CITES Survey - 2004 - Faculty Comments from Services Survey

What additional communications or computing support would you like to see CITES offer?

more wireless on campus

classrooms where we can bring a laptop, and access netfiles and the web etc. (the stuff we get in the smart classrooms) for demostration purposes, whether or not the students have computers. (In fact, I'd like to see EVERY classroom able to use Power Point from a laptop).

Universal wireless access, DHCP with no authentication (but limited to web clients).  That way, visitors could simply open up and turn on.  I recognize the security issues.  That's why the range of services must be very narrow here.

Mallard has a major flaw that we have asked to be fixed but never has been touched--when you hit Enter, the assignment is sent without double-checking with the user

Campus-wide wireless connectivity would definitely be at the top of my list.

A useful course management system.  

More wireless access.

wireless access in all the main buildings; better site licenses for software

Wireless networking in the main library.

High speed rural connection that are affordable.

Prompt response on the help disk lines. Clear information that can be understood by someone not a techie.

I want to be able to talk to a real human within a reasonable amount of time.

Some kind of SPAM filtering on the email server end!!!!

Do not know enough to say.

How to use new services that I was not aware of and were mentioned in this questionnaire.

More opportunities to learn about new technologies.

I would like to know what is available to me as an instructor and how to access the university computers from home.

more reliable email systems!

ability to run CGIs for instructional uses from staff web sites

WiFi hotpoints in all campus buildings

better support for pda's in the wireless setting. I have movian, but have to keep entering my UIUC Netid Password all the time with a pen. Hard to do.

I have been impressed by the knowledge of CITES telephone helpers I've contacted about problems I've had. I almost always get the problem resolved. Some have even gone out of their way to be helpful. A few were less knowledgeable but were able to find answers or have someone help me who knew the answer. I value this kind of support. I have tried to use web-based

support at several sites and have rarely found the help I needed.

help with set-up on new computers

N.A.

gfdagsf

Advertise the premier service

Advertise the 800 toll free calls - not circulating this costs my department money. 

Stronger design of web sites for courses and projects

Web-based telephone systems

Ideas for how technology can expand effectiveness and efficiency of our work.

Provide help to AITS trying to operate the banner system

Create and showcase faculty and staff computer technology projects.

Virus contol!!!

I would like to see additional free training programs for faculty and staff members in the use of the smart classrooms and various things that these classrooms can do. Perhaps this can be done as a demonstration at various departments or at the college level. 

N/a

I've had trouble getting my CITES express account to work in Outlook Express.

a server to put files that can be accessed from the smart classrooms

I use PowerPoint for lectures and wish I didn't have to set up and take down the equipment each class hour.  I wish facilities were readily available in all classrooms.

I'm a part time employee, teaching one class a semester. Any service I've learned about has been a result of someone else telling me or asking lots of questions until I found what I needed. It would be great to have some sort of easy guide or a simple job aid to the services available through CITES. Many of the web pages have SO much information it's hard to really find answers to questions.

home service!!

dsl off campus, i would be willing to pay for this

JUNK MAIL filter.

I would like to see the following features added to CITES Express Mail:

(1) Ability to delete attachments, but save the corresponding message.  (2) Ability to backup all my mail using RSYNC over SSH.

(3) Addition of Baysian Filtering rules to automatically filter Spam.  This is the main reason that I currently use Mozilla/Thunderbird is the 'one click' 'this message is junk' Baysian filter training.

If you have any comments about any of these features I would love to hear from you.

You could tell us when the email system was dumping messages rather than delivering them.

when I learned about using the smart classroom, I was shown some things, but didn't get to try them, and still don't really know how to use them.  The chance to actually DO the stuff (like breakout sessions where I divide the class into groups) before going into my classroom would be very helpful.

Please add any additional comments—suggestions, complaints, etc.—regarding this survey or about CITES Help Desk Support.

The classroom support service is exemplary!

The Number One priority must be bringing Cat 3 buildings such as Gregory Hall up to modern connectivity standards. All the rest of the services you might envision are niceties, not necessities. Second priority is an option of having black-hole filtering of Express Mail for spam.

With the express email services, I have not yet figured out how to do group mailings. Also, when I forward messages I cannot see the message I am forwarding. When I reply to messages I cannot see the message I am replying to. These were features of Eudora that I really liked. I do like having all the mail I have sent and received visible, but I get frustrated having my email time out when I am writing messages.

CITES does an excellent job! I'm on sabbatical this semester and it is interesting to see how much better our system is than at other universities.

The technicians are very knowledgeable and customer oriented.  First rate!

Phone staff is very helpful, pleasant to work with and polite

I really appreciate being able to speak with a skilled and knowledgeable *human* who can guide me. I am in the age group where the majority of my computer skills are self taught...this way you educate me for the 'next' time.

The features of Express Email are vastly inferior and slower than using Eudora on a dial-up connection.  I have been greatly dissatisfied since the change-over.  I have sought help by email from a CITES consultant, but after a couple of days, received no response.  Very frustrating!

Change over to the new email system for emeritus faculty was a real mess in my view.  Inadequate awareness of what it is like to be out here in departments with only undergradutes to provide technical support on computers.  Also, having to use old programs and old computers.

CITES support folks have been very helpful.

During the last year I have been contacted by CITES representative with an e-mail related to the transition to University BANNERS system. The content of the e-mail was difficult to understand, but all my attempts to contact the sender were in vain. Not a nice experience.

I once contacted CITEs, suggesting they improve their documentation about the VPN service, and was very pleased with their responsiveness (I'm with the Library, and had some

suggestions relevant to making the VPN work better to access Library e-resources).  PS...this survey took less than 3 minutes.  You might be scaring some folks from participating by saying 15 minutes!

the loss of projection services is going to significantly decrease the quality of instruction i will be able to provide to students.  this decision has profound effects on cinema studies classes, affecting 100s of students each semester.  it is like taking away test tubes from chemistry teachers.  i urge you to find a solution to this problem, perhaps by training undergraduate work study students.  i know this system works well at many universities.

How do I connect to the network outside of my department?

I use 'smart' classrooms and find their overhead facilities inferior (not bright enough)to the old, stand alone overheads.

I have had difficulty on occasion using dial-up services with my AT&T calling card. Assistance from CITES help desk has not been useful.

I find emails about CITES too specific, i.e, they are not easy to understand

I was out of town last week and did not receive ANY of my EMAIL messages for that entire week---I very unhappy with the new system!!!!!!

I usually get quick replies from consult@uiuc.edu, but the replies often don't answer my questions. I would rather wait and get a _real_ answer than boiler plate just so you can say 'something'

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On the subject of instructional technologies ... I think the current generation of course management systems are very time consuming to use and show almost zero software design effort. I would MUCH rather create my own interactive web sites for the courses I teach, but I am limited by (a) the inability to run cgis and to install other software such as mySQL on university computers, and (b) insufficient storage space on university computers.

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I am glad that ICS labs have eMacs. Please hold the line

against converting the campus to an all-Windows shop.

Allow cacheing of passwords for VPN.

Re. the transfer to CITES Express e-mail about a month ago, the instructions to set up Outlook were definitley inadequate.  After struggling for hours, I had to make two phone calls to CITES to get it straightened out.  In neither case had I made a mistake; in both cases, the instructions were inadequate.

N.A.

The voicemail is fairly cumbersome; there are much simpler systems.  This one doesn't even follow the conventions of 1-2-3 for hearing messages, saving messages, or deleting messages.

gdaagdf

Make access to the classrrom technology easier - you insult my faculty by the way the mandatory over view is conducted.

We have had challenges with the web programming group (Virden), and subequently chose an outside private sector business.  

CITES has been a very valuable asset for me in providing on-line teaching and testing.

n/a

not satisfied with e-mail refers mainly to one particular issue-- since I converted to express I have had problems interfacing with Eudora

Email conversion to express has resulted in very unreliable email service, esp. undelivered messages. Cites staff try to be helpful but seem unable to solve the problem after multiple requests.

I HATE being cut-off every 30 min!!! It is a terrible nuisance!I HATE not being able to underline or put in bold print or italics!

I HATE  the small screen! This system is extrememly primitive in comparison with Eurdora, which I used to use.  Now, it is possible to use it, but I can't delete from it.  It just seems wacky

now that I've had to move over to webmail and I feel that IT Eudora)is no longer reliable. I think the whole thing is a mess and I wish it were like it used to be !!!!!!!

My most important tool for connecting to the campus/departmental network from outside is ssh; it is not mentioned here.

I take a laptop back and forth from home and work. Most of my difficulties with using University email have been from home. I have DSL that uses Yahoo and there have been lots of incompatibility issues (not sure if that's the correct way of putting it). It would be nice if the University offered home DSL or other types of packages that ensured compatibility between the home and work systems.

PLEASE- do something to cut down on the spam messages flooding e-mail boxes. I've been pretty happy with e-mail up until recently. I realize there are issues beyond your control with this but it's frustrating.

Just got switched to Express Mail. It has been a big step backwards. I can no longer Eudora on my Palm; the service is sometimes unbearably slow, and I sometimes type in a page of text, click send, and am told that the browser can't find the page. No message sent, old text lost, one angry user.

JUNK Mail filter. This is absolutely urgent, now over half of my emails are junk mail and I have to look at where the real email is. The situtation has become terrible over the last few months. Something needs to be done at the campus level. I use the junk mail capability in Eudora, but there is none in express mail. We need something there as I check my mail alot through express mail

To date I hve not switched to the new e-mail system since I am told it is not suitable for Eudora on OS 10.3 on the Mac. Also, why is my password for this system different than  the password used for all else?

express mail is TERRIBLE compared to webmail as far as user abilities. unable to sort emails (new emails shown at top of page) and missed many emials because i didnt click 'next'.

Your consultants were very helpful in solving technical problems!

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