. Survey creators are responsible for their own surveys, including consideration of ethics approval requirements and more. More information can be found in the survey tool reference manual available online at https://survey.usask.ca/docs/.

In addition to the Survey tools offered through PAWS Course and Groups applications, the University community can add a new My Surveys channel to their PAWS layout; the channel shows individuals a list of surveys they can manage and ones that are targeted to them for participation.

A training workshop on how to use the survey tool is offered by ITS Training Services. To sign up for the next offering on Jan. 11, 2007, visit http://focus.usask.ca/courses/registrationcourse.cfm?courseid=566.

The survey tool is accessible outside of PAWS at http://survey.usask.ca.

Posted by PAWS Content and Communications at 02:05 PM | Permalink

Your PAWS session timeout is the length of time for which you will remain logged in to PAWS while inactive. You continue to be logged in to PAWS while actively using the portal; some external applications offered via the portal, however, such as the Registration System, do not keep you logged in.

You can now choose your own PAWS session timeout, ranging from 15 to 90 minutes. Students have a default timeout of 60 minutes and employees have a default of 90 minutes, but you may change your timeout from the default to suit your own security comfort level. Here are some examples of why you may wish to shorten or lengthen your timeout:

- you primarily access PAWS from public terminals (at the PAC, Browsers, the Tunnel, Libraries etc.) and want to increase your security in case you forget to log out
- you work in a public space or your computer is easily accessible by others and you want to increase your security in case you forget to lock your computer when you leave your desk
- you have access to confidential data through PAWS and want to increase your overall security
- you only access PAWS from your personal computer in a secure environment and want to reduce the number of "session timeout" reminders you receive while logged in to PAWS

To check or change your PAWS session timeout, click the "My Account" link at the top right of PAWS. You will need to log out and log in each time you change your setting for the changes to take effect.

Posted by PAWS Content and Communications at 02:52 PM | Permalink