Once we are at Sussex, we have access to a wide range of computing resources and services. The University has the website: sussex.ac.uk/its/welcome which is especially dedicated to provide information on IT Services at Sussex. In addition to this, the ITS of Sussex has published a booklet which gives the information on services that are provided by them to the staff, students and visitors. Earlier this information was given through CD and now it is given through the booklet. During the Fresher’s week ITS induction programmes are held for the information of new students. Those who missed this opportunity information is available for them through You Tube channel and videos on the website of ITS. As soon as the students register, they are given an IT Services username and password as part of the online registration process. The username is usually made up of initials of user, followed by a number, such as: rvg20. After logged in for the first time the user is required to change the password and with this one can log into the webmail of Sussex, Study Direct (online learning management system if student has registered for the course), Sussex Direct and Library. The students get a gigabyte (1GB) of space to store emails. The students can use Sussex Direct for their results and feedback from tutors, finance and housing information, credit of printing account, Library loans and resources, additional skills training, submission deadlines, online registration, study timetable and FAQs and more.
The IT Services are open from Monday to Friday, from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm during term time and 9.00 am to 5.30pm during vacation. There are over 450 computers available on the campus for students to use. There are computer rooms also called cluster rooms and Kiosks at 14 different locations on the campus. Some are available for 24 X 7. Kiosk terminals are designed to allow students and staff quick access to the Sussex web pages without the need for logging in. In addition, by logging in with IT Services username and password one can also access: Sussex email using webmail, Sussex Direct, The Electronic Library.The students can print from all IT Services computers. There is a charge for printing. B&W (A4) single sided 5 pence; both sided 8 pence. and Colour (A4) 20 pence single sided; both sided 36 pence; Transparency (A4) 60 pence; Colour (A3) 40 pence.
The students can top up the printing account by using their credit / debit card or using coins.
The study rooms of students staying on the University campus are connected to the internet using ‘ResNet’. The ‘eduroam’ network is used as the single campus wireless network.
Once the staff and students are registered, then they have access to a wide range of software to download and install on their computer. Software available are Mulberry, Meeting marker, True Crypt, Stuff It, Open office, Filezilla, Kaspersky (anti-virus), Malware bytes, Spy bot, web drive, win SCP, PuTTY, Arachnophilia, Adobe Reader, Cute PDF, Notepad++, Abiword, 7-zip, Fetch, Clam XAV and so on. The programmes can be downloaded from IT Services, borrowed from the Library or purchased at special academic discounts from the suppliers.
Email - currently use Cyrus mail store for the central email systems. They are planning to introduce Microsoft Exchange (2010) for staff in the New Year. The students will continue to use Cyrus which is generally accessed using webmail (they use the open source web-based program Roundcube).
Study Direct - the virtual learning environment at Sussex is based on Moodle (currently they are using version 1.9) but it is customised for use at Sussex by a small team within IT Services.
Web sites - Apache web servers and PHP scripting (version 5).
Links for open source software in use at Sussex:
Cyrus http://www.cyrusimap.org/
RoundCube http://roundcube.net/
Moodle http://moodle.org/
Apache http://httpd.apache.org/
PHP http://php.net/
Disk space - Both the staff and students have 1GB of file storage when they join the University. This is in addition to 1GB of email storage. It is quite common for staff that the additional storage space will be given on request.
For more information please visit my next blog.
They are using similar software's which we are using like our C-mail is Cyrus-imap & e learning package is moodle, only thing moodle they have customized for their use & we are using without any customization.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get how they recharge the printing balance. Is there any machine where they can just swap the card & recharge? What software they are using for keeping track of printing & recharging the balance?
I am glad that we are in the same path of process. We also during student's induction programme highlight OIT and now we too have a student's handbook.
ReplyDeleteAccordingly we are seriously thinking means and ways of printing recharge.
which software for elearning is widely used and Why? Do the faculty follow a standard format like us ? Is it compulsory for all faculty members to upload e learning resources. If no , What percentage do it ?
Pallavi,
ReplyDeletePlease look at the third picture. This is "Printing Account Banking Station" (PABS)and this machine accepts coins (50 pence,£ 1 and £ 2)and notes. The last photograph shows the machine used for print credits by using credit/debit card.
I will let you know the software used for monitoring the print credits.
Dr.Sawant,
ReplyDeletePlease visit my post of today's (21.12.10) to know further about ITS at Sussex.
For software related matter, I have mentioned in my post.
For certain format to be used to upload notes, please visit my post dated 16th December 2010.
So far the courses which I accessed have their study material availble online for students.
Thanks sir for sharing the facilities and infrastructure in Sussex, its similar to our infrastructure.
ReplyDelete