Tuesday 27 September 2011

The students are back

Some pictures for you today. First is the queue into our Sports Halls at some points last week in Fresher's Week during the very intensive testing of our new systems for registering  students. Not bad after last year where we had multiple problems with some fairly big queues of a couple of hours just to get in. Much improved this year, some teething problems, but great teamwork both within CiCS and with our colleagues in Student Services. A much better experience for all concerned. 

And it's great to see the students back. Lots of activity across campus, including the activity fairs to get the new students into all of the societies - the place is really buzzing. Even nine o'clock lectures have been busy this week.

We've been busy putting in place lots of new stuff, including refurbished teaching space,  new PCs in the IC, and some new services. This is one of my favourites - a floor plan of the IC showing exactly which PCs are free and which one's aren't, rather than just numbers. Cool.

7 comments:

pj said...

surely all you need to know is if there are any free PCs at a particular place - you see which ones are free when you get there

RobertPNeedham said...

With large learning spaces such as the Information Commons actually knowing where the free PCs are is crucial for students. The example shown of level 2 doesn't represent the complexity of layout of some of the floors for finding a PC

Unknown said...

Rob's right, 550 PCs spread out over 6 floors with 90% occupancy can make finding a free PC really difficult.

DanielCourtney said...

There are often times when only 1/2 PCs are free on any of the levels in the IC, and they don't always have someone sat at the desk, (they're off finding books or printing etc.) so it will be useful for the students to be able to see exactly where the free PCs are.

Also, these plans are tied into data from our PC booking system, so not only will we be able to show which PCs are free, but which are free for over 30 mins, or over 2 hours.

pj said...

ah - a sledgehammer to crack a nut...

Dave Cobb said...

I really like this idea, having detailed floor plans to find your way to a particular PC would be a huge benefit.

How did your students respond to it?

Andy Tattersall said...

I like the idea of showing individual PCs that are free - even if it is just a cool way of highlighting this situation, it's a good one. Plus, if they are like me, they always go for the same floor and even same PC - we are creatures of habit ;-)