Round 4
Dec 2000
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Office of the Provost
Compact Plan
Part Two: Initiatives
A. Initiatives Supporting University Goals
University Goal: Advancing Academic Mission-Commodity IT Services
8. Initiate Information Technology/First Year College Basic Information Technology (BIT) Competency Project
What will be achieved, how, and why it is important to the university
Working in collaboration with the First Year College (FYC) and the division of Continuing Studies' Distance Education unit, the Information Technology Division will help design and implement a Basic Information Technology (BIT) competency project. Initially the project will focus on the needs of FYC students (the pilot group) with the goal of this program to assure that students
· Are not disadvantaged because of their k-12 educational and/or socioeconomic background
· Know the laws and regulations that govern their use of computing and network resources on campus and on the Internet and are aware of the potential consequences of violations and have an awareness of Net ethics and etiquette
· Have a basic understanding of computing and networking concepts
· Have the basic information and skills needed to access the IT resources of NC State and the Internet
· Have the basic knowledge and skills needed to take a course with online components
· Have the basic knowledge and skills needed to take a course which requires the use of common software applications.
To help students achieve BIT competence, IT will help
· Provide project leadership
· Define the BIT competencies needed
· Draw upon the experience and expertise of FYC to design and provide mechanisms for assessment (self assessment for students, as well as assessments of BIT competence levels)
· Provide information, tutorials, and ongoing training opportunities students may need to acquire BIT competence.
There have been several significant developments in the BIT Competency Project since it was first proposed as an ITD initiative in January, 2000. Dr. Jo Allen, Assistant Vice Provost Division of Undergraduate Affairs, carried the idea forward, writing a US Department of Education FIPSE (Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education) Grant proposal. Dr. Allen's proposal significantly enriched the BIT idea by adding a post-assessment and research component and other thoughtful improvements. While the FIPSE grant proposal was not successful, Dr. Kenneth Green's response to the idea during his visit to campus to make suggestions about improving the campus technology support resources, was very enthusiastic. He has given us permission to quote him to further this Intiative. In e-mail to the Vice Provost for IT, Green said:
. . .I want to provide both quick feedback and the strongest possible encouragement to you and your colleagues in IT and other campus units (UGA and CS) to move forward on the key components of the student IT support proposal recently submitted to FIPSE. . .
My conversations at NCSU, beginning with that first meeting on campus on the morning of May 13th, all pointed towards an existing online infrastructure that could support student efforts to (a) assess their IT skills and provide direct feedback and (b) use existing CBT resources at NCSU to help students remedy and improve their skills prior to the first day of classes. While I cannot claim perfect information about these kinds of interventions, to the best of my knowledge (confirmed by some phone calls over the past few weeks), I am not aware of any campus that has launched this kind of much-needed (and well-conceived) initiative. It is innovative, thoughtful, benefits students and leverages your IT investments in the very best way. Moreover, the proposal includes a research component that will help assess benefits and identify outcomes-both for the students and also for the institution.
In informal conversations, Dr. Green also speculated that this project could eventually be revenue-generating for NC State. If well done as an online self-assessment/training/research tool for higher education, other institutions would be interested in it as a product their students could use. Interactive online self-assessment tools, with links to training materials, could also clearly be of use to NC State faculty and staff.
Impact of outcomes for students, faculty, staff, external clients or others
Background: NC State's General Education Requirements (GER) include a Communications and Information Technology requirement. However, the "integral curriculum content" approach to this requirement specifies no particular courses or number of credit hours to achieve this competence. While some colleges do have required computer literacy courses for students in their curricula, approaches vary widely.
In the FIPSE grant, Dr. Allen suggested that as many as 25% of incoming NC State students do not feel comfortable with their basic IT skills-"e.g., ability to complete web-based assignments, participate in online class discussions, exchange e-mail, and even perform basic word processing." Students in the First Year College may be at a particular disadvantage, taking courses that assume computing skills and experience that the students have not had the opportunities to obtain. Students taking Distance Education courses through the Division of Continuing Studies face a similar dilemma. While Information Technology provides online and CD-based computing literacy training materials, those resources also assume a minimum level of computing skills for students to be able to use them. For many first time students at NC State, there is no clear specification of what IT knowledge and skills are needed, and no clear or easy way to obtain them.
Students are frustrated by the current situation, as indicated by the 1998 First Year Student Survey published by UPA (see http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/survey/reports/fy98/fy98over.htm). "Developing computer skills" ranked 7th in importance and 29th in current development. Thus, these are goals that are important for the students, but which they feel have not been developed to the same extent as other goals.
Working collaboratively with the appropriate university committees and other colleges, the First Year College BIT project will
· help the university establish a minimum standard of IT competence to be expected and provided for all NC State students
· help "level the playing field" for students who have not had the opportunity to gain the IT skills they need to do their best at NC State
· provide each college and instructor a baseline expectation for student computing competency upon which they can build additional instruction and support as necessary for their course/curriculum
· allow the basic level of technical skills to evolve as technological expectations change
· lay the foundation for advanced campus-wide, discipline-specific training and assessment as students advance their education
· use student focus groups to identify, assess and prioritize computer skills and knowledge basic for academic success and be an integral part of the assessment process.
Assessment in an essential feature of this initiative. The project should be measured in terms of "Measures Related to Quality of Core Processes, Undergraduate Instruction, Satisfaction, and Outcomes" using
· UPA's First Year Student Survey to gauge success
· Before and after computing competency assessment of the participants
· Additional criteria developed by FYC's assessment experts
· Student focus groups both for assessment and development of meaningful assessment criteria.
Resources needed
· Project Coordinator/student trainer
· Services of an Instructional Designer (Learning Technology Service)
· Assessment development and analysis (FYC resources)
· Services of course material/tutorial developer (Learning Technology Service)
· Services of a Web programmer for creating on-line interactive testing/assessment tools (Learning Technology Service)
· Student Focus Group for guidance and evaluation
· Hands-on training facilities (25% to BIT Project and complimenting FYC facility) and operational staff (provided on-site by Hardware Services)
· Part-time students for training and support Administrative overhead (equipment, phone, networking, etc.)
Deliverables
· Produce BIT CD for new students, "Computing Essentials at NC State"(May 2000; delivered to all new students at New Student Orientation 2000)
· Increase hands-on IT training for new students (June 2000; Computing Services staff taught 71 training sessions for the more than 3500 students during Orientation 2000)
· Survey faculty, students, and research data to help define what basic information technology competencies are needed for students to succeed at NC State (in progress)
(Advancing this project as envisioned will depend upon the availability of additional funding and resources. Efforts to obtain outside funding continue.)