1. Recap from last term
- Introduction to IT Advisory Board, the past accomplishments, and what to expect for the term
2. Group discussion: What IT services are good?
- Brightspace Pulse mobile app
- Follow-up after phishing email attacks is prompt
- Could enable a 'this email originated from outside of the University of Waterloo' message in all external emails
- Newsletter sent to students with information and tips regarding how to register for courses
- Office 365 service for students is amazing
- Glad to hear student email is moving back to '@uwaterloo.ca'
3. Group discussion: What IT services can be improved?
- Online printing process is not intuitive
- It is difficult to find and select the correct printer from the long list of printer names
- Service/network outages should be communicated in places where students would look
- Would it be possible to post on Reddit if the Wi-Fi is down?
- VPN connection failure
- A lot of issues with getting connected to VPN, 'Failure to Connect' error
- VPN doesn't work for some services (Workday, Quest)
- Documentation should be updated to reflect changes if VPN in fact does not work for all services
- VPN sometimes will not recognize a user as being on campus
- Classroom podiums
- Many instructors are not able to get audio/video working with the classroom podiums; this is a lengthy troubleshooting process that takes up a lot of class time
- Maybe troubleshooting instructions provided at the podiums can be improved?
- Have a list of common problems and basic trouble shooting (e.g. Display not working? Sound not working?)
- Instructors seem to have more difficulty with connecting the podiums to their own computers vs the classroom computer
- Quest
- User interface looks outdated
- The updated home page design is nice but the new design has not been implemented to any other page
- Consistent service at the Service Desk when it comes to hardware
- Service Desk staff should identify hardware issues and provide recommendations even though staff are not responsible for fixing hardware
- The Faculty of Engineering has courses that require the use of Mac/Linux but Engineering does not have any Mac labs
- Students may be able to use the Math Mac labs
- Linux can be installed on your own computer
- DUO error in LEARN
- User gets locked out after refreshing and gets an error
- Browser window needs to be closed and a new window needs to be opened in order to fix the issue
- The error is DUO 'branded' but is actually an issue with LEARN user permissions
- Portal mobile app
- Users can only see courses and class locations on the actual day the class takes place
- It appears that the data is coming from Odyssey
- WaterlooWorks events don't show up in the Portal mobile app
- These show up on the Portal web app
- User interface of Portal mobile is not as user-friendly in comparison to the web app
- Would be nice to have room floor plans available
- Users can only see courses and class locations on the actual day the class takes place
- Wi-Fi connectivity
- Eduroam connection is poor in Engineering 7 on the fifth floor
- Improve UW applications to be more mobile-friendly
- Scrolling is not responsive on mobile (e.g. Crowdmark, WaterlooWorks)
- Quest mobile saves the ADFS login page as a recent history item instead of the actual Quest URL
- Odyssey
- Odyssey directs students to an admin page when they try to view their exam schedule; there should be a direct link to view exam schedules
- UW Flow may indicate availability to enrol in a course but availability isn't actually there in Quest
- UW Flow is not an application managed by the University
- iClicker
- An iClicker that is only a few months old requires removal and re-insertion of the battery in order to turn on with every use
- Library catalogue is performing slow
4. What are some new projects/ideas to consider?
- A feature to easily view class schedules should be created
- Some universities have a browse extension that allows students to view their schedules
- Currently UW students have to log in to Quest to view their schedules
- Can IST create a function/button to allow students to export their class schedules from Quest into their personal calendars?
- Students currently use UW Flow to do this
- Would be nice to have a 'dark mode' option for systems and applications
- A feature that sends availability notifications to students on a course waitlist
- Students currently have to check manually (e.g. logging into quest to see if anyone has dropped the course)
- The feature should notify students based on their priority on the waitlist
- Short-term laptop loans for students
- Student cyber awareness
- Would be nice to run a phishing simulation so that students can be more aware about cyber attacks
- Create a short course with key information
- Student cyber awareness should 'start early'; information should be included in first-year orientation kits
- Create social media posts, email campaigns, posters
- Enable O365 Phish Alert feature
- Portal reminder notifications for upcoming events
- Microsoft Teams for students