Departmental Instructional Labs
Overview
The majority of instructional computer labs within the Grainger College of Engineering are managed and maintained by Instructional Services at Engineering IT.
Lab management includes the management and provisioning of hardware, software and printing services. This currently includes more than 1,450 workstations in 109 locations.
Within this area, there are two basic types of labs: the traditional Engineering Workstations (EWS) labs that are open for general use/class instruction; and departmental instructional labs, where use is limited to (a) particular class(es).
Covers
This document focuses on department-specific EWS labs.
Features
The following are the primary features of departmental labs:
- Consistent user experience (storage, printing, software) across multiple lab locations.
- Reliable instructional environment ready for teaching.
- Engineering IT is responsible for patching/maintenance of workstations.
- Units may purchase replacement workstations from Engineering IT’s negotiated vendor options, or receive used workstations at no cost (as available).
- Engineering IT staff will work with instructors to evaluate software and hardware needs.
- Departments are fully in control of lab hours and scheduling.
- Support may be limited during semester breaks and University holidays. If general EWS labs are closed, then support in departmental labs will also be reduced.
- For more information, check the EWS labs schedule.
Available to
Login access to instructional labs is restricted to registered students within the Grainger College of Engineering and non-engineering students taking Engineering courses, as well as Engineering faculty and staff.
Labs are supported for undergraduate instruction only; research use of departmental labs is not supported nor permitted by many software licenses.
Service Hours
Requests will receive a response within one business day, Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm, excluding University holidays.
Support Contacts
Submit a Help Request
Time Critical Support: 217-333-1313
Cost
A per-workstation fee is charged for support. See Service fees for the most up to date prices. Additional costs may also be involved for support of audio-visual or other non-standard equipment.
This fee does NOT cover hardware costs, printing consumables, or software. All new equipment purchases, out-of-warranty repairs, software licenses, and other supplies are the responsibility of the department.
Service Terms
Users of this service agree to the following:
- The lab is used only for undergraduate instruction.
- Instructional Services does not support research or administrative computing. For more information see our Research Computing Policy.
- Supported labs adhere to nightly and weekly maintenance windows, as defined by our EWS Policies.
- Departments may request limited administrator privileges for a limited number of lab staff; however, EWS reserves the right to rescind these privileges if necessary. Computers that have non-Engineering IT staff as administrators are limited to hardware troubleshooting and re-imaging as the only methods of resolving issues. Engineering IT will not troubleshoot software issues in a lab where admin access has been delegated to non-Engineering IT staff.
- Workstations are re-imaged regularly (or as needed/requested) to install new software or fix issues.
- There is no minimum or maximum on number of computers to be considered a lab.
- Departments are responsible for arranging for physical cleaning of the labs.
- Departments are responsible for purchase and renewal of their software licenses, and requesting installation in labs when needed. Software installation requests are subject to our Software Request Policy.
- Departments must provide keys or swipe access for EWS staff to computer labs EWS supports.
- Standardization is essential to the ability of our staff to support instructional labs. Engineering IT reserves the right to refuse support on hardware or software that was purchased without consultation.
- Engineering IT reserves the right to refuse support on hardware or software that is significantly past end-of-life at the discretion of EWS staff.
- Printing support (consumable restocking, hardware support) is a separate service, and is not covered by the workstation fee.
New Service Requests
Instructors that would like to have software installed in a lab should complete the Software Requests form. Please note that software requests are subject to our Software Request Policy.
Departments that would like to stand up a new instructional lab, or have EWS take over management of a current space may contact the Assistant Director for Instructional Services listed below.
General Service Inquiries
Elaine Robbins
Assistant Director for Instructional Services
erobbins@illinois.edu
Related Services
Subscribers to this service may be interested in these additional services:
For a broader view of instructional-related IT support offerings from Engineering IT and on campus, please contact our Instructional Technology Facilitator, Rob Bennett.
Documentation
Engineering Workstations
EWS Policies Page