Information Technologies (IT) Support Standard

Mission Statement

Information Technologies fosters an environment that promotes and enhances the College's vision and exemplifies its Benedictine values as we provide the technologies to be adaptable, efficient, competitive, secure, and forward thinking while remaining fiscallyn responsible in serving our community.

The IT Department is committed to the following standards of customer service:

• Ensure clear communication
• Strive for a 24 hour response to requests
• Develop mutually agreed upon service outcomes
• Provide alternative solutions to meet requests
• Provide ease of access

Support Standards

The Information Technologies website contains many resources including contact information and commonly used IT links.

Help Desk

IT provides a Computer Support Help Desk for faculty, staff, and students that can be reached at 218 723-5911 or toll-free at 877-723-5911 (5911); or via e-mail: helpdesk@css.edu. The Help Desk is staffed by student technology assistants who receive continual job training. The Help Desk provides front-line support to all College owned standard hardware and software, except for Blackboard.

Blackboard support is available 24x7 by calling the Computer Help Desk (ext. 5911) and selecting option 1 or 866-847-0564.

Help Desk tasks are prioritized as follows:

Top Priority:    Immediate Response  

• Network infrastructure problems
• Classroom problems
• Teaching computer lab problems

 

Second Priority:  Attempt to resolve within 1 day    

• Faculty or staff cannot work
• Non-teaching lab computer issue

 

Third Priority:  Attempt to resolve within 5 days      

• Problem exists but work can still get done

 

Fourth Priority:  Attempt to resolve within 10 days  

• Question or request that does not impact work performance

Executive Information Systems (EIS) Group

The EIS Group supports the College's enterprise information creation and access through tools such as Ellucian BANNER Student Information System (INB), Luminis Web Portal (Cor), the Cognos reporting tool, Banner Relationship Management (BRM) and Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS).  

The purpose of the EIS Group is to ensure faculty, staff, and students have the information they need to effectively do their jobs, provide better customer service and improve productivity.  In the event of limited resources, priority is given to ensuring BANNER and Blackboard are functioning properly.  Reporting priorities go to BANNER departments followed by non-BANNER administrative departments followed by non-administrative auxiliary departments.

Access to BANNER data is gained by contacting the data steward responsible for the information. Please review the Data Access Policy for information on data security and a list of data stewards.

A completed Network, BANNER, E-mail Request Form is required for access to the BANNER system with authorization and security defined by the office or department owning the data. The form should be sent to the Banner Security Officer. The requesting user is assigned a user code, password, and resource allocation dependent on need.

 

Academic Support

The Academic Technologies Group (ATG) consists of the CIO, the Academic Technology Coordinator, the Continuous Improvement Director, the Manager of IT User Services, the Manager of EIS, the Blackboard System Administrator, and Instructional Designers. 

The ATG supports faculty in their use of the academic technologies to provide an enhanced teaching/learning environment. Services include coordinating the use of the student response system (i>Clicker), e-portfolio (Chalk & Wire), Wimba Collaborate web conferencing, Blackboard course development, and the use of Web utilities like podcasting, bulletin boards and Wikis.  The ATG also identifies and showcases new and best-practice technologies and resources for both on-line and on-ground use in the classroom.  The Academic Technology Center website contains many useful resources including the academic technology strategic plan.

The Audio Visual Department provides equipment and services such as televisions, DVD players, LCD projectors, and control systems for enhancing classroom curriculum, meeting spaces, and electronic marketing.   

Installed technologies are available in classrooms and meeting rooms, and additional equipment is available for on campus use via check-out from the Help Desk.  Additionally, limited equipment is available for off-campus use via Library check-out.  Click here for a list of items available for check-out from the Library.

All classrooms on campus have computers available for academic and administrative use. Priority is given to academic needs. Desktop computer labs in T-2412, T-2420, and S-1206 reserved through the Scheduling Office at x6030 or via e-mail.  There are also three mobile laptop labs available for classroom use.  All are PC-based, except that S-1206 is equipped with iMac's.  Contact the Registrar's Office to reserve computer labs for semester long courses.

 

Student Support

The User Services group provides technology support for students through help desk support, computer labs, and the Residential Networking (ResNet) program.

Students can also checkout equipment from the library to help with class projects. Click here for a list of available equipment.

 

Training

Atomic Learning is available for all your software training needs. Short video tutorials on over 110 different applications can be accessed from any networked computer at any time of the day or night by using your CSS Network login.

 

Cor Portal and Web Development

Support for Cor Portal pages and portlets, web pages, and web application development is available through a collaborative Web team consisting of members of the IT and Marketing departments. 

The Web team assists faculty, staff and student organizations in creating and publishing College-related Web pages, web forms, and web applications.

Marketing's role is to serve as a consultant in content and design planning and marketing.  IT's role is to create the initial page and perform high-end technical design and development. It is the responsibility of the owner of each page to enter/edit content, ensure the page remains up to date and perform routine maintenance. See web policies for more information.

 

Network Infrastructure

Information Technologies maintains a competitive network infrastructure.   The network infrastructure includes campus wide wireless coverage, redundant internet paths, and current networking and server technologies.   The Network Services team strives for better than 99% uptime in order to provide both on and off campus students, faculty and staff the network resources they need.

 

Security

As outlined in the Computer and Network Acceptable Use Policy, the Information Technologies departmentIs responsible for managing and overseeing security to ensure privacy and integrity of user information.  This will include reasonable efforts to:

• Ensure that shared programs and data are available to users and are invulnerable to accidental erasure and/or tampering.
• Ensure that e-mail and private user information (on servers) is invulnerable to accidental erasure and/or tampering.
• Ensure backups of servers, at least weekly, to ensure that any information lost, erased, or corrupted can be recovered.
• Monitor the network and servers for security breaches and unauthorized activity using available security utilities and software.
• Use available utilities to ensure secure movement of data within the CSS network and over the Internet.
• Take reasonable precautions to minimize network and machine downtime.

The Computer Desktop Security Standard outlines the College's encryption, password, and other security standards for College owned laptops, desktops, tablets, and external storage devices.

 

Hardware and Software Standards

Information Technologies supports hardware and software standards for the entire College. Standards leverage installation, maintenance and support costs enabling the College to provide state-of-the-art technology on a limited budget.  Priority is given to supporting standard hardware and software.

 

Current hardware standards include:

HP desktop, laptop and tablet computers and peripherals

HP Laserjet networked printers

Current software standards include:

Microsoft Windows XP Pro (32-bit), Windows 7 Pro (32 and 64-bit)

Microsoft Office 2010

Google Apps for Education

Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome browsers

Symantec Anti-Virus

The Software Downloads web page lists software available download for:

• Faculty/Staff
• Students
• All College

 

Hardware and Software Support

First Tier support is given to the standard hardware and software listed above. IT expects to be able to resolve standard hardware and software problems efficiently. The standard products are fully tested and appropriate IT Staff trained on both the technical infrastructure and its functionality.

Second tier support is provided for non-standard hardware such as Macintosh and non-standard software such as SPSS. IT will be able to install and support the technical aspect of this technology, but may not be able to support the functionality.

Third Tier support is provided for non-standard hardware, software and peripherals. Examples include software packages like Adobe Photoshop, hardware like iPads, smartphones, non-standard laptops and peripherals like digital cameras and special scanners. IT will do its best to support the installation of these products, but may not be able to support them either technically or functionally.

 

Budget Priorities are as follows:

Top priority                

• Hardware Replacement cycle

• Network Infrastructure Maintenance

• Industry standard upgrades (Banner, Microsoft)

Second Priority          

• Infrastructure upgrades and enhancements

Third Priority           

• All requests and other needs

 

Acquisitions

To ensure compatibility with the College's network and hardware/software standards, as well as the best price and the highest quality product, all technology purchases are made through IT. IT will work with departments who have a technology budget or special grants to make the purchases and arrange for installation. Please contact IT Purchasing for more information.

If a department is planning to research a new technology, be it a software application, a web application using an application service provider model, or a new piece of hardware, it is important to include IT for the project specification, vendor analysis, and solution selection phases. There are many IT related criteria that must be considered when making this type of purchase to include Internet bandwidth, data security, compatibility, performance, etc.

IT budgets for the College's technology infrastructure which includes the network, servers, software upgrades, and a 4 year replacement cycle on desktops, laptops, and tablets pc's.  IT's yearly budget also includes a list of outstanding requests from faculty, staff and students as well as a list of infrastructure enhancements. The budget is finalized through discussions with the Vice President of Finance, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, and the President's Staff.

Discipline specific purchases are funded by individual departments. Examples of discipline specific purchase include equipment for the Motion Analysis lab, cBord equipment for foodservice, iPads, and the Electronic Medical Record application for Health Services. The IT Department will facilitate these purchases to ensure compatibility of the hardware or software with College standards, review security issues, and secure the best price and quality. The Department is responsible for the initial purchase and ongoing maintenance and replacement costs.

Software License Compliance Procedures

It is the policy of The College of St. Scholastica to respect all software copyrights and to adhere to the terms of all software licenses. Faculty, staff and students may not duplicate any licensed software or related documentation for use either at the College or elsewhere unless authorized to do so by written agreement with the licensor. For more information on software compliance, please review the Software License Compliance FAQs.

Policies

The College's computer and network related policies and procedures are located on the IT website.  All faculty and staff are expected to have read and be in compliance with the policies. 

Updated: April 25, 2012
by Lynne Hamre