Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 2520

MultiCampus Parcel: A Cooperative Approach To Computer Laboratory Management

Gregory M. Dick University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Abstract

Maintaining student computing laboratories presents special problems to the laboratory - network manager. Tasks associated with managing student accounts and PC disk files consume large amounts of staff time. At the initiation of this project, commercial automated solutions to these problems were not available. Small campuses do not have the resources to develop automated tools to solve these problems. This paper discusses how technology enabled cooperation at the University of Pittsburgh has supported the disbursement of locally developed automated management tools to the University's four regional campuses.

Introduction

Providing student computing laboratories is a challenging task. In addition to the normal issues involved in managing a networked computing system, situations unique to the student lab environment exacerbate the management problem. Included among these are: (1) the issues surrounding the management of a large number of student accounts and (2) the maintenance of a stable disk configuration on a large number of client PCs. These problems could be effectively addressed only by building customized tools. Small campuses typically do not have the resources to construct such tools. Staffs are small and individual staff members tend to be generalists. (i.e., the small size of the staff does not permit the luxury of specialists.) Thus, special customized tools to assist in system management are typically not available.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how technology enabled cooperation at the University of Pittsburgh has allowed the University's four regional campuses to share the fruits of development efforts conducted by Computing and Information Services at the Pittsburgh Campus.

Discussion

The Problem

Student laboratories present a particularly challenging set of problems to the network manager. In addition to the normal issues involved in managing a network, situations unique to the student lab must be addressed. Account management and disk file configuration management can be particularly troublesome.

Account management at even a small college like the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ) can be troublesome. Each year new accounts must be created for approximately 900

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Dick, G. M. (1997, June), Multi Campus Parcel: A Cooperative Approach To Computer Laboratory Management Paper presented at 1997 Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 10.18260/1-2--6692