IT services during COVID-19 times - Bates Technical College



IT services during COVID-19 times?Your Bates IT Department is always here to provide the highest level of support to help everyone at Bates make the most out of the technology tools available to us.?To achieve that goal — and to comply with current public health recommendations and college COVID-19 prevention protocols — IT support services are being offered in a modified fashion. Since March 2020 Bates have been closed to the public. The academic year 20-21 started with remote teaching and few in-person labs. Our IT Department remains in operation in a hybrid fashion, with limited personnel on campus.?IT support?Bates IT Department does not provide support to personal equipment. We provide IT support exclusively to college issued equipment. If you have a college loaner laptop and you are having technical problems, you can contact us for assistance. We have tools that will allow us to offer remote assistance, saving you a trip to campus.?Phone Support?If we are unable to answer the phone and you can’t send us an email, please leave your name, phone number, SID, and state your issue(s) and we will return your call as soon as we possibly can. We are likely busy assisting other users.?Student support?Students can request assistance over the phone at 253.680.7055 or by email at?studentemail@batestech.edu. Many of the questions about login accounts and email access can be answered by reviewing the information posted on?our?Information Technology?web page.??Staff Support?Staff members can request assistance over the phone at 253.680.7070 or email at??it@batestech.edu.??In person support??In person computer support,?if necessary, will be available by appointment only. In person appointments must occur in the safest environment possible for both our IT staff and you. Therefore, walk-ins have been suspended until further notice. IT staff will default to remote support whenever possible.??If we need to physically stop by your office to troubleshoot your device(s), our staff has protective personal equipment (PPE)?and they?will always wear it. We ask you do the same.??In person sessions will be limited to issues that cannot be resolved remotely, hardware installation, event setup, and classroom or lab issues. In person appointments will be limited to 15 minutes whenever possible to limit exposure.? Therefore, you might need to drop the equipment for us to troubleshoot it and we will contact you when it is ready for pick up. If available, a loaner device will be issued while the device assigned to you is in repairs. The IT Department office doors?will always remain locked, clients with appointments will need to buzz or knock for entry at their specified appointment time.?Student Software – Bates?vLabs?Students will be able to connect to virtual labs (Bates?vLabs) to access college software from home, except in cases where licensing restrictions prevent applications from being accessed in this fashion. For more information and instructions for how to connect to use Bates?vLabs, see?our?handout. The only way to access Bates?vLabs?is by login to? HYPERLINK "" \t "_blank" Okta?using your Bates email credentials.?Students and staff have access to download MS Office for free to install at home on their personal devices. These licenses are valid while you are affiliated with Bates. To install Office 365 on your computer, visit the?Office 365 portal. Sign in with your Bates email address and password. Then click the Install button on the top right of the page. You can install Office 365 on up to five devices.?Additional Software available at discounted prices?Visit Bates?On The Hub online store?to acquire specialized software at a fraction of the cost! These purchases are meant for home/personal use and valid while you have a Bates email address. Offerings include Adobe Creative Cloud, SPSS (statistical analysis),?AutoDesk, Tableau, among others.?IT software and hardware purchases?Orders for departmental hardware &/or software should be made through Bates IT Department. Faculty instructional requests for hardware &/or software should be submitted using this?form?a quarter in. All requests for the upcoming quarter are being processed and no new requests for this upcoming quarter are being accepted. All other departments can email us at?it@batestech.edu?to place their IT purchasing requests.?Technology Training?Free online technology trainings?Bates offers staff and students the opportunity to enhance their technology skills?using?computer-based online training?tools. We encourage the use of?SkillsetOnline?(access via?Okta), more information on this service forthcoming, and , freely available with a?King,?Pierce,?Thurston, or?Kitsap?County Library card. If you do not have a county library card, visit the?county?library website for instructions on how to get one or visit your neighborhood library.?Instructional Design and Course Design Consultations?The Online Learning Center staff is providing training and assistance consultations remotely. Contact?olc@batestech.edu?to request their services. Additional OLC information for?students?or?staff.?Accessible Technologies?Remote and online learning can increase the learning gap and even completely exclude people with disabilities. The following resources will help ensure no one is left behind. The ASG did a great video about?Accessibility at Bates?and there are YouTube pages for?Faculty?and?Students.?Canvas Accessibility?Zoom Accessibility???Microsoft Teams Accessibility?Panopto Accessibility?Microsoft Office 365 Accessibility?To request?video captioning services, contact the Online Learning Center at?olc@batestech.edu. OLC will be able to assist faculty with any of the following tools:?MS Office Accessibility Checker?is built-in to all Office tools, such as Excel and Word. On the ribbon, select the review tab, or search for 'Accessibility Checker' in the function search bar.??Ally?is a built-in Canvas tool to help you access the accessibility of your classes. It provides you with an assessment bar as well as suggestions to improve accessibility to images, documents, and other key components to your courses. It will also convert files into alternative formats, which removes the need to send it out to?SensusAccess.?SensusAccess?allows faculty to automatically convert documents into a range of alternative media, such as audio, e-book, and digital Braille, and is free to use with a batestech.edu email address?Peruse?the great compilation of?freeware technology software?from Augsburg University which addresses practically any disability.?Loaner Equipment?The library has equipment for checkout: student laptops, staff laptops, mics, remote-control tripods, action cameras, etc.? Just send an email to?library@batestech.edu?for more info.?Computer Labs?Per "Stay Home - Stay Healthy" mandate, open computer labs remain closed until further notice. Some classrooms equipped with computers are available for instruction only and as allowed by the Governor’s mandate. Given the difficulty of keeping high-touch surfaces on equipment sanitized, the limited labs or classrooms in operation require that students be assigned a seat for the duration of the entire quarter. Because electronic equipment should not the sprayed or cleaned with certain chemicals, gloves will be available.?Do not spray any cleaning solution on any computer equipment. Only cleaning and sanitizing supplies provided by the college will be used but?never sprayed on.?Telecommunications Services?We are encouraging all users to connect to MS Teams, which is available on your browser by visiting your?Office 365 portal?or via desktop application. Having MS Teams?always?open?will allow you to chat, call, check your voicemail, and even share files among other things?with other colleagues or students that have their MS Teams app opened. There is also an MS Teams mobile app for Android and iOS.?Office voicemails were setup to default to your email. You will be able to listen to your voicemail messages in your email. Unfortunately, we have limitations on what we can do with our existing phone system. Forwarding calls to non-local phone numbers is one of them. By having MS Teams open on your computer all day, you will be able to solve some of those?limitations. Additional tutorials on how to use MS Teams can be found on our?Training and Tutorials?page in our Intranet.?Wi-Fi??Take advantage of outdoor wireless access whenever possible. Drive to any of our three campuses and access the Wi-Fi network from a parking lot near the building(s). Use your Bates email and password to log into the Bates Wi-Fi network. Use this?Wi-Fi map?for more details and information.?Overall, we encourage everyone at Bates to take advantage of any online options to do as much of their college business as possible. Students will find all kinds of services at? HYPERLINK "" \t "_blank" MyBates. Staff should visit the college?Intranet?pages.? ................
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