Services

The ETRC provides the following services to Students, Faculty, and Departments of the College of Education:

Student Support Services

To get any type of ELC or EP student support off campus, please send an email to edtech@utpa.edu stating your service request or give us a call at (956) 665-7292. On campus ETRC Techs. can assist you with any questions or may have about using the environment or retrieving your credentials.

Our office offers scanning stations to Education Students. Please come by our office located in Education Complex room 3.230 to use our available scanners. Scanners are limited and are available in a first-come, first-served basis.In the event of long waiting periods, we reserve the right to institute time limits on our scanners.If you require assistance in using the scanners, simply ask one of the technicians for a quick training. By no means are the technicians available to do the scanning for you. You must do your own scanning after the brief training period.
We can assist you with uploading the scanned to document. If the document file size exceeds the sites upload limitation, we can show you how to compress it.
If you our working on a web-site for your course, our Techs. can assist you with the basics of creating a navigation bar, set a background, and inserting table for your content.

We can convert almost any type of video to DVD for class purposes. If your tape is either VHS or DVD, all you need is to bring your original tape and a blank DVD-R disk and we will get you started. If your tape is any other format, you will need to bring your camera along with the tape and blank DVD-R. Please be prepared to stay the entire length of the conversion. We do NOT do conversions, if you are not present.
If you would like to convert your tape to an electronic format (AVI, MPEG, MOV) and extract video clips, again, we will help you get started, but you must remain here in our office through the entire conversion process. We will NOT work on any conversions without your presence.

o We have the ability to recover files from diskettes that often fail. If you have a diskette that is giving you problems, please bring it by to our office and we'll use one of our disk recovery utility programs and attempt to recover as many files as possible. If your USB flash drive is infected with a virus, we can assist with its removal to allow access to your files.

Faculty Support Services

If you would like to schedule one of our mobile computer labs (comprised of 30 laptop PCs) or our Computer On Wheels (COW), please send an email to edtech@utpa.edu and indicate the course number, room number, class time and how long during the semester you would like either of these setup in your class. Please allow 5 business days to add your course to our Master Tech Schedule.

To become a member of either the ELC or the EP please contact either Mr. Juan De La Rosa at jdelarosa2@utpa.edu or Mr. Andy Rios at andyrios@utpa.edu for assistance.

The ETRC can assist with the design and implementation of databases to support faculty research. To discuss this service, please contact either Dr. John Lowdermilk at jlowdermilk@utpa.edu or Mr. Andy Rios atandyrios@utpa.edu.

If you need immediate assistance with any of the Console equipment located in many of the classrooms, please call our tech hotline at 665-7291 and a technician will be happy to assist.
Please keep in mind that these Consoles belong to the Video Resources Department, which has no affiliation to the ETRC, and that our assistance may be limited by that fact. If our technicians are unable to assist with your needs, please use the Help button on the Smart Console’s control panel and select the issue you are having from the listing of options. If the control panel is not work, please call the UTPA HelpDesk at 665-2020.

If you need technical assistance during your instruction, please give us a call at (956) 665-7291, sent an email to edtech@utpa.edu, or send a student to the ETRC office to notify a Technical Assist.

As a faculty member of COE, you are entitled to borrow some of our equipment on a short-term basis. The ETRC has laptops, video cameras, digital cameras and literature resources available for your use. Please send an email to edtech@utpa.edudetailing your request. You will be asked the purpose of the checkout, length of time required (limited to 1 week) and location of your event.
If a long-term checkout will be necessary, please contact Mr. Juan De La Rosa at jdelarosa2@utpa.edu or Mr. Andy Rios at andyrios@utpa.edu and provide details about your checkout needs.

We can convert almost any type of video to DVD for class purposes. If your tape is either VHS or DVD, all you need is to bring your original tape and a blank DVD-R disk and we will perform this task for you. If your tape is any other format, you will need to bring your camera along with the tape and blank DVD-R.
If you would like to convert your tape to an electronic format (AVI, MPEG, MOV) and extract video clips, again, we will digitize it for you. In order to get your clips, however, you would need to sit with one of our technicians and indicate the desired clips. We will then transfer your clips to a CD, DVD, or USB drive you provide.

The ETRC can assist COE Faculty to develop their personal web pages. Faculty web pages can be used as a supplemental teaching tool. Uploading syllabi, class notes, class presentations, etc. are viable options for your web site.
If you would like to explore your options, please send an email to Mr. Andy Rios at andyrios@utpa.edu or Mr. Juan De La Rosa at jdelarosa2@utpa.edu.

If you need documents scanned into an electronic format, please send us an email at edtech@utpa.edu to request this service. You'll need to bring your document(s) to our office located at EDCC 3.230. You can also send your documents through campus mail. We will return your original documents to you upon completion. The resulting electronic copy will be emailed back to you. If the electronic copy is too large to email, we will ask that you provide a blank CD-R or USB flash drive.

If you would like to have your lectures videotaped, please let us know by sending an email to edtech@utpa.edu. The faculty member would need to provide a mini-DV video tape. Please email us for exact details of the recording.You need to provide the mini-DVs for the recording each tape can record up to one hour and a half on LP speed.

If you require specialized software loaded onto your office PC please email our office and we will go by your office or schedule a time for the installation.

We have the ability to recover files from diskettes that often fail. If you have a diskette that is giving you problems, please bring it by to our office and we'll use one of our disk recovery utility programs and attempt to recover as many files as possible. If your USB flash drive is infected with a virus, we can assist with its removal to allow access to your files.

Departmental Support Services

If your department would like to create a webpage, please send an email to andyrios@utpa.edu indicating the need for a departmental web page.
If an existing web site exists and needs to be updated/maintained, please send updates to andyrios@utpa.edu.
Please note that any creation, maintenance, or update needs to have director/chair approval before they can be made available to your students/audience. Without the necessary approval we cannot proceed.

The ETRC has established an electronic time clock for direct-wage, work-study students, and research assistants. This timeclock helps departments in terms of accountability. Please schedule a demonstration by sending an email to andyrios@utpa.edu.

The ETRC can create a custom Learning Community for your department. If you are a currently ELC member and would like to extend the use of the ELC for your department, please contact either Dr. John L. Lowdermilk, III at jlowdermilk@utpa.edu or Mr. Andy Rios atandyrios@utpa.edu.

The ETRC offers the ability to create databases for departmental needs. To discuss this service, please contact either Dr. John L. Lowdermilk, III at jlowdermilk@utpa.edu or Mr. Andy Rios at andyrios@utpa.edu.