Thursday, October 21, 1999

Faculty Wariness of Technology Remains a Challenge, Computing Survey Finds By FLORENCE OLSEN Academic-computing officials say their biggest challenge is still getting faculty members to work with technology, according to new data being released today by the Campus Computing Nearly half of the campus officials who took part in the survey said that their institutions now offer one or more college courses that students take on line. Project. Nearly 40 per cent of the senior information-technology officials who took part in the project's annual survey said that helping reluctant faculty members bring technology into their teaching was the hardest part of their job. Last year, more than a third of those who responded said the same thing. "I think it's fair to say that many faculty members have ceded to their students the whole issue of technology skills," said Kenneth C. Green, the founder and director of the Campus Computing Project. Anecdotal evidence, he said, even suggests "there is a new kind of oedipal aggression in the classroom" that pits students against faculty members. Using their superior technology skills, business students on some campuses "are going after their professors on content as well," checking The Wall Street Journal and Business Week on line before going to class so they can keep a step ahead of their professors, said Mr. Green. "And that's right at our hearts." This is the 10th year that Mr. Green, a visiting scholar at the Center for Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, has conducted the survey. More than 25 per cent of the academic-computing officials surveyed ranked "providing adequate user support" as their No. 1 issue. A smaller group -- nearly 15 per cent -- said that financing the replacement of aging hardware and software was their chief concern. Two of the biggest issues affecting the I.T. industry -- the year-2000 problem and electronic commerce -- ranked low as concerns of the campus officials who took part in the survey, which asked questions about academic rather than administrative computing. Less than 1 per cent of the survey participants named Y2K as their biggest I.T. challenge, and only 7.6 per cent reported that their institutions were set up for electronic commerce through their campus Web sites. Mr. Green said the new data suggested that colleges and universities would find a middle ground between "high touch and high tech" in classrooms, using information technology to enhance, but not replace, traditional lecture classes. Nearly half of the campus officials who took part in the survey also said that their institutions were offering one or more college courses that students take on line, using the Web as their classroom. According to the survey's findings, the number of I.T. personnel available at colleges and universities to help students and faculty members with teaching, learning, and research varies widely, depending on the size and resources of the institution. Community colleges, on average, had only one I.T. staff member to support every 800 students, the study found. The ratio at four-year public and private colleges and universities was, on average, 150 students to one I.T. support-staff member -- better than the ratio for community colleges, but still higher than is recommended in the business sector. The Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn., research firm, advises its corporate clients to provide one I.T. support person for every 50 to 75 employees. According to the new data, the proportion of classes being taught in computer-equipped classrooms and laboratories is nearly unchanged -- 24.9 per cent this year, compared with 24.4 per cent last year. Nearly 30 per cent of the officials who took part in the survey said their institutions were using information technology to reduce their instructional costs, and almost the same percentage of participants said their institutions were considering such a move for the next fiscal year. For the most part, academic-computing budgets have remained stable this year, averaging $8.8-million at private universities and $5.2-million at public universities, the study found. Mr. Green is presenting his findings this week in Chicago at the annual conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College. Senior technology officials from 557 public and private colleges and universities in the United States took part in the survey. Printed copies of the full report will be available for $35 in December from the Campus Computing Project, P.O. Box 261242, Encino, Cal. 91426-1242. Summary results will also be posted on the project's Web site. Background story from The Chronicle: Survey Finds Growing Worries on Campus About Technology Support (11/20/98) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article