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At West College Scotland, we recognise the key role that Information Technology has in the studies and activities of our Students.
There are a variety of IT resources and services available to you during your time with the college; equipment like PCs, Macs, laptops and printers in classrooms, libraries and other areas, cloud resources like Office 365 and services like Wi-Fi to name but a few.
This section of your Intranet will provide you with useful information about these IT services and how you can gain access to them.
Joining Eduroam
Instructions for configuring eduroam with a range of common devices and operating systems are available HERE
We’re delighted to announce that our IT Helpdesk Service is now live to sort any IT enquires, questions and problems. Select the tab above for more info or click here to log an issue!
IT FAQs
IT FAQs
IT FAQ
Office 365 is a cloud based system, which offers a wide range of benefits to West
College Scotland Students. It can be used in college, at home or at work at any time of
day or night – all you need is an internet connection. Office 365 can help you with your
studies by offering features such as:
A College eMail Address using Outlook
All students are provided with a college email address. This is attached automatically to
college systems including Moodle, and is used by default to send college emails to you –
although you can choose to forward these emails to an account of your choice. A People
Directory is also provided to allow you to search for the College email address of fellow
students.
Online Storage using OneDrive
This gives you one Terabyte (over 1000 GB) of storage for your files. OneDrive offers
secure access to your files anywhere that has internet access, allowing you to carry out
your college work wherever you choose.
Office Web Apps
Online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint can be used both inside and outside
the College allowing you to carry out your college work from any computer without
having to install Microsoft Office.
Time Management Tools
Office 365 provides you with a calendar and task list to help manage your time and
college activities.
eMail Address
Your email address is based on your nine digit student number. For example if your
student number is 512345678 then your email address will be:
512345678@live.wcs.ac.uk
Password
Your student email account password is exactly the same as the password you use to log on to a college computer system. If you’ve forgotten it, just ask a Student Advisor to reset it for you.
Logging On
You can use one of the links provided on the Student Intranet or logon directly by visiting the Office 365 login page at:
eduroam Wi-Fi Service
eduroam allows students and staff from West College Scotland to securely access the Internet on their own device while in the College or at another eduroam-enabled institution. In addition, visiting users (researchers, teachers, students, staff) from other eduroam-enabled institutions can connect their device when in any West College Scotland.
Please note, the eduroam facility does not provide access to the college ‘internal resources’ e.g. network file shares or printers.
Connecting to eduroam (Android Devices)
Using the CAT installer
- Open the Google Play store app
- Search for the “eduroamCAT” app
- Once the app has been located, select install and accept the download
- After the installation of the eduroam CAT app has completed, open it
- If you are on campus, the app should detect your locations and show West College Scotland under Nearby Configs, select this option
- If, however, you are not on campus or away from the city, you may need to select the manual search option and enter “West College” manually to search for us.
- Select West College Scotland, followed by install on the configuration summary file page
- Enter your username and password followed by @wcs.ac.uk (for staff) or @live.wcs.ac.uk (for students) and select install
- eduroam should then be installed on your device and you should see it connect successfully
- After installation, you can remove the eduroam CAT app from your device if you wish and your device will remain connected to eduroam
Connecting manually
- Download the security certificate here
- Store security certificate in your Google Drive
- Go to Settings
- Go to Wi-Fi preferences
- Go to Install Certificates and browse to your stored certificate in Google Drive and click on it. You may be asked to enter your PIN (Install Certificates might be under “Advanced Wi-Fi preferences” on some Android versions)
- You are presented with a box to enter a name for the Certificate. Enter wcs-eduroam and under Credential Use select Wi-Fi
- Turn your Wi-Fi on (if not already) and select eduroam
- Enter the following settings:
- EAP Method: PEAP
- Phase-2 authentication: MSCHAPV2
- CA certificate: wcss-eduroam
- Online certificate status: set to “Request certificate status”
- Domain: “wcs.ac.uk”
- Identity: Your username followed by @wcs.ac.uk or @live.wcs.ac.uk
- Password: Your password
- Click Save or Connect (some devices may need to restart in order to successfully connect)
Connecting to eduroam (all other devices)
- Browse to the eduroam CAT web site https://cat.eduroam.org/#
- There will be a link at the bottom of that page for the eduroam installer, please click this
- You will then have to select your organisation from the list, in this case the organisation will be “West College Scotland”
- If this is not immediately visible in the list, please start typing “West College Scotland” into the search box at the bottom of the list until it appears (see screenshot)
- You will then be taken to the eduroam installer for your device OS. Follow the installer prompts to complete the setup and connect your device.
- After the installation of the eduroam CAT app has completed, open it
- Enter your username and password followed by @wcs.ac.uk (for staff) or @live.wcs.ac.uk (for students) and select install
- eduroam should then be installed on your device and you should see it connect successfully
- After installation, you can remove the eduroam CAT app from your device if you wish and your device will remain connected to eduroam
More information is available via the Services tab of the IT section on the student intranet
IT Helpdesk
Our IT Helpdesk Service is now Live and here to help!
- Have you recently acquired a college IT Device and not quite sure how to use it?
- Do you have a problem with one of your own devices that’s affecting your studies?
- Or are you having issues with logging onto College IT accounts, such as Office 365 or Moodle?
- Having connectivity issues whilst on-campus?
- If you are, don’t worry! Our IT Helpdesk Team are here to help!
Click here to Log your issue and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible!
Please read our Step by Step Guide for support: Logging an IT Service Desk Request
Note: If you require loan of a Digital Device you should not log an IT Service Desk ticket. Please click on the next tab, “Digital Device Loan” for more information on how to request the loan of a device.
Digital Device Loan
All courses at West College Scotland will involve an element of online learning therefore all students require access to a digital device for their studies.
West College Scotland are committed to providing the support needed to allow you to work online. You can request the loan of a digital device as well as additional accessories such as keyboards, mice, risers and headsets to support your studies. You can make a request by completing the Loan Request form.
Once you have completed the Request Form you can now come along to one of our drop in sessions to collect a device. Please leave at least 24 hours after completing your request form before collecting to allow the team to prepare the device. The drop in sessions are available as follows:
- Clydebank Campus: Monday – Thursday (10.00am – 16.00pm), Friday (10.00am – 15.00pm) – Rm 286
- Greenock Campus: Monday – Wednesday (09.30am – 15.30pm) – Rm WB01
- Paisley Campus: Monday – Thursday (09.30am – 15.30pm) – Rm Re116
All offices will be closed between 12pm – 13.00pm for lunch*
If you are a returning student and borrowed a device from us last year and you can retain the device for this years studies if required. If you no longer require the device you previously borrowed you can return the device during any of these drop in sessions too.
To review the terms and conditions of borrowing a digital device from us click on the loan agreement below:
** Exclusions apply. Students who are applying for Online or Distance Learning, Students from Commercial Employers or School Students are not currently eligible for a device. Only students studying full time or substantial part time courses are eligible at this time.
Digital Etiquette
Your course this year may involve both online and on campus learning. Our short Digital Etiquette video gives you a few handy tips to getting the best Learning Experience online:
Please find the BSL version of our Digital Etiquette video below:
There are some exceptions to this, please find our guide below for details of students who may be exempt:
WiFi
eduroam Wi-Fi Service
Free WiFi is available to students and staff across our campuses through eduroam.
eduroam allows students and staff from West College Scotland to securely access the Internet on their own device while in the College or at another eduroam-enabled institution. In addition, visiting users (researchers, teachers, students, staff) from other eduroam-enabled institutions can connect their device when visiting West College Scotland.
Please note, the eduroam facility does not provide access to the college ‘internal resources’ e.g. network file shares or printers.
About eduroam
eduroam (EDUcation ROAMing) is a worldwide community whose aim is to “open your laptop and be online”. eduroam allows users (researchers, teachers, students, staff) from participating institutions to securely access the Internet from any eduroam-enabled institution. The eduroam principle is based on the fact that the users’ authentication is done by the user’s home institution, whereas the authorization decision allowing access to the network resources is done by the visited network. Put simply, West College Scotland users can visit other eduroam institutions and log onto their network using West College Scotland credentials.
(e.g. 123456789@live.wcs.ac.uk)
eduroam uses 802.1X to authenticate users. To enable authentication at any eduroam site, a worldwide hierarchical infrastructure of authentication servers (RADIUS) exists which securely tunnel users’ authentication attempts back to their home institution.
Configuring Your Device with eduroam
Instructions for configuring eduroam with a range of common devices and operating systems are available HERE
eduroam(uk)
In the UK, eduroam is operated and provided by eduroam (uk). All UK eduroam sites are members of the eduroam (uk) federation and must comply with the Janet Roaming Technical Specification. Janet is the Joint Academic NETwork which provides our gateway to the Internet.
eduroam (uk) manages the UK authentication infrastructure which connects to the European eduroam infrastructure.
Find out where to use eduroam in the UK.
The eduroam federation spans the UK, 22 other European countries, Australia and Taiwan who have all collaborated to provide international RADIUS proxy authentication facilities.
Find out where to use eduroam overseas.
Acceptable Use Policy
- Users will not attempt to make use of P2P software.
- Users will make sure that they keep Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software up to date on their clients, using the facilities provided by their own home site wherever applicable.
- Users will ensure that they adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy of their own organization.
- Adhere to the Janet Roaming Policy.
eduroam Instructions
eduroam is a service that is designed to allow staff and students to access the Internet at participating institutions across the UK (increasingly the world) using your college email address and password.
These instructions are for use by current staff, students and eduroam enabled visitors.