IT Services
A Department of Learner Support Services
We visited every cluster room supported by IT services with representatives from the Student Union team to do a condition survey, resulting in three refurbishment projects in Summer 2009.
Around 120 new chairs were installed during the Easter break. Three PC clusters outside the Library - Richmond J and L floor and Chesham C Floor - have been refurbished as part of a £50k package with new flooring, redecoration and repairs. This probably would not have happened without the feedback from the student survey of PC clusters.
A power management solution was implemented which affects all student PC clusters located in Richmond, Chesham and the Library (around 350 computers). A web page provides students with the locations and availability of these computers in real time and can also be viewed on mobile devices, and on plasma screens in the Library.
This is a new facility on F Floor Richmond Building (room F42). Initial feedback on the pilot launch has been very positive although making it happen required a very significant amount of resources - people and computer hardware - and while the student experience was excellent there were many things to sort out before the service could be launched on a production basis. This was followed up, and F42 was successfully used throughout the Summer Assessment period. A significant part of this project involved personalised exam timetables. For the first time we were able to issue electronically by email individual personalised student exam timetables. These were issued to all students for January and May exams.
The new service status page has been a huge success with thousands of hits.
There was a 'soft launch' of the NorMAN out of hours support service on 6 April 2009 (tel.01274 233333). The initial contract is for one year. This shared service is operated from Northumbria University and is a 365 day service covering weekdays 5:30pm through 07:30am and through the weekend and public holidays.
This service was launched at the Unity Building. The new system combines printer and photocopying facilities for students and introduces a concept called 'pull' printing. When students send something to print, they then release the print using a station located next to the printer. It aims to avoid piles of unwanted print-outs, save some paper, and save students money on the paper they never collect. It also means that students can collect print-outs at their own convenience at a time and place that suits them best. this has been rolled out to centrally-provided student printers onto the Pharos system.
New signage has been installed at the entrance to the Unity Building, reflecting the style used in the Hub in Richmond Building for the Unity Reception and 'nano-hub' area – where there are Sunrays, telephones and furniture to enable students to interact with the main hub and other IT services without visiting the main campus.
During May an online survey was sent to a random selection of 1000 students. This survey provided a baseline; the same survey has been employed for a few years at Sheffield University enabling comparator analysis. We'd like to thank the students who responded to the survey (14%) for providing us with valuable and constructive feedback. Please view the survey and our response to it.
In July, IT Services moved the Blackboard service on to new hardware systems which are more resilient and provide better performance. Overall performance has been good. Follow-up sessions took place to pull together the lessons learned to transfer knowledge to future system upgrades.
View the full report.
All services are running as normal, unless stated here.
| Room | Number of Free PCs |
|---|---|
| J.B.Priestley 01.41 | 10 |
| J.B.Priestley 01.16 | 18 |
| J.B.Priestley 01.53 | 71 |
| J.B.Priestley 01.44 | 18 |
| J.B.Priestley Health Studies Library | 8 |
| J.B.Priestley Floor 0 Foyer | 14 |
| J.B.Priestley Floor 0 Scanners | 6 |
| J.B.Priestley Floor 1 Extension | 12 |
| J.B.Priestley Floor 2 Extension | 11 |
| J.B.Priestley Room 2.7a | 28 |
| Richmond J31 | 20 |
| Richmond L24 | 44 |
| Chesham C0.02 | 24 |
| School of Management Library | 5 |
| Richmond F42 (Sunray Cluster) | 99 |
| Student Central S038 (Sunray Cluster) | 30 |
