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UCI Academic Computing Support Review Committee
Final Report -- April 10, 1998

Summary: A 1998 proposed structure for computing support at UCI.

V. Recommendations on the Structure of UCI Computing Support: A Proposed UCI Support Plan

Introduction

This section of the Review Committee's final report suggests a structure for computing and network support at UCI. The proposed approach consists of a foundation of professional support staff, both centrally and in local departments, augmented by other staff, student assistance, and peer support. Training and other programs are provided to facilitate self-help by end-users, and to encourage local and peer support. Coordination and communication among local and central support and service providers is a critical component of effective UCI computing support.

NOTE: the support structure described below cannot be achieved overnight. It is not clear that funding can be identified to achieve everything suggested below; the plan should be considered a direction the campus should work toward.

Definitions

Discussions about computing support will be facilitated by defining a few key terms:

Core Expertise
"UCI Core Expertise" represents the computing and networking know-how most pervasive at UCI. This is the expertise that is most frequently called upon in daily education, research and administration. The greatest amount of training and technical support should be available in these areas. Currently, UCI Core Expertise probably includes Windows 95, Windows NT, MacOS, some varieties of UNIX, MS-Office, Eudora, Pine, Netscape and other Web tools.
Infrastructure Support
Many of the activities required of computing supporters is "behind the scenes" in support of networks, network services, file servers, e-mail servers, systems administration, software applications, and the like. This sort of support is most noticed when absent -- when present, it contributes to an invisible infrastructure essential for effective use of computing. Infrastructure exists both centrally (the campus network, student e-mail servers, etc.) and locally (departmental applications, local area networks, school/department file-servers, etc.).
Desktop Computer Support
Another component of computing support is maintaining end-users' desktop computers. Desktop Computer Support includes installing new hardware and software, resolving hardware and software failures, upgrading software at the appropriate times, and resolving network issues that prevent the computer from communicating. Desktop Computer Support, and End-User Support (below), are the types of computing support most visible to faculty, staff and students.
End-User Support
A critical component of support is that provided to computer users themselves to directly respond to their computing issues and needs. "End-user support", provided over the telephone, via e-mail, or in person, might be an answer to a simple question, an in-person training session, showing someone how to configure his or her computer or software, or a software installation. It could provide some assistance in learning how to set up a faculty member's Web page, or actually setting up the page according to faculty input and specifications. End-User support allows faculty, staff and students to make the most effective use of technology.
Peer Support
A good amount of End-User support is provided "peer-to-peer" -- faculty helping faculty, student helping student. This type of support has already greatly contributed to UCI's current utilization of technology. Peer supporters are not compensated for this effort.

Support Roles: Schools and Major Units

Each UCI school, other academic unit not a part of a school, or major administrative unit, is responsible for providing local infrastructure, desktop computer, and end-user support for faculty, graduate students and staff associated with the unit. Specifically, it is recommended that each unit have the following:

  1. School Computing Coordinator: The School (or Unit) Computing Coordinator (SCC or UCC) is the person in a school/unit identified by unit management as being the overall lead with regard to matters of unit computing and network support. The SCC is often the manager of a unit's technical support staff, and typically also supplies some support him/herself. An important SCC function is to maintain awareness of faculty and end-user needs and facilitate access to support services and expertise available in the unit and around the campus. The SCC represents the unit on technical support matters, and is a primary conduit of information among central computing organizations and the unit.

  2. Faculty/End-User Advisory Committee: Each school/unit should have a formal mechanism to incorporate the faculty/end-user perspective in deciding significant computing issues. This advisory mechanism would be utilized in deciding school computing standards and policy, with the full participation of the SCC. The Chair (or other representative) of this committee also participates in campus-wide computing coordination activities, and is another conduit of information and feedback between computing organizations and the unit.

  3. School Computing Support Summary: Each school/unit should have a concise summary of its approach to computing and network support available to computer users in the unit. The summary should explain what hardware and software is supported locally, explain contact procedures for reporting problems or asking questions, and provide answers to other frequently asked questions about support. These summaries should also be available to central organizations and support staff in other units to facilitate understanding of how support works campus-wide and promote consistent and efficient handling of support requests.

  4. Infrastructure Support Staff: Each school or unit needs staff (or contracted resources) assigned to supporting school computing infrastructure: local applications, file-servers, network services, etc. The number of staff required for school infrastructure support depends on school needs.

  5. Desktop Computer Support: Each unit should allocate sufficient support staff time (or contracted resources) to maintain end-user desktop computers. The number of staff required for desktop computer support depends on the number of systems to be maintained and on the variety in desktop environments (operating systems, software versions, hardware, etc.).

  6. End-user Support Staff: Each school should have sufficient staff (or contracted resources) dedicated to end-user support to meet user needs. The number of staff required for end-user computing support depends on the number of users needing support, the number and complexity of applications supported, and the amount and depth of services provided.

Support Roles: Network & Academic Computing Services

NACS provides electronic communications infrastructure, basic computing and communications services to all faculty, staff and students as appropriate, and other services best provided by a campus-wide organization. Specifically, NACS should provide the following:

  1. Student computing services: NACS provides basic electronic mail services, network access, basic web-publishing capabilities, and 24 hour drop-in computing labs for student use.

  2. Faculty/staff computing services: NACS should provide basic electronic mail and web-publishing facilities for faculty and staff. These services should provide a sufficient level of functionality and capacity such that most units do not need to provide similar services locally. Although utilizing central services frees local staff for other local computing support needs, some units will choose to maintain their own local services when central services are not sufficient to address unit needs.

  3. Instructional computing tools and assistance: As a part of the campus Electronic Educational Environment effort, NACS provides tools, facilities, and assistance for faculty using instructional technology.

  4. Research computing assistance: NACS should provide a variety of assistance to users of research computing: advice on common research computing techniques, expertise on key applications in wide-spread research use, facilitation of researcher access to computing cycles available on and off campus, etc.

  5. Contract Support Services: NACS should provide computing support services for departments and research groups who require occasional or ongoing assistance to augment local support. This could be in the form of ongoing support services such as the existing DCS UNIX offerings (expanded to include NT), contract work to help units with major software/hardware transitions, hourly work to solve specific problems, or project work to create or implement new software systems. Expertise available on a contract basis might include UNIX, NT, and Macintosh system and network administration, Web and database development, network service integration, and other identified campus needs.

  6. Help-desks: NACS operates the campus help-desk, which is a central contact point where faculty, staff and students can receive information on campus services, information on current network and service operational status, and assistance with common technical questions. The campus help-desk should coordinate with other help-desks on campus to provide consistent, informed service. NACS also provides help desk services by staffing instructional labs with trained student staff who can assist fellow students using computers and accessing the network.

  7. Communications infrastructure: NACS provides UCI's network backbone, network distribution to desktops, off-campus connections and UCI's telephone services. This also includes network services such as mail delivery routing facilities, directory services, authentication services, Domain Name Service, USENET News service, and LISTSERV mailing lists. NACS also provides backbone and subnet performance monitoring, tuning, maintenance, and planning, network management consultation for departments, and facilitates network security.

Support Roles: NACS Indirect Support Team

NACS also leads the Indirect Support Team (IST), which is essential in coordinating technical issues, making the best use of expertise available throughout UCI, providing training and backup to local supporters, and making critical campus-wide "end-user" training and documentation available. The IST provides these functions:

  1. Coordination: The IST conducts regular meetings of School Computing Coordinators, local computing support staff, and campus instructional lab supporters to facilitate the exchange of information, sharing of ideas for efficient and effective support services, and to make the campus computing environment more consistent and easier to use.

  2. Expertise: The IST has staff who are in expert in key campus technology areas, which should include Windows 95/NT, Macintosh, and network integration, among others. These staff should be available to augment local support staff, and for assistance in major technology transitions.

  3. Local Supporter Backup: The IST should be available to help locate/identify campus technical staff that can be temporarily assigned to units who need backup coverage due to vacations, illnesses, resignations, or other absences. The IST should be available to assist in recruiting support staff (or in identifying other campus staff to assist), and to provide initial assistance to new support staff concerning the UCI computing environment.

  4. Student work force: The IST should hire and train a pool of student workers that are available for a variety of short computing tasks within the scope of UCI's Core Expertise. These students should also be available to be recruited by departmental support groups after they have gained useful UCI experience.

  5. Training: The IST should facilitate and/or provide on-campus training in UCI's Core Expertise, using on-campus and off-campus instructors. Training for computing support staff should also be coordinated by the IST.

  6. Campus-wide software licensing: The IST, in association with others, coordinates discussions concerning campus-wide software license acquisitions. The IST provides distribution mechanisms for campus-licensed software, and documentation about what is available and how people on campus access it.

  7. Archives: The IST provides PC and Macintosh software archives containing UCI-licensed software and other software and tools in common use at UCI.

  8. Information Dissemination: The IST should work with campus organizations and schools to provide, integrate and disseminate information and documentation concerning campus computing services, with a goal of making a complex set of offerings more understandable and useful to the campus community. Guides to computing services geared toward faculty, staff and students are examples of documentation that should be created and maintained.

    The IST should create a central "Frequently Asked Question" database and search engine that is accessible over the Web by supporters and end-users alike. This sort of facility will provide more efficient access to information by supporters and knowledgeable end-users and peer-supporters.

Support Roles: Other Central Organizations

Central organizations such as Administrative Computing Services, Undergraduate Education's Instructional Resource Center, the Registrar/Student Academic Information Systems, Research and Graduate Studies, and the UCI Libraries must provide support for their applications and services. Additional discussion and review should be carried out to better understand roles of other central organizations with respect to technology support at UCI. The Academic Computing Support Review Committee did not explore this area in any depth.

Campus-wide Oversight and Coordination Mechanisms

Campus-wide coordination and communication concerning computing support issues and technology directions is essential for making the most effective and efficient use of campus resources. The UCI Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) is a proposed campus-wide group that would meet several times a year to discuss campus computing directions and review tentative decisions of central computing organizations. This group would be selected from School Computing Coordinators, school computing committee membership, academic business officers, central computing organization staff, academic senate representatives, and representatives of the campus administration.

The ITAC would provide these functions:

In addition to the ITAC, general discussions and information sharing concerning computing issues is facilitated by electronic and in-person meetings of the following groups of people:

  1. Computing support staff campus-wide
  2. Computing Lab Coordinators
  3. School Computing Coordinators
  4. School computing advisory committee chairs/members
  5. Academic Senate Computer Policy Committee

The first group is reached electronically via the UCICSCG@UCI.EDU mailing list, and participates in bimonthly "CSC" meetings coordinated by NACS. The second group is represented by the COMPUTER-LABS@UCI.EDU mailing list, and also participates in bimonthly meetings.

The last three groups would belong to a proposed "UCI-IT-LEADERSHIP@UCI.EDU" mailing list, and participate in occasional meetings also coordinated by NACS. The purposes of all 5 groups include:

April 10, 1998, UCI Academic Computing Support Review Committee