Log into D2L on the Hartwick website.  Click the Student link on the top of the website and as you scroll down you'll see D2L under "Your Tools" on the left.. Once you are in D2L, there are training videos on the right of the main page:

Only a few clicks, and you’re ready to go! Everyone at Hartwick College should have a Freshservice account already. The procedure for activating your account is quick and easy with these steps. If you have sent an email that was then converted into a ticket by our IT team during the testing phase, then you will likely have already received this email. Alternatively, to activate the account verification, go to ‘freshservice.hartwick.edu’ and click the ‘login’ link at the top right. When you do, you should receive an email from ‘helpdesk@hartwick.edu’ that looks like this. If you don’t see it, be sure to check your spam folder: Click the link in the email. You should see a button that says ‘Activate with SSO’. Click that button to login with your Microsoft 2-Factor Authentication settings, whatever they may be (it might just skip straight to the next step) You will be taken to an unfamiliar page labeled ‘Neo admin center’ with nothing to do. This means you’re ready to login. Return to ‘freshservice.hartwick.edu’ and click the ‘login’ button again (or return to the open tab from the first time you logged in) and you’re all finished!

When you visit hartwick.freshservice.com, you'll see this page after clicking the "login" link at the top right: 1. Clicking the "Browse help articles" button will take you to a page full of common issues, FAQs, guides, and documentation for common needs here at Hartwick College. We encourage everyone to peruse these various articles to see if there's an easy and quick solution to whatever you may need. In fact, if you're reading this, you're in our help articles page! 2. Clicking the "Report an issue" button is how you can create a ticket if you have an issue that can't be solved by reading our help articles. You'll see a few fields to fill out, an option to attach a file (we love screenshots!), and a "submit" button. The first required field is "Requester" which is simply your email address. If you've logged into the portal already, this should have auto-filled. The second and third required fields are "Subject" and "Description", which are functionally no different than a subject and body of an email that you would send to us. Use these to describe your issue in as much detail as possible so we can pinpoint a solution quickly. Use the "Attach a file" option to attach useful screenshots or pictures of your issue, if relevant. A) We have several different categories to describe the various issues and systems we use here at Hartwick College. Try your best to guess where your issue might belong in these categories, but it is not required. This may help you get in touch with the right person to most quickly resolve your problem. B) You can ignore the "associate assets" link unless your issue pertains to a Hartwick-owned computer that you know the system name of. If you do know the name of the computer, you can look it up in our database to give us even more helpful information. C) Click the "Submit" button to finish creating your ticket. You will receive a confirmation email to the email address listed in the "requester" field. Make sure to check your spam folder! 3. Clicking the "hamburger" menu  (stacked lines) in the top left corner of the page next to the Hartwick logo will display a few more options: A) The "Home" button will bring you back to the main portal. B) "Solutions" will take you to our help articles, just like the "browse help articles" button on the home page will do. C) "Tickets" will take you to your collection of tickets that you've submitted, whether open or closed. D) The "Service Catalog" feature is not currently in use as of this writing, and therefore should be ignored. 4. In the top right of the page you'll see our main support phone number which rings the front desk at the TRC. The little bell next to that is where you can see notifications regarding updates to your tickets. Clicking the icon with your last name's initial will give you the option to add information to your user profile, look at Freshservice-based announcements, or log out of your current account. We hope that this guide helps you help us to help you! Working together to leverage Freshservice to its fullest potential will see quicker resolutions, better data, and fewer requests "falling through the cracks". Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns by calling our number or emailing 'technology@hartwick.edu'. Thanks! - Casey Holmberg '18 Assistant Director of the Technology Resource Center holmbergc@hartwick.edu

Creating Tickets in Fresh service   Fresh Service Portal Scan the QR code at the top of the page or navigate to https://hartwick.freshservice.com/support/home.  Click the "Report an issue" to create a ticket for issues that can't be solved by reading our help articles. Help Articles can be found by clicking on the “ Browse help articles”.  Please fill out the form on the “Report an Issue'' section”. With as much applicable information as possible.  Example :  The first required field is "Requester" which is your email address. The second and third required fields are "Subject" and "Description". Use these to describe your issue in as much detail as possible so we can pinpoint a solution quickly. Categories We have several different categories to describe the various issues and systems we use here at Hartwick College. Try your best to guess where your issue might belong in these categories, but it is not required. This may help you get in touch with the right person to most quickly resolve your problem For Wifi issues the Category would be “ Network”  Click the "Submit" button to finish creating your ticket. You will receive a confirmation email to the email address listed in the "requester" field. Make sure to check your spam folder.

When purchasing a computer for college, there are many options, and prices may vary from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Here are some guidelines to help in your decision-making. Each family must choose the laptop that fits their student’s needs and their budget. The recommendations below are merely a guide. Whether you choose a budget laptop or a Cadillac, college will be more manageable if you don’t have performance, warranty or other surprise problems shortly after your purchase.   Windows, Mac, or Chromebook? Most of the software students need today can run on either a Windows PC or a MacBook running the most recent MacOS versions. Chromebooks however run a relatively new and unique Operating System (OS) based on Android, and therefore is incompatible with the large majority of conventional software used in Academia and Business. For this reason, Hartwick College strongly recommends against students using Chromebooks for classwork.   Laptop or Tablet? Tablets have a number of advantages over traditional computers (size, weight, battery life), but many tablets run on Android, iOS, or Chrome operating systems. These tablet-specific operating systems can only install apps from their respective app stores and cannot run standard or specialized software programs that may be required for academic coursework (an exception this rule is the Microsoft Surface line, which has performed well as a laptop/tablet hybrid due to it running a slightly modified version of Windows). For this reason, Hartwick College does not recommend that students plan to use tablets as their primary computer.   Processor (Windows only: MacBooks now have their own Apple-produced processors) Intel has the lion’s share of the processor market, and Intel chipsets cost more than AMD chipsets. They tend to perform slighter better, but the gap is shrinking and an AMD processor can save a shopper significant funds. Intel processors come in speeds of i3, i5, i7, and i9. The i9 line of processor is the most powerful and will be priced accordingly. Ultra low power processors such as Atom processors may not be able to run academic software.  Hartwick is comfortable with either major processor manufacturer.   Hard drive Most laptop manufacturers are using Solid State Drives (SSD) which provide faster access and are less damage-prone than traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDD). Either type of drive will work fine as long as it can store at least 128GB.   Memory Hartwick recommends at least 8GB of memory (RAM), and 16GB for STEM majors who will need to run more demanding software     Graphics Laptops may come with “integrated” video (meaning, the graphics chip is built into the system board), a “dedicated” video (meaning there is a separate graphics card with its own dedicated graphics memory), or both. A dedicated graphics card will give a user faster and smoother video performance and is of particular interest to gamers and others using programs with heavy graphical demands (Photoshop, video editing). The newest Intel chipsets have significantly improved the integrated graphics capability, and these are fine for the average user. Hartwick recommends either graphics card option, based on user preference.   Battery Laptop batteries are available in various sizes. The more cells, the longer the initial battery life will be. Battery life is also affected by the power savings features available (and used) on the laptop. Laptop batteries are consumable items and can handle a certain number of charges in their lifetime, after which users will see reduced performance, and eventually the battery will not work. Newer technology may allow a 3-cell battery to be adequate.    Warranty Most laptops come with a standard 1-year warranty which covers manufacturer’s defects only. Increasing the warranty to 3 years will improve your chances of avoiding a significant expense after the initial warranty expires, but that will still only cover manufacturer’s defects. Most manufacturers offer “accidental damage” insurance in addition to the standard warranties, and these warranties can be invoked if the laptop suffers damage from being dropped, having a liquid spilled into it, or some other accidents. Although expensive, the “accidental damage” insurance pays for itself if the student has only one incident of user damage. Screen replacement on a laptop can be $500 or more and often exceeds the value of the laptop after a year or more of use. Hartwick recommends at least a 3-year manufacturer’s warranty AND accidental damage protection.   Homeowner’s Insurance Even with an extended manufacturer’s warranty and an accidental damage policy, you may not be covered for loss or theft of a laptop. Review your homeowner’s policy and see whether the laptop can be covered by a rider for loss or theft. Hartwick recommends covering the laptop with your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.   Backup A backup option with adequate storage for all your important files is critical. Consider an external hard drive or plan to use cloud storage such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, which is included with your Hartwick account. The TRC can help with configuring your backup options, so don’t hesitate to reach out!   Extra software Many vendors will attempt to upsell customers on extra software or services; often pushing Microsoft Office 365, antivirus software such as McAfee, and their own IT services (looking at you, Best Buy 😒) We highly recommend saying no to any and all of these offers (excluding warranties as mentioned above). Every Hartwick student already has access to a full Microsoft Office 365 suite and a dedicated IT helpdesk right here on campus that comes included with tuition. We do not charge extra for our support services*. Third-party Antivirus is not deemed as necessary as it has been in the past in our professional opinion, due to most operating systems being equipped with robust security measures already built-in. However, we can recommend decent free third-party antivirus or cybersecurity consulting if a student is concerned.     If you have any questions about technology at Hartwick, please contact the Technology Resource Center (TRC) at technology@hartwick.edu or call 607-431-4357.     *We do occasionally offer limited uncertified hardware repair for out-of-warranty devices on a case-by-case basis. In such instances we can provide the labor of sourcing and repair at no extra cost, but students will be asked to purchase their own replacement components.