ITSG May 2022 Update

5 May 2022

News from ITSG

As we move into Trinity Term and look ahead to the summer period it is a good time to provide an IT update. Please read on below for news from ITSG.

🎥 Audio Visual

🥚 Over the Easter vacation we carried out preparatory work that will help us to standardise room setups. Over the last 2 years the rooms have become less standardised as we have reacted to the demands of the pandemic and associated changes to how teaching is delivered by departments.

🧹 The first step has been to carry out some re-cabling to enable the next phase in which we will install the in-room-PC in the same location using the same hardware in each room. This will be - subject to supplier delivery times - carried out unobtrusively when the rooms aren’t in use. Temporarily the cable runs are a little tight and we ask that you do not alter the height of the C-Touch screens.

📄 Information to help you navigate the changes are available in every room, were distributed to department IT contacts in the Manor Road Building and are also available here:

C-Touch-Notice-April-22.pdf

Inputs-Notice-April-22.pdf

🎤 ITSG have also made improvements to the sound pickup (microphones) setup in most rooms. In particular the Lecture Theatre has more mics for audience participation as does the Common Room. Additional mics for other larger rooms is a live project to improve audience sound pickup.

🎛 The Long Vacation will be busy with a programme of work to replace the legacy AV control system in Manor Road Building. This will be scheduled for quiet times so as not to inconvenience existing bookings. Richard Kemble is leading this work for ITSG and will be in touch with Department IT Contacts and Teaching Support contacts in due course on this.

👂🏼 The teaching spaces have also seen improvements in acoustics with the addition of acoustic wall coverings (A-G and Skills Lab) and new ceiling boards (Common Room). The impact on sound quality is instantly noticeable. This wasn’t an ITSG project, although it is one we have supported for some time so it is great to see this come to fruition.

🖨 Print Service

We are introducing improvements to the print service available to Economics, DPIR, Sociology, Socio-legal Studies and Criminology. Firstly, departments will be free to choose their preferred print hardware based on their own needs and there will be consequent transparency in the billing. ITSG have sourced pricing from a range of vendors for consideration. Secondly, ITSG will provide the print management solution that manages the hardware, makes it available to you, enables tap-to-print with your card, management reporting and improved mobile print functionality including ability to print from iOS and Android. After term has ended this will move towards implementation. Richard Kemble is also leading this work and is already in communication with department contacts; the work needs to be concluded quickly and Richard will be seeking confirmation of hardware options w/c 9th May.

♻ Process Improvement Work

ITSG have provided checklists to help department Professional Support Staff understand and interact with some key activities:

  • New Starters
  • Equipment Purchases

Checklists can be found here: Checklists | Social Sciences Information Technology and Services Group (ox.ac.uk)

ITSG have also improved Process Request Forms for the following areas of activity:

  • Starters
  • Leavers
  • Device Setup

Forms can be found here: Process Request Forms (Restricted) | Social Sciences Information Technology and Services Group (ox.ac.uk)

📢 Feedback

Your feedback about the service is critical to help ITSG identify improvement opportunities. There are various ways that you can do this.

  • If you log a request with the Service Desk; on completion you will receive a request to complete a feedback form: https://forms.office.com/r/GXBDvfcDL9

  • You can complete the feedback form after an interaction with ITSG when there is no Service Desk request - we are always happy to hear from you: https://forms.office.com/r/GXBDvfcDL9

  • You can raise feedback with your department IT Contact who has a weekly review meeting on Monday morning with ITSG:

    Economics - Emma Heritage

    Politics & International Relations - Jo Ostridge

    Sociology - Tim Davies

    Law - Michelle Robb and Charlotte Vinnicombe

  • You can email the service desk: itsupport@manor-road.ox.ac.uk or the IT Manager stephen.kavanagh@socsci.ox.ac.uk

  • You can also pass feedback the old fashioned way, in conversation as opportunity affords with a member of the team.

👩🏽‍🏫 Top Tips

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and the additional protections it provides has been in place for over a year. It is very important that you can access MFA to log in to Single-Sign-On services as you need. Inside buildings and especially Teaching Spaces it may be difficult to get a mobile signal. Therefore the recommendation is to use an authenticator app on your phone and utilise Eduroam if you need to use MFA and SSO in a shared space.

You can setup a range of factors for MFA and I’d encourage you to add several and use the authenticator app as a default method whenever possible - it is super easy and fast to use. You can find out more here in the IT Services support page: Multi-factor authentication | IT Help (ox.ac.uk)