University Systems News for March 2015

Around Campus

We have published our new Computer Help Desk hours and locations block on the University Systems website. This interactive map outlines the locations and services available across our 8 locations on campus, our hours of operation, and provides a visual of which locations are open, which are closing soon, and which are closed. We hope that students, faculty, and staff will find this information helpful when searching for assistance and computing facilities on campus. Click on the image of the map below to access the interactive version on the Unversity Systems website.

facilities

Media Services and Desktop Support Services (DSS) deployed a new video conferencing/presentation system in the Elliott building for the department of Chemistry this month. Used by faculty, staff, and researchers, the conference room is now capable of displaying presentation material on screen with ease as well as hosting meetings over BlueJeans with remote participants.

Desktop Support Services (DSS) has assumed the maintenance of the UNFS Menus and some setup for Food Services within the Blackboard System. A development environment for the NCR terminals has been set up in one of the DSS support offices, and DSS members continue to familiarize themselves with the Blackboard software and processes.

The Audio Visual website has been updated to explain what’s new in the newly upgraded digital classrooms, which rooms have been converted so far, and to include a message about the VHS phase-out happening in UVic classrooms. Browse Audio Visual classroom information through the University Systems website.

Our network technicians have been working on network installations and surveys in CARSA. Additional access points are to be installed, the IP Paging System and IP speaker activations are in progress. Door access control system installations are in progress and Blackboard performed on-site testing of the door access system with the team at the end of March.

Our Media Services team provides Webcasting and Video on Demand (VoD) services to clients across campus. The following graphs show the number of visitors and amount of data streamed through the VoD service since May 2013. We can see large usage peaks during Convocation and events like the School of Music webcast in November 2013.

vod

Get Involved!

The Wireless Lecture Hall project (PC0486) will utilize University Systems staff for the next round of load testing in April. Lunch will be provided! If you are interested in participating please accept the Exchange calendar invitation that should have arrived in your mail. If you did not receive one or have any questions please contact Jane Godfrey at jgodfrey@uvic.ca.

The University Systems Welcome Wagon matched 10 Systems staff with 5 new employees for coffee outings in March. If you are interested in signing up or learning more, please visit our SharePoint site!

Project Updates and Training

Graham Tranter from Internal Audit spoke with us about Audit and Project Management on Wednesday, March 18. The session was well-attended and we have scheduled another session on April 15 for those who were unable to attend the first session. More information and registration are available on the PMO SharePoint site.

We hosted two sessions on our new Project Privacy Process in University Systems. Please contact systemspmo@uvic.ca if you require any assistance with the new Project Proposal, Plan, or Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) templates!

PC0436- The 2014-2015 Classroom Technology Digital Upgrades project achieved successful project close. This project upgraded/replaced the analogue video display technology in several teaching spaces on campus with modern, digital video display technology.

PC0505- The Computer Help Desk is undertaking a workstation infrastructure upgrade starting in April 2015. A number of Mac and PC computer labs will be upgraded with new equipment over the Summer semester. These new labs will be deployed with the latest OS (Windows 8.1 and Mac OS 10.10).

PC0389- The second phase of the Online Academic Community (OAC) project is now complete. The OAC is no longer in pilot and is open to all students and employees at UVic! Drop-in support for this service is available through Technology Integrated Learning every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. The full drop-in schedule is available on the Technology Integrated Learning website.