Technology and Innovation
ESU Students Benefit From Technology Projects The Sky’s the limit when it comes to technology enhancements that benefit students, faculty and staff at Emporia State University — and save the institution money. Coming on the heels of upgrading the wireless system for access throughout the campus, the Information Technology department staff has worked hard to develop Sky, web-based services that provide students, faculty and staff access to software, documents and other IT solutions from anywhere across multiple devices. The two newest programs are SkyLab and SkyPrint. Thanks to SkyLab, students don’t have to purchase various software packages for their own computers. Instead, they enter SkyLab, a virtual desktop available to 100 users at any one time. Software available on the desktop includes Office 2010 with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Access, InfoPath and Publisher), the ESU shared network drives, SPSS, SAS, Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader and OnBase Web and Banner for faculty and staff use. SkyPrint provides all students the ability to print across campus. Students send their print jobs to SkyPrint, which holds the job in a cyber queue. Then, students log on to a release station kiosk to print the job. Kiosks are available in William Allen White Library and the Memorial Union with plans to expand to the ESU-Newman Division of Nursing off campus and the new Richel Learning Space in the School of Business. Other Sky services include: • SkySites, team workspaces for official ESU project teams, workgroups, department and committees; • SkyBox, folders for storing and distributing files, especially useful on collaborative projects; and • SkyFiles, which uses SharePoint to allow Windows and Mac users to access ESU networks drives remotely.
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Annual Report
Another project keeping the IT department busy is converting yesterday’s computer labs to new learning spaces. The first new space to open is Richel Learning Space in Cremer Hall. The project took a computer lab filled with tables and computer stations and created three distinct, technology-rich spaces. The Learning Commons includes saturated wireless, a SkyPrint station, SkyStation lab computers, multiple charging stations to charge mobile devices and comfortable seating for individual and group studying. Four Group Study rooms are available for work on group projects or practicing presentations. Furnished with conference-style furniture, they also have view stations with large digital displays, mobile projectors for use by personal devices, floor-toceiling whiteboard wall and saturated wireless. A classroom completes the area and includes upgraded computers; an interactive project; a podium with BluRay, document camera and computer; whiteboard walls and software to management classroom computers and project content from iOS devices on the projection screen. Employees of Emporia State’s facilities department did the work for the physical changes to the space. Mobile app While planning for Sky, the IT department staff also was hard at work building ESU Mobile, an application for smartphones and web-enabled devices that run the Apple or Android operating systems. With ESU Mobile, students, faculty, staff and anyone interested in Emporia State University have access to news and events, campus maps, faculty and staff