Smith College Committee on Educational Technology

Over the past year, the members of the Committee on Educational Technology (CET) have discussed the standards of reliability that members of the Smith College community should expect of our Information Technology Services (ITS). We believe it essential that ITS give us the tools to (a) communicate with each other and with colleagues across the globe, (b) teach and learn effectively, (c) pursue new knowledge aggressively, and (d) carry out administrative tasks efficiently. We recognize that services can never be 100% reliable, because of inevitable failures of software or hardware systems, the introduction of problems arising from updating hardware and software, and unforeseen emergencies (such as those caused by viruses or worms) that interrupt standard operating procedures.

We recently reviewed the results of two ad hoc surveys sent to the 59 members of the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC). The first survey, to which 27 CLAC schools responded, asked how faculty users were informed about server and network status. All 27 of the responding colleges use at least one of the four communications approaches used by Smith: 26 use broadcast email, 23 give telephone updates from their help desk, 14 have some sort of on-line status webpage, and 11 have a dedicated telephone number with a recorded message exclusively for IT outages. Only eight of the schools, including Smith, use all four methods. Only Williams and Smith provide real-time monitoring of systems on their system status page, and only Smith’s monitoring page is accessible from off campus.

Thirteen schools responded to the second survey, which included eight open-ended questions. The questions asked about ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ services, and how interruptions are responded to and communicated to users. Like Smith, most campuses consider essential services to include campus-wide data network and related services, multi-user servers (such as Unix and Novell servers), and campus wide information services (such as email, Blackboard, and Banner). No school provides a staffed 24 x 7 response system. All these schools strive for the same goal as Smith of 99% up-time availability of essential services, including both scheduled and unscheduled down times. Thus, in comparison with thirteen other schools, Smith’s goals and procedures in all areas are either similar to those at the other colleges, or better.

In fact, the availability of essential services at Smith College has exceeded the goal of 99%. Smith ITS staff members are available to provide help during extended hours on weekdays. (The User Support Center hours are posted at www.smith.edu/its.) At all other times, designated members of the ITS staff are on call, and emergencies related to critical systems that are reported to Public Safety are forwarded to them. Smith employs four methods to inform users about interruptions of service, including real-time monitoring on a webpage that is accessible from off-campus (www.smith.edu/status/). These media are updated regularly during the open hours of the User Support Center and as possible during other times.

The members of CET believe that within the budget and staffing constraints under which Smith’s Information Technology Service must operate, the reliability goals set by ITS are reasonable, that services are provided at an acceptable level, and that ITS strives to keep the college community informed of interruptions to service in a timely and effective manner.

First Survey Respondents: Albion, Bates, Beloit, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Colgate, Connecticut College, Denison, Gettysburg, Grinnell, Hamilton, Holy Cross, Kenyon, Lafayette, Macalaster, Manhattan, Middlebury, Oberlin, Reed, Smith, St Olaf, Vassar, Wabash, Wellesley, Whitier, Whitman, and Williams.

Second Survey Respondents: Amherst, Carleton, Colgate, DePauw, Grinnell, Hamilton, Holycross, Oberlin, Skidmore, St. Olaf, Wellesley, Whittier, and Williams.