As announced on 26 March, in Spring semester 2020 all examinations for students on professional undergraduate programmes in years 1 and 2, undergraduates in years 3 and 4, and taught postgraduates will be replaced with remote examinations or alternative assessments (see the University FAQs for full information). We have added information to our Canvas and Learning […]
Category: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Virtual Library Wellbeing Space
Welcome to our new ‘virtual library wellbeing space‘, bringing together the best of our physical library wellbeing space with much more advice and support. We know that life has got pretty stressful right now so we’ve created a dedicated space where you can take a break away from your work/studies in order to recharge and […]

Library support during the COVID-19 outbreak
Even though the Library building is closed, many resources and services are still available online via the portal and library catalogue. Additional online content Many publishers and book/journal suppliers have temporarily opened up additional content during this period. We have put together a library guide which lists this additional content available: http://libguides.stir.ac.uk/covidlibsupport. Please note that […]

Remote access to lab PCs now available
Need to access a particular piece of software that you don’t have on your home PC? Tried to download some software but failed? Hopefully this solution will work for you. We have made >300 lab PCs available for remote connection. The labs concerned are: 1a11 (60 PCs), 1a13 (34 PCs), 2a15 (57), 2a17 (43), 2b41 […]

Auto start up of staff campus PCs (Hewlett Packard devices only)
On Friday 27th March, we deployed a daily auto start up command to all on-campus Hewlett Packard PCs. This means that if your PC was switched on today, it will now receive an auto start up command every morning at 8:30am. This should safeguard against accidental shut downs (we have seen a number of these […]

Teaching Online – Some Tips for Using BigBlueButton
Conferences that you didn’t set up We have had several reports of BigBlueButton conferences appearing in your modules, apart from the ones you set up yourself. Please note, students are able to add conferences of their own to discuss group work/studies. If you are using conferences via BigBlueButton please post an announcement to tell your […]

How to work from home without VPN / Remote Desktop
There’s a great deal you can do on your local laptop or PC without the need for VPN or Remote Desktop… Over the next few weeks, the demand for VPN and Remote desktop services is going to be unprecedented so it is inevitable that users will experience slowness/failure to connect at some point. Here are […]

Supporting Learning and Teaching at a Distance – Webinars
As lectures, seminars and tutorials move online in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Information Services (IS) have put together some resources to help staff to teach and support students from a distance. These are linked to from the University’s COVID19 Q&A web page, but the direct links are: >>>Supporting Learning and Teaching at a Distance (pdf): http://stir.ac.uk/33z >>> Supporting […]

Access to library resources during the library shutdown.
The library building will be closed from 5pm on Friday 20th March until further notice. In order to maximise access to library materials, the following arrangements are in place. Print collections: There will be no access to printed collections after the 20th. You should borrow any and all items you need before this time. The auto-renewal […]

Stay Cyber Safe While Working Remotely
Due to increasing concerns over the spread of COVID-19 globally and in the UK, the University has suspended face-to-face classes to protect the health and well-being of our students. Teaching is being delivered online and staff members are encouraged to speak to their line manager about working from home where practical. However, working from home […]