UNT Computing and Information Technology Center Student
Education Report

By Dr. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner, Student Computing Services Manager

Recently I was sent an e-mail by a UNT community member asking about education efforts by the Computing and Information Technology Center towards keeping the student body aware of all the computing resources available and how to use them. The person mentioned that his Google search for CITC student education revealed the Student Tour site first and foremost. This was extremely encouraging as it illustrated that our effort in that area was paying off with top level access and exposure.

I was then asked by Claudia Lynch, the Benchmarks Online editor, to outline our recent extensive efforts in student computing education and awareness. So here goes.....

The UNT Student Tour: http://helpdesk.unt.edu/studenttour

This educational initiative was implemented in Spring 2007. Our aim for the initiative was to collect information and links to all Student Computing Services on campus into one easy-to-find-and-navigate location for all students rather than having the students hunt all over the web universe to find them. The initiative was a collaboration of Student Computing Services, the UNT CITC Helpdesk, the UNT General Access Computer Labs, the Center for Distributed Learning, UNT Computer Security and ResNet. The site was constructed by the CITC Web Team.

Come to the Helpdesk for all the answers!

We try to make that every UNT Community Member (students, faculty, and staff) knows that the place to go for ANY questions, suggestions, and/or issues regarding computing services is the UNT Helpdesk. The Helpdesk website is easy to remember: http://helpdesk.unt.edu. and the phone number extension is easy to remember: x2324. The email address is helpdesk@unt.edu. Folks can also walk in at ISB 119. The Helpdesk has generous hours extending far into the night and on the weekends. They are also open during all the breaks and holidays.

Lots of summer fun!

During the summer months and at other appropriate events during the year, Student Computing Services is an active part of all educational and orientation activities aimed at new students, transfer students, the parents of students, returning students and graduate students:

My colleague, Claudia Lynch, and I have a table at every information fair included as part of the freshman and transfer orientation experience. We are sometimes joined by the student workers of the Helpdesk as their schedules allow. At these tables we distribute informative pamphlets about all student computing services (including myUNT), the general access computer labs, and computer security. Last summer we had a table at over 20 orientation events and distributed close to 5,000 brochures.
We also distributed about 4,000 lanyards with the Student Tour URL on them - every incoming freshman and transfer student received them and also several current students as well.

Note: another huge event in which we have an educational presence is the Mean Green Fling - a pre-fall-semester events which has grown into a large and successful welcome back party including all UNT community members.

We also have pages about computing services in the Connections magazine distributed to all incoming freshmen during orientation. We maintain educational pages in a variety of other handbooks and publications available on campus at other offices too.

During all freshman orientation events, I give a 15-minute presentation to the PARENTS about student computing services. This presentation is followed by a coffee where the parents come and ask me (and representatives from other areas on campus) questions pertaining to computing issues. There were 8 of these parent events last summer and next summer, this is being expanded to 9 events.

During all freshman orientation events, I give a half-hour long presentation/demonstration to the students. This is then followed by a FaceBook/MySpace safety/security presentation by Student Development. This hour-long session proved to be very successful and we look forward to continuing the format.

I also give a presentation to incoming graduate students during their orientations in August and in January. In all - student computing services had over 50 personal educational contacts and discussions with students and their parents over the past year - averaging more than one every semester week.

More coming soon!

We have some exciting further educational initiatives on the horizon:

The ResNet IT staff has created a podcast about student computing services featuring online demos and the discussion that I give at freshman orientation. This is a half-hour podcast. We are in the final editing process of this podcast and will be advertising it heavily when it becomes available. Planned release time for the podcast is at the end of this fall semester.

Several of us are going to be working with the CTLA (Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment) to enhance the orientation presentations even more in order to enable retention of the information on the part of the students.

So if anyone asks you how to get information and education about student computing services, be sure to direct them to one of these resources. We also welcome any and all suggestions about additional student computing education. Please direct all questions and suggestions to me at ehinkle@unt.edu.

Originally published, November 2007 -- Please note that information published in Benchmarks Online is likely to degrade over time, especially links to various Websites. To make sure you have the most current information on a specific topic, it may be best to search the UNT Website - http://www.unt.edu . You can also search Benchmarks Online - http://www.unt.edu/benchmarks/archives/back.htm as well as consult the UNT Helpdesk - http://www.unt.edu/helpdesk/ Questions and comments should be directed to benchmarks@unt.edu