Communication Initiatives - School of Engineering

AY 2005-2006

Regular communication currently takes place between the Dean and the Director for User Support Services.  There is also regular communication between the IT support specialist and the faculty for identifying issues, communicating any problems or changes, and problem solving.  

The IT support specialist will have some office hours in Armstrong set to begin on or about October 31, 2005.

The SOE dean and faculty feel that support is lacking because the support specialist is not located in the building at all times.   Since the support specialist has responsibilities other than the SOE, IT will work with the dean to develop a schedule that is mutually beneficial to all parties.   With the support specialist in the building, the faculty can address IT matters directly.   The dean and support specialist will agree on the schedule including which days and times would be best and those dates and times will be posted monthly on the outside of the support specialist office in Armstrong.  

Fall 2005 Update

The support specialist has office hours in Armstrong every Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 pm to 5 pm and Thursday morning from 9 am to 11 am working throughout the building as needed.  The support specialist is often in the building outside of these office hours to work on lab images or work with faculty to install and test equipment.

Spring 2006 Update

The support specialist continued office hours in Armstrong every Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 pm to 5 pm and Thursday morning from 9 am to 11 am working throughout the building as needed.  The support specialist is often in the building outside of these office hours to work on lab images or work with faculty to install and test equipment. 

IT will meet with each faculty member of the School of Engineering to address growing concerns about IT support.  

AD for USS will schedule meetings with all SOE faculty to talk about their technology issues, past, present and future.

Fall 2005 Update

As of December 31, 2005, the AD for USS has met with 10 SOE faculty.  Will be scheduling other meetings as requested in January and February.

Spring 2006 Update

AD for USS has met with all but 3 faculty members from SOE.

IT will meet with the SOE faculty at the school meeting in November.

AD for USS will contact the secretary for SOE to arrange this.

Fall 2005 Update

AD for USS, Director for USS, support specialist and support specialist's backup attended the November SOE meeting to discuss this Communication plan and to solicit input as to how we can better support SOE.

One suggestion was for the helpdesk to give the caller their tracking number in case they want to follow up on a call.  IT has since implemented a system that sends email to the caller with the subject of their call and the date, time and incident number.

Another suggestion was that customer feedback is very important to any successful support structure.  IT has purchased a surveyor module for the tracking system and is working to implement customer satisfaction surveys to collect feedback.

Spring 2006 Update

IT is putting the finishing touches on the customer satisfaction feedback form.

Develop a model for new initiatives in the SOE labs for testing both hardware and software prior to implementation.

There is a need to develop a working model to test the software and hardware in the Engineering labs.   Because of the uniqueness of the interfaces with peripherals, IT will partner with the faculty member requesting the new hardware or software to insure that basic testing occurs before the semester starts.

Fall 2005 Update

There was a common theme in many of the other schools that suggested this should be a campus wide initiative.  Specifically for the SOE, the student workers along with the support specialist will be available to help with this testing process.

Spring 2006 Update

The addition of student workers was a benefit to the full time support specialist as all of the student workers were Engineering students who had knowledge of the labs and how some of the software should work.  This facilitated better testing methods.

IT will allocate 30 student hours per week during the academic year to monitor the specialized labs more closely and to assist in the testing and implementation process of new equipment and software.   SOE will encourage Engineering students to fill these positions.

The dean expressed concern about the lack of student workers in the computer labs.   Currently, the SOE provides staffing for the labs during the evening hours, but the dean would like to have a student worker in the labs during the day for a few hours. Provided qualified candidates apply, IT will allocate 30 hours per week for this staffing.   The ideal candidate will be a student that is an upper-class Engineering major, identified by the SOE as qualified, that would apply to an IT job posting with Career Services. These students will be monitored and supervised by IT staff.

Fall 2005 Update

Four Engineering students have been hired and starting working in Armstrong on Monday, January 23.  The support specialist is currently training these students to assist in troubleshooting and testing equipment and software in the computer labs.  An email was sent on January 25 to the Dean with the student schedules.  Email was also sent to department secretaries asking to let SOE faculty know that these students are available if they need them.

Spring 2006 Update

Four Engineering students worked through the spring semester.  Two of the students are graduating so we will be advertising for replacements starting August 1, 2006.

Involve the current support specialist's backup in the day-to-day operations so that support is readily available if the primary support specialist is unavailable.

The current support structure is that each support specialist has a backup in case the primary support person is out of the office.   In this case, the primary support person will provide more in-depth training for the backup support person to help gain a better understanding of the intricacies of SOE.

Fall 2005 Update

The backup support specialist has been working with the SOE support specialist to learn more about the equipment and software in SOE.

Additional info - The summer upgrade for computers assigned to full time faculty and staff that are due for replacement in Armstrong Hall will begin May 23, 2006.