Classroom Support Services

The IT Customer Services Department is responsible for the design, installation, maintenance, and daily support, including:

  • Perform on-site visit and information gathering
  • Determining the technological needs of the learning environment in coordination with the Academic Service Directors and School representatives
  • Recommendations of solutions for purchase
  • Purchase of equipment
  • Installation of equipment
  • Supervise vendor installations
  • Programming of the control system
  • On-site support for classroom technology (immediate and remote support)

IT Classroom Technology coordinates with other SMU departments on individual functions associated with classroom upgrades, including:

  • Construction
  • Electrical
  • General Maintenance

Remote assistance can be provided (where applicable) through the RMS control system, which will allow IT staff to remotely control:

  • Power to certain equipment
  • Switching, content selection for display
  • Monitor room operations, live status
  • Gather metrics for logging and equipment maintenance (projector lamp replacement)

Immediate on-site assistance is provided by multiple teams within the Customer Service Department. All emergency requests should be made by calling the Classroom Support Hotline (8-8888). The help desk will alert various IT teams that emergency assistance is needed. A technician will arrive in the classroom within 5 minutes of the call to assist. If the equipment is not quickly repairable, temporary equipment will be brought to the classroom.

Emergency Response Process

  1. Call is placed to 8-8888
  2. Call is answered by either full time help desk staff or our student worker team located in FLW
  3. Location, issue and ID number is gathered.  Call is ended so that the faculty member can resume teaching.
  4. Individual then radios a team of 17 people with the issue
  5. A consultant from either the AV team or the Desktop team who is available and nearest in location will acknowledge the call and report to the location
  6. A ticket is opened and routed to the consultant answering the dispatch
  7. The issue in the room is resolved and the consultant leaves the location
  8. The ticket is closed

If the reported issue requires maintenance, the ticket will be routed to the appropriate team for rapid resolution. The team will deploy temporary equipment if possible while the maintenance is being scheduled.

IT Classroom Technology Support is available Monday through Friday from 7:45AM-9PM, and Saturday 9am-5pm. If an academic class meets outside of those times, special arrangements can be made by contacting the help desk.

The desktop computer(s) in the classroom are also supported by the Customer Service teams. Support for these computers include:

  • Installation and configuration of requested software
  • One-on-one support for instructors using classrooms
  • Hardware replacement every four years