Using technology to support teaching & learning increasingly important to colleges.

According to the most recent Campus Computing Survey, colleges continue to report that instructional integration and user support are the most important IT challenges they confront. Nearly 40% of institutions surveyed identified assisting faculty efforts "to integrate technology into instruction"

as the single most significant IT issue confronting their institution over the next two to three years, followed by 28% citing 'providing adequate user support." IT financial planning in the form of financing the replacement of aging IT resources ranked third at 14%. These are among the results from the 1999 Campus Computing Survey.

"Two decades after the first desktop computers arrived on college campuses, we have come to recognize that the campus community's major technology challenges involve human factors -- assisting students and faculty to make effective use of new technologies in ways that support teaching, learning, instruction and scholarship," says Dr. Kenneth Green, director of the Campus Computing Project and a visiting scholar at the Center for Educational Studies of the Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, CA). Green adds that for many institutions user support and instructional integration are flip sides of the same coin.

User Support Challenges

This year's survey indicates strong gains in the number of college courses employing various types of instructional technology. The percentage of college courses using e-mail jumped to 54% this year, up from 44% in 1998. Thirty-nine percent of all courses are using Internet resources as part of the syllabus, up from 33% in 1998. More than one-fourth (28%) of college courses are supported by a Web page.

Despite these increases, Green notes that the extent to which institutions provide support and recognition to faculty for their efforts to use technology in teaching and learning has been virtually unchanged over the past few years. While 76% of post-secondary institutions have IT development programs and 66% have campus support centers to provide faculty assistance in integrating technology into their courses, less than 15% have a formal program to recognize and reward the use of IT as part of their faculty review process.

The user support issue is complicated by staffing concerns. The 1999 Campus Computing Survey found that user support levels in two- and four-year colleges and universities are well below those found in organizations and corporations of similar size and technological complexity. The user support ratio at colleges and universities runs anywhere from some 150 student users to a single IT support person at research institutions to an 800:1 ratio among community colleges.

Across all sectors of higher education, training and retaining IT staff are rated as very important strategic issues. Green reports that colleges are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain IT staff, "in part because campuses may pay one-fifth to one-third below the going rate for IT people in business and industry"

IT Planning

More campuses appear to be coming to terms with the strategic and financial challenges presented by IT. More than 60% have a strategic plan for information technology, up from 50% in 1998. Forty-four percent report having an "acquire and retire plan" for computers and other technology products, up from 37% in 1998.

The annual Campus Computing Survey, now in its tenth year, is based on data provided by campus officials, typically the senior technology officer, at 557 two- and four-year public and private colleges and universities across the United States. Participating institutions completed the survey during the summer and fall of 1999. Copies of the 1999 Campus Computing Report will be available on December 15 for $35 from Campus Computing.