Study

Computer Lab Policies and Procedures

  1. The Labs are Work Areas and Places for Study
    1. The New Media Labs are composed of the following spaces: B516, B519 and B520.
    2. Computers and equipment are reserved for the usage of uLethbridge students for academic work only.
    3. Gaming and chatting (including Facebook chat) are requested to be kept to a minimum. Please be courteous of your fellow students. Failure to be mindful could result in revocation of privilege.
    4. Labs are quiet academic learning and work areas. Please keep noise and conversation to a minimum so as to not disturb others. There are 24-hour breakout rooms available on campus for group work.
    5. Always have your uLethbridge ID card with you as you may be asked to present it to university staff.
    6. In periods of heavy usage, computers that are in use but left unoccupied may result in you being logged off by staff, faculty or students without warning.
  2. Food and Drink
    1. Consumption of food is prohibited in the computer labs. Failure to comply could result in loss of lab and equipment privileges.
    2. Beverages in capped bottles or spill proof mugs/containers are allowed (i.e. water bottles).
    3. Staff and Faculty are obligated to enforce this policy and will warn students of the infractions and request the student to remove the items. Repeated infractions will be reported to the Chair of the Department of New Media and Technical Specialist and will result in loss of privileges to the New Media computer labs and access to those computers.
    4. Students are encouraged to inform students of this violation. This is due to the spaces being shared spaces that contain sensitive equipment.
  3. Administrative information
    1. The lab facilities will be checked on a random basis to ensure they are being used in the appropriate manner.
    2. Staplers, hole punches, and printers are available in specified areas. Please use them with care and notify staff of any issues.
    3. To use the uLethbridge printers you will be required to have “Bridge Bucks” on your print account. Please visit ulethbridge.ca/printing/bridge-bucks to learn how to add “Bridge Bucks” to your account.
    4. If you encounter any issues with equipment in the labs, please contact the New Media technical specialist (newmediat@uleth.ca), or the IT help desk (help@uleth.ca), or visit the solutions center and notify staff of the problem.

Updated: January 2015

Lab Availability
  1. There are numerous labs on campus, however the ones that New Media traditionally utilize are 24 hour labs (throughout the main semesters) and are located at B516, B519, and B520. To view lab availability of the B5 labs, you may view the schedule at ulethbridge.ca/information-technology/computer-labs or consult the posted schedules.
  2. The B5 labs (B519, B520, B516, B515) are typically closed throughout the summer, Christmas, and during Reading Week.
  3. Software that is available for use in the New Media Labs is listed here.
  4. New Software will only be added prior to the beginning of the Fall and Spring semesters.
  1. Storage
    1. Students have 100MB of personal networked storage for personal documents. It’s best to use this for smaller documents (such as Word documents).
    2. It is highly recommended that students purchase external/portable hard drives. Data redundancy is important.
    3. There will be class folders available for students which will be mounted as drive “S:”. This is the location where you will save work for instructors. If the S: drive does not appear on the lab computer you are working on, you can connect to it by opening Windows Explorer (File Manager) and right-clicking on ‘Computer’ and selecting ‘Map Network Drive,’ then input \\uleth.ca\Labs\classes\nmed and search for the correct class in which you are enrolled.
    4. Another networked drive is available for temporary storage. It is important to remember that this is only for twenty-four hour storage. It is labelled as the “X:” drive. Should it not appear on the computer you are using, you can connect to it as \\uleth.ca\Labs\scratch using the method described above.
    5. Local hard drives can also be used for storage. C:\Temp can be used to store files in non-New Media labs. D:\ is used for student storage in the New Media labs. Please remember that files stored on the local hard disks can be accessed and deleted by anyone (this is another reason to purchase an external hard drive!). Files located on these local hard drives cannot be easily accessed over the network, and these drives should only be used as one of your redundant backups.
    6. Please note: students SHOULD NOT rely upon local storage on the drives in lab computers. Hard disks fail at the worst times.
    7. Typically the lab computers are “re-imaged” once a semester. During the re-imaging process the local drive (“D:\”) is wiped and all data is irrevocably erased. This will often happen a few days before the beginning of a new semester.
Updated: January 2015

Some simple solutions to commonly-encountered problems are described below:

  1. Adobe Software will not launch
    1. Try making space available on your P: drive by deleting unnecessary files. Applications require space for storing preferences and for launching.
    2. Hold the SHIFT key when launching the Adobe program; this will reload all components on start-up.
    3. Contact the New Media Technical Specialist or the IT Help Desk to perform a “soft reset” of your roaming profile.
    4. If the problem still persists, contact the New Media Technical Specialist (newmediat@uleth.ca) or the IT Help Desk (help@uleth.ca).
  2. Problems with Network connectivity
    1. Check to make sure the Ethernet cable is properly plugged into the computer.
    2. Try restarting the computer, giving it time to reload all components
    3. If the problem still persists, contact the New Media Technical Specialist (newmediat@uleth.ca) or the IT Help Desk (help@uleth.ca).
  3. Issues with using software correctly
    1. If you are unsure how to use specific elements within a software package or to accomplish certain effects, the best route is to search for solutions or tutorials online. If you cannot find a solution, please contact your instructor.
  4. Other Computer and Networking issues
    1. If other issues are occurring, such as software or hardware problems, please contact the New Media Technical Specialist (newmediat@uleth.ca) or IT (help@uleth.ca).