IT Advisory Board meeting - January 2020

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    • User interface looks outdated 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 
  • 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