The IT Center strives to provide the best support it can offer to our student body. The wide array of personal devices that are brought to college does limit the scale of work that can be performed within our office. This article will outline the basics of support for our students with personally owned devices.
Hardware Assessment
Students can bring their device to the office for an initial assessment of what may be wrong or need repaired, but the IT Center does not offer hardware support on student devices. An example of this instance would be an issue with a hard drive and it needs to be replaced. For systems that are under a warranty, we will advise you to contact the manufacturer of the device to find out how you can get the issue resolved under warranty. Should the system not be under warranty, we can provide general guidance as to what may be wrong and will likely direct you to an outside computer service for which the college has partnered with. The IT Center will assist in the initialization of the repair with the vendor, however, all authorization and other transactions will be between the vendor and the student. Charges that are incurred for the vendor’s service are the responsibility of the students and not that of Bridgewater College.
Wireless Support
The IT Center will assist with connecting any student device to our wired or wireless network. In the event the system will not connect, we will attempt to troubleshoot why the device is not working and provide advice on a solution which, in some cases, may include purchasing a different network adaptor.
Malware
If a computer becomes infected with malware, we would first recommend that you attempt to remove the malware on your own. We have articles providing further information about malware, online and offline scanning tools. These are the same tools we will use in our office should the system be brought to us. Running full malware scans on systems is a time-consuming process and it may take up to 2 business days before we can return a computer after a full scan comes back clean. We recommend running full scans on the system until the scanner no longer returns found malware before ruling the system clear of infection.
Occasionally, malware can cause damage that cannot be fixed by a scan. Regardless of what type of laptop, we can reload the Windows operating system for the student. Note: This pertains to windows computers only. We cannot reload Apple systems or non-conventional computing platforms, such as tablets. We may ask the student to provide the operating system disk to perform this reload. In the event of a reload being needed, the student is responsible for having a backup of their personal information as well as any installed applications that are on the computer.
Digital Scholarship Gurus
The Digital Scholarship Gurus are trained Bridgewater College students working with the IT Center. They strive to educate Bridgewater’s campus by implementing digital media strategies because of their passion for digital media providing a deeper insight and innovative ways of thinking. They offer design suggestions, how-tos, and host workshops. Drop-in assistance will be available in FLC1 113. Look for those times to be posted on MyBC or https://wp.bridgewater.edu/gurus
The Gurus’ services include: (whole class, small group, and/or one-on-one instruction)
· WordPress and Google Sites assistance
· Video production and editing
· Podcast creation
· Graphic design
· Professional headshots
· Office 365
· And much more
Contact
The IT Center is open for students to bring their systems to the office Monday—Friday from 8am—4:30pm. Students who bring their computers in will be asked to fill out a computer assessment form and leave the system with us.