Baseline Hard/Software Access, Training, and User
Support Initiative Plan
California State University, Fresno
December 1, 1996
Table of Contents
September 1997 UpdateInformation Technology Services Main Page
Baseline Hard/Software Access, Training, and User
Support Initiative Plan
California State University, Fresno
During the 1997-98 academic year, California State University, Fresno received a total of $261,428 to support its Baseline Access, Training, and Support plan. This initial support was used to move forward our information competency, faculty and staff training, creation of a web courseware standard, expanded implementation of Winframe technology and increased faculty access to the campus Help Desk. The following sections describe in detail the expenditures and the rationale for them.
Library Electronic Classroom
One of the key features of the Fresno State BATS proposal was the provision of facilities to provide information competence for both students and faculty. The campus Information and Educational Technology Coordinating Committee, the group led by president Welty and charged with major technology decisions, decided that funding this effort was of prime concern. Therefore, $50,000 was committed to this project. An additional $10,000 from the original $50,000 for information competency was used to provide the non-computing equipment described in the following paragraph.
Under direction of Dr. Michael Gorman, dean of the Library, facilities were identified and a 14-station lab was developed. Facilities included 14 Micron 200 MHz computers plus Ethernet connections and web access software. Additional equipment, including a VCR, overhead projector, and furniture were included.
The new Library Electronic Classroom is configured with one instructor and fourteen student workstations (2 students at each computer) all connected to the Internet. The room is also equipped with a state-of-the-art DLP projection unit for data and video. All equipment has been installed and is being used.
The first classes began at the beginning of the semester and will be used daily throughout the year. All workstations have access to any databases used in the Library, including the ALIS Library Catalogue, journal indexes, full-text files, and the Internet.
Fulfilling our instructional objectives
Last year, one out of every four students participated in some form of library instruction. As the demand for Library instruction continues to grow, our mode of teaching has been limited to “show and tell” instead of “show and do” because of the lack of hands-on training facilities in the Library until now.
The new Electronic Classroom, created under the BATS program, gives students the opportunity to try out what they learn and gives the instructors a chance to monitor and correct their search strategies.
Training our faculty
For the faculty at Fresno State to be viable they must be proficient in both content and the retrieval of information relevant to that content. With this new classroom, the Library can begin a systematic training program for faculty to equip them with the most up-to-date skills necessary for finding and using information. Once at ease with the systems, these instructors can easily pass the skills onto their students and become models for others.
By using these new facilities in the Library, we can reinforce the vital role the Library has in teaching computer-facilitated research skills as part of the greater spectrum of information competence skills and we do so without putting additional stress on existing campus computing resources.
University-wide Computer Labs for Training and Production
The Academic Innovation Center at California State University, Fresno operates 3 labs for faculty and staff usage. Two of the labs are training labs. The third lab is a Multimedia Development lab. The University allocated $81,000 of BATS funds to enhance all three labs.
The training labs consist of one Macintosh lab and one Windows 95 lab. Each lab contains 8 student workstations and 1 instructor station. These labs are used for the training of faculty and staff on various software packages as well as Internet workshops. The BATS money was used to upgrade the presentation capabilities of these labs and to expand the software packages being taught:
LCD projectors: One projector for each lab was purchased, allowing projection of the instructor’s workstation. Instructor station upgrade: Video and audio capabilities were added to each instructor station. With this addition instructors now have the option of enhancing their presentations with various media, including video tapes and audio files. Student stations upgrade: Student stations had their memory upgraded to provide an adequate workstation for teaching some of the advance graphics packages.
Software purchases: Additional titles were purchased to expand the number of applications being taught in the lab.
The Multimedia Development lab currently contains several high-end Macintoshes and Windows NT machines for the development of advanced courseware and web pages. Current equipment includes flatbed scanners, slide scanners, graphics tablets, large monitors, as well as a collection of high-end graphics software. The BATS money allowed this lab to be enhanced in several ways:
Software upgrades: Some of the existing software was a little dated. The BATS money allowed faculty to have access to some of the latest graphics packages.
Color Printing: A color laser was purchased, giving the faculty a way to do quality color printing and create color overheads inexpensively. CD-ROM Duplicating: Faculty who choose to develop their courses on CD now have access to on-campus equipment to help reduce the costs and to provide new opportunities. A couple of stand-alone CD-Rs were purchased as well as a mass copier capable of doing 50 CDs unattended.
Film Recorder: Faculty have requested the capability of being able to convert computer graphics to 35mm slides. With the purchase of the Film Recorder that ability now exists.
CD-ROM tower: The multimedia lab currently has a very large library of images on CD. Previously there was no way to deliver the images to faculty conveniently. With a networked CD tower, the CD materials can now be delivered with relative ease over a wide area.
Self-paced training: Two TV-VCR combination units were purchased along with several video-based courses. This will allow faculty and staff who cannot attend one of the many formal training sessions in the training labs to still get training on several packages.
These facilities will help insure that faculty have the knowledge and tools necessary to improve teaching and learning. It also helps our staff to be more productive in their efforts to provide quality service to the University.
The Learning Window
One of Fresno State’s main efforts during the 1996-97 academic year was to assist faculty in the creation of web-based courseware. The University decided that it would attempt to adopt a campus-wide web format, so that student could easily move between disciplines without having to learn new software. This project was given the working title, “The Learning Window.” Thirty-six thousand dollars of the initial $50,000 of BATS funding was allocated for faculty participation in the Syllabus conference and to the provision of release time to faculty to participate in a pilot study of various software and network structures. Their participation included the creation of web-based course materials plus assistance in deciding which products might be most appropriate for a campus adoption. This pilot study is continuing throughout the current academic year with most courses being delivered during spring, 1998. By June 1998, the campus will have adopted software and a structure, which will be supported by the University’s Academic Innovation Center.
The Learning Window will bring together four resources: educational content, communication, courseware, and connectivity into a common format. The Learning Window, a Web-like graphical user interface will be used to access educational products created through a collaborative effort between faculty and AIC staff and technology.
A. Content
The Learning Window's content will consist of visual materials (either locally or professionally produced), text, graphics, still images, and audio data. The material will be produced or acquired by faculty members. Examples might include a geology professor's images of a field trip for students, an art professor's painting, The Annenberg Psychology series, audio interviews and photos of aborigines, or Powerpoint presentations. Some content may reside on WWW sites, hyperlinked to the Learning Window.
B. Communication
Communication consists of tools whereby faculty and students interact. The tools will include compressed (desktop) video links, groupware, e-mail, audioconferencing, and standard telephone facilities.
C. Courseware
Courseware will be modules or entire courses, which have been assembled by faculty from the content and communication resources. For example, a history professor may create a course which consists of portions of the Civil War images, digitally stored readings, a series of Powerpoint slides with audio narration, and computer-mediated communication for interaction. An academic department's materials may consist of a series of computer simulations on the brain. Courseware may reside on servers anywhere, on or off campus. The courseware may in fact be an entire course, one in which students and faculty don't meet in a classroom, or it may be a portion of a traditional class.
D. Connectivity
The ultimate goal of the Learning Window is to have resources and courseware available to faculty and students on campus (classrooms, labs, offices, and the library) and off campus (other CSU campuses, community colleges, K-12 schools, homes, and businesses). Depending on the location, the medium will differ. On-campus access will be through the broadband and Ethernet. Off-campus locations will use standard Internet facilities to access the campus.
Enhancing the Campus Help Desk
It is now well understood that the heart of a successful information technology system is the Help Desk – where students and faculty alike can get questions answered and problems solved. Because of the increasing amount of technology being deployed and the complexity of both hardware and software, the pressure on the Help Desk has become enormous. Because of that the University provided $55,000 in BATS funding to purchase an Automatic Call Distribution Center and a more powerful server to increase efficiency. The specifics of this project follow.
Fujitsu Intellicenter Automatic Call Distributor System (fully integrates with our Fujitsu telephone switch)
The campus Help Desk provides technology services and information to faculty, students and staff. As a result of the high volume of calls received by the Help Desk and the necessity for campus customers to leave voice mail when all analysts are busy, there has been an inefficient use of limited staff and a heightened frustration level among customers. The return of voice mail messages is a labor-intensive process. Often, in the past, Help Desk analysts do not reach the customer on the first call-back and a frustrating cycle of messages and call-backs has ensued.
With this implementation, the customer will reach a voice mail box, which will provide information on the status of the networks and other technology resources on campus. Next the customer will find the capability to utilize a FAX help voice mailbox, possibly eliminating the need to directly speak to an analyst. If the caller needs direct assistance, the ACD will queue callers and an LED readout will provide an at-a-glance status on the number waiting. As a final option in high impact periods, callers will be able to leave a voice mail message. In short, the Help Desk will have a more organized "front end", providing a more professional and effective interface with faculty, students and staff. From the viewpoint of Help Desk staff assessing workflow for improvements, the ACD will provide the capability to create reports on the number of calls coming in and for what purpose.
The ACD unit contributes more comprehensively to the campus in that it has the capability for a maximum of 100 agents and eight supervisors. Thus, other high-volume customer offices on campus will be able to use the equipment to improve services with always-limited staffing resources.
Micron Vetix 1000 server including two Pentium Pro Processors, 128 MG RAM, three 3.2 Gig ultrawide SCSI harddrives, and Windows NT 4.0 server software.
The new server platform enables the replacement of the old Help Desk DOS-based call tracking system with the new Client/Server application. This application is the foundation of the Help Desk system, used for every call to record activity. The analysts will be able to more quickly create work orders and/or retrieve existing ones in order to communicate effectively with customers. This will speed call resolution timeframes.
The new application creates the exciting new capability of developing web-based access to call tracking. In this environment, any person on campus will be able to independently check the status of a work order without the requirement to reach a person on the telephone.
All equipment will be installed and operational during the current semester.
Increased WinFrame Access
Fresno State, like many educational campuses, is plagued with the problem of having at least three computer platforms and a plethora of workstations at varied levels speed and capability. To begin to address these issues the campus, through its Craig School of Business, experimented with an exciting new technology known as “WinFrame” during the 1996-97 academic year. Somewhat akin to both the older mainframe technology and the Net PC concept, Winframe permits applications software to reside on a server. Since little power and capability are required in the user machine, the need to frequently replace user equipment is lessened. Students are able to access more complex or memory intensive software without purchasing higher-end machines. WinFrame has the potential to provide cost-effective solutions for numerous on-campus and remote instructional/administrative hardware/software access needs. The campus, using its own internal resources, has assigned a senior technical professional to implement and assess this program on a widespread scale.
The WinFrame server should also be a major support for distance learners. Students who connect to Fresno State remotely will have access to sophisticated software on their home machines without having to travel to the campus.
The campus allocated $55,000 in BATS funding to purchase a second WinFrame server and licenses to double the current single WinFrame server capacity. The server provides the following:
doubling of remote student 24-hour access accounts to 600 total
provision of access for testing SIMS/R and PEOPLESOFT administrative
applications
provision of access for testing Macintosh client software
moving toward potential future benefits:
baseline faculty/staff software-suite access
baseline faculty/staff access to administrative systems
server integration, load balancing, and redundancy
Funding provided through the Baseline Access, Technology, and Support has been vital for Fresno State to move toward its technology goals. The campus looks forward to the continuation of this program to assist in serving students better and more efficiently.
This document is part of an evolving strategic technology plan at California State University, Fresno, which has the overall goal of building the technological infrastructure necessary to fulfill the university mission as delineated in the Plan for the '90s. The policy of the University is to provide a communications and information technology infrastructure to enable and facilitate state-of-the-art education, research, and service opportunities for its students, its faculty, and, through them, the people of California.
For decades California State University, Fresno has recognized the central role of computers and other technologies in fulfilling its mission. The University has provided workstations to its faculty and staff and state-of-the-art computer laboratories for its students. Its student body is increasingly computer literate and over half of the students have their own computers. The University has a long-standing commitment to provide training to faculty in state-of-the-art technologies, currently fostered by the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning and the Academic Innovation Center. This plan identifies the steps needed to build upon this foundation and provide cutting-edge student educational experiences for the 21st Century.
The rapid development of hardware and software in communications and information technologies is continuous and dynamic. This University's policies and planning envision continuing growth and change, not only in the nature of the communications and information infrastructure, but also in the use of these technologies to support our central mission in instruction, research, and service.
Providing and maintaining a current and dynamic communications and information technology infrastructure is a high university priority. This includes providing faculty with workstations and networking essential to the development and delivery of state-of-the-art curriculum. The planning model envisions a natural evolution of the use of information technologies in instruction without prescribing any particular methods. Already, faculty are requiring the use of word processors; the utilization of external data sources ranging from census data to the Library of Congress available over the Internet; and the consultation of faculty homepages for assignments and links to resources. As the infrastructure improves, including the universal student access to personal computers, the role of computers and other information technologies in instruction can be expected to increase in importance and effectiveness in the years ahead.
While these technologies and plans to enhance the educational experiences and outcomes for our students and for the people of California have great promise, one fact hangs as a spectre: our capacity to succeed and achieve our goals depends critically upon new sources of funding. The Fresno State strategic technology plan includes a blending of several resource sources and approaches.
The past five years have seen a very active, university wide effort to clarify current operations in this area and to develop a clearer vision of the future.
In spring of 1994, President John Welty created the Information and Educational Technology Advisory Council (IETAC) to advise him on the creation and administration of a strategic technology plan for Fresno State. IETAC, created in consultation with the Academic Senate Executive Committee, was a group broadly representative of campus constituencies and interests. The membership included academic administration, from vice-presidents to department chairs; key Academic Senate representatives; students; and staff from such areas as computer services and admissions and records. In addition to providing the President with a sounding board to deliberate upon key issues and problems, IETAC was given the charge of developing an overall strategic plan. IETAC hired a consulting team to prepare the strategic plan, and worked with the team during the 1994-95 academic year. The resulting plan was disappointing and controversial for numerous reasons. IETAC recommended a series of several strategic actions, which it deemed both urgent and practicable, to be taken immediately without endorsing the consultant's plan. Immediate priority objectives included:
IETAC also recommended a new management structure in which academic and administrative committees would feed recommendations to an integrated committee that will make recommendations to the President and Provost designed to balance the overall needs of the campus.
In Fall 1995, the President, in consultation with the Academic Senate Executive Committee, implemented a process to review the IETAC recommendation. The Information Technology Strategic Planning Steering Committee was created, with essentially the same charge as IETAC but with a revised membership. The consultants' plan and IETAC's response were distributed broadly on campus and discussed by the Council of Chairs, the Operations Council, the Senior Administrative Council, and the Academic Senate. Written feedback and comments from open meetings were reviewed by Steering Committee. Consensus was reached on a number of issues and a new Strategic Technology Plan was prepared. It was distributed and broadly discussed in Spring 1996 semester.
In Fall 1996, an Information and Educational Technology Coordinating Committee (IETCC) was formed (see Appendix D) and began deliberation on the strategic plan. Items which have been acted upon to date include:
In parallel with the process described above, two new centers were proposed and created in 1995. The Faculty Development Committee proposed a Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), and the Academic Computer Planning Committee proposed an Academic Innovation Center (AIC). These centers were established and Drs. Lynda Harding and Robert Threlkeld were selected as directors of CETL and AIC, respectively.
The central technology goal of the University is to apply technology wisely to better serve its primary customer, the student. In doing so, the University will:
This mission statement reinforces the commitment of the University to make technological decisions in the long-term best interests of its students. It distinguishes between the innovative nature of academic computing and the need to apply technology following more traditional criteria in non-academic areas. The statement also reiterates the importance of empowering members of the campus community to influence the technology environment in which they personally operate, while being sensitive to the resource constraints and economic realities under which the University must operate.
In fulfilling this mission, several priorities have been promulgated to guide our efforts in building our infrastructure and in creatively and constructively integrating the new technologies into our traditional instructional pedagogies while seeking innovative applications in areas such as distance or mediated instruction. Several emerging strategic priorities articulate quite well with the CSU systemwide access, training, and support initiative:
The CSU Fresno strategic technology plan provides specific outcomes and deliverables this campus is committed to establishing and maintaining:
The basic information competency program involves several pieces. Information competence is the ability to find, evaluate, use, and communicate information in all its formats. Currently 64% of CSU Fresno students have their own computer. Basic training is provided in several programs (e.g., as curricular modules in English A and 1, basic Speech courses, University 1, Summer Bridge Program, and the Mentor Program), and the Library orientation program. Various disciplines include training as appropriate for specific courses. The Library offers basic library instruction and library classes for specific courses to students from every academic department, approximately 325 workshops, lectures, and demonstrations this fall reaching more than 3000 students. Three sessions of library instruction and computer skills instruction to University I sections are offered. There were seven sections this Fall and more are planned for the Spring. Internet-based instructional modules are being developed to supplement these programs.
An essential problem is the size of the need-ideally we should reach all students early in their university life-as compared to the resources (human, machines, space, etc.) available to meet that need. A serious additional problem is the appalling state of California high schools and public libraries and the consequent lack of even elementary library skill/computer literacy in incoming students. Lack of computer skills among mature students is another issue. The Library needs more resources and needs commitment, support, and recognition of the central role of the Library in information competence from the administration, teaching faculty, and academic computing staff.
Future plans include development of at least one electronic classroom in the Library with 20 machines, seating for 40, good projection and video capability, and dedicated software and workstations. Funding is also needed for programs to teach the teachers. It is essential that teaching faculty have the appropriate training and resources to assist their students in maintaining an acceptable level of information competence. Also needed are better, faster, and more reliable workstations for the Library users. Collaborative programs among the academic programs, the Library, CETL, CCMS, and the AIC are being developed. As the infrastructure upgrading plans are achieved, it is expected that faculty will design additional curricular-based approaches to teaching the students basic information competence. As the concept of information competence grows in importance, the need arises for a more systematic study of what the University is presently doing in this area and of what it should do to facilitate student development.
At California State University, Fresno, students will be assured 24-hour access to the University's communications and computing systems, including access to the Internet. The central features of this plan are provided through the following measures:
In implementing this 24-hour student access plan, several new programs and projects must be carried out:
Basic training in the use of the campus's generic software, hardware, and network tools is provided in several academic programs (e.g., as curricular modules in University 1, Summer Bridge Program, and the Mentor Program), the English Department Writing Lab, and the Library orientation program. Various disciplines include training as appropriate for specific courses (e.g., Business, Computer Science, Speech Communication, Journalism, Psychology, Education, etc.) In addition, major programs such as Microsoft Office, SPSS, and Netscape programs have excellent introductory tutorials built into the software, which in fact is an important criterion for their selection.
In 1986-87 when the office automation project began on campus, the Center for Information Processing (now CCMS) was in charge of computer training and consulting for the faculty and staff on the campus. They utilized three training labs, five full-time consultant/trainers, and two part-time trainers. The labs were never upgraded and the trainer/consultant staff was reduced to three while the number of computer users grew substantially.
During the Fall Semester of 1996, The AIC opened two new training labs; one with PCs and one with MACs. Each has 8 training stations and 1 presenter station. These labs are described below. In April, 1996, the AIC conducted the first university-wide survey of technology training needs. The survey results indicated both a high interest in new uses of technology in administrative and educational processes, as well as a massive need to provide a large number of faculty and staff with basic training in office automation software (see Appendix J). The AIC had one full-time trainer in December, 1995. A second full-time trainer was added in September, 1996.
Currently the training labs are using equipment that was purchased approximately 2 years ago. With the mandate to provide training on current technology to the faculty and staff of the university, this equipment will quickly become outdated and not be able to perform its intended function. For this reason the equipment in the lab should be brought up to current technology at least every two years.
The PC lab contains 9 AST Pentium 75s with 16 meg of ram, a 1 gig hard drive, running Windows 95. These also have Ethernet connections for running network software, for file and print sharing, and for WWW. None of these machines currently have Multimedia capability. Training on these computers covers Windows 95, Office 95, Internet, and SPSS. There are plans to add additional software titles for training.
The Mac lab contains 9 Apple 7100/80av machines with 16 meg of ram, a 1 gig hard drive and CD-ROMs. They are currently running System 7.5.5. The current applications being used are Mac System, MS Office, Illustrator, Pagemaker, Filemaker Pro, Photoshop, and Hyper Card. There are also plans on adding additional software titles for training.
The current labs are inadequate to meet the level of faculty/staff demand. The training catalog (see Appendix K) includes the desired applications, but resources are inadequate for the number and variety of training sessions needed. The following proposals are designed to meet the technology training needs for both faculty and staff. They include a general upgrade and expansion of training facilities and the addition of two full-time trainers.
To continue to meet the current and future needs of the two existing training labs, the following proposals are being made.
In addition to its two training labs, the AIC is now completing a Multimedia Development lab which contains 3 high end Window machines and 3 high end Macintosh machines. We propose an expansion of that facility which will meet the following objectives:
Currently, the AIC's two trainers are involved in training sessions for six hours per day, four days per week. Even at this pace, there is a large backlog of training needs. A numerical analysis of trainer hours and facilities demonstrates that current facilities and staff are inadequate to meet existing and future needs. The following two options represent ways in which the campus will expand training and consultation. They assume that the AIC will utilize three training labs and will acquire two additional trainers.
Option 1
1). Allow each trainer to teach three 4-hr, 2-session workshops per week per lab (6 sessions per week) with 1 full day and 2 half-days for prep/business.
2). Labs will be free 1 full day and 2 half-days for part-time and volunteer trainers to hold workshops.
3). If 5:00-7:00 pm workshops are scheduled it will allow additional time during the day for part-time and volunteer trainers to schedule workshops.
Option 2
1). Allow each trainer to teach 6 4-hr, 1 session workshops per week with 1 full day and 2 half-days for prep/business.
2). Leaves each lab free 1 full day and 2 half-days to allow 4 4-hr, 1 session workshops staffed by part-time and volunteer trainers.
NOTE: Option 1 is the most viable during semester and Option 2 is the most viable during winter and summer breaks.
The above information about current faculty and staff training and future expansion provides a clear vision of the ways in which California State University, Fresno, will meet its obligations to provide faculty and staff with skills and knowledge to be able to use educational technology to improve both the educational and operational processes of the University.
California State University, Fresno developed and implemented a campuswide help desk in the Spring of 1994 in order to 1) provide immediate and responsive first-level technology support and consultation to university faculty, staff and students; 2) centralize all technology-related work requests into a single access point; and 3) improve the internal tracking and escalation of open work requests.
The help desk staff consists of one help desk manager and one full-time temporary staff position. The bulk of the calls, however, are handled by part-time student assistants. The help desk is open seven days a week (Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 10 PM and weekends from 1 PM to 7 PM) and responds to nearly 2000 requests per month.
The help desk provides a wide range of support to university faculty and staff, including consulting on desktop computing applications (such as word processing, spreadsheet, and database software), voice technology, unix, email, and Internet applications, remote access, and basic networking technology. The help desk also serves as the centralized access point for all work requests. They log and assign work orders for hardware repairs, software installations, telephone moves, adds, and changes, data connection requests and repairs, password resets, server problems, and general network failures.
The majority of consulting calls are handled by the help desk staff without escalation to second level support staff. When a question or problem arises that cannot be addressed by help desk personnel, a work order is generated for our instructional computing consultants, Unix system administrators, LAN specialists, or administrative systems staff, who then contact the customer and attempt to resolve the problem.
For students, the help desk primarily provides support on unix, email, Internet, and remote access problems. In general, questions or problems relating to desktop and server applications are addressed by student consultants in the computing laboratories.
Since January of 1996, the help desk has also assumed the role of providing technical support to Central Valley Internet Project customers. There are currently over 2200 CVIP customers; approximately half of those customers are students, one-quarter faculty and staff, and the remaining 25% alumni and members of the local educational community. The help desk answers questions and troubleshoots problems relating to remote access connectivity, email, and Internet applications.
Faculty, staff, students, and CVIP customers have access to help desk personnel by telephone (we have separate numbers for faculty/staff, students, and CVIP customers) and by an contact form at https://help.csufresno.edu/contactus.html. The help desk is not a walk-in help center, although we do occasionally provide some walk-in service.
The help desk also maintains a web site that includes answers to frequently asked questions, lists of campus computing labs and resources, and other relevant information. In addition, a work request form is available via the web for reporting problems and generating work requests.
To help log and track all requests that come through the help desk, we utilize a client-server application called Expert Advisor by Software Artistry. All calls and all email messages to our help line are entered into this database. Open work requests are routed through this software to second level support staff and to our networking operations staff. All customers are assigned a work order number for each open work request and are asked to use this number when contacting the help desk to check on the status of a job.
Expert Advisor also allows us to run reports against the database in order to identify areas that may need additional training and user education. It also assists in reviewing internal procedures and response times by various units within CCMS.
The help desk has achieved its primary goals of providing a coordinated front-end to address campus technology questions and requests. Our goals for the next three to five years include:
To accomplish these goals, we will need a commitment by the University to hire additional staff and purchase additional hardware and software tools. We will also need to continue to educate the campus on the role of the help desk and the full range of available services.
The support services described in this section relate to those functions which involve the creation and delivery of technology-based academic programs. These support services are housed in the University's Academic Innovation Center and include the following:
The Academic Innovation Center was established in July, 1995, to act as a focal point for the use of educational technology to improve and extend the University's academic resources. It was the first such organization of its kind in the CSU, in that it was closely tied to Academic Affairs. Its director was named Dean of Learning and Technology, with status equal to other university-wide deans. The AIC is not viewed as a hardware organization, but one whose primary links are to faculty, programs, and the educational process. By these actions, the University is demonstrating its commitment to move rapidly and extensively toward integrating technology into teaching and learning.
In addition to functional changes, the AIC represents the University's first major move toward modern, team-based management. The Unit has become totally self-managed, supervisors have taken on other roles, and teams define work goals and processes. Modeled on management structures currently used by many new media and software companies, the AIC is now able to react quickly and effectively to the rapidly changing technical and educational environment.
The University recognizes the need to provide faculty with access to both support technology and personnel to make the greatest use of the new media in education.
AIC Associates Program Through the Office of the Provost, the campus has provided funding for six faculty members to work intensely with the AIC and each other to develop new educational products for use both on and off the campus. Faculty are provided release time and hardware support for them to complete and beta test their products. A copy of a recent status report is attached as Appendix I.
Instructional Technology Grant Program In addition to the above program, the University has provided a $50,000 competitive grant program for supporting faculty in developing multimedia programs for teaching and learning. During the current academic year, 14 faculty received funding.
The Learning Window In July, 1996, the Provost provided funding to the AIC to create a software product to act as a voluntary single entry point for faculty and students to access Web-based courseware (see Appendix H). Given the working title, The Learning Window, the software will provide advanced computer communication functions as well as courseware authoring, and student management tools. Links will be made to other academic servers and related services including textbooks ordering and student services. The AIC is currently installing a Window NT server as a home for the Learning Window.
Originally, the AIC believed it would have to develop the Learning Window totally in house. However, a variety of compatible products have recently emerged which may eliminate the need for standalone development. The University is currently in negotiations with IBM for use of its "Global Campus" software partnership plan for Assured Access. The CSU has endorsed IBM's Global Campus project, and the University is in discussion with IBM about establishing a leadership role for implementation and joint development of several Global Campus initiatives. This will include Lotus Notes based Learning Space solution for team based learning environments, e-mail, and groupware. Also, this will include Digital Library and distributed learning solutions to store/archive, search, index, and retrieve multimedia based courseware content from a digital repository. IBM will be hosting a series of sessions on campus with faculty in coming weeks to further introduce the academic community to these tools, and build implementation plans.
Building on its initial efforts, the faculty support aspect of the AIC will expand in the following ways:
Funding for this expansion will come from corporate donations to the University, specified for this purpose.
The AIC has recently restructured its traditional video production and graphics organizations into a new unit entitled Creative Imaging Services. Beyond a simple name change, the unit is focusing its efforts on assisting faculty and academic programs to explore and create rich mediated learning environments for students. The University has moved traditional graphics to the print shop. The AIC's traditional graphic artist has been replaced by a high-end computer graphics specialist. The photography function has assumed the role of digital image development.
The University has a fully functional production video studio staffed by video producers and technical staff. In order to keep pace with the changing technologies, the campus just invested $250,000 of its own funds to renovate the broadcast-quality studio. Within six months, the facility will be the finest in the San Joaquin Valley.
California State University, Fresno, has been in the forefront of distance learning since 1986 when it first established its Academic Enhancement Program to offer ITFS-based courseware to advanced high school students. At the present time, the University delivers 22 courses per semester to its Visalia Center at the College of the Sequoias, 50 miles from campus. In addition, the campus offers a number of programs via compressed video to other CSU campuses. The University also has a long standing joint degree program with the University of California, most of which is delivered via compressed video. Starting in September, 1996, the University became one of four founding campuses in the CSUSAT satellite program. The Division of Extended Education delivered the first two courses in a bachelors completion program in criminology.
At the heart of the University's distance/mediated learning program is a base of equipment produced by Fujitsu Business Communications. In 1989, the campus purchased a large Fujitsu telephone switch which has ultimately grown to the largest such installation in North America. Fujitsu is extremely advanced in its integration of voice video and data. Because of this, the University has gradually migrated to Fujitsu compressed video equipment. In conjunction with the Fresno County Office of Education and several regional community colleges, the University recently received $585,000 to expand the Fujitsu network to a total of 15 facilities by February, 1997. This network will form the central focus for synchronous distance learning development in the near future.
On the campus, the AIC operates four wired electronic classrooms, which are used to transmit various mediated learning programs off the campus via compressed video, microwave, cable, and satellite.
California State University, Fresno will continue to provide support to academic programs and faculty who want to deliver education to students off the main campus.
The AIC, through its classroom services program, provides all media support to classrooms on the campus. This includes traditional media such as overhead and slide projectors, as well as newer equipment like video projectors, LCD panels, and laptop computers. Also, the AIC maintains what is perhaps the finest broadband cabling system with the CSU System. Installed as part of the 1989 telecommunications upgrade project, this system supports both video and data channels.
Funding, at this time, has allowed for the upgrading of only six classrooms but the goal is to make these changes in every classroom (over 200) on campus.
Fleet equipment, which is delivered to classrooms on a daily basis, is very outdated and needs to be replaced. The delivery equipment includes VCRs, TV monitors, overhead projectors, slide projectors, public address systems, tape recorders, etc.
While the University believes that traditional classrooms will be a prominent feature of the campus for the foreseeable future, it also thinks that the alternatives to the classroom will be needed. One of the tasks of the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable is to examine non-classroom learning environments around the country, and to make suggestions for the pilot creation of such facilities on the campus.
The university is in the final stages of a comprehensive plan to provide high-speed network capability to every building, office, and classroom on campus. We have a fiber-based backbone between buildings and have installed ethernet connections in most offices. Some offices that are not yet equipped with ethernet connections are still using asynchronous connections to reach centralized campus resources and the Internet.
The local area networking environment is a mix of centralized and decentralized networks. Most PCs in administrative offices are connected to a Novell, Windows for Workgroups, or NT LAN for file sharing and some shared application use. Macintoshes in these offices are typically networked via the campus data network to an appletalk network. PCs in Academic Support offices are generally not connected to a server through a local area network, although there are many Macintoshes in this environment that benefit from the campuswide Appletalk network.
Although virtually all desktop computers on campus have some access to the campus email hosts and the Internet, there are still too many faculty and staff workstations on campus that are not connected to local file sharing servers.
Protocols supported centrally over the data network include TCP/IP, Novell IPX, NetBeui, and Apple Ethertalk and Localtalk.
In addition to our campuswide data network and the local area networks supported centrally by CCMS, there are smaller, decentralized school-based local area networks.
The Library maintains a CD-ROM LAN with Windows NT Servers and network towers of CD-ROM drives, supporting approximately 70 clients for public use. Remote access, although clunky at the present time, is available to up to 5 users via Telnet Magager for distance learning program enrollees. There is an urgent need for more efficient and user-friendly means of supporting remote access to the LAN for support of the Universityís faculty and students.
The School of Engineering and Computer Science maintains their own FDDI-based network connecting four buildings. All labs and faculty offices are connected to local area networks within this ring. Network protocols include DECNet, TCP, Lan Manager, NetBios, and Ethertalk. Servers in this environment include machines running VMS, Ultrix, Solaris 2.5, and Linux. Clients run Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Apple 7.1. For most faculty and academic support staff, all primary applications (office applications, CAD applications, other specialized applications) are run from a server over the network. Remote access is provided to school faculty through 22 dialup modems.
The School of Education and Human Development has a LAN environment characterized by hundreds of Apple Macintosh clients in student labs and faculty offices connected to several Apple servers. The school provides some remote access via dialup to students, faculty, and some regional educational institutions. They are also experimenting with wireless technology.
The Sid Craig School of Business maintains a faculty/staff LAN with approximately 120 Windows clients connected to a LanManager server and two separate student lab LANs serving both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 clients.
Remote access to the Internet and the campus email servers is provided through 48 general-use dialup modems and 192 CVIP modems. Remote access to LAN and other local server resources is still in its infancy. We also have a few older technology 2400 baud modems for public access to library resources.
Appendix A provides a schematic picture of the principal access paths of the student, faculty, staff, and public users to the University's information resources via ethernet, modem, and CVIP.
Our primary objectives in the arena of local area networks and remote access for the next three to five years are:
Continued funding for equipment, software and staffing resources is necessary to complete our goals of universal ethernet connections, adequate support for expanding campus LANs, additional dial-up and ISDN facilities, and remote access to LAN-based resources.
California State University, Fresno has long been committed to providing access to electronic mail and the Internet to its faculty, staff and students. In the late 80's, a very small number of faculty and staff had electronic mail accounts on the systemwide Cyber system (with rudimentary Internet access provided through the old BITNET system). In 1991, we purchased and implemented a UNIX-based electronic mail system that we made available to faculty and staff. Shortly thereafter, we began offering electronic mail accounts on a separate UNIX host to a small number of students who had prior faculty approval.
It has been our goal to provide email accounts and Internet access to every faculty, staff, and student at the university. For the first time, we are at the threshold of fulfilling that goal.
Virtually all faculty and staff at California State University, Fresno, have individual electronic mail accounts. In addition, a large number of part-time faculty and lecturers have taken advantage of the university's policy to provide free electronic mail and Internet accounts to all faculty and staff. We currently have approximately 2700 accounts on our faculty/staff email host.
The President and Provost have encouraged the use of electronic mail to improve communication between faculty, staff and students. Informational messages are regularly posted on the faculty/staff email machine by a wide range of university groups who use this electronic mechanism to communicate important information about services and events to the campus community.
On October 12, 1996, we transitioned to a new Sun SparcServer 1000 in order to accommodate the phenomenal growth in the use of electronic communication and Internet services by the university. The new machine offers several new services including:
The current number of users is more than 5 times the demand placed on our mail host during its first year of use in 1991. The number of people simultaneously accessing the system has increased just as dramatically. It is now common for more than 100 staff and faculty to access the system at any given time. The new machine, with processor speeds that are four times faster than the old machine, can respond much more quickly during peak-usage times.
The university has recently made a commitment to provide free electronic mail and Internet accounts to all enrolled students. Until Spring of 1996, email accounts were only given to students who had prior authorization from their instructor. Although the importance of offering this service free of charge to all students has been recognized for some time, funding has not been available to accomplish this goal.
In an effort to generate additional revenue to this end, the Central Valley Internet Project was initiated (see the section below for more detail). Although still in its first year of operation, this program hopes to help subsidize the university's goal to give every enrolled student a free Internet account.
Student Internet accounts reside on a separate Sun SparcServer. To date, approximately 7,000 students have active accounts.
All faculty, staff and students now have the ability to create and publish their own world wide web pages. All that is needed for this service is a standard free Internet account. In addition, the university provides 10MB of space on a separate web server for every university department and student organization on campus.
We have recently made a listserv service available to all faculty and staff, as well as all student organizations. Faculty are encouraged to create class-specific listserv lists to facilitate interaction and communication in the academic environment.
We maintain a separate UNIX machine that serves as the campus Internet news server. With the growth in the popularity of the Internet, our Usenet news server now provides access to 5855 different newsgroups. During a typical day, more than 12,000 articles are transferred to individuals who access the news server.
The Central Valley Internet Project (CVIP) was created to provide PPP-based remote graphical access to the Internet to the students, faculty, and staff of California State University, Fresno and to generate revenue to help offset the costs of providing free Internet accounts to all enrolled students.
CVIP accounts are sold to students, faculty, and staff for $8.33 per month. Any revenue generated from the sale of these accounts is reinvested in the effort to provide free (non-graphical) accounts to students.
We have identified four major areas of need that must be addressed in the next three to five years if we are to continue to provide adequate Internet access to our students, faculty, and staff:
With nearly 10,000 active student, faculty and staff Internet accounts, our current T1 connection through CSUNet to the Internet has become saturated. Transfer speeds during the day and peak hours of remote usage during the evenings have become unacceptable. If we are going to provide even adequate service to our students, faculty, and staff, we will need to upgrade our connection to the outside world.
We are currently having discussions with local third-party Internet providers to provide at least an additional T1 access, but the funding source for such a connection has not been determined.
Although we now provide the capability for all Internet account holders to publish their own world wide web pages, we do not have the human resources to support these efforts beyond providing basic direction in uploading files and changing permissions. If web-based publishing at this university is going to be utilized to its full potential, we need to be able to offer web-related consulting services to the campus community on an as-needed basis.
The impetus to move to a desktop application environment for accessing the Internet is based upon the relative ease of use of GUI client-based software (as opposed to text-based UNIX applications) and the need to decrease the number of simultaneous users on the Internet and email servers.
Much of the campus has already moved to Pop Mailers for electronic mail (primarily Eudora or Netscape) and most use a graphical web browser (such as Netscape or Internet Explorer) to access the web. All CVIP customers are provided with client-based network applications.
Over the next few years, we will continue to migrate on-campus Internet access to client-based applications.
Once we have upgraded our Internet servers with enough disk, CPU, and memory to handle the entire enrolled student population, we will begin implementation of a mechanism to automatically generate an email account for every new student upon enrollment. Account information will most likely be transmitted to students with their registration material. For security reasons, inactive accounts will be deactivated until the owner of that account requests reactivation.
Clearly, the cost of the initiatives described in the various deliverables described above will be significant. As noted earlier in this plan, the University assumes that it will be essential to implement a student technology fee. This will act as a major source of funds for student-related technology. At $100 per year, the fee should generate $1.5 million annually.
The University has established a planning process for funding technology. The planning process is the responsibility of the Information Technology Coordinating Committee, described earlier in this document. The Coordinating Committee is actively exploring the following funding options in both priority and feasibility:
The Information Technology Coordinating Committee is actively examining each of the above options in addition to a student technology fee and will develop a funding package within the next three months.
In addition to locating funds, the University is examining productive partnerships with outside vendors. The University is in active negotiations with IBM to create an omnibus financial and technical plan to assure access to both hardware and academic resources. Entitled the "Ensured Access Plan," the project would adopt many of the already proven plans, both strategic and tactical, from other successful assured access projects nationally. This would include lessons learned from both University of Minnesota, Crookston and Wake Forrest University, among others.
If negotiations are successful, the IBM Thinkpad laptop computer hardware may become the preferred mobile computing solution for the CSU Fresno student and faculty user community. However, the partnership arrangement with IBM will include much more than hardware. The IBM Credit Corporation will provide many flexible leasing programs which will prevent obsolescence of the technology and establish a long term "utility" cost to the campus and students. This cost will include maintenance service for the life of the lease from IBM, with possible involvement of CSU Fresno technical staff. IBM also offers end user support and help desk solutions with 1-800 number usage support on software as well as technical problem determination.
From the above information, it is clear that the University is actively building a funding plan to insure that the cost of hardware, software, and support elements are recognized and accommodated.
CCMS and AIC offers a range of training workshops each semester. Current level of information literacy is quite high. Since about 1992, 100% of tenure faculty have a computer with network connections, although 80% need replacement/upgrading. 100% of school and department offices have had computer workstations since about 1983. Ethernet connections for 100% of faculty and staff offices will be completed 1996-97, but a large number of computers are inadequate.
Currently 64% of CSU Fresno students have their own computer. Basic training is provided in several programs (e.g., as curricular modules in English A and 1, University 1, Summer Bridge Program, and the Mentor Program) the English Department Writing Lab, and the Library. Various disciplines include training as appropriate for specific courses.
Basic networking training is provided in several academic programs (e.g., as curricular modules in University 1, Summer Bridge Program, and the Mentor Program), the English Department Writing Lab, and the Library orientation program. Various disciplines include training as appropriate for specific courses (e.g., Business, Computer Science, Speech Communication, Journalism, Psychology, Education, etc.) Microsoft Office and Netscape programs have excellent introductory tutorials built into the software.
The University, through the AIC, has two full-time trainers plus a cadre of volunteers to provide training in basic office automation, graphics, publishing, and WWW software. The University has two universitywide training labs plus a multimedia development lab.
Two additional trainer consultants will be added, a third training lab will be established, and the multimedia lab will be expanded. Where appropriate, the University will utilize multimedia self-paced training networked to the desktop.
Basic training is provided in several programs (e.g., as curricular modules in English A and 1, University 1, Summer Bridge Program, and the Mentor Program) and the Library orientation program. Various disciplines include training as appropriate for specific courses. Microsoft Office and Netscape programs have excellent introductory tutorials built into the software.
Special labs with special software exist in many departments across the campus - ranging from art to engineering - and the need for specialized software increases as its use outside the university becomes ever more important. Training of students in their use is a part of the instruction in the course requiring that use and does not seem to be a major problem.
However, in many such courses the instructors spend much time teaching basic computer skills -"more about Windows than about logic" - arguing the need for basic computer literacy early in the student's career.
Explore cooperative arrangement with IBM Thinkpad and Global Campus programs.
Much of the software requires advanced hardware platforms and cost or licensing agreements prevent their being made available remotely or as student owned software, suggesting that specialized labs will not readily be replaced by student workstations and that they will require relatively frequent equipment upgrade . Further, some users strongly prefer to keep their specialized labs on networks not accessible from outside as protection to the system.
While engineering and many science students are trained in and utilize Mathematica in connection with their calculus courses, the lab is not open to non-class use very many hours and the campus does not have a site license, inhibiting the general exploitation of those skills in later coursework. Many specialized labs could be much more effective with the simple addition of CD-ROM readers to their current workstations.
Help Desk in place since Spring of 1994. Provides first level support for students, faculty and staff. Logs and tracks all calls, requests, and work orders. Supports Central Valley Internet Project customers. Open 7 days per week. Library provides support in Reference Department.
CSU Fresno policy delegates management and maintenance of laboratories to schools, which have general access labs, instructional labs, and special purpose labs.
Two trainer and volunteers.
Four trainers and volunteers.
The AIC has one instructional technologist, plus a creative imaging team to assist faculty in courseware design and media development. The AIC Associates program provides faculty with release time to work on media products and to assist other faculty. The School of Education and Human Development has a small staff of instructional developers to assist faculty in their school.
The AIC will expand the AIC Associates program and will develop a cadre of part-time faculty/consultants to work with faculty and academic programs to integrate technology into instruction.
See above.
See above.
CSU Fresno policy delegates management and maintenance of laboratories to schools. Each school has staff of technicians, with backup from CCMS technicians.
See Appendix E for a list of general access and departmental computing laboratories.
Management of labs decentralized to schools, but everyone reports problems with adequate funding which results in compromising access.
Library printing is based on user-charge, but problems exist.
The University has one 8-station IBM lab, one 8-station MacIntosh lab, and a 6-station multimedia development lab.
No current leasing program exists.
While all of the full-time faculty have a workstation connected to the network, a great need exists to upgrade or replace approximately 80% of them. A recent survey of faculty workstations found:
The University has 115 classrooms which are connected to a high-quality, engineered broadband system for distribution of video materials. It has 15 classrooms with projection equipment. The campus also maintains a fleet of media equipment, including laptop and cart-based computers and multimedia equipment.
The University currently has three traditional kiosks operational on campus. Services provided include: course section availability during registration; class schedule viewing; grade information; maps and directions for current and prospective students; and general campus information regarding the various University programs and offices.
The University is also developing a fourth kiosk to be placed on the campus of Fresno City College, our major community college feeder institution. Plans are being developed to provide: a direct link to our various University home pages on the Internet; a process to request transcripts be sent to the University via electronic transcript technology (SPEEDE); a direct link to the CSU electronic application for admission; and information to assist the transfer process (articulation information, transfer policies, etc.).
The University is also pursuing the metaphorical notion of kiosks; that is, as a provider of needed information in electronic form to students, faculty, administrators and staff. This approach differs from the traditional concept in that access is the focus rather than the vehicle. Several projects are underway that will be critical to the development of this concept. They include: conversion of SIMS to SIMS-R; the implementation of DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System); further development and expansion of the SPEEDE project and the electronic application for admission; and security mechanisms to protect the privacy of this information as well as to enable selective access to the various University databases.
The University has three electronic classrooms varying in seating capacity between 30-80 students. Each facility has 3-4 cameras, large screen monitors, audio equipment and computer facilities. In addition, the campus has two small videoconferencing room.
Various schools on the campus have graphics and video facilities. The School of Education and Human Development is completing an advanced video studio and also has high-end graphics equipment, as well as Media 100 digital editing equipment.
The AIC operates a large video production studio which is completing a $250,000 renovation. It has a significant amount of video and editing hardware. The university also has both personnel and equipment to produce commercial-quality video animation.
All support staff who require access to computing hardware have some type of access. In many cases, however, this equipment is outdated and not capable of supporting the client/server based applications that are beginning to typify the computing environment at the university.
See Appendix F for list of current site-licensed software agreements and special Microsoft Office pricing plan.
All faculty, staff and students have access to free email and Internet account. Ability to publish web pages. Departmental web page server also available. Listserv and Internet news services available. PPP-based remote access provided through CVIP.
No current program exists for leasing software.
Several of the University Library's computer projects have been completed. Current attention focuses on improving training support and on systemwide initiatives (e.g., UIAS, the electronic core collection, etc.) The University must have an infrastructure necessary to participate in the CSU-wide Information Technology Initiative projects such as Unified Information Access System and Electronic Core Collection Development.
Several server-based tutorials are available for Microsoft Office programs, SPSS, and Netscape. University obtained limited site-license for Authorware software and conducted workshops.
Several interactive and simulation programs in use in various schools.
No current site-licenses for software tools and utilities. No organized backup utility available campuswide.
Local Area Networking software consists primarily of Novell, Windows for Workgroups, and Microsoft NT server software. There are also some workstations using Sun=s NFS software.
Fiber backbone between buildings. Ethernet connections in most offices. All workstations connected to campus email host and Internet, but many lack access to local LAN and server resources.
Remote PPP access available via CVIP. Limited modem pool for asynchronous traffic. Some direct line access to administrative enterprise server.
Separate email servers for faculty/staff and students. Separate news server. Separate web server. All primary servers UNIX based.
Hubs include UB and HP 10baseT shared ethernet concentrators and some HP, Cisco, UB, and Alantec ethernet switches. Routers include older AGS-class Cisco equipment. Some Cisco FDDI concentrators for FDDI backbone. Some Cabletron electronics (e.g. repeaters & multiport transceivers).
Arthur C. Clarke made a profound observation: that to a "primitive" people, technology and science are indistinguishable from magic. In many ways the University today is confronted by an awesome and unfathomable array of technology which is indeed magic. It is the rare person who knows how it all works. Even the early adopters of the information technologies struggle to understand. The pressures that move us toward increasing reliance upon the new electronic information technologies are inexorable. Planning must be done in an environment in which the technology is changing and improving at an extremely rapid pace. Even as we install ethernet connections to link faculty and staff offices and as we plan to do more, we do so with the knowledge that this 10M per second transmission rate has been obsolete for years. A fact of the infrastructure and synergy of the parts of the information system in the life of the University--which comprise a mix of human beings, hardware, and software--is that everything has to be in synchronization for it to work. Even highly educated and motivated faculty cannot appreciate the potentials of these new technologies unless they have experienced it and have access to it. Even controversial new ideas such "the virtual university" are literally and figuratively pipe dreams without the requisite infrastructure being in place, including people trained and willing to use it, let alone the pipe connections to the Internet itself. When things are out of sync, when a professor develops mediated instructional materials and then cannot find any classroom equipped to present it, when a professor asks students to perform work on the Internet or to make a PowerPoint presentation and then the students cannot print their work, when an innovative video transmission uses so much space on the broadband that a traffic jam on the information highway results-it is clear we must do better.
To a University whose mission is to be on the cutting edge of truth and development, this situation is indeed unsettling. But the discomfort is only matched by the voodoo economics involved in funding these resources.
This document is a strategic technology plan for access, training,
and support at California State University, Fresno. It has been
prepared to help build that infrastructure. The magic of the
plan is only the two imperatives of science: verifiability and
corrigibility. Its value will be measured by the degree to which
it matches what the University is doing and needs to do. Its
truth is not based on authority or omniscience; rather, it is
based on the fact that it can and will be continually changed
and improved by a broad dialectic within the university and by
our experience.
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson