The IT Client Services team has been busy this year refreshing computer workstations in the electronic classrooms (e-classrooms) on campus.

This past spring, Provost Carter appointed a task force to make a recommendation on which Learning Management System (LMS) WCU will select since our contract with Blackboard expires July 1, 2011. This group has begun meeting and is conducting forums during the fall semester to get faculty input in order to make a recommendation by the end of the semester.

More than two years in the planning, the PAW Print system is now in place at WCU. Over 150 multi-function devices (so-called because they print, copy and scan) have been deployed to locations around the campus to serve student, faculty, and staff needs.

All university affiliates are eligible to purchase work-at-home copies of Microsoft Office (for Windows and Mac) and Microsoft Windows Vista on DVD media for personal, non-commercial use. Previously, media was only available for purchase via CatCash from the IT Services Help Desk. In order to make purchasing the media more widely available to distance students as well as our local students, staff, and faculty, IT has moved the media sales to the Bookstore.

The STAC (Student Technology Assistance Center) quietly went away last year and underwent a significant restructuring to better serve the needs of classroom instruction and our QEP initiatives with the eBriefcase. With a renewed focus on the support of technology in the classroom and with the provision of support being provided for students by students, Class TIPS (Technology Instruction/Peer Success) was born.

Did you know that some of the software programs you use at work can be installed on a personal computer at home? This is often called “Work-at-Home” rights or WAH. It doesn’t give you a license that you own outright, it only allows you to install your work license on a home computer so you have the same programs available to use in case you need to do work from home.

WCU recently upgraded its Wimba voice tools within WebCat to Wimba Classroom 6.0. Faculty now have access to this live, virtual classroom with features such as audio, video, application sharing, content display, and MP4 capabilities.

When I agreed to profile the systems and operations department for DoIT News I had no idea what a large task it was going to be. In this article I will try to describe what we do in understandable terms and introduce you to the department’s members. — Shandon Bates, Director of Systems and Operations

Learn more about IT … by the numbers.