2002 CSE Help Desk Student Survey
The graphical results of this survey can be found here .
There were 200 student responses in total, 93% of which were undergraduate students.
An analysis of the 2002 survey was done recently to ascertain future improvements for the CSE laboratories and support services.
Results of the 2002 survey revealed that many students felt that much needed to been done to improve the quality of some laboratories, particularly those in the Electrical Engineering building. As many have probably noticed, a complete refurbishment of all laboratories in the Electrical Engineering building was undertaken over the summer break.
Still of concern is the poor temperature/ventilation in the Old Main Building labs. A few minor (but useful) adjustments have been made to the timers in the area but the real issue appears to lie in the design. This is currently in the hands of Asset Services.
Students also felt that resources such as the Booking System, Unix Primer, Yellow Form and the "ask" mail alias need to be more informative and better advertised. These are all currently being assessed, and to a larger extent the Booking System is being revised to handle defaulters more effectively. More information about this will become available further into Session 2.
A large increase in the use of the Laptop Lab meant that students wished for more usable facilities with the introduction of more sockets, better furniture, rubbish bins and lighting after-hours. A formal proposal for this work has already been put to the School (thanks to John Albani) and we are currently awaiting approval for funding.
Somewhat related are the suggestions for better wireless coverage. This has been partly addressed with the addition of four access points throughout the K17 building. There are several concerns about extending the coverage throughout our other labs due to possible overcrowding in these areas.
General comments included more printing facilities for the level 3 laboratories in the Electrical Engineering building which is currently being attended to for Session 2. Other comments such as higher quotas and Windows access for all students have also been noted but may not be reasonable to implement.
A common issue which has been raised regularly through student feedback mechanisms is the one of excessive noise in the laboratories. This has appeared to be a bigger problem in the banjo lab, which holds significantly more machines than our general purpose labs. This session, a monitoring system was implemented by the Help Desk to assist in minimising noise levels in this lab. This was done by mainly ascertaining whether those inside the lab were actually entitled to be there and giving verbal warnings to those being disruptive enough to warrant attention. This seemed to ease the pain of those desperately trying to complete thesis work towards the last few weeks of session and may be implemented regularly in future.
On the plus side, many students seem to enjoy looking at the staff of the CSE Help Desk 'cause we're good looking!!
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