IT and AV provision for Staff in the Law Faculty

At Oxford University, IT services are provided by a range of sources: University IT Services, Bodleian Libraries, your college and your faculty or department.

These provisions sometimes overlap but we are happy to direct you to the right area if you aren’t able to identify the right ‘department’ to help you on a particular occasion. These pages try to provide the key information you will need. If you would like a hands-on introduction to IT facilities and electronic teaching and research services available to you at Oxford University, or if you have any questions about information in this document, please contact either the Law Faculty via web.support@law.ox.ac.uk or the Manor Road IT Team via itsupport@manor-road.ox.ac.uk.

The Law Faculty Team

The following people work in the Faculty of Law to provide a range of IT, AV and web support to staff:

For more detail about the duties of each of these staff, please visit their profile pages, or look at the A-Z listing of ‘who does what’ in the Law Faculty. 

Information Technology and Services Group (formerly the Manor Road IT Team)

In November 2018, the Law Faculty began to receive most of its other types of IT support from the IT Team based in the Manor Road Building, now called ITSG, which brought it in to line with the arrangement that was already in place for the Centre for Criminology and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. 

More details of the services that they offer can be found on their website.

Network Support

The network in the St Cross Building is now supported by IT Services.  Queries about the network should be made via ITSG. Our contact in IT Services Network Support Team is Rob Jones.

The Bodleian Law Library

Nicola Patrick is the Research Support Librarian. Together with fellow librarians Kate Jackson and Elizabeth Wells, she may be called upon for advice about online databases and the LRMSP programme.  Elizabeth Wells is the contact for software such as Endnote, use of OSCOLA, and qualitative research software.

All Library services available to the Law Faculty are set out on the Library website. In particular, faculty should note the Law Bod 4 Students scanning service, to be used for any scans, pdfs or other copyright material that needs to be distributed to students. 

Your Oxford account/Single Sign On (SSO) and access to online services

Your Oxford account (SSO) is your main access to university online services, and it is automatically set up for you when you apply for your University Card. New staff should receive a letter from IT Services with an activation code for their Oxford account. If you don’t receive this, contact the Faculty Personnel Officer or your College administration. 

Your Oxford account gives you access from anywhere to:

• Oxford’s bespoke version of Microsoft’s Office365 suite of online applications, known as Nexus365, which includes:
  Outlook email online, together with online versions of the familiar Microsoft Office applications, and a generous allocation of (shareable) storage space using OneDrive,
• Bodleian Libraries’ electronic library (Westlaw, Lexis etc.),
• WebLearn, the university's Virtual Learning Environment,
  (Over the years 2019-21, there will be a staged replacement of WebLearn by a new system, Canvas.)
• Faculty website, including your profile page,
• OxCORT, the Oxford Colleges On-line Reports for Tutorials,
• Oxford Research Archive (ORA), the research repository,
• Sharepoint, a document repository and online collaborative environment, etc.,
• Faculty Intranet, the landing page for teaching returns, sign-ups, options, etc.,
• IT Services for software, courses etc.,
• and more – see the Oxford Username page.

If you want to:

• change your password,
• forward your e-mail to a different address,
• set up your Remote Access Account, which provides access to the University's WiFi network via Eduroam, and also the Virtual Private Network (VPN) Service (needed for some services),
• register for and download the VPN software, Sophos anti-virus software for your personal computer(s), and/or IBM Spectrum Protect software for automatic scheduled back-up of your files,

sign into your personal IT Services Self-Registration Home Page.

If you encounter any problems with your Oxford account/single sign-on, contact Manor Road IT itsupport@manor-road.ox.ac.uk.

For a general introduction to the range of services offered by IT Services go to their Welcome to IT page.

IT Services is at 13 Banbury Road, phone (2)73200, or email help@it.ox.ac.uk.

Access to online services from outside the Oxford network

To access Lexis and Westlaw from outside the university, start by visiting the Bodleian Law Library's Legal Databases page, or SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries Online) and log in with your Oxford account.

Your Oxford account enables you to set up Lexis alerts, but ask the Bodleian Law Library (law.library@bodleian.ox.ac.uk) for a personal username if you want to receive alerts from Westlaw or Lawtel.

For remote access to other databases, such as HeinOnline, JStor, Oxford Scholarship Online etc, log in to SOLO. If you find documents in password-protected databases via internet searches, look for ‘Institutional Log-in’ or ‘UK Access Management Federation’ or ‘Home Organisation’ or simply ‘UK Federation’. Follow the links to Oxford University and sign in using your Oxford account username and password.

The Virtual Private Network (VPN): The Oxford account provides remote access to legal and journal databases via SOLO, so it is not essential to install the VPN client for this purpose. However it is useful because it gives your computer the same access that you have from inside Oxford. Some online services require the VPN, including wireless access in the Bodleian Law Library and the OWL wireless network.

Staff working in the St Cross Building need to use a different VPN called 'Aruba' to access the Faculty network and file servers.  Please contact the ITSG helpdesk for advice. New starters need to request a log-in to the network (and connection to the Chorus telephone service) via the Personnel Officer, Emma Gascoigne.

Email account

Your Email can be accessed via Outlook on the Nexus365 platform, or by using Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Mail and other email clients installed on your system. For help with setting up an email client, see Nexus365: Setting Up Your Email Client.  

Email addresses and phone numbers of all Faculty, staff and students can be found by using the Contact Search panel on the Staff Gateway page.

Generic or Project e-mail accounts: requests for these accounts should be made to the Head of Administration and Finance, Charlotte Vinnicombe.  In most instances she will be the owner of Lawproject accounts.  Requests for new accounts must be directed through the Manor Road IT Team.  Once the project account is set up, full access will be delegated by Charlotte, and users of the account will be told how to map it onto their own account. 

Faculty mailing lists

The Faculty Personnel Officer will add new staff to the Faculty email lists. There is a general mailing list for anyone wishing to be informed of, or communicate about, special events etc. There are also separate lists for Faculty communications to postholders and to the wider Faculty membership.  Guidance on the use of maillists is published here.

The law-postgrad mailing list carries more information about discussion groups and special events – you might find it useful to receive that mailing list. If you wish to be added to this (or any other non-standard list that you think might be useful ask Charlotte Vinnicombe (charlotte.vinnicombe@law.ox.ac.uk) in the first instance.

There are also various teaching group and discussion group mailing lists, and provision for setting up your own mailing list(s).

Faculty website

Contact person: Steve Allen (web.support@law.ox.ac.uk)

Most information about the Faculty is on the public website.  Some areas of the website are for members only, meaning only accessible to those with a Single Sign-On.  These sections, most of which appear under the ‘Information for Staff’ section, largely function as a staff handbook, with information about policy and administrative resources.

When you log on to the site for the first time using your usual Oxford SSO, a template profile page will be created for you. There are some guidance notes on the site showing you how to edit that default page.  Please remember that some links are only visible to you if you are logged in (because they are filed behind the SSO security wall).

Faculty intranet

Contact person: Catherine Donaldson (catherine.donaldson@law.ox.ac.uk)

The intranet and the online editing system called ‘My Oxford Law’ is used for certain administrative functions, such as manging course convenors, teaching groups, the register of approved graduate teachers, and the list of Key College Contacts (formerly called Senior Law tutors) in college.  It is also used for option sign-up, the annual teaching return and open day registration.   

WebLearn for course materials

Contact person: Steve Allen (web.support@law.ox.ac.uk)

WebLearn is used for all course materials, such as reading lists and handouts from lectures and seminars; and to provide links to copyright material (but you must not load any copyright material onto WebLearn under any circumstances).  Log in on the top-right of a WebLearn page. Click on ‘My Active Sites’ to get quickly to your own Courses. Information about using WebLearn is at the bottom of the WebLearn Law homepage, and on the Welcome tab. WebLearn tools include tutorial sign up, assignment upload (with optional Turnitin), email contact with students, announcements, time-release of documents, online tests and other features.

To learn how to use WebLearn, you are advised first to attend a WebLearn training course. Within the Faculty, Steve Allen is responsible for the overall organisation of material on WebLearn and for general user support.  The relevant course administrator can help you upload reading lists and other course material.

WebLearn also holds other information, such as Law Board reports, materials related to the Faculty's Teaching course for Research Students, the LawBod4Students collection of scans of chapters and journal articles otherwise unavailable electronically, and various student and staff worksites.  NB. Over the years 2019-21, there will be a staged replacement of WebLearn witha new system, Canvas.    

A note about copyright.  It is Faculty policy that no copyright material in any format that would be reportable to the CLA may be posted on the Faculty WebLearn site.  Instead, please use the Law Bod 4 Students service; the library will locate the relevant link for your WebLearn site, whether it be to a version that is already available on line, or by scanning the relevant chapter/article for you and storing it on a library sub-site to which you can link from WebLearn.

Photography

Contact person: Steve Allen (web.support@law.ox.ac.uk)

When holding an event, please remember that just one or two good photographs can dramatically enhance a news item for the website.  We welcome every opportunity to take photographs for our own stock, and it is possible for you to engage the help of Steve Allen to take photographs at events, though for obvious reasons this would need to be for events in Oxford and during the day.  Steve Allen or Clare Oxenbury-Palmer (Communications Manager) can advise on photography for external or evening events.

Research projects and groups

Contact person: Karen Eveleigh (Research Facilitator)

A microsite is a web page template available to anyone in the Faculty with a research project or group that wishes to publish their activity on the website.  It is a very flexible template that works well on any scale, and allows you to publish news stories, events, people and other content associated with your research, and also allows you to publish a blog.  See this section on Microsites for research, discussion groups and mooting for further information.

Using PowerPoint in lecture theatres

Contact: email Manor Road IT itsupport@manor-road.ox.ac.uk

All of the lecture theatres and teaching rooms in the St Cross Building are equipped for the projection of PowerPoint slides (or similar). It is also possible to provide document cameras (a.k.a. visualisers, or indeed overhead projectors) and DVD players if required. All rooms have network connectivity (wired and/or Wi-Fi) for showing web-based materials during lectures. Most computers in teaching rooms have Windows 10 and a recent version of Office.

The Facilities Support Assistants (FSAs) (i.e. porters) in the St Cross Building are responsible for ensuring that a lecture or meeting room is set up and that all the standard equipment is functioning.  If you encounter any difficulties at the start of, or during, a lecture, please speak to an FSA on the Main St Cross Reception Desk in the first instance (tel. 71481).  If an FSA is not available, ring the Building Manager’s office, tel. 71480.

For peace of mind, make sure you can access your PowerPoint slides in two different ways. For example, bring them on a USB key, upload them on the Faculty intranet or WebLearn, and/or send them as an attachment to your own email.

In a number of rooms it is possible to present using your own device (PC, tablet or phone(!)) but you should check beforehand with Manor Road IT.

If required, lecture handouts can be printed by the Faculty Office if they are e-mailed to lawfac@law.ox.ac.uk well in advance of the lecture – at least two working days ahead.  Larger print runs should be handled by the University Print Studio; contact Jackie Hall for more information about that (jackie.hall@law.ox.ac.uk).

You can ask for an FSA to assist with the distribution of handouts when you book the room.

Lecture Capture – audio recording and slide capture

Contact person: Steve Allen (web.support@law.ox.ac.uk)

The Replay lecture capture system allows the pre-scheduled recording of multiple elements of a lecture or seminar simultaneously, and then its/their publication online (either publicly, or to a selected audience) within minutes of the event's conclusion. Our most complete configuration makes it possible to capture video and audio of the presenter, a synchronised and indexed/timestamped display of her/his Powerpoint presentation, and a record of anything written on a whiteboard. Some configurations offer only audio and Powerpoint (or similar). More details can be found on the Faculty's Audio-Visual Services page.

Video and audio recording

Contact person: Steve Allen (web.support@law.ox.ac.uk)

Video and audio recording of lectures, interviews etc. can be supported from within the Faculty if the resources are available at the relevant time.  A request should be made well in advance, setting out all requirements, and submitted by e-mail to web.support@law.ox.ac.uk. 

An alternative source of help is the University’s Media Production Unit or Clare Oxenbury-Palmer (Communications Manager) can advise on how to seek an external supplier.

Small audio recorders are available from Steve or the Faculty reception office. Audio files can be uploaded to WebLearn, or - where appropriate - made available on the University's podcasting site (and usually by extension, on Apple Podcasts).

Advice on permissions for recording and publishing events should be sought from Steve Allen and/or Clare Oxenbury-Palmer at the time an event is being organised. 

Videoconferencing

Contact for Skype: Manor Road IT itsupport@manor-road.ox.ac.uk
Contact for Polycom: Steve Allen (web.support@law.ox.ac.uk)

Skype and Skype for Business are now available on many Faculty computers, and the two Law Meeting Rooms have installed systems that make them suitable for small-scale meetings. Skype has been approved by the University as being sufficiently secure and robust for use for viva examinations.

More traditional point-to-point videoconferencing is increasingly uncommon, though there may be some circumstances where it offers the most appropriate medium. The Faculty owns a portable (Polycom) videoconferencing unit. The user/audience at the other end needs to have compatible equipment/software. Requests to use this sytem need to be made at least two weeks in advance (late requests will be subject to the availability of the IT staff). Seminar Room G is often used for this, not least because it has a large photo of Oxford for a background. There are a number of other videoconferencing facilities around the University, including in the Oxford Martin School in the Old Indian Institute.

Personal computing equipment

Contact: Manor Road IT itsupport@manor-road.ox.ac.uk

Members of the Faculty holding established University posts in Law are eligible to apply to the Faculty for funding for IT equipment through the IT Equipment Fund (and may also be eligible for funding from their college). Applications for funding are invited once a term via the Postholders' mailing list. New members of academic staff are expected to use part of any Faculty start-up grant to buy computer equipment and can therefore only apply for Faculty-funded equipment once the start up grant has been exhausted. (You will receive separate advice about your start-up grant and its use.)  The IT Equipment Fund places restrictions both on the budget and the types of equipment you can purchase.  If you use a grant or other budget, the only restrictions is that we can demonstrate 'Value for Money', which essentially means it is required for business use and is puchased by the University. 

It is often the case that the Faculty will purchase a computer that will be installed in your college office.  On these occasions, it is usual for the Faculty to purchase the equipment for your local IT Support Officer to install.  Your College will then normally supply computing-related consumables such as toner cartridges, USB sticks, etc., although these can also be requested from the Faculty.

All equipment purchased under any scheme remains the property of the Univeristy and must be returned to the Faculty by the member of staff at the time their employment comes to an end. 

Computer teaching room in the Bodleian Law Library

Contact: law.library@bodley.ox.ac.uk

The St Cross Building does not have computer teaching rooms, however staff may ask to use the IT teaching room in the Bodleian Law Library, which has a number of networked PCs, instructor’s computer, two ceiling mounted data-projectors and a smart board. Microsoft Office applications and printing are available on these computers.  It may also be possible to use the IT Skills Lab in the Manor Road Building.  Enquiries should be sent to the Faculty Lecture List Co-ordinator, lecture.list@law.ox.ac.uk. 

Plagiarism information and detection software

Definitions of plagiarism and the relevant University rules, online tutorials and tests to educate students about plagiarism and how to avoid it, and useful links to other sites about plagiarism can be found on the Plagiarism section of the University's Study skills and training pages

Turnitin software for plagiarism detection is available by direct access or from within WebLearn (email turnitin@oucs.ox.ac.uk.)

University Rules for Computer Use

The University publishes a set of rules and codes of conduct which can be found in the Regulations Relating to the Use of Information Technology Facilities.

Information Security Policy

Please visit this page for futher details of the Faculty Information Security Policy. 

CLV/SA
Updated 31 July  2019