Tag Archives: learning spaces

Office of Campus Scheduling

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via Email | Office of Campus Scheduling
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Faculty and Staff Members:

The Office of Student Life is pleased to announce the creation of the Office of Campus Scheduling. As of November 15, 2007, this area is prepared to receive reservation requests for use of the following facilities/spaces on campus for the remainder of the 2007-2008 academic year:

*Stern Student Center (including the Ballroom, meeting rooms and conference rooms)
*Stern Center Garden
*Physicians Auditorium (for non-academic use)
*Physicians Promenade
*Cougar Mall
*Rivers Green (behind Addlestone Library)

To submit a reservation for any of the spaces listed above, please contact Ed Short at shorte@cofc.edu or 953-5726.

A list of campus facilities and facility managers is below which includes contact information for other available spaces on the C of C campus.

College of Charleston Faculty/Staff Facility Reservation Contact List

Classroom Management – CMC

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via Email | Joe Kelly | Classroom Management Committee
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Dear Colleagues,

As speaker of the faculty I serve on the Classroom Management Committee, which was recently created to find ways of better managing our classroom facilities. With the President’s and Provost’s backing, we’ll be tackling some acute and not-so-acute problems with our classrooms.  But right now, I am seeking your immediate assistance for securing equipment and extending courtesy toward your teaching colleagues.

When you leave the classroom (especially if it is the last class of the day) please remember to

  1. return desks and chairs, etc. to their original seating configuration (room arrangement charts will soon be posted in all classrooms);
  2. erase boards;
  3. turn off lights; and
  4. close and lock classroom doors.

If you teach in a smart classroom, please also

  1. log off the computer;
  2. turn off the projector;
  3. put all controls into the right-side cabinet; and
  4. lock the cabinet. (We’ve had problems with theft of everything from CPU’s to controls, and also unauthorized people have been getting into the computers and tampering with programs).

If you suspect that the wrong furniture–either number or kind–is in your classroom, please contact your chair or Adam Cruz (3-6337) in the Registrar’s Office.  Thanks,

Joe Kelly
Dept. of English
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
843-953-4815 (office)
843-953-3180 (fax)

New Campus Map

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via Email | Meredith English | Division of Marketing and Communication
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Dear Faculty and Staff,

As some of you have noticed while helping new students and employees navigate our campus, the College’s campus map has been updated. The new map includes all of our facilities (including those currently under construction), and shows additional features such as our brick sidewalks, the fountain at Rivers Green, and the Cistern.

Please note that the buildings have been renumbered for consistency and ease of use, so please make certain to update any links or references you may have to the old map.

Viewing, printing and downloading information:

http://www.cofc.edu/about/map.html

The map can be viewed in HTML or downloaded as a PDF.

For high-quality and larger-quantity jobs, contact the College’s Copy Center at copycenter@cofc.edu or 953.5924. The Copy Center will ask that you fill out a request form and will provide you with an estimate for the job. When filling out the form, please include the file name “cofc_2D” or “cofc_2D_bw” (black and white version). The name of the person logged in will be “marketing.”

Cartographic and design services for this project were provided by mapformation. We also are working with mapformation to complete a 3D-perspective map to better showcase the campus, and will let you know when this map is completed.

Thank you,

Meredith

—
Meredith English
Director of Special Projects and Advertising
Division of Marketing and Communications
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
p: 843.953.5567
f: 843.953.5663
e: englishm@cofc.edu

Note from the Registrar on Classroom Use Policies, Room Maintenance, and Media Requests

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via Email | Registar’s Office | August 23, 2007
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To Faculty and Staff:

A little clarification on yesterday’s email concerning classroom furniture, maintenance and media requests:

The Registrar’s Office keeps an inventory of the number of desks in each classroom and we use that number to assign sections with specific enrollment maxes. Even if your class does not need all of the desks in a room, please do not remove them because other sections may. If you feel that the number of desks is incorrect, please contact Adam Cruz at cruza@cofc.edu or 3-6337 for the correct inventory.

Because of the situation explained in the above bullet, please do not move desks from another classroom. That will make the RO inventory incorrect and cause us to assign a section to a room without enough desks. We have faculty calling us this week because desks have been removed from their classrooms and students have nowhere to sit. Those of you who have this problem in your classrooms should keep reading…

If your class has more students enrolled than desks, please contact Adam Cruz for the correct inventory number and to see if any desks are actually missing. Adam can assist you in possibly moving your class to another room. If that is not an option, you can go through Adam to order additional desks from Physical Plant, provided there is enough space in the room. The Registrar’s Office needs to be in the loop to request more desks so that we can update our seat inventory. If you choose to order more desks directly from Physical Plant, please send Adam an “fyi” email.

If you need a TV/DVD/VCR cart to show a film in one of your courses, please contact Matthew Hiott at College Relations and Media Communications – Classroom Support. He can help you out with this. hiottm@cofc.edu 953-5935

For room maintenance, to request equipment be brought in/taken out, for light bulbs, basically anytime you need some form or maintenance, please submit a request electronically as described below:
Work requests are submitted via a web site.

1) Click this URL: http://www.myschoolbuilding.com (If you haven’t already, please bookmark this URL.)

2) If you are asked for an account number type in 781095136 and click “Submit Organization”. If the account number is not needed the request submit page will immediately appear. You will enter personal data about yourself and your email cofc work email address.

3) Complete the request submittal page with the required information and click submit.



Online Room Request for Students

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via Email | Registrar’s Office | August 23, 2007
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Hello Faculty and Staff,

The Registrar’s Office has developed an online form for students to request room reservations. The web page is http://www.cofc.edu/~register/roomrequest.php

This page can also be reached from the RO main webpage http://www.cofc.edu/~register/index.htm by clicking Forms ==> Student ==> Student Special Event Form For Requesting Rooms.
When a student fills out the form to request use of a room, an email is sent to a faculty member (the student must provide a faculty email address) requesting that the faculty member either approve or deny the request. This is done by forwarding the email to Adam Cruz in the Registrar’s office CruzAA@cofc.edu

Classroom Access Codes Have Changed for the Fall 07 Semester

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via Email | Adam Cruz | Registrar’s Office

Attention Faculty and Staff,

All of the Classroom Access Codes are in the process of being changed, and should be completed by the end of this week (August 17th).
The Classroom Access Code page has already been updated with the new codes. However, the page is now secured and is viewable online on Cougar Trail only.

To View the Code List:

  1. Log on to Cougar Trail, either as FACULTY or EMPLOYEE.
  2. On the main page, look for the INFORMATION tab or header.
  3. Then you will see “Classroom Access Codes”.

Please take the time to memorize or write down your codes before classes resume on Tuesday. This link was provided as a resource for you! You can now access these codes from anywhere there is a computer.

Reminders:

  1. Every classroom in Maybank now has an access code. The lecture classrooms are listed on the page below all of the smart classrooms. Maybank lecture classrooms are to remain unlocked! If you find the room to be locked upon arrival, unlock with the code and do nothing else. On the inside of the door you will see two toggle buttons, one to lock, one to unlock. These are only to be used in an emergency situation.
  2. We went though alot to changes all of these codes, so please help to keep them secure and do not have give them out to students, for any reason. This defeats the purpose in having these codes in the first place.

For More Information Contact:
Adam A. Cruz
Classroom Scheduling Coordinator
Office of the Registrar
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, South Carolina, 29424
(843)953-6337
CruzAA@cofc.edu

Classroom Support at UNC Goes Both Ways

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Linda L. Briggs | Campus Technology
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Article Available at: http://campustechnology.com/articles/48936/

A simple two-way digital intercom system installed in classrooms at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has greatly reduced the support department’s response time. And although it hasn’t been used for an emergency yet, the intercom system can also serve to instantly broadcast a single message to all or some classrooms at once.

UNC Charlotte, with 20,000 students, 1,400 faculty, and 74 buildings, is located on a sprawling campus of some 1,000 acres. Increased use of technology such as computers and projectors in the classroom was resulting in increased reports of technical problems by instructors. The support department, in turn, was struggling to respond in a timely fashion, sometimes leading to class cancellations because of malfunctioning equipment. Also, descriptions by instructors after the fact often weren’t sufficient to pinpoint the problem.

The university previously used a one-way intercom system to allow problem reporting, but one-way reports from instructors weren’t sufficient to describe problems, and a technician could be dispatched without the appropriate equipment.

UNCC eventually selected an inexpensive, scalable, easy to install IP-based solution from Digital Acoustics called the ii3 Internet Protocol (IP) Intercom. “It’s immediate, two-way communication with users,” said Steve Clark, director of classroom support at the university. “It works flawlessly, [and] allows us to take care of 90 to 95 percent of [support] calls without leaving the office… We can respond to any help request in 10 minutes.”

The Office of Classroom Support supports the entire campus using just Clark, one technician, and 10 student assistants. The farthest building supported is just over a mile away; Clark and his staff use a small cargo van to reach outlying buildings quickly.

Clark’s office initially installed 100 of the Digital Acoustics intercoms in classrooms across campus; they’ve now increased coverage to 240 classrooms. The system, which works like a standard push to talk intercom system, is connected to UNCC’s existing wire-based local and wide-area networks. Using standard TCP/IP network audio protocols, the intercoms provide instant two-way communication between an instructor and the campus helpdesk.

The intercom system could also prove useful in an emergency. After an on-campus emergency 18 months ago, Clark said, UNCC added a loud siren and a device atop the library that officials can use for broadcasts. UNCC also has a plan in place to use voicemail, email and web page postings as appropriate to keep students, faculty, and staff updated during an emergency.

After the Virginia Tech shooting in April, Clark suggested to administrators that the intercom system be added to the emergency alert plan as well. Announcements over the intercom are “a finishing touch” to the plan, he said–and a useful one, since Clark pointed out that at any given moment, most constituents on a college campus tend to be in class. From the central console, announcements can be sent to the entire campus over the intercom or selectively targeted. The intercom can also be used from the classroom, to request assistance. “We’re working on a smooth handoff for medical emergencies,” Clark said.

For technical support use, an instructor experiencing a problem simply pushes the intercom switch and describes the issue directly to Clark’s support staff. Connection is instant. Clark has trained support representatives available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Clark said he is considering slightly longer hours. During the back and forth exchange over the intercom, the tech support person can quickly determine whether a service call is needed and can dispatch a technician to the room, if needed.

That can result in help within minutes, instead of a canceled class, as was happening before the new technology was in place.

A big advantage is that the TCP/IP-based intercom system doesn’t require PCs, an important consideration since not every classroom at UNCC contains a computer.

Central management is the key to the system’s efficiency, Clark said. “We’re efficiently responding to volume of calls we’re getting.” Because he is using Crestrons RoomView software as well as the Digital Acoustics system, his staff can talk with instructors in classrooms over the intercom while remotely accessing the problem PC. RoomView allows a remote technician to monitor, manage and control any device in the classroom connected to a computer. “We can reboot systems manually, [do anything] short of replacing a light bulb,” Clark said.

Update on Procedures for Requesting Software in Smart Classrooms and Labs

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Making Changes in Software Applications Installed on Classroom/Lab Computers

Prior to the beginning of each semester at the College, Information Technology (IT) updates/adds software applications on the computers in smart classrooms, computer classrooms and in the Library Student Computing Center.  This service is designed to support the changing instructional needs of the faculty.

Procedures

If you would like to request a change in the applications currently loaded on computers used by you or your students, please send a work order request to Helpdesk (3-3375) or at helpdesk@cofc.edu with the following information:

1.  Name of contact person

2.  Name of the software package

3.  Software license and/or serial number

  • For installation of textbook software on multiple computers, check to see if you must obtain written permission from the Publisher.  This will be stated on the license.  We can not proceed without this documentation.

4.  Software location

  • On the web – Include the link in your work order request
  • On a CD – Submit a COPY of the original software media installation disk to Goffery Davis, 322 JC Long Bldg. IT will retain this copy for maintenance and future installation requests.

5.  Location of the installation (classroom/lab)

6.  Date the software is needed (if other than the beginning of the semester)

7.  Any additional information that you believe is pertinent to the installation.

Deadlines

To assure installation of software for the beginning of a semester, the deadlines are:

Semester Needed                       Request Must Be Received by

Spring                                      December 1

Summer Sessions                      May 1

Fall                                          July 1

If you have any questions, please contact:

Goffery Davis, System Support Specialist

davisg@cofc.edu  | 953-5229

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