Thank You For Your Feedback

September 11, 2018

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your participation in the TechQual+ survey in April. We appreciate your feedback and are already using it to help shape improvements to campus technology. We were able to identify trends among your responses, both in areas where you are satisfied and in areas needing improvement.

Areas where students, faculty, and staff all expressed higher levels of satisfaction included the campus internet speed, communication from IT to campus, access to training services (including Lynda from LinkedIn), technology services that allow collaboration (such as G Suite and WebEx), and the IT staff members who serve you.

We learned from student feedback that entertainment preferences are shifting; the use of streaming and gaming services is outpacing use of traditional cable television. We’re taking this opportunity to further assess if it might be time to ‘cut the cord’ and redirect resources more strategically. Note to students: don’t forget to use the ethernet port in your res hall for streaming content and online gaming!

Some areas where students, faculty, and staff alike told us about the need for improvement included campus wi-fi coverage in residence halls and outdoor spaces, cellular coverage, access to consistent and appropriate classroom technology (within buildings and across campus), and more user-friendly online services.

  • This fall, IT staff will be conducting a full evaluation of campus wi-fi and any potential changes that should be made; more information will be shared with campus when we get closer to making changes. We’ll also add wi-fi coverage across the new campus quad.
  • Cellular coverage is primarily related to carriers, so to help you in reducing your dependence on mobile data, we will continue improving our wi-fi infrastructure across campus.
  • We’ve invested in significant classroom updates on campus over the summer, including spaces in Neils Science Center, the Center for the Arts, Gellersen, and LeBien Hall. The Academic Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) will assess and provide guidance to us regarding the next set of spaces to be updated; see their governance space in Confluence to learn more.
  • We are working on saving paper (and steps) for Registrar requests; look for forms with online submission and workflow in Spring 2019. More departments will follow shortly in their (digital) footsteps.

There were several comments indicating requests for technology services that already exist on campus. We will strive to highlight these services more effectively through tools like our website, Confluence, and other communications vehicles to aid your awareness.

We’ll continue to analyze your feedback and use it to guide our strategic initiatives, as well as partnering with other departments and groups as future decisions regarding campus technology are made. We thank you for taking the time to complete the survey, and and if you haven’t already graduated, we hope you will again participate in 2020, when we repeat the survey.

Sincerely,

Dave Sierkowski, CIO
Office of Information Technology