What's Up With OIT?

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Service with a Smile

In OIT, we may not always 'make your day,' but that is our goal. Hopefully, we do it with a smile on our face and a serious commitment to making your technology use more rewarding. How are we doing? When Faculty and Staff were asked to rate their overall satisfaction with OIT over the last year, the results were positive indicating that:

44% were "Very Satisfied"

38% were "Somewhat Satisfied"

9% were "Somewhat Dissatisfied"

3% are "Very Dissatisfied," and

6% didn't offer an opinion.

This was one of 19 statements presented campuswide to faculty and staff in November to measure OIT satisfaction, address priorities and provide insight on areas of support needing improvement. The common themes were:

• Improve Communications to the Campus Community
• Improve Classroom and Lab Support
• Improve Help Desk Services and
• Provide more opportunities for training.

To address each of these four areas we are committed to accomplish the following:

Improve Communications to the Campus Community

• Strengthen the Governance Committee process so that users are better linked to representative constituent groups, encouraging the committees to meet monthly.
• Meet at least once a semester with department chairs/directors and attend departmental meetings upon invitation from the department(s).
• Improve the content of the OIT web pages
• Continue to publish in paper and online a term-based newsletter

Improve Classroom and Lab Support

• Install 11 additional projection teaching stations in classrooms on the Alpine campus.
• Continue to make improvements in hardware and software for ACR 203.
• Address pedagogical limitations of technology assisted teaching and not focus solely on the hardware.
• Work with the Instructional Technology Committee to identify new opportunities for support

Improve Help Desk Services

• Fill the vacant evening support position
• Publish an updated Service Level Agreement (See Help Desk Helps You)
• Provide more coverage for the help desk phone line
• Better integrate OIT support areas for PCs, media and lab support

Provide More Opportunities for Training

• Provide regularly scheduled training sessions for faculty on web resources and on-line instruction tools
• Do a better job of training lab assistants
• Provide regularly scheduled training for administrative staff on web resources and office suite tool sets
• Provide an introduction to Blackboard during registration periods for students enrolling (or considering enrolling) in a web based course.

You may download the pdf version of the results of the survey by clicking on the following link: Fall 2002 Survey.

And in case you were wondering who won those $50 gift certificates to Barnes and Noble, the winners for the faculty and staff were Marilyn McGhee, President's Office and Leigh Anne Sutton, RGC Business Office. I know, I couldn't believe it either!! The gift certificates from the student survey go to Becky Lynn Caffey and Antonio Rivera. Congratulations to the winners!

Think Strategically . . . Then Build

Many of you know that soon after arriving here, I [Tom Graf] began to build my own house. Actually, this is the third house I have designed and built for myself. I am always reminded that when planning a house, the process is equally important to the final blue print itself. In fact, by the time I built this last house, the plan was so ingrained in my mind that I only pulled the actual blueprint out one time during the construction to double check one dimension.

We've been through a similar process here in developing the IT strategic plan. More than 30 faculty, staff and students in Alpine and RGC participated on the planning team. The process included a number of afternoon-long working sessions as well as focus groups and one-on-one interviews. In October, the Executive Committee officially adopted the plan and work has begun on its implementation. The full plan may be downloaded at IT Strategic Plan. This plan has been integrated with the University strategic plan with the objectives and work plans. This 'nuts and bolts' version of the plan may be downloaded at IT Work Plans.

The planning team worked to create a common IT vision and a set of guiding principles before ever considering our objectives and work plans. The vision states:

Sul Ross State University effectively integrates technology into teaching, learning, research, administration, co-curricular activities, and professional development to ensure the growth and success of students, faculty, and staff. We accomplish this through:

• Maintaining our student-centered philosophy;
• Providing progressive mentoring;
• Reducing barriers of geography, connectivity and availability;
• Embracing diversity;
• Building partnerships nationally and internationally; and
• Realizing the advantages of our location and heritage.

The IT Guiding Principles that will shape our decision making and state that Institutional uses of technology at Sul Ross State University:

• Support and enhance the sense of community throughout the university and its service areas;
• Provide effective access to teaching and learning;
• Ensure that all students, faculty, and staff have access to excellent services that are consistent and convenient;
• Strive for seamless integration of systems and technologies to maximize operational efficiency and effectiveness;
• Promote student, faculty, and staff satisfaction, professional development and retention;
• Provide IT training and support in ways that will enhance the use of technology in fulfilling the mission of the university;
• Promote partnerships, both internally and externally; and
• Address diversity in all areas of education, culture, learning styles and learning needs.

IT Objectives for 2002-2005

1. Assess and address the need to enhance and increase access to administrative systems, emphasizing web-based solutions.
2. Assess, prioritize, and address hardware and software needs.
3. Plan for the use of technology to support teaching and learning, both on-campus and at a distance.
4. Design and implement effective IT training for staff, faculty, and students.
5. Increase effectiveness of technology resources and support staff at Sul Ross.
6. Improve internal and external understanding of Sul Ross IT services and resources through enhanced communications.
7. Ensure effective IT operations.

My thanks to everyone who contributed to the planning process and all that will work with us in the coming years to implement the plan and fulfill the IT Vision.

Capital Projects Under Way

With the approval of HEAF for FY 2003, OIT is in the midst of major capital purchases and implementations. The major projects include:

• PC replacements on the three year equipment plan. The systems have arrived and are about 60% installed.
• Upgrading the Core Network in Alpine to 1000 Mega-bits per second from the current 100 Mbs backbone. This equipment is currently on order.
• Adding 11 additional data projection units on movable carts on the Alpine campus for use in classrooms. These are scheduled to be in place for the Spring Term.
• Implementation of document imaging in administrative offices to more effectively process information. This 'paperless' imaging and workflow project is being funded by TIF with matching SRSU HEAF.

The Help Desk Helps You

In the fall survey, over 50 percent of users indicated that they were "very satisfied" with the OIT Help Desk with another 37 percent somewhat satisfied. So what can we do to improve? Perhaps the biggest suggestion is that OIT respond to all support issues in a timely manner. The following guidelines have been developed to better address customer expectations. These are response time goals, not guarantees, but they do represent our commitment to you as end users for ever improving our services and support.

Where is the Wireless?

Slowly but surely the wireless distribution is reaching fruition. At the SRSU campus we have wireless access points at Mountainside Dorm, Graves-Pierce Gym, and at the Agriculture and Natural Resource Science Campus. There is some confusion on how one connects to such a device.

The PC or Laptop you have at home will need a wireless network adaptor, and we are recommending Cisco Aironet 350 Client adaptors. You will also need an external antenna if you live in an area that blocks clear line-of-sight to one of the above mentioned access points, or if you live in a building with a wire-stucco exterior or sheet-metal siding. If you do have clear line-of-sight to one of the APs, and are within two miles of same, you can use a portable antenna that connects to the laptop wireless adaptor or the PC adaptor. For more information on what it takes to get connected visit the Wireless Setup Web page.

The speed of a wireless connection is the same as we experience on campus with our LAN office and Lab connections. That is to say, about 30 to 300 times faster than a dialup modem connection. As this evolves, we hope to get more of our students and faculty using this connection resource with its higher speed and ability to serve a greater number of connections than that of our Sul Ross modem pool.

Better Information for Blackboard Users

A new front door web page has been added to the Sul Ross web site that provides students and faculty with help resources for Blackboard. The Blackboard page provides system announcements, login information and separate support areas for faculty and students.

OIT appreciates all the feedback from students and faculty over the past semester and most especially, for your patience!! Your insight into the problems you have encountered has helped us take corrective action along the way. Our thanks to John Rayburn and Marshall Eidson for their work in supporting Blackboard. Both have contributed greatly to solutions. It is important that we hear from you, so keep those e-mails coming!

We're Jammin'

Tired of those timeouts while you surf the web for useful information? Have you been wondering why we don't 'just get a bigger pipe' to the Internet? In the past year we have tripled our bandwidth and still the connection remains 90% full most of the time. Increasing bandwidth is a costly proposition. For every 1.5 Mega bit per second connection (known as a T-1), the university pays $12,000 per year. We have three total T-1s today--two for Alpine and one for RGC. If we doubled that again we'd need an additional $36,000 per year. Ouch!!

So, when a resource is scarce and expensive, conservation is often a prudent alternative. Streaming audio uses nearly half the total bandwidth. Downloading that radio station may seem harmless enough, but it sure slows things down. Dr. Morgan is distributing a memo asking faculty and staff to refrain from 'casual use' streaming audio and video. We appreciate your help in effectively managing our Internet resources.

Executive Committee Adopts Copyright Infringment Policy. Select the link below to to see the full policy.

Copyright Infringement Policy