Info for our Faculty

General Lab Info

Lab hours on days that classes are in session during the regular school year are 8:30 to 5, Monday through Thursday and 8:30 to 4 on Friday. Summer hours will be a bit more variable. We are closed weekends and holidays. If I get sufficient staffing, I'll try to be open until 7 at least one night per week, depending on the student help available. I'm looking for workstudies to help out, so an announcement in class would be appreciated. The positions have flexible hours and offer lots of study time.

We have portable CD and cassette tape players, presentation carts with laptops and projectors, and TVs with VCRs available for faculty to check out. There are also digital video and still cameras available. See me or a lab assistant for details.

When bringing classes into the lab, please try to keep students in the class in the teaching area, closer to the main lab entrance (stations 1 - 24). This keeps the general use area (on the far side of the two large arrows, stations 25 - 32) clear for students who are not in class and need a computer. If more seats are needed than are available in the teaching area, your students can use the general use area, but please try to keep the area as clear as possible for general use. If there are students not in your class who are using computers you need in the class area, you may ask them to move to the general access area. However, we cannot request that students move from the general access area.

Food and drinks need to be kept away from the computers and keyboards. If any of your students has food or drinks at the station, please request that those items be placed on the table by the door or in a backpack. This precaution goes a long way towards keeping food and liquids out of the keyboards.

The lab computers have software for language instruction, such as the interactive CDs from the textbooks, GMAT software, Microsoft Office and internet browsers. If you need specific software for your classes, please see me.

Logging In

All EWU lab computers require a unique login, for students, staff and faculty. When logging in for the first time, a new user should use 'ewuguest' as the user name with no password. Doing so will take the user through a process in which the user is verified as being an employee or registered student. The user is guided through a process that will provide a unique user name and a password chosen by the user. The password will need to have at least three of the following four elements: upper case letter(s), lower case letter(s) number(s), special character(s) such as #, @, ! *, etc. The new login information can be used on all EWU lab computers and for wi-fi access.

Please bear in mind that at the beginning of each quarter, and especially Fall, some information takes a few days to get into the databases that are used for creating logins. If it appears that a student is unable to get a new user name or log in, it may be due to a delay in updating their information. Please see me if this problem arises. I can check on the status of the student's information and provide a temporary login.

Tech Fee and Running Start students

Each student pays a Tech Fee of $35 per quarter. This fee is charged automatically to full-time students. It's pro-rated at $3.50 per credit for part-time students. The Tech Fee provides computer access in all campus and Riverpoint computers, 180 pages of black and white printing, and Netstorage, which provides online storage for their documents. The proceeds from this fee are used to purchase computers and other resources for students' use.

To use the 180 pages of print credit, the student prints from the computer as usual, then passes his or her student ID card through the card scanner next to the printer. The print station screen will then show a list of jobs waiting to be printer. The user selects the job, clicks on print, and the printing will begin, counting the number of pages to apply to the print credit. If the 180 allotted pages gets used up, the student can use their EagleFlex account funds. Their 180 pages of print credit will be replenished at the beginning of the next quarter.

This fee is not charged for running start students. Those who have not been charged the fee may pay it at the registrar's office if they wish for the print credit and access to other benefits of the tech fee, such as full access to all the labs, laptops for checkout from the library, netstorage, and other benefits.

Running Start students who elect not to pay the Tech Fee may use the computers in our lab using a special login. See me for details. This special login works only in our lab, on stations 1 - 26. Printing is not provided with this login, but we provide printing for those running start students in our language classes. Those students can ask me or the lab attendant when they need to print.

Audio CDs

Audio CDs are often included with language textbooks as ancillary materials, but we've gotten permission from some of the publishers to put these materials online so that students don't need to have the CDs available when working with the workbooks in the lab or at home. Presenting these materials online provides quick access, saving crucial class time when a class is working in the lab. We access these materials through Blackboard since the publishers have asked that we limit access to registered students who have purchased the text. Students can access these materials from anywhere they have computer access. For those with limited internet access, we can provide the audio materials on CD. They can ask for the CD to keep, but we request that they return them when they're no longer needed at the end of the year.

If you have any questions or problems with the lab or its equipment and software, I’d like very much to know about it.

Pat

© 2009 Eastern Washington University    Contact