INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STEERING COMMITTEE (ITSC) 

Student Access Subcommittee

prepared by: Toni Carbo (Chair)

Executive Summary

October 22, 1997

To advance the mission of the University of Pittsburgh in an increasingly networked society, student access to information resources and technology is essential. To sustain the best possible educational environment requires: 1) fac ilitating the use of information technologies that support and enhance intellectual growth, 2) creating an atmosphere that encourages information literacy, and 3) providing students with training and access to information resources.

The information technology resources available to the student population at the University of Pittsburgh consist of a number of public access labs on each campus, dial in ports for off-campus access, a small experimental project providi ng the lending of laptop computers and wireless access in the Hillman Library, and a series of special-purpose laboratories available to students in specific educational or research programs. In addition many students own computers, and the number of stu dents entering the University each year with their own computers continues to increase. In the past, the University has attempted to meet the needs of students through public access labs and an array of specialized labs. The University has not developed comprehensive training programs for all students on the use of information technology, nor does it yet include information literacy in its undergraduate requirements.

Annual revenue from the student network access fee is approximately $5.5 million. Specialized instructional labs are funded from a variety of sources. Over the last five years, $1.2 million was expended for specialized classroom and l abs projects for all five campuses.

Statistics are not available regarding usage and saturation of the computing labs. We consider saturation points to be 80% usage of the labs. Each of the computing labs exceeded 80% usage during the Fall term. The responsibility for the public labs at the regionals rests with the individual regional campuses rather than with CIS; however, a scheme of installing replicated servers at regional campuses has evolved to allow regional labs to benefit from the larger software suite managed by CIS for the Oakland labs. No changes to the specialized labs are being recommended.

The best estimates available for Pitt are that 21-22% of entering students have computers. A survey is planned for Fall 1997. The University can't keep adding general purpose labs and taking an incremental approach to meeting increase d demand for a growing number of diverse services.

The University will need to address six different challenges simultaneously. First, the University must maintain some general public labs on all campuses for students for many years to come. The total number of seats needed may decrease in the future as other means of access become available, probably more rapidly at Oakland than at the other campuses. Second, it must continue to increase the number of dial in ports for some time to come. Third, the specialized labs must be maintained and kept current by the individual schools and programs, generally through research and development support, and a small number of new specialized labs may be needed. In addition, the special needs of students with disabilities mu st continue to be addressed through the Adaptive Computing Training Lab. Fourth, the University must encourage and support student ownership and/or lease of computers, by continuing to explore methods to provide low cost computers. This will allow personalized features for students, allowing them to determine the specific features they want and allowing their computer use to be space and time independent. In addition to supporting individual ownership or lease, the University must make software l icense arrangements so students can have software available on their own machines, thereby eliminating the need to access the network for basic word-processing and spreadsheet services. Fifth the University must greatly increase education, traini ng and support for all users. Sixth, the University must support programs for faculty to assist them in integrating technology into the curriculum more effectively and provide incentives (such as small grants for partial summer support) for them t o integrate technology. This will greatly expand the need for students to use information technology.

A student board, with broad representation from CAS, Engineering, SIS, KGSB, and other units, should be appointed to advise ITSC and provide a link to a larger group of students, beyond the small number of formal representatives. Incre ased communication with students is critical.

To respond to these challenges the Subcommittee members have developed the following goals.

A.1. Ensure that each classroom has network connectivity to the Global Information Infrastructure. This will include adequate interactive multimedia presentation technology required for learning.

A.2. Ensure that the office of each instructor, whether faculty or teaching assistant, has network connectivity to the Global Information Infrastructure.

A.3. Ensure that each dorm room and appropriate common area is connected to the Global Information Infrastructure.

A.4. Ensure that commuter (non-residence hall) students have access to all networking and computer services through the modem pool and/or future networking technologies as they become available.

A.5. Develop the capability for shared file space to meet student and faculty needs.

B.1. Continue to provide an adequate level of computer services.

B.2. Encourage and support student ownership or lease of computers.

B.3. Continue to explore and implement alternative ways to increase diversification and cost-effectiveness of on-campus public computing environments.

B.4. Ensure that all students have access to University site-licensed software over the University network and high capacity media.

B.5. Continue to support information technology services for students with disabilities.

B.6. Provide a server environment that will support a common set of software for students, faculty, and staff.

B.7. Make current software versions available to all University users, while ensuring reasonable support for legacy software.

C.1. Ensure that all of our students have the skills and technological competence to succeed in the rapidly changing information age.

C.2. Each school should define what it means by Ainformation literacy@, and institute appropriate requirements and incentives.

The subcommittee proposes that the student computing/networking fee be used to maintain and upgrade the network, including remote access to it, provide extensive training and support (e.g., help desk services), and support for improving the quality of instruction. The use of the student fee for faculty desk tops should be phased out. In short, the fees should be used to support students* access to the GII through the University*s network and the use of IT throughout their learning.