"Texas Woman’s will grow its contributions to discovery by empowering the institution and its community to fully engage in the discovery process."

Technology to Support Faculty Excellence

TWU Technology worked with the Center for Faculty Excellence to upgrade the technology in its computer lab to a configuration similar to that of a Texas Woman's classroom. Mindful of budgets, every effort was made to repurpose components that were still safe for use.

The upgraded technology includes a Solstice Pod, which allows for bring your own device integration, enhancing the learning space by allowing for collaboration and interaction.

Improved technology supports the purpose of the Center for Faculty Excellence: to provide resources, support, and inspiration for the development and advancement of faculty in all career phases as teachers, scholars, mentors, and leaders.

Informatics & Virtual Reality Lab

Students and faculty research is being conducted in a newly created Informatics & Virtual Reality lab. The lab utilizes a 10G network connection to enable high-end workstations and displays. The lab also features virtual reality systems and sophisticated analysis and modeling software. Faculty and students from across the University are using the lab.

Microsoft Office 365 Single Sign-On

Technology often strives to make daily tasks easier and more efficient. Keeping in line with this principle, TWU Technology implemented single sign-on for Microsoft Office 365 so that students, staff, and faculty can log in using their TWU email address and Portal password. Prior to this update, Office 365 called for a separate login, requiring Pioneers to remember an additional password for a TWU-provided resource. Pioneers can now enjoy the flexibility of web-based Office applications with the convenience of single sign-on.

Collaboration Solutions Team

As Texas Woman’s has shifted its strategic priorities, technology needs have changed, as well. Since 2014, TWU Technology has supported new services including live streaming of large University events, such as commencement and press conferences, and maintenance and support for conference rooms, while meeting an ever-growing demand for videoconference services. To serve the institution, TWU Technology created a new team dedicated to collaboration technology.

7,989 views of May 2017 commencement ceremonies on LiveStream. 67% of those were live.

Skype for Business Implementation

In late 2016, TWU Technology made Skype for Business available to the University. Skype for Business is Microsoft’s replacement for Lync, a voice/video/text chat program. To increase the success of the implementation, the department planned to rollout features of the product slowly. The initial phase allowed for internal communications. This was followed by persistent chat.

In the deployment, the department enabled the federation option of the software, which allows faculty applicants to be interviewed in high-quality video. Still frame rates and packet loss averages are minimal thanks to the new throughput capacity of the 10GB science research network.

A robust solution like Skype for Business offers many attractive features, including calls for up to 250 participants, integration with Microsoft Outlook and PowerPoint, and encrypted communications. TWU Technology will continue with a modular implementation plan into the 2017-18 academic year.

TWU Technology hosted 142 fewer videoconference sessions in 2016. That reverses a several-year trend of exponential growth. Did demand decrease? Likely not. With Skype for Business, meetings can include video chat with screen share, so it is a convenient alternative to a videoconference. Further, Skype for Business is installed on all TWU-provided desktops, so there is no need to book an extra room if only one or two people are attending at a different location (which supports institutional efforts at maximum space utilization). Finally, Skype for Business is an affordable alternative to LifeSize, TWU's primary videoconference technology.

Science Network & Increased Capacity

In its Strategic Plan 2022, Texas Woman’s commits to providing “education and experience in research for the next generation of scholars.” The Science Research Network, pioneered by Dr. Robert Placido, Clay Till, and Andrew Clemens, and funded through an NSF grant, plays a vital role in meeting this commitment. The high-speed connectivity and access to Internet2 enable research opportunities for students and faculty at Texas Woman’s.

The first year, the department focused on upgrading the edge network. This year, the project team increased capacity to specific buildings that would utilize high speed networks for research or classroom purposes. TWU Technology is excited to support the emerging culture of faculty and students creating scholarship at Texas Woman’s by leveraging powerful data, software, and hardware resources.

Connectivity to ASSC was increased from 2G to 40G, and 40G of capacity was added to MCL. GRB's connectivity was increased ten-fold, and ASB's capacity was increased from 2G to 10G.

Increased pipelines allow overall bandwidth usage to surpass earlier limits of 1GB.

Connecting, Collaborating

The Blagg-Huey Library on the Denton campus is home to a new videoconference and collaboration space. This renovated conference room allows the librarians to better connect to and collaborate with the Dallas and Houston centers. They can also share screens and presentations with the new technology.

The space will serve multiple uses: a meeting space for library staff; a videoconference and meeting room for hosted sessions and conferences; and the space may be reserved by graduate students.