Date: Tue, 23 Jan 96 23:37:43 +0000
Reply-to: cgreen@earthlink.net
From: "Steven W. Gilbert" gilbert@clark.net
To: American Association for Higher Education
aahesgit@list.cren.net
Subject: AAHESGIT: New Survey Data
X-To: "***AAHESGIT" aahesgit@list.cren.net
(Approx 180 lines from Casey Green of Claremont Graduate School (cgreen@earthlink.net)
summarizing and analyzing the cumulative results of his 6th annual Campus Computing
Survey. Green's data suggests that while faculty interest in using information
technology for teaching and learning may be rapidly moving beyond the "early adopters"
and into the "mainstream," the campus infrastructure needed to sustain this momentum
is arriving much more slowly. "Indeed, user support issues now present a major
technology challenge for most institutions. Replacing aging equipment, updating
obsolete software, supporting the migration to Windows 95, and providing training
for faculty and students eager to explore the Internet and the WWW are the top
institutional priorities for the 1995 survey respondents."
I hope to encourage some discussion here on AAHESGIT in the next few weeks of how this demand/infrastructure lag is experienced on most campuses, and what its implications may be.) Steve Gilbert ==================================================
for release Jan. 19, 1996, am CONTACT: Casey Green
818/990-2212
CLAREMONT, CA . . . The use of information technology in college courses - including electronic mail, multimedia, CD-ROM, commercial courseware and simulations - grew dramatically this past year, as did the number of students and faculty routinely using the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). According to the 1995 Campus Computing Survey, the percentage of college courses using e-mail and multimedia resources more than doubled, while the use of computer simulations and commercial courseware increased by more than 50 percent. Further, more than seven million college students and faculty routinely use the Internet and WWW as part of their daily and weekly activities.
"Something very significant is happening," says Kenneth C. Green, director of the national survey and a visiting scholar at The Claremont Graduate School. "Following several decades of great aspirations and more than a dozen years of significant institutional investments, information technology has emerged as a permanent, respected, and increasingly essential component of the college experience." Data from the sixth annual Campus Computing Survey," says Green, "indicate that the use of information technology in instruction is finally moving past the early adopters and breaking into the ranks of mainstream faculty." The survey data indicate these gains occurred across all types of institutions.
The new survey data suggest that upwards of half of all college students and faculty now have some sort of recurring instructional experience with information technology resources and technology-based learning activities. Green reports that these technology experiences go beyond the routine use of word processing (at one end of the continuum) and the technical expertise of computer programming (at the other); rather, these are technology experiences that extend the content of the curriculum, enrich the classroom discourse, promote communication among class participants, and enhance the learning opportunity.
"The much-discussed 'technology revolution' - in reality the slow, gradual movement of information technology resources into the curriculum and the classroom experience - is picking up speed,' says Green. "Growing numbers of college students expect a technology component in their courses; across all disciplines growing numbers of faculty are utilizing technology resources to enhance the content of the curriculum." He adds that the increased use of technology resources points to real demand for quality commercial products: "The survey data bode well for individuals and firms interested in providing digital curriculum for the college market: college publishers, entrepreneurial faculty, and small firms that can produce engaging and effective instructional products."
Not surprisingly, the use of the World Wide Web is growing rapidly on college campuses. More than half (55.2 percent) of the institutions partici- pating in the 1995 survey report a WWW home page; still more campuses (25.8 percent) plan to raise an institutional flag in cyberspace during the current academic year. Research universities and other institutions with a well- developed technology infrastructure are most likely to have home pages on the WWW.
Green reports that more than half of all college students and upwards of three-fourths of all faculty have access to the Internet and the WWW. "The campus market currently accounts for more than seven million Internet and WWW users - students, faculty, administrators, and staff who have access to cyberspace," says Green. "Many routinely use the Internet and WWW in their daily activities." He compares the seven million campus-based Internet and WWW users with a recent, widely cited commercial study suggesting some 9.5 million Internet users in the United States. "Commercial and consumer market studies may miss the huge numbers of college students and faculty who use, indeed depend on, the Net," says Green. "Higher education was an early adopter of the Internet and, more recently, has been an important advocate for the WWW. At growing numbers of colleges and universities across the country, Net access is viewed by faculty and students as a core resource and a basic right, similar to a library card."
The 1995 survey data indicate that about six percent of all college courses currently tap into Web resources to support instruction. While the WWW plays an interesting and increasingly important role in instruction and scholarship, many colleges and universities also recognize the role of the Web as part of a digital public presence intended for off-campus clientele. The survey data indicate that colleges and universities are more likely to focus their formal institutional plans for the WWW on promotion to off-campuses audiences (38.1 percent), rather than instruction (24.4 percent) or distance education (12.5 percent). Target audiences for these WWW initiatives typically include prospective students, alumni, news organizations, and potential donors.
Green says that the focus of formal plans for off-campus audiences can be explained by two factors. First, campus officials typically hesitate to intervene in the instructional domain. Consequently, an institutional mandate defining the role of the WWW in instruction would be seen on many campuses as an intrusion into traditional departmental and faculty prerogatives to set program priorities, develop the curriculum, and define pedagogical strategies. While growing numbers of faculty and academic departments want (and increasingly expect) institutional support for these efforts, few will readily accept institutional imperatives.
Second, as Internet access and Web use grows rapidly among the general population, institutional officials are increasingly concerned about look, feel, and content issues affecting a campus Web site. In essence, growing numbers of campus officials recognize an institutional Web site as a marketing tool and a competitive presence that can provide information and services to important off-campus constituencies.
Like their corporate counterparts, colleges and universities appear cautious about embracing Microsoft's Windows 95. Less than a quarter (23.3 percent) of the campuses participating in this year's survey report supporting or recommending Windows 95 as of fall 1995, although more than half (56.8 percent) indicate that Windows 95 will become very important in their computing plans and strategy over the next two or three years. At many institutions, the slow transition to Windows 95 reflects concerns about significant migration costs: the need for new applications software and more powerful computers, accompanied by additional demands for user support.
Indeed, user support issues now present a major technology challenge for most institutions. Replacing aging equipment, updating obsolete software, supporting the migration to Windows 95, and providing training for faculty and students eager to explore the Internet and the WWW are the top institutional priorities for the 1995 survey respondents.
In the context of user support, just one-fourth of the respondents (24.3 percent) assess the technology infrastructure at their institution as excellent. Only a third (31.3) rate the networking and data communications infrastructure on their campus as excellent; similarly less than a third (29.3) offer a similar assessment of the telecommunications system. Cable and video capacity receive the lowest ranking: only an eighth (12.9 percent) of the respondents rate their campus highly in this area. Research universities are most likely to give high marks to their campus network: over half (57.5 percent) of the public universities and more than a third (36.4) of the private universities rate this part of the technology infrastructure as excellent. Video and cable generally receive low marks across all campuses.
"Infrastructure helps foster innovation," says Green. "One key element of the technology infrastructure is a well-developed campus network; a second is the telecommunications system. Other important components include desktop systems with CD-ROM drives, the routine upgrading of hardware and software, multimedia-capable computers in faculty offices and student labs, and technical support to help students, faculty, administrators and staff make effective use of the technology."
As noted in past survey reports, most campuses still do not have a financial model for acquiring and retiring desktop computers. In fall 1995, just over a fifth (22.0 percent) report a budget model for amortizing and routinely replacing technology, up slightly from 15.9 percent in 1990. However, the vast majority of colleges and universities (78 percent) continue to fund most of their equipment purchases and software upgrades with one-time budget allocations or special appropriations.
"The survey data reflect the continuing problems colleges and universities have in developing a viable financial plan for their technology needs," says Green. "The useful life of desktop computers and accompanying software is a known factor, roughly 15 months for many core software applications and maybe 30 months for hardware. Yet rather than plan for the routine turnover of aging technology resources, most institutions continue to find money rather than reserve funds."
The 1995 Campus Computing survey is based on data provided by computing officials (typically the chief academic computing officer) at some 650 two- and four-year colleges and universities across the United States. Participating campuses completed the survey during fall 1995.
Copies of the 1995 Campus Computing Report are available from Campus Computing for $35 (postpaid):
Kenneth Green
Campus Computing
PO Box 261242
Encino, CA 91426-1242
(818) 990-2212 (phone & fax)
cgreen@earthlink.net
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Steven W. Gilbert, Director, Technology Projects
American Association for Higher Education (AAHE)
202/293-6440 X 54 FAX: 202/293-0073
GILBERT@CLARK.NET
http://www.ido.gmu.edu/aahe/Welcome.html
Above is URL for AAHE TLTR World Wide Web Site
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NOTE: Anyone can subscribe to the AAHESGIT Listserv by sending
the Email message (with subject line left blank):
SUBSCRIBE AAHESGIT yourfirstname yourlastname to
LISTPROC@LIST.CREN.NET
If you would like to post a message to the AAHESGIT Listserv, send it to
AAHESGIT@LIST.CREN.NET
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
