Travel Alternatives for Training and Conferencing

Training

The alternatives include online and local area training centers.

Online Training

The university has a license for the SkillPort eLearning suite. Available to faculty, staff, and students, there are over 3500 courses available, including:

  • Communications
  • Consulting
  • Customer Service
  • Finance and Accounting
  • Human Resources
  • Information Technology
  • Leadership Management
  • Marketing
  • Process Improvement
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Strategic Planning
  • Team Building and Personal Development

The courses include pre and post assessments to help student's verify and retain knowledge. Many of the courses meet prerequisites for professional certification, or can be used to maintain professional certifications. For more information, go to the university's eLearning webpage.

Campus Based Training

For more than 30 years, UH Continuing Education has contributed to organizational excellence through certificate programs, customized training and partnerships, courses and conferences. Program offerings include:

  • Accelerated Foreign Language
  • Business Analysis
  • Fiber Optic Networking
  • Finance and Accounting
  • Paralegal Certificate Program
  • Supervision Certification for Licensed Professional Counselors

For more information, go to the university's Continuing Education webpage.

Local Area Training Centers

Alphaware Training Centers - 4710 Bellaire Blvd, Suite 350, Bellaire, TX 77401

Alphaware has been serving the Houston area for over 10 years, offering project management and IT technical training, including certification, in a number of areas:

  • Accelerated Technical Certifications for MCITP
  • Business Analyst
  • Cisco Certified Classes
  • Information Security
  • Microsoft Office 2007 First Look Workshops
  • Microsoft Operating Systems and Applications
  • Project Management
  • SharePoint Services
  • UNIX and Linux Operating Systems

For more information, contact Alphaware at 713-662-9768, or visit their website.

New Horizons Computing Learning Centers - 5555 San Felipe Road, Suite 1500, Houston, TX 77056

New Horizons is the world's largest independent IT training company, with over 300 centers in 60 countries. Over the past 25 years, New Horizons has delivered a full range of technology and business skills training, helping 25 million students reach their goals. New Horizons offers certifications in the following areas:

  • Cisco
  • Citrix
  • CompTIA
  • Help Desk
  • Information Security
  • Linux
  • Microsoft
  • Novell

For more information, contact New Horizons at 713-552-1414, or visit their website.

The Resource Center for Customer Service Professionals - P.O. Box 401, Western Springs, IL 60558

The RCCSP is in their tenth year of offering comprehensive training, education, and certification solutions in the following areas:

  • Call Center
  • Help Desk
  • IT Support Center
  • ITIL
  • Networking
  • Telecom

For more information, contact the RCCSP at 708-246-0320, or visit their website.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing can take the place of travel in many instances; UH has extensive facilities and a wealth of experience supporting video conferencing. The primary support providers are in Information Technology. For more information about the use of video conferencing e-mail Curtis Wilson (crwilson@uh.edu) or Philip Booth (pbooth@uh.edu).

Permanent IT Video Conferencing Facilities on Campus

IT has four permanent video conferencing facilities. Two are located in the basement of the M.D. Anderson Library adjacent to the Technology Commons. They also schedule and support the university's Multi-point bridge that allowing multiple sites to join the same conference.

M.D. Anderson Library basement, Room 11D - This facility is also used as a classroom, so it's availability for general use video conferencing is restricted by Academic needs. The Room seats 50 people. The facility can be used to transmit presentations to distant locations, and can also be configured as a receive site. For more information on this location, contact Philip Booth (pbooth@uh.edu).

M.D. Anderson Library basement, Room 11C - A small conference room that will accommodate 3 people with lighter needs like interviews and person to person collaboration. For more information on this location, contact Philip Booth (pbooth@uh.edu).

General Services Building, Room 111 - A conference room that seats approximately 12 people, and contains a semi-portable system which can move within the building. Call 832-842-4904 for scheduling and Curtis Wilson (crwilson@uh.edu) for support.

 

Portable IT Video Conferencing and Locations

IT supports three portable locations:

  • The E. Cullen building has a system designed to be moved anywhere within the building. For support at E. Cullen, contact Patrick McNeil (pmcneil2@central.uh.edu).
  • The University Business Park (UBP) has a system designed to be moved anywhere within the building. For support at UBP, contact Scotty Allan (sallan@central.uh.edu).
  • There is a small videoconferencing unit that can be transported to conference rooms anywhere on campus.

For more information on the portable locations or the campus portable unit, contact Curtis Wilson (crwilson@uh.edu) or Philip Booth (pbooth@uh.edu).

Non-IT Facilities

There are a number of other, non-IT serviced video conferencing facilities, including portable systems, located on campus. For more information, refer to the appropriate points of contact listed below.

  • The College of Education has 3 Portable conference systems. Contact Tim Rosas (trosas@uh.edu).
  • The Bauer College of Business has a conference room with a fixed system, and two mobile conference systems. Contact Peter Truong (ptruong@uh.edu).
  • The Texas Learning and Computation Center (TLC2) has two classrooms equipped for video conferencing and a conference room with a fixed system.
  • The College of Social Work has a conference/training room.
  • The Law Center has two portable conference systems.

Off-Campus Facilities

The University of Houston also has facilities across the entire UH System:

  • The UH Small Business Development Center (located in mid-town) has a Classroom/Training room.
  • The UH System at Cinco Ranch has 4 Classrooms and 1 Portable unit. Contact Ceasar Banda (cobanda@uh.edu).
  • The UH System at Sugar Land has 4 Classrooms and 1 Conference room. Contact John McKee (jkmckee@uh.edu).
  • The University of Houston Clear Lake has 1 Conference room. Contact the UHCL Support Desk at 281-283-2828.
  • The University of Houston Downtown has 4 Classrooms and 1 Conference room. Contact Lloyd Matzner (matznerl@uhd.edu).

Setting Up a Video Conference Center

UH organizations that would like to equip a conference room for video conferencing should budget between $10,000 and $13,000. The equipment includes a Video conferencing CODEC, Camera, Display(s) and other associated equipment.

Teleconferencing and Web Conferencing

For instances where video is not needed, teleconferencing can provide several functions for the University of Houston from communicating with associates worldwide to assisting students with registration and financial aid.

Teleconferencing

The University of Houston currently has accounts for teleconferencing with 1-800 Conference (SBC) and with AT&T TeleConference. Both accounts offer domestic audio and web-based conferencing. The University of Houston account with AT&T TeleConference also provides Global Conferencing.

The Global Conference service provides Toll Free dial in numbers for 58 countries throughout the globe.

The Domestic service provides Toll Free dial in numbers for US participants and an alternate dial in number for participants outside of the US. When an international participant dials in on the alternate number they will be charged any international long distance fees associated with calling the US from their country.

Web Conferencing

The Web Conference service allows you to conduct presentations, collaborate on documents, and share your desktop. The ability to share desktops allows departments like Registration and Financial Aid to aid students in completing any necessary paperwork.

Conference Bridge

A conference bridge is dial in numbers (toll free and alternate) with an Access Code and Host Code. Each conference bridge can host up to 125 participants on a call or web conference. There is no limit to the number of conference bridges that can be established for the University of Houston. We can establish each department with their own conference bridge, allow for easy tracking for billing back to the departments. Also, AT&T TeleConference can add an additional prompt requesting a billing id that can be any combination of numbers to identify a department or cost center.

The current rate for the reservation less toll free service is $0.13 per participant per minute. A conference bridge can be requested by calling IT Communications Services at 743-1111.