In my 27 years at UVU, starting the fall semester has always been a busy and somewhat stressful time of year. Over time, most of the fall semesters have melded together in my memory. However, a couple of years stand out in my mind as particularly challenging and rewarding. For example, I will remember fall 1996 for the rest of my life. 2020 will be another year that is forever etched in my memory because of the way that everyone joined together to help students and faculty use the new technologies we've put in place.

It took thousands of hours spread over several months to prepare for this year's unique semester start. Late nights, early mornings, equipment delivery and functionality challenges, and failures of vendors to provide what was promised have all been handled by an army of people dedicated to making sure this fall semester could be successful. Now that the semester has begun, work continues to make sure students and faculty receive the benefits of all the prep work that was done. While so many people have been involved in the visible classroom project, I think it's important to also recognize the many individuals who have been working outside the spotlight on things that are equally critical to students and faculty.

For instance, the dedicated staff of the Service Desk have been answering thousands (probably tens of thousands) of calls, chats, and emails from students, faculty, and staff. Their "rush" period began weeks before school started and continues for weeks after. Not only is the call volume higher than a normal fall Semester, but thanks to hiring delays due to COVID-19 economic concerns, the Service Desk is also making ends meet despite having seven fewer trained employees than they've had in previous years. Thanks also to IT Ops who have manned the LA Desk to help with wireless issues. 

With the classroom project ongoing, Networking has also been very busy. Not only have they enhanced the wireless capabilities and bandwidth in critical areas around campus to handle the expected increase in load, but they have also accomplished this on top of other COVID-19 related work, replacing a huge number of edge switches and increasing the backbone speed for the whole campus. Their deadline is the end of December, but their work will make our network more robust for everyone as they move through the various areas of campus.

A lesser-known but critical part of the classroom project has been the setup and automation of lecture capture, using some of the devices other groups have installed and configured. AIS team members, along with some dedicated others including folks from IT Ops and AVSE, have visited each classroom setup multiple times to ensure everything was ready for lecture capture. They were on campus continuing this work on the weekend before the start of school, after the visible part of the classroom project that many of us helped with was deemed complete. It's a relatively small team with a hugely important responsibility to perform. Their work continues even now to ensure audio levels are right and automation properly captures each class.

Many of us have also signed up to support these classrooms all over campus, often just figuratively holding the hands of faculty as they sign in and begin streaming. What a gratifying effort to see all our work benefiting the students and faculty!

I want to briefly share some estimates of what was completed. Keep in mind these are approximations, not hard statistics. For perspective, UVU has about 370 classrooms and labs spanning the breadth of UVU's locations. That's the scale across which all the following was done: 

• Dozens of different classroom, audio, video, and other configurations exist across those classrooms, with which the new equipment, hardware, and software needed to work.
• Miles and miles of network, audio, and other cables were installed in these rooms. 
• Cameras, microphones, computers, adapters, and more cables were also installed. 
• Custom and third-party software were developed, tested, and deployed on computers and other equipment.
• Fine-tuning of audio, video, screen, and whiteboard configurations were completed.
• While all this was being done, a promised API was not delivered from the vendor, making it necessary to change the entire configuration with only three weeks to go, complicating the requirements upon not just our team but also on our faculty.
• Days before classes were to start, an integration component from the vendor providing it failed, requiring UVU to develop, test, and deploy an entirely new way of generating the thousands of teams needed to support all the class sections.
• Dozens of untrained volunteers, under the capable guidance and direction of the professionals, helped to make all of this happen.
• In the end, due to administrative, construction, scheduling, or other issues, the total number of rooms we were expected to complete was 298. And we DID IT!

I want to say thank you to every single person who has helped and will help to get this fall semester off to a great start. We can all remember this year's fall semester start proudly. I am so proud to be a member of our UVU IT family. I hope you feel that way too! Go Wolverines!

 

Brett McKeachnie
Director of Portfolio/ Project Management Office

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey teaches this principle: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Why? 

Most of us can speak, read, and write well. However, those skills alone don't necessarily make us great communicators. Understanding others is a critical part of effective communication that often gets overlooked. Without understanding, communications can break down, resulting in toxic relationships and work cultures. 

Communication is critical to the success of any organization, but especially to UVU IT. How can we communicate more effectively within IT as well as with our customers and stakeholders? What actions can we take to understand each other more deeply? We hope to explore these questions in this article. 

Be aware of the theory of mind.

When we interact with others, we construct a theory of what’s going through their heads. Cognitive scientists call this ability “theory of mind.” The ability to imagine what another person is thinking and feeling is useful but imperfect. It is prone to innate bias, which can lead us to create misunderstandings and breakdowns in communication. Be aware of the theory of mind you construct about others. Leaving behind biases and assumptions will aid you in becoming a better listener. 

Don’t try to solve the problem before you understand the problem.  

Sometimes, instead of seeking to understand someone's problem or perspective, we immediately try to fix their unique issues by applying our experiences or solutions to them. While this is a well-intentioned instinct, remember to have patience. Listen to the problem first, then tailor your approach accordingly. 

Don’t listen with the intent to reply. 

While others are talking, we may be selectively listening. We decide prematurely what the other person means before they finish speaking so that we can formulate a reply based on our assumptions. Instead of listening with the intent to reply, listen with the intent to understand. Wait until they have finished speaking to formulate a reply. 

Have an open mind. 

Sometimes, we falsely believe that others’ minds are less complex than our own. This attitude is the death of productive, effective dialogue. Begin conversations with the assumption that the person you are speaking to has something valuable to share with you. 

Find common ground.

Instead of focusing on your differences, focus on what you have in common. Begin conversations with the intent to find common ground. Be open to hearing alternative points of view.  

Try to see the world from their perspective. 

Because most of our thoughts are about ourselves, we tend to assume that other people perceive and process the world the same way that we do. Instead of assuming that others think as you do, assume that they see the world from a unique perspective. 

Ask the right questions. 

An important part of listening is asking questions to get to a deeper level of understanding. Focus on questions that begin with who, what, when, where, and how. As a general rule, avoid questions that start with “why,” since they can make people feel defensive. 

Ponder and apply.  

Understanding each other takes patience and effort, but doing so makes us stronger and more unified. Let us each choose a few habits that we can individually work on to improve communications across IT.