Information Technology Division NC State's Technology Environment: 2003

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS): Overview of use of technology for teaching and learning

General Information:

Information provided courtesy of Barbara M. Kirby, Assistant Director, Academic Programs, CALS
IT support unit name: Academic and Administrative Technology (CAAT) and Extension Information Technology (EIT)
Academic IT committee name: CALS Academic Computing Advisory Committee

Using information technologies to enhance student learning:

• How college integrates computer literacy into its curriculum, as required by the university's General Education Requirements:

CALS departments require CSC 200 or offer their own computer literacy course; i.e., AEE 226: Computer Applications in Agriculture and Extension Education. The college offers an on-line survey to all freshmen through the ALS 103 introductory class to determine computer use and training needs.

• Training sessions for students (in addition to the sessions provided by ITD at new student orientation and the basic information literacy training provided by the NCSU Libraries):

Student IT training sessions are available if requested.

• IT planning as related to teaching and learning with technology (TLT):

Advice is sought from the CALS Academic Computing Advisory Committee, from the IT units in the college and from the Distance Education Committee. The college is interested in how faculty want to use technology in teaching and how facilities can be upgraded to provide cutting edge teaching opportunities. The directors also meet with student leaders to discuss technology needs.

• TLT assessment:
  
  College IT questions in the sophomore and senior surveys. Surveyed faculty five years ago.
  
  
  
• How college or unit uses technology to enhance student learning in terms of the specific goals of programs and curricula. Computing platforms, software applications and other technology resources that are particularly important for students' success in their studies or careers:

Approximately one third of all college ETF dollars are used to support student computing facilities. The Academic and Administrative unit provides technical support and consultation for those who wish to convert courses to distance educatioin (DE) or on-line courses. Seven departments are formalizing requests to plan or are planning on-line degree/certificate programs.

Departments offer at least 30 DE courses each semester. The majority of computer labs are PC facilities, and the others are Mac labs. Communication Services has recently upgraded their facility to accommodate faculty in the delivery of DE courses.

• How college promotes the use of technology for pedagogies such as inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning or other forms of active learning:

CALS Handheld Initiative: Biology and Zoology faculty encouraged active learning as students collaborated in problem solving or research review activities using wireless handheld technology. New honors students to the college also participated in a pilot program in which they used PDAs for personal and academic management and had the opportunity to share lab and class information.

The college promotes collaborative learning through shared courses with other institutions. CALS also participates in the Global Seminar with CHASS and universities from around the world. Technology is used to provide real-time discussions and project work for the students.

• Mechanisms and policies in place to insure that all students, including those with disabilities, have access to information technology resources and technology-enabled course content (in addition to DSS and ITD accessible technology activities):
  

IT units are in the process of reviewing all web sites for compliance. Faculty are contacted if there is a problem. Faculty developing new courses are encouraged to work with LTS to design their courses.

• Most significant challenge facing college in terms of the meaningful use of information technologies to enable student learning:

Out-dated infrastructure to move quickly with new technologies
Email--mass communication problems
Inability to use nomadic computing
Inability to use wireless handheld devices
Increasing costs of classroom technology and no available budget

Information technology facilities:

• Information about college's computing facilities is correctly posted on College Computing Labs at a Glance:

CALS provides

Direct support—
14 student computing facilities
10 smaller facilities
207 workstations

Shared support—
4 student computing facilities
85 workstations and laptops

• Technology facilities, services, and other resources college or unit provides to support its teaching, research and service/outreach mission (examples include multimedia classrooms, faculty training programs, research centers focused on technology use, technology-enabled extension services):

  20 multimedia classrooms
  1722 seats
  Largest: 3712 Bostian Hall–—251 seats
  Smallest: 112 David Clark Labs—16 seats
  Standard equipment: networked computer, laptop connection, data projector and VCR

  Extension computing support available for all 100 counties and the reservation.

  DE facilities at Plymouth, Fletcher and campus—Communication Services
  

 

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Last updated 6/4/03 fw