Computing and Information Services (CIS)

Computing Information Services (CIS) is staffed with personnel to answer questions on a variety of computing resources available from CIS. For more information, visit : <http://cis.tamu.edu/>(Clicking on the links in this section opens a new browser window. Close it to return to this page.)

Faculty Information Technologies Working Group

The Faculty Information Technologies Working Group was formed in July 2000 to give expert Information Technology course developers a forum through which to exchange new ideas, demonstrate new techniques, and share information about technology mediated instruction developments on campus. All of the members have developed at least one online course and they come from many different colleges. The group proposes to operate a "high-end" laboratory where latest equipment for technology mediated instruction is available and for which faculty experts are available to assist other faculty in such areas as streaming audio and video, Javascript for education, whiteboard methods, and cognitive information technology methods. Modest yearly funding to support purchasing new hardware and software in the laboratory is also proposed.

Faculty Workstations

he Offices of the President, the Associate Provost for Computing and Information Technology and the Purchasing Department work together each year to provide up to date computer workstations for faculty members. Top priority is for tenured or tenure track and full-time lecturer faculty members without current workstation equipment. Equipment may include desktops, laptops, or upgrades, personal printers, scanners, digital cameras, and network connection, if necessary. Faculty who have received equipment through this program in the past may not apply for the two succeeding years. The program is designed so that faculty workstations should be no more than 3-4 years old at any point in time. The University match is $3 for each $1 provided by the college, up to $1,500 from the University for a $500 contribution from the college. Any amount over $2,000 total is the responsibility of the college, department or individual.

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The Internet Media Services (IMS) division of the Academy for Advanced Telecommunications & Learning Technologies provides Internet multimedia production services and expertise without a departmental charge. Open to all departments and colleges across Texas A&M, the IMS will provide video streaming, production, and storage services to all faculty and staff, with an emphasis on class/lecture materials. The IMS will create a central repository for all video streaming capability for the campus, which will reduce the amount of traffic on the campus network and allow for faster viewing of the content. The IMS will professionally record, encode and produce lecture segments and other course content for faculty members, which will be accessible via the web for students to access at any time. In addition, the IMS will provide services to departments and course instructors including producing video content on CDs (or other medium) to be checked out from course reserve or distributed by the serviced department or course instructor.

There is not a concern for active storage capacity. IMS Server infrastructure is strategically placed on campus with virtually a direct connection to the ATM backbone. This allows a maximum capacity and will not tie up individual building's connection to the campus backbone which can cause poor service for patrons, as well as whomever else is in the building the server resides in. Cable modem users and DSL users who get service outside of and through A&M will have an advantage using IMS services because of their location in Teague, as well. Recently looking at their statistics, IMS can easily handle 13,000 requests and transfer 14 GB of streamed data in a week. Individual colleges and departments do not have to pay for infrastructure and personnel to support this service.

All multimedia material in the analog format needs to be converted to the digital format for the streaming process to be implemented. This video production involves encoding. Encoding may be seen as part of the streaming process. LOT refers faculty to the Internet Media Services for the conversion of media files into the digital format for streaming. Internet Media Services supports faculty video production and streaming needs in support of their online courses.