Instructional IT Adds Services

By Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, D.M.A., director, Instructional Information Technology Services

CDTS and DMS Sustain Transformation, Upgrade, New Projects and Increased Usage

Since fall 2015, the Instructional Information Technology Services area has added significantly to its services to better serve students and faculty. The division is part of UNT's University Information Technology Department that is most associated with direct support of teaching and learning.

The division currently consists of the following two areas.

• Classroom Testing and Desktop Services led by Ray Banks
• Data Management Services led by JoAnn Luksich

Each area functions separately, but they also work collaboratively to facilitate technical assistance for meaningful and successful teaching and learning experiences at UNT.

Classroom Testing and Desktop Services

The CTDS staff members had a busy fall with many additional customers due to new facilities and services. Ray Banks, CTDS and IT manager, and his team of student technicians upgraded all the computers in the Discovery Park classrooms.

• Classroom B140: 48 PCs
• Classroom B142: 48 PCs
• Classroom D212: 24 PCs and
• Classroom D215: 40 iMacs

The CTDS team also created 135 new machine images on PCs for the Sage Hall Computer-Based Testing Center and built two new resources this fall.

New CTDS Resources Added: Room 154 Transformation and Mobile-Testing Upgrade

Transformation of Sage Hall, Room 154: Due to high demand for such a facility, the CTDS staff members transformed Sage Hall, Room 154 into a flexible workshop space to accommodate tutoring sessions, TRiO Programs, such as Upward Bound and McNair Scholars Program events, faculty technology workshops and Office of Disability Accommodationrelated activities. The room now contains 30 iMacs, two 60-inch digital displays and movable technology and furniture to accommodate group-related activities. In the two months that it was open this fall, the workshop space hosted 262 individual customers and has more than 30 events already scheduled for the spring.

Mobile-Testing Unit Upgrade: The CTDS office also upgraded its mobiletesting unit, basically retiring the old 20-laptop testing cart and onboarding a new 30-station laptop cart, which was in heavy use, especially during final exams. Other CTDS Projects: Team members of CTDS also worked on the expansion and rollout of two projects.

• The JAMF Casper Suite, which offers a range of solutions for managing Mac OS X computers and iOS mobile devices, for large-scale management of Apple machines and the continued maintenance and
• Upgrade of SCCM images, a systems management software product developed by Microsoft® for managing large groups of computers, for the UNT main campus by Ray Banks.

During the winter break, CTDS staff members continued to upgrade and update machine images on its nearly 400 desktop computers, and increase the mobility and functionality of the laptop testing services. The CTDS team currently is working on a test Windows 10 machine image for possible use in the future.

Record Numbers Using the C-BTC: Security, Drop-in and Flexible Hours Credited

Student Test Monitors/Proctors: The Sage Hall Computer-based Testing Center, part of the CTDS set of resources, experienced record-setting usage during the fall semester. Much of this was due to the addition of students as test monitors and proctors. Graduate student employees who now proctor exams add assistance and security during the testing process. The monitors’ hard work and service were welcomed warmly by the UNT faculty.

Record Use of the Center: During the fall semester the center hosted 4,866 visits by 3,144 individual customers, a record – more than double the customers of past semesters – using 5,855 machine hours of service.

Ease of Use for Faculty and Students: The services provided by C-BTC add significantly to the resources available to faculty and students – especially those in STEM courses and large classes. With the new proctor system, professors with courses of hundreds of students have increasingly scheduled drop-in testing hours. The drop-in hours allow faculty the flexibility to have several hundred students do online testing in a secure and glitch-free environment over the course of several hours and/or several days. This type of drop-in testing scheduling for large classes is the single highest factor accounting for the increased volume of users of the computerbased testing center. Additionally, professors at Discovery Park, home to many of our STEM courses, have been able to send their students to the C-BTC at their convenience to take advantage of online testing, because of the scheduling flexibility of the drop-in service. The center also has seen an uptick in transfer students and dual-enrollment students, who are enrolled at UNT and a local community college, taking advantage of the proctored, drop-in environment to do secure exam-taking, thus increasing our collaborative presence in the North Texas academic community.

Monitored Center Means Microsoft® Certification Testing: Our student test-monitor program also allowed the Sage Hall Computer-based Testing Center to become a recognized testing center for Microsoft® Certification exams. The implications of this have been tremendous as the university moves toward providing additional skills credentials to help students succeed professionally upon graduation. In collaboration with the faculty and staff of the UNT College of Business' accounting program, the center was able to provide Microsoft® Excel certification-exam testing to more than 200 accounting students this fall – all of these students achieved the MS Excel level-one certification.

This collaborative credentialing program with the COB will continue in the spring and expand to other areas of certification.

NOTE: Additional teaching and administrative areas of the university are invited to seek more information from the Computer-based Testing Center management team about how to leverage Microsoft® certification for their students, faculty and staff.

Discovery Park Upgrade and Expansion

Additional Resources Enhance Teaching and Learning: With the upgrade and expansion of classroom desktop machines at Discovery Park completed by the CTDS team, the UNT College of Engineering and other programs at this location now can conduct inclass demonstrations and real-time exercises in a variety of engineering, mathematics and statistical applications in those classrooms.

Another Record in Usage: During the fall semester, the Discovery Park classrooms hosted 13,729 visits using 14,247.6 machine hours of service – another record!

Data Management Services

The Office of Data Management Services, under the management of JoAnn Luksich, continues its tradition of offering excellent customer service in the processing of exams, surveys and course evaluations.

Kudos for DMS: “I just wanted to thank you and your group for being so helpful and efficient. It has made my first semester as an adjunct instructor at UNT all that much more enjoyable,” said a DMS customer recently.

During September, October and November, DMS staff members served an average of 312 customers per month. During December and final exams week, this jumped to dozens of customers per day. Additionally, the department served an average of 300 core courses per month during that same period.

With its Lexmark Education Station scanner, as well as other hardware and software, DMS provides faculty and administrative staff with detailed data to assist in course planning and content and university programs and initiatives. Projects have included experimentation with Examsoft, and other real-time, actionable outcomes data software and several survey initiatives for the upcoming Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges reaffirmation-review process of accreditation. The timely turnaround of exam grading and analysis by the DMS staff members allows students to receive feedback quickly on their learning progress and allows faculty to initiate rapid responses to assessed learning needs.

The DMS team is now working on the acquisition and installation of another Lexmark Education Station-type of a system to handle its increased customer load. The staff members in the Instructional Information Technology division look forward to continuing to serve faculty, staff and students with their teaching and learning needs. Please do not hesitate to contact Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, D.M.A., IITS director, for more information.