As part of an effort to increase accessibility to the resources and tools available to its students, the Florida State University (FSU) College of Communication and Information (CCI) offers RemoteLabs. This technology provides virtual utility by providing ubiquitous access to programs like the Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and nearly forty other programs to any FSU student enrolled with CCI.
Taking advantage of native remote session hosting utilities, RemoteLabs allows CCI-affiliated students to access software found in CCI’s lab environments from anywhere, anytime and from any computer with Mac OSX or Windows. Windows computers have the necessary tools built-in while Mac computers require a free third party app available in the Apple App Store called Microsoft Remote Desktop.
Using server side resources to run lab software extends the life of older lab and personal computers by providing the processing power to run hardware intensive software like Adobe’s Creative Suite and IBM’s SPSS. As an added benefit, work won’t be lost if the computer suddenly loses power, and can easily be picked back up from any other computer with access to RemoteLabs. CCI-maintained lab computers have all been configured to access RemoteLabs on all installed web browsers.
RemoteLabs is available to students enrolled in at least one credit hour, undergraduate or graduate, at CCI. The School of Communication’s Undergraduate Computer Lab at UCC 4120B, the Graduate Lab at UCC 4130, and the Kibler Doctoral Lab at UCC 3116 all have computers that can access the new system. The William Johnston Building has several labs with direct access to RemoteLabs as well, including the Health Informatics Lab at WJB 2029.
As an extension of the College’s accessibility efforts, the CCI HelpDesk also introduced a new remote assistance program, designed to give users the effectiveness of personalized care and troubleshooting with the ease of a flexible and widespread communication network. Any computer connected to the Internet will be able to run a program called TeamViewer, which will give users the ability to receive remote assistance from the CCI HelpDesk from anywhere in the world.
CCI HelpDesk Manager and IT support leader, Jason Penley, looks forward to the possibilities of these new services. He mentioned that “the opportunity to support our faculty, staff, and students, wherever they may be, is a drastic improvement on our level of customer service.”
Further, two Dual-boot labs are now available at the CCI HelpDesk (Shores, LSB 106) and the Johnston IT Lab (William Johnston, WJB 2010). These Dual-boot labs feature iMacs that can run both Windows 8 and Mountain Lion operating systems. TeamViewer remote assistance is pre-installed and available regardless of operating system choice.
