IUPUI

Come Sleet or Snow, IU’s IT Support Infrastructure Persevered

ITCT Building in the snow.

INDIANAPOLIS - The recent snow storm may have kept students from attending classes, but Indiana University’s IT support infrastructure helped keep students, staff and faculty connected when they could not make the drive to campus.

Use of Oncourse CL, the university’s online course management system, dominated much of the university community’s online activities. On Tuesday, Feb. 13, Oncourse CL received nearly 10.5 million hits—up more than 4 percent from the previous week. What’s more, the community downloaded more than 2,700 software packages via IUware on Feb. 13—more than any other day that week. Some staff and faculty kept their scheduled meetings and teleconferenced via a home phone or cell, or responded to requests via email.

“At this point in the semester, students are highly engaged in their course work and many are also in the midst of mid-term exams,” said Anastasia Morrone, associate dean for teaching and learning information technologies, University Information Technology Services (UITS). “As faculty members, we know that we can rely on the many features of Oncourse CL to engage our students in meaningful instructional activities even when weather prevents us from meeting face-to-face.”

During the two-day snow storm, UITS ensured university enterprise information systems remained operational by staffing data center facilities 100 percent. Having two advanced cyberinfrastructure facilities—one at IU Bloomington and one at IUPUI—permitted IUB to support IUPUI’s facility remotely and vice versa. This activity is due in large part to the UITS service continuity plan.

The UITS Telephone Call Center also remained in operation during the snow days, supporting telephone calls for the university, IU physicians and medical center hospitals. Some UITS staff worked three consecutive days—at 12 to16 hours a piece—without leaving campus. During that period, the unit received more than 12,000 calls. The center handled calls for both IUPUI and IUB. The Support Center answered calls and staff even worked from home assisting people via email.

“IT plays an important role in enabling IU students, faculty and staff to accomplish their work—rain, snow, or shine,” said Sue Workman, director of user support for UITS. “Classes may not have taken place during these snow days, but teaching, learning, and administration continued to function in many areas because of the use of technology. Our stats show the university community continued to use IT services throughout the winter storm.”