University of Lethbridge - Fiat Lux

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IT Services update for week of April 29, 2013

dboyle
May 8, 2013
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CRITICAL SERVICES: (Banner, Moodle, Wireless, Internet, Telephony)

  • All critical services functioning normally.
  • A SPAM attack on Saturday April 27 caused intermittent problems for users trying to access university services from off-campus.  Corrective measures were implemented over the weekend.

KPI SPOTLIGHT:

Test Centre – Final Exam Success

The Centre supervised approximately 4000 student exams during the final exam period, averaging 88 exams per hour on the two busiest days, and peaking at 776 exams on the last day.

Test Centre graph #1

The Centre experienced the highest attendance at exams from opening at 10 am until 3 pm.

Test Centre graph #2

SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS:

Canada-wide Science Fair

Preparations to support the fair are in their final stages.  A detailed activity plan will guide installation and support work starting Monday May 6 through to the end of the event.  Wireless services, mobile devices, and support processes are tested ready to be commissioned for the event.

IT Services Weekly Update

admin
March 8, 2013
No Comments

Critical Services (Banner, Moodle, Wireless, Internet)

All services functioning normally.

KPI Spotlight

The Testing Centre has been seeing higher volume with midterm exams in full swing.  Some relevant statistics are provided below.

Last week (Feb 23 – Mar 1):

Number of students processed:              98-150 per day avg
Peak time of day:                                         1pm,  3pm, and 7pm peaks
Average exam duration:                            20-50 minutes
Total exams approx:                                   750

This week (Mar 2 – Mar 8):

Number of students processed:              140-220 per day avg
Peak time of day:                                         1pm to 3pm
Average exam duration:                            60-90 minutes
Total exams approx:                                   1100

Service Improvements

We have recently purchased and installed quiet keyboards in the Testing Centre and level nine of the Library.  This significantly reduces the noise in these facilities, making it easier for students to concentrate on their examinations and studies.

quiet_keyboard

Canada Wide Science Fair

The University is hosting the Canada Wide Science Fair on May 11, 2013, which will bring students and judges from across Canada to our campus.  All of the judging will be conducted using Blackberry Playbook tablets, so having adequate wifi capacity is critical to the success of the event.  IT Services has constructed seven “wifi trees” (see below) which allow us to position wifi access points to provide optimal coverage and capacity within the 1st Choice Savings Centre.

wifi_tree

24-Hour study centre

admin
May 18, 2012
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IT Services was asked by the CRDC to try to provide more space for students to study prior to final exams.  With the support of Security and the CRDC, ITS was able to open the Anderson Hall labs 24 hours a day through most of April. Security monitored the labs and the CRDC raised awareness to students.

Moodle report card

admin
May 18, 2012
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Final exams are now over and the central LMS Moodle administered more than 4000 exams – the highest number to date. Prior to final exams, ITS and CRDC staff met to determine how to improve service for students.  As a result, the recent final exam period experienced nearly flawless service.  A couple of very small incidents affected one or two users but did not result in outages.  This is now the benchmark for the Moodle service. Systems and service upgrades will be implemented during the summer to strengthen this operational standard.