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Model for Supporting the Technology Needs of Faculty and Students in a Multi-site Environment

The debate over centralized or decentralized support for technology has been going on for decades. The pendulum tends to swing. In the 1970’s the “Data Processing” department was centralized. Once computers came down in size, there was a move toward decentralization. While we cannot solve this issue for everyone, we can look at the reality for Point Loma. Technology is specialized. Various employees have areas of expertise. Having Information Technology Services (ITS), Media Services and Library Departments at each location is not feasible in the next five years. That being said, how can faculty and students at the various locations best be supported?

Current Infrastructure

  • All sites are part of the campus network
  • Faculty teaching in remote facilities, including those teaching in school-district-owned facilities, have direct access to the campus network resources; this is accomplished through the use of a VPN client or a secured network appliance – both offering direct secure access to the campus network
  • All classrooms at the sites are connected to the network with data projectors in many of them
  • Wireless networking is available at all sites.
  • Arcadia and Mission Valley have computer labs; currently Bakersfield is accessing rented computer lab space on an “as needed” basis
  • All fulltime faculty are provided with laptop computers
  • Faculty, staff and students have email accounts
  • Faculty, staff and students have access to Blackboard, an on-line course management tool
  • Students at all sites can access PLNU’s library resources via the web; that means that they have access to all on-line data bases
  • Students at all sites can use LINKS+, an interlibrary loan system that allows them to order books from other libraries via the web (they also have “walk in” borrowing privileges at these libraries)

Instructional Technology SWOT Analysis

Strengths

  • Computer labs in San Diego
  • ResCon program to support undergraduates
  • Robust network including wireless access in San Diego, Mission Valley, Arcadia and Bakersfield
  • Point Loma faculty now have over five years experience with using Blackboard, an on-line course management tool
  • Faculty and staff help desk
  • Full-time faculty have laptop computers
  • Element K is available to provide online, self-paced technology instruction

Weaknesses

  • No student help desk
  • No single point of contact for technology support
  • Limited support for Arcadia, Bakersfield and other locations
  • Other than training, no assistance is provided to faculty in putting course materials on-line
  • No policy or procedure for ensuring technology literacy of faculty

Opportunities

  • The unification of students providing technology support and providing them with additional training could improve access to support for faculty, staff and especially for off-campus students such as those enrolled in graduate programs
  • Growth of graduate programs at various sites
  • The potential to further enhance classroom teaching with increased use of technology
  • The potential to further enhance classroom teaching with on-line supplements and support

Threats

  • Competition from other universities offering graduate education programs in Southern California
  • Developing technological teaching and learning support takes time and financial resources

Recommendation #1 – Establish a single point of contact for the first line of technology support

One of the challenges for faculty, staff or students when they need assistance with technology is in trying to figure out who to contact. This is especially difficult for those at remote sites. The solution to this is to create a unified help desk. If anyone – faculty, staff or student – needs assistance with technology, they should be able to call just one number or send email to just one email address and be directed to someone who can help them. PLNU currently has pockets of support.

Current ITS and Media Service Support

  • Faculty and staff at all locations have access to the ITS help desk from 7 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday and emergency assistance in the evenings and on weekends
  • Students do not have a help desk to call
  • Undergraduates have access to computer lab assistants from 7 am to 11 pm on Monday to Thursday, 7 am to 3:45 pm on Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and 1 pm to 11 pm on Sunday; graduate students can contact the Ryan Computer Lab in San Diego via email or by phone during these hours
  • Undergraduates, faculty and staff on the San Diego Point Loma site have access to assistance in Media Services from 7 am to 11 pm on Monday to Thursday, 7 am to 4:30 pm on Friday, 10 am to 5pm on Saturday; other sites can email or call Media Services
  • Media Services is closed on Sunday
  • Undergraduates and MBA students have access to ResCons via phone or by going to the ResCenter, located under the Public Safety Building, to assist them with problems relating to the network or problems such as viruses on their computers
  • No ResCons assistance is available for other graduate students
  • The ResCenter hours of operation are from 2pm to 10 pm on Monday to Thursday, 2 pm to 6 pm on Friday, and 6 pm to 10 pm on Sunday
  • The ResCenter is closed on Saturday

Proposed Unified Help Desk

  • Create a unified help desk for students, faculty and staff
  • The help desk should be staffed by students trained to basic support by phone or email
  • The help desk should operate from 7 am to 10 pm Monday to Thursday, 7 am to 5 pm Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and 1 pm to 11 pm on Sunday
  • Service orders will be created by the help desk when the help desk staff do not have the resources needed to fix a problem

Recommendation #2 – Hire an instructional technologist as recommended in the 1999 Three Year Technology Plan. This has been an on-going recommendation for the past seven years. The plan in 1999 was to have two instructional technologists by 2002. This recommendation was proposed by the Academic Quality Committee based on a need identified in a survey of faculty in 1999 and again recommended in 2003 by the Academic Quality Committee. There is current approval for a half-time position but this position needs to be expanded to full-time. 

An instructional technologist is a person with training in instructional design. This person can help faculty select tools to assist with teaching and learning. Tools in and of themselves do not improve learning. However, when instructional design principles are applied in tool selection to help an instructor with pedagogical needs, they can have a positive impact. Faculty can develop a plan to assess the impact with assistance from an instructional technologist.

Instructional technology tools are increasingly integrated with other tools. In the past, we might have used a word processor to create exams or surveys, had a separate software tool for keeping grades, another software tool for using the Scantron to grade exams and no tool available to assist with the collection of data. There are now tools that can integrate these tasks and more. We should evaluate some of these tool sets to see which would have the most impact on teaching and learning.

Here are some of the academic tasks that could be assisted with the proper tool or tools:

  • Grade and record keeping
    • Should interface with Scantron, Excel, and Blackboard
  • Survey programs
    • Should allow for collection of data to be analyzed using statistical software
    • Should have built-in reporting
  • Test building programs
    • Should build tests for Blackboard
    • Should build printed tests
  • Test taking programs
    • Should allow a student to use a computer with a standard word processor or spreadsheet program without allowing access to anything else
  • Anti-plagiarism software
  • Electronic portfolios
    • Should provide student a mechanism to store various electronic artifacts, including audio and video files
    • Should allow a method to use materials for institutional assessment
  • Secure file-management tool allowing data to be stored once and referenced elsewhere
  • Library tools including electronic reserves
  • Software to evaluate students, faculty and staff on technology literacy
  • Software to provide JIT (Just-in-time) training
  • Classroom assessment software to do formative assessments during class
    • Instructor presents a concept, asks a questions, and all students have to reply; the instructor then knows whether to spend more time on the concept or move on to the next
    • Passive learning becomes active learning
  • Collaboration tools
  • Multimedia development tools
  • Software and hardware tools that allow instructors to create multimedia instruction, including the ability to annotate PowerPoint, video or screen shots
  • Simulation tools

Many of these tools overlap with each other, as well as with other tools that are being used or might be used at Point Loma. Examples of this are Blackboard (Eclass), calendaring programs, email lists, Altiris Vision, Sympodium, Smart Board, CARS, portal, etc. Without an institutional plan to evaluate these tools, departments will move forward with tool selection and we will end up with multiple tools which perform the same function. From both a cost and support standpoint, this will waste school resources. This has already happened and will continue to happen without proper planning. In addition, there are opportunities for collaboration with the other Nazarene schools which should be considered when doing the analysis of these types of tools.

See the Instructional Technologist Job Description appendix for a draft job description.

Recommendation #3 – Hire a site support person for each site with at least 350 students, starting with Arcadia due to its central location.

The site support person should be someone who is cross-trained to support all areas of technology. While this person will not be at the “expert level” in all areas, they will know enough to assist faculty and students with many, if not most, of their needs. This person will be able to diagnose whether the problem is hardware related, software related or user error. Additionally, they will be familiar with workings of ITS, Media Services and the Library so, if they need additional assistance, they will know who to contact.

This person will work closely with the Instructional Technologist. The site support person can help faculty implement recommendations from the Instructional Technologist.

See the Instructional Technology Support Specialist appendix for draft job description.

Recommendation #4 – Prepare for the future which will include increased use of on-line delivery of digital content to support classroom instruction.

Blackboard is already in wide use at Point Loma as a tool to enhance face-to-face courses.  In some cases, courses have been hybrid courses, where there has been some seat time combined with the use of Blackboard.  There have also been a few courses that have been substantially or completely on-line.

In order to move forward with excellence in teaching with technology we should develop acceptable standards for on-line delivery of content and support of instruction. With increased assistance from a unified help desk, an Instructional Technologist and site support people, we can move forward with the development of these standards.