Tag Archives: 201408

New Semester, New (and extended) Technology Support Hours

As we prepare for the fall semester, Simmons Technology would like to remind everyone of how you can access technology support from on or off-campus.

ONLINE:
The Service Desk website is always available and it features answers to common questions and links to popular services. You can also submit support requests directly from the site.

SERVICE DESK:
Open for phone support Monday–Friday from 7:30am–6:00pm, with additional classroom/event support hours from 6:00pm–9:00pm.

TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT CENTER:
Located in LEF-331 and open for walk-ins Monday–Friday from 8:00am–6:00pm.

TECHNOLOGY DESK:
Located on the first floor of Lefavour Hall in Beatley Library and openMonday–Thursday from 8:00am–6:00pm, and on Fridays from 8:00am–5:30pm.

Improvements to On-Campus Internet Service

wifi-icon-newsletterEarlier this month, Simmons Technology upgraded the College’s Internet connection in order to improve your experience on both the wired and wireless networks.

This upgrade insulates the College from the types of recent outages caused by off-campus service interruptions and provides greater flexibility at a lower cost.

More importantly for you, the upgrade also doubled our bandwidth, which means that you should see faster connection speeds and improved performance when streaming video or using collaborative tools like Google Hangouts and Skype.

Easy Access to WiFi at Colleges Nationwide

Simmons College has recently joined Eduroam, a network of more than 175 colleges across the country that provide access to their WiFi networks for guests from participating schools.

Whether you’re on another school’s campus in Boston (including Wentworth, MassArt, MCPHS, BU, and more) or traveling across the country for a conference, you’ll have WiFi access at partner schools. To use this service, choose eduroam from the list of available networks, then log in with your Simmons email address ([email protected]) and your Simmons password.

You can find out more on the Eduroam website, and get support from theService Desk.

The MISO Survey: Our Services, Your Perspective

During the Spring 2014 semester, Simmons College was among 40 schools participating in the Measuring Information Service Outcomes (MISO) survey, an anonymous poll that assesses student, faculty, and staff perceptions of library and technology services and support.

We’re pleased to report that our customers have a positive overall view of the many services and support avenues Simmons Technology provides. In fact, more than 90% of students and staff expressed satisfaction with overall technology services at Simmons. In addition, more than 85% of all respondents said that the Service Desk and our support of personal computing equipment and classroom technology met their needs. Many of our web-based initiatives also received high marks, including Moodle, AARC, the Service Desk website, and Google Apps. This is especially encouraging because of the significant transformation and expansion of services and support that has occurred over the last three years.

Of course, the MISO responses also identified some areas where we need to continue working to more appropriately allocate resources and to improve how we communicate and deliver services and support. We take this feedback seriously and we will be proactive in addressing it. In fact, we recently improved the speed of our WiFI network—a concern voiced by student respondents to MISO—by implementing a large-scale upgrade that increases the bandwidth available on campus. Through projects like these, we will continue working to provide an optimal environment for teaching and learning with technology.