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Information for Instructors

Contacting Us

If you will be teaching a class in our computer labs, please contact us by e-mail as early as possible for information about hardware, software, disks, manuals and special services. Advance notice of your needs for your courses is vital for us to have resources in place by the time the next term begins.

A minimum of two weeks notice is required for software installation requests, and requests for hardware additions to labs. Requests will be considered based on budgetary constraints and hardware and software compatibility.

Lab Assistants

Our staff of lab assistants can:

• Answer general computing questions about getting started, saving, and printing.
• Assist students in learning to operate the scanners and digital cameras.
• Check out manuals, clip art, headphones, and accessories.
• Replenish printing supplies and clear paper jams in printers.
• Record maintenance requests to pass along to the full-time staff.
• Help students format floppy and Zip disks, check student disks for viruses, and attempt to repair damaged disks.
• Assist in file translation, where possible, between programs and platforms.

Our staff of lab assistants cannot:

• Offer tutoring or instruction on highly specialized software such as programming languages or multimedia authoring. They will make every effort to help students find the support they need from manuals and online help.
• Explain homework assignments. These questions will be referred to the instructor.
• Make modifications to the labs, hard drives, peripherals or the network, or make repairs "on the spot." They will make every effort to relocate students or work around problems when they arise, and report problems to our technicians for repair.

Labs

All of the Sverdrup computer labs are equipped with teacher's stations placed at the front of each room. Teacher's stations are loaded with the same software as student stations, and are connected to a ceiling-mounted projection unit. These stations are also equipped with VCRs and laptop computer cables, both of which can also be projected from the ceiling. Instructions for using the stations are posted in each room.

If you discover a problem with hardware or software in a lab, please report this to the lab assistants, so that they may place a work order for our technicians. Please provide as much information as possible, including the lab number, station number, software package, the operation you were performing when the error occurred, and the exact error message.

Diskettes and Printing Services

If your students pay a lab fee for your course, DTS provides a floppy diskette for each student. Please come by our office in SV107 during our daytime hours. If you teach an evening or weekend class, please call us at x.8623 during the day and we will set aside some diskettes for your course.

Each lab has a black and white laser printer. Lab fees cover the cost of paper and supplies for these printers. Special services like color printing and transparencies are available in SV107 for a per-page fee. We must handle special jobs one at a time, so please help us by asking your students to stagger their requests, so that an entire class does not request color print jobs on the same day!

Also, if your course makes use of the internet, please help us conserve paper by asking students to print only the text that they need from the web, and to print only one copy.

Food and Drink

Please do not eat or drink in the computer labs nor allow your students to do so during class. Thank you!