Working for our students
Jul 1st, 2009 by Bob Lim
Here are some of the projects we’re currently working on for our students:
Major upgrade to wireless network
The entire campus wireless network is being ripped and replaced with all new equipment that works at the new high-speed Wireless-N speed, giving students 108 gigabits of wireless goodness. With all the emphasis on multimedia, streaming video, and new services like Tegrity lecture capture and the Virtual ASB, you’ll find this extra capacity very useful. You’ll also find that more laptops can be online in any given area on campus, because we’re upping the access point density too.
Student Computer Portal
Imagine having one web page that takes you everywhere you need to go: Blackboard courses, class schedules, grades, finances, discussion forums, Bronc Mail, and announcements. After you log into your personal portal, one click takes you to any of these places. There’s also social networking. Share with your friends, write on their walls, and IM chat with them. In the future, the Library will be added to the services you can reach through your portal page. You’ll be able to customize the page to suit your needs and add pages that are yours alone.
One-click account activation for new students
This Spring we did away with the paper mail that you might remember getting from us when you were a beginning student. Now we send new students a link via email that they can click to activate their access to ASSIST services. With that, they can track the progress of their application to enroll, check their financial aid status, and set their password on Bronc Mail. Before this, new students received a paper letter, which wasn’t very convenient. Sometimes they forgot to bring it to Orientation with them. Now, if they forget their password, they can use the special link until the first day of the semester.
Self-service password resets with high-assurance ID (coming soon)
If you forget your password, you currently have to come to campus with an ID card to get the Helpdesk to reset it. Soon, students will be able to go to a web page where they can reset their password by answering security questions. This is similar to what you’re already familiar with at major online websites.
Continuing to evaluate SurveyDIG for online course evaluation this summer
Every semester the University spends $30,000 on the student course evaluation process, using the paper Scan-Tron forms you are all familiar with. That’s money that can’t be spent on delivering services to students. If we could find a way to do away the costs of processing all those paper forms, while still measuring the quality of the classes being taught here, it would be a great step forward for the University. That’s what the SurveyDIG experiment is all about. Last Spring we kicked it off and about 18% of students used it to evaluate their professors. The experiment is continuing through the Summer semesters. We’re learning from this process and we are continuing to gather data which will be used to form future decisions in this area.
Tegrity lecture capture software
All lectures in the Smart Classrooms will be digitally captured by the newly-installed Tegrity system, along with PowerPoint slides, annotations, and other multimedia audio and video. The lectures will be available online so you can review lectures you want to see again, or catch up on a class you missed. You’ll be able to use any internet-connected computer as well as mobile devices like networked cellphones and PDAs. Anywhere you can access the Internet, on or off campus, you’ll be able to review your class lectures.
Student web hosting is now live
If you want to design your own web pages we’ve got 20MB for you to let your imagination take flight. Your space is waiting for you at http://students.utpa.edu/<username>.
New free antivirus download for students—Microsoft ForeFront (coming this Fall)
Free to all Students: Microsoft ForeFront antivirus software. Starting this Fall, we will publish directions on how to get your copy as soon as it is available.
New Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
The reason we have open campus computing labs is to make sure everyone has access to the computers and software they need to complete their studies. But although the labs are open 24 hours a day, some students still find it difficult to make time to come to campus to study in the computer labs. Now,. We’re offering another option. With our new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, we’re putting the computer labs on the Internet, so you can access special computer lab software and services from anywhere on the Internet.
No matter if you’re at home, around the world, or across the campus, you can get online and let the computer lab come to you.
Our virtual labs are a solution that can enable our students to use lab specialized software from almost any location. Using a broadband internet connection and a web browser, students can access virtual machines loaded with all of the software they need to be successful. Virtual labs will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, excluding maintenance windows.
New “Learning Studio” in the Academic Services Building
The new “Learning Studios” will provide our students and faculty an opportunity to experiment with radical flexibility in space, furnishings, and technology.
Features
- Presentation Podium with A/V controls.
- Laptop Checkout (Both Apple and Windows OS)
- 58” Mobile Smart Board
- Wireless Airliner Tablets for Smartboard
- Wireless Polling System (Turning Point)
- Mobile White boards
- Movable furniture and desks
Benefits
- Gives students a space to practice presentations and to conduct group collaboration.
- The room is configurable to multiple different configurations to accommodate almost any need.
- Specifically designed to promote faculty and student engagement.
- This room will allow students with a study area that has the latest technology available.
Go Green Initiative: Information Technology’s Current Contribution
To support the Go Green initiative, we have purchased the Faronics Power Save solution, which will provide PC power management to the computing labs for the first phase. Power Save keeps computers running when users need them and can accurately determine when computers are inactive so they can be powered down. Power Save’s non-disruptive PC power management analyzes CPU, disk, keyboard, mouse, and application activity before taking computer power management actions. It is estimated to provide an average savings of $50 per computer per year for every computer deployed. This totals to about $40,000 a year in energy savings in the computing labs alone. During our second phase, we will incorporate our campus computers in the next few months.
The eBooks Project
We believe that eBooks could be an effective way to lower the cost of education. It’s easy to see that an electronic textbook costs about 60% of what its paper counterpart costs. But do eBooks help students be successful? Do those students have better graduation and retention rates? Those are some of the questions The eBooks Project seeks to answer. This Fall, 500 students will receive free electronic textbooks as part of a research project sponsored by Information Technology. The purpose of the project is to measure how well students who use eBooks perform. One of the members of the team is quantitative statistician Dr. Jesus Tanguma, who is leading the research effort and is designing the study. Information Technology is partnering with Wiley & Sons and using the Wiley Plus online textbooks.
The students who will receive free eBooks are those enrolled in one of several Quantitative Statistics sections or in one Abnormal Psychology class. Next Spring we will have different classes in the program and we will be signing professors up for the Spring program this Autumn. The eBooks Project is funded by Incentive Funds, which are made available to programs that seek to improve student graduation and retention rates.
New campus wireless printing stations
Campus wireless printing will be available in 10 buildings on campus. Currently there are 7 wireless print stations.
|
COAS |
1 Floor |
| COBA |
2nd Floor Student Lounge |
| HSHSW |
1.262 Student Lounge |
| Library |
1st Floor vending area |
| MAGC |
1.106 Lounge |
| Science |
1.290 Student Lounge |
| SUB |
Game Room 1st Floor |
SBS Computing Lab
