Computer Support Services in Lecture Theatres and Classrooms

by Joe Chow

The Computing Services Centre (CSC) has been offering comprehensive IT support and services to faculty, staff and students especially in the lecture theatre (LT) and classroom environment. In particular, the CSC has worked with the Facilities Management Office (FMO) to provide a complete set of computer and audio-visual equipment for teaching purposes, enabling both faculty staff and students to make use of the best-of-breed technologies for course delivery. With an increasing number of new facilities built into the LTs and classrooms, knowledge on using them is necessary. Support service is therefore important to users who are not familiar with these built-in facilities.

The following sections briefly describe the recent development of classrooms and how users can get the necessary help on using the facilities there.

Recent development of classrooms

To cope with the development of the university as well as to provide enough classrooms for the increasing number of classes and student population in the current academic year, 7 classrooms, which were either newly constructed or converted from existing ones, have turned into multi-purposed teaching classrooms. Located on the 2nd and 4th floor of the academic building, these classrooms are now equipped with standard IT equipment such as computers and projectors for ease of teaching and learning.

What kinds of help are available?

Experienced and new users alike may encounter problems when using the facilities in the LTs and classrooms. These may range from hardware failures to usage problems. To minimize the impact to the classes due to these problems, staff from the CSC is always on standby during its service hours to provide the necessary support when needed. Under normal circumstances, a CSC support staff would arrive within 5 minutes. Guidelines are also posted on the lecterns to help users solve simple operational problems themselves. User Guides are also available on the CSC and FMO web pages. Staff are recommended to read them before class if they are the first time users of facilities at LTs and classrooms.

How to call for help?

Users can always call the FMO Help Desk or CSC Service Desk direct for help. In case the user does not have access to a mobile phone, direct phones to the FMO Help Desk are available inside each lecture theatre. For smaller classrooms, users can simply pick up any internal phone at nearby corridors. The phone numbers are:

FMO AV Support Services: 27888341
CSC Service Desk: 27887658

What are the service hours?

FMO's service hours for AV equipment support in the lecture theatres and classrooms are available from FMO web page (http://www.cityu.edu.hk/fmo/eng/contact/index.htm).

CSC's service hours for computer support in the lecture theatres and classrooms are the same as that of the CSC Service Desk. Please refer to the CSC web page (http://www.cityu.edu.hk/csc/deptweb/about/openhr.htm) for the most updated information.

How to give suggestions?

Suggestions on how our services can be improved are always welcome. Please send an email to the cc@cityu.edu.hk or simply drop a call at the CSC Help Desk.