UITS User Survey

This text file includes responses to the following question of the UITS survey:

(At start of the survey): As you get started, please take a moment to share with us any thoughts, concerns, issues, and/or ideas that you may have. What positive experiences with UITS staff or services have you had? Are there concerns or negative interactions that you want us to know about? Do you have recommendations for new services or improvements to existing ones? (You will have a chance to review, amend, or add to your comments before submitting your responses.)

(At end of the survey): If you entered comments at the beginning of the survey, they are displayed below. If you would like to edit your comments, share recommendations for additional services and support resources, or add additional comments or suggestions please enter them below.

The responses are listed by respondent case number. Case numbers, in which the respondent did not leave any text, are not included.

Identifying references have been removed from this document and replaced with “[IRD]”. Responses are grouped by sample: Faculty, Staff, Undergraduate students, and Graduate students.

Faculty responses:

I have only positive experiences with IT as a whole. I do think we need to be more systematic in providing tech support to students, and reminding them that tech support is available 24/7. About 1/3 of the questions I get when teaching online are tech related. It really divides my focus away from teaching and content.

Since the survey mentioned fax, I did find it surprising and a bit of an inconvenience to find that fax is still required for some things. Seems like a couple decades since that's been a relevant technology, and having to figure out how to fax something in the middle of COVID was not ideal.

My interactions with all the IT staff are positive. They deal well with people like me who are experiencing frustrations when technology is difficult for me to use.

Most experiences have been positive - helpful feedback from staff when trying to resolve issues and concerns. Challenging to explain specifics over the phone and wish there was a way to meet in person

- but completely understand the current restrictions due to the pandemic.

Impressions of UITS staff and services has been overwhelmingly positive. However, the pandemic has made it more difficult to get immediate help, which has been frustrating as there have been new technologies in place during the pandemic. But overall, UITS earns high marks from me.

UITS at IUSB is always very helpful when I go to them with issues. Definitely no complaints there.

The phishing "gotcha" emails continue to be useless, as they don't really help you learn from your mistakes. (I initially thought the email for this survey was a phishing scam, since the email was not from an iu.edu but an indiana.edu address, which is what a lot of the gotcha emails come from. I didn't report it, because that would mean doing some digging to remind myself what to do.)

Otherwise, not much to comment on.

All I have is praise for the UITS staff; they are always available to help when issues arise. They are committed to their work, and I highly appreciate this. I use Zoom and document camera to teach, and I have received tremendous help when needed.

Staff is wonderfully friendly and helpful! I especially appreciate [IRD] who is always so patient as well as being super knowledgeable.

I had a positive experience in my recent workshop with UITS staff and services.

My general experience with UITS has been positive.

[IRD]and [IRD] at the South Bend campus have been fantastic in helping us navigate the process of creating secure institutional storage in Teams!

IT security, support, and guidance are extremely helpful, but not everyone uses them as much as they should. IT systems are incredibly important for the routine work that we all do, and I am a bit concerned that our work has become fragmented as IT systems multiply (eg. Microsoft 365 and Google). I wonder if we are reaching a point where something like "IT leadership" might be helpful--that is, acknowledging the centrality of IT systems for our shared work as well as the need to bring people together to create a solid infrastructure that facilitates collaboration. IT systems will always need to be diverse and customized for various needs, of course, but it would be very helpful if University leadership (not just IT) could emphasize the importance of a core, integrated set of tools for everyone.

At this time I am happy with the services and staff. The cameras in the classrooms for Zoom are sometimes a wide enough angel and sometimes very narrow such that they don't allow movement of the instructor.

Not at this time.

Staff responses:

Everyone that I have worked with in IT have been very patient and helpful.

I do think the email communication when you communicate for an incident is very antiquated.

There is one minor annoyance I've been having with technology at IU in my day-to-day work. I realize it's a security issue and is likely not going to change, but I have a platform here so I figure I'd bring it up anyway. I am a Mac user, so I'm not sure how my experience compares to the majority of IU employees who use Windows, but updates of basic software already included on the machine such as Firefox or Microsoft Office are incredibly annoying and tedious.

Whenever an application has an update, which is frequently, I have to call the Help Desk, hope that the person who is able to use Macs isn't busy, and then have them remote into my machine to approve the update. It gets old pretty quickly, and I'm to the point where I let software stay outdated for a long time so I don't feel like I'm constantly having to call the Help Desk. If there is the capability to have certain UITS approved software allowed to be automatically updated without direct intervention of an admin, that would be hugely appreciated.

My account was hacked in the beginning of the semester, and it took close to two weeks of repeatedly being signed out to fix it. Since I had taken on a new role just then, this was most problematic.

My entire sent folder was deleted in early December, and I was told there was no way to restore it unless I went to the "system deleted items folder" and recovered 100 emails at a time. Given that I have been here 12 years+ this has been a pain. Recovery of the items was not simple as all recovered items go into the inbox only and messed up both my inbox as well as my sent items folder. I cannot believe that there is no EASY restore option in IT given all the cloud resources we have been adding. All this took many days of back and forth.

[IRD] is the bestest ever!!!! He is very patient and helpful with my Chromebook.

All of my interactions with UITS staff have been pleasant. They have always been courteous and professional and always have successfully helped me resolve the issue at hand.

We need a better computer to punch in/out for work.

The IT Staff have been a tremendous help whenever I have needed any type of guidance regarding either Computer help and also Cell phone assistance. GREAT TEAM!!

Interactions are always positive.

I am a "run of the mill" user of technology. I learn what I have to learn to do my job, and I need lots of technology support. I am older and not interested in the "bells and whistles" of most of the technology I have to deal with. I would like to point out that several questions in this survey are skewed toward those who speak fluent "technology." I may use some of the technology you asked about but not know its actual name! Yes, there are people like me out there!

I did the best I could with the survey.

I have always received exceptional service and assistance from our UITS staff. I can't thank them enough for all they do for IU.

The staff is kind and knowledgeable when I call, but some of our international students have had trouble with being understood over the phone. When this happens, I try to phone in and try to resolve any miscommunications. It would go a long way for staff to show more empathy and patience toward these students and understanding that ESL learners are not usually confident in their ability to speak in technical English terms. I'd suggest speaking slower for these students and/or asking the student to speak slower if the staff member has trouble with understanding an accent/dialect.

I love the UITS staff at IUSB. They are so helpful.

Students should be able to use the IU Fax service.

On the South Bend Campus, the help desk has gone above and beyond this last year. When preparing to move us off campus because of the pandemic, the staff worked tirelessly to ensure that our needs were met and that we could conduct business at home.

I interact with the local UITS staff on a regular basis. Most recently, when updating Exchange access. They are very knowledgable and helpful.

I really struggle with assistance with my Mac. I don’t have the sense that there are folks (on my campus at least) who can really help. The desktop Mac in my office is only about a year old and has run very slowly since the day I got it. Some UITS folks have definitely tried to help me figure it out, but they have never been able to identify any problems, which just leaves me feeling stuck. Especially since the pandemic, I generally just bring my laptop to campus when I need to be in my office. Otherwise my day gets hung up in making my computer work.

Separately, I don't always know who I need to be talking to among our campus UITS staff. The organizational structure is murky, and our help desk is pretty spotty in actually being helpful. There are a few UITS staff members who I know can usually help me out, so I do sometimes reach out to them directly. There are several problems there, that I can see. First, it’s terrible for any UITS processes because there isn’t a ticket most of the time. Second, I’m not totally clear on what any of their primary jobs are, so I am almost certainly asking them to help me with things that don’t fall into their normal duties, which isn’t great. Last, I wouldn’t do this if it didn’t sometimes feel like the most efficient way to address a need. For very small things, calling the help desk is fine, but many things take a lot of time and/or don’t get resolved through that path.

Satisfied

They are very knowledgeable on topics; however, their communication needs improvement. I am a staff who does not call unless I have exhausted all options, but I feel like a burden sometimes when I do need help. If I call with a fairly simple issue, their tone and response make me feel like I am unintelligent. In addition to the communication, I often have to state that I have already reviewed the KB already and followed the steps they are reading through.

UITS staff is great to work with. A bit concerned about timing of major changes and upgrades.

I had positive experience with UITS staff, both at help desk and individuals within a specific department. However, I have had a very negative experience for printing on campus. Some of the printers were out of paper, and the network printer didn't work. My print jobs showed up at the printer, but after I slid my card, it didn't print. I repeated the process three to four times, trying different printers, and spending more than half an hour, and still was unable to print on campus.

Undergraduate responses:

I have not had any negative interactions with UITS staff or services.

I've had only good experiences so far this year. Every time I have had a question and emailed someone, they have responded back in a timely manner.

I have not experienced much interaction with the UITS staff except once, and the interaction was very pleasant. The person assisting me was very genuine and helpful. I don't have any suggestions on what to do differently.

I have not personally interacted with staff but have seen that there is plenty of information and resources available to help students should they need it, so thank you for making that available.

I thought the emails were a great way to communicate changes and suggestions. It was helpful to always be alerted and prepared for changes. The in-person help was also extremely patient and helpful.

The student center has a very outdated layout and needs an update. It can also be a little tricky to find things like my AAR due to the poor layout.

The staff is very helpful with any questions students might have.

I think the fact that most exams need to be taken with LockDown should be amended somewhat, as LockDown is not compatible with all platforms and is thus a bit of an inconvenience.

The two step verification system is often an issue for me since I need to have connection on my phone. If I don’t have a signal, I can’t log on to my account on the computer. Other than that, I am satisfied with how things run.

For me working and going to school, taking time to get tutoring can be challenging due to my work hours. However, I have Friday off. And when there are tutoring hours during that day, it has helped me get the tutoring I need. The tutor was very patient with me. And he was able to assist through the Zoom session. It would be great to see that there is more availability for tutoring for students that are not able to attend during school hours. Now with the pandemic, it is great to know that the ability to communicate with our professors through Zoom is there.

I currently have no serious concerns with the UITS staff. They have all been helpful and have answered my questions promptly and in a courteous manner.

I do wish that UITS, if they haven't already done so, could create a quick tips or refresher guide for instructors. I feel like some aren't using the sites such as Canvas to its full extent.

No.

I have had positive experiences with UITS.

Make the mobile/phone Canvas app more accessible for people doing school work on the go.

Transitions to third party sites aren’t as smooth and sometimes drop or fail.

I think the set up for the "Student Center" could be more user friendly. When I have to sign up for classes, I have to go back to an email I got at the beginning of starting classes at IU in order to figure out where to go and how to do it.

I have not had any issues with UITS. However, I have only used Zoom, which, so far, has worked very well.

The library services are very important to me.

There is nothing I can think of.

Everything has been working fine for me.

When professor had technology issue during the class, the IT staffs always responded fast and solved the issue quickly, which I think is pretty supportive.

The only experience I remember with UITS when my cell phone broke and I did not know how to get through Duo without it. However, I had already solved the issue when they responded back.

I utilized UITS for helping me access the Lockdown browser for exams when everything went online at the beginning of the pandemic

No, I have no problems with UITS service.

I do not like fully online learning, I am not fully satisfied with Zoom.

They helped me when I was having issues with Exemplify.

Positive experience I’ve had was getting help setting up my laptop.

I never have an issue. They are willing to help anytime I have a question or when i don’t know how to do things.

They have done a great job every time I have called. My questions are always answered and are correct.

They were great and easy to work with!

I would like to state that the systems in place are not necessarily problematic. However, often in my studies, I have had professors who do not know how to use these systems we have in place. More times than not, I have had a professor state that resources are in the files tab on Canvas, and they have not added a files tab to their Canvas page. I feel that if Indiana University wants to push online or hybrid-based courses, it is IU's responsibility to teach their facility on how to use the platforms we are expected to learn on.

I had a couple IT problems during my first semester at IU and the IT staff were happy to help with any problem I had.

N/a