2008-09 Final Educational Technology Fee Expenditure Report
College of Natural Resources
1) Categorized ETF Expenditure Summary – $363,240.55 (includes $12,000 1-time alloc)
a) Personnel - $142,144.47
39.1%
 $138,361.24 professional support staff
 $3,783.23 work-study staff
b) IT Infrastructure equipment and services - $111,350.30
30.7%
c) Non-IT infrastructure, equipment - $64,716.47
17.8%
d) Facilities - $823.86
0.2%
e) Discipline/instructional related field trips, etc. - $2,874.30
0.7%
f) Other/miscellaneous - $41,358.15
11.4%
(“consumable” lab and field educational supplies)
2) Justification/Purpose of Expenditures – Strategic Overview
a) New and/or transformative initiatives undertaken with ETF:
The following college and departmental acquisitions represent the growth and innovation
required to sustain the hands-on learning with relevant technology in the CNR majors
.
o Computer lab/classroom upgrades – College-level purchases:
 14 desktop computers were replaced in small graduate student clusters and 8 were
replaced in the GIS computer lab, based on a 4+ year replacement cycle. 15 laptops
and 13 pod station computers were replaced in 2 of our flexible landscape “podding”
classrooms. Substantial investments occurred in GIS IT purchases and software
upgrades for use in graduate courses associated with DE Masters programming being
developed. ($45,000)
 Two additional classrooms were upgraded with flatscreen displays – in one room to
enhance visibility due to size of the room and in the other room to replace old analog
technology that was difficult for students to read. The latter room now also has the
capability to be used in a pod-style format for group work and presentations.
($8,500)
 A CNR-wide license for Camtasia Relay software has enabled the installation of
lecture recording software on all CNR classroom and lab computers. Faculty have
used the software to record and upload course content to course websites for face to
face courses as well as distance education courses. In addition, some students have
recorded presentations themselves and posted them online as part of their course
assignments. ($6,250)
o The Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources utilized its ETF
allocation on equipment to be used by students in all of the Department’s curricula. ETF
funds are essential for keeping our laboratories supplied with up-to-date equipment and
software that is used by professionals in the various fields.
IT infrastructure, equipment and services $11,210 software licenses
Non-IT infrastructure, equipment $24,928+$12,000 for Fisheries & Wildlife Science

Woodstock software ($4500) is forest modeling software that can be applied to any
forest planning situation - inventory projections, long-term harvest schedules, land or
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silviculture investment queries, biodiversity and wildlife habitat evaluations,
compliance certification standards and much more. Students in multiple courses
(undergraduate and graduate) can use this software. In June 2009 NC State became
one of Remsoft's Educational Partners.
Software for use with the Trimble® GeoXT™ handheld ($4,060). This equipment is
used in multiple courses, especially those combining GPS and GIS functions.
Equipment to Measure Stream Discharge (Water Surveying) ($4,647) Used in
watershed hydrology graduate courses.
Vertex IV BT & Transponder T3 ($4,620) - Hypsometer makes field operation
measuring work faster and more efficient, offering significant time and cost savings,
improving the result accuracy and increasing productivity. This equipment is used in
forestry courses where students measuring tree heights and plot radius in dense
vegetation and rough undergrowth.
The Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Program in FER used ETF funds from its
departmental and one-time ($12,000) allocations to purchase: 1 Reconyx Trail
Camera, 20 Infrared trail cameras, STELLA software package, 2 Rhino GPS130
units, Plants and signage for the Turner House native plant teaching landscape
Reconyx and other infrared cameras are new technology used in increasingly
innovative ways in the wildlife management profession. Cameras are used to
determine relative habitat use, species presence, and population density estimates
based on mark-recapture statistics. Multiple cameras must be operated
simultaneously in a field setting to accurately demonstrate the technology to
students, in FW 311.
STELLA® is a windows friendly object oriented modeling program. It offers a
way to dynamically model, visualize, and communicate how complex systems
work without programming skills. The program can be used to model wildlife
populations, human behavior, and coupled human-natural systems. The software
is being used by graduate students to develop conceptual models to visualize
their research and will be integrated in FW 411 (Human Dimensions of Wildlife
Management) to allow undergraduate students the opportunity to develop models
of wildlife management that includes input from stakeholders.
o The curricula in the Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management Department are also
very hands-on, and require the use of technology in the context of
recreation/sport/tourism settings. The classes also tend to be relatively large and making
use of classroom technology to enhance discussion has been prevalent in this program.
IT infrastructure, equipment: $10,594
Non-IT support: $11,099
 The primary focus of our ETF expenditures in 2008-09 was to improve the
informal learning environments for our students. A small conference room was
converted to a “flyspace” room that students could use to work on group projects.
In addition, the graduate learning space was update with new equipment.
($10,594; computers, projector, displays)
Additional funds were used to support the outside-of-the-classroom experiential
learning that is integral to the PRT programs, including service learning support,
field trips to appropriate tourism and leisure industry sites, such as required by
PRT 351 – Recreation Consortium Course ($2,000).
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o The programs in Wood & Paper Science Department have been very successful in
producing young professionals well-prepared for challenging technical careers. A large
part of this success has been due to the use of intensive hands-on learning. In this
approach, students learn basic concepts and principles in the classroom and then move
into the laboratory to apply the principles in open-ended, inquiry-guided activities. Of
course, hands-on learning in a highly technical program requires extensive laboratory
facilities. In turn, these laboratories require extensive funding in order to keep them
maintained and supplied. A total of $34,408 was spent from ETF funds last year. These
funds were spent in accordance with our annual strategic plan, and they are as shown
below.
Recurring expenses for supplies and consumables - $10,500
One-Time Allocation from college –$23,908. This amount was spent in two categories:
Replacement of Heavily-Used Equipment for Undergraduate Teaching Labs –
Balances and viscosity meter for lab - $2427.
Improvement of Teaching Labs – Each year, faculty submit requests for equipment
purchases that will sustain or improve their teaching laboratories. The remaining
$19,610 was spent on such items, including the following:
a. Testing equipment, sensors, and software to support a new teaching lab in WPS
309 (Wood Products Processing: Facilities and Infrastructure)
b. A new camera controller for a microscope to support wood anatomy labs (WPS
202).
c. Replacement of a critical variable-speed drive for the pilot paper machine used for
WPS 201, 212, and 472
d. Building on the success of last year’s purchase of an LCD monitor to display
simulation and computer control results in the lab for WPS 475 (Process Control
Lab), a second monitor was purchased to permit two different simulations to be
displayed simultaneously. A similar monitor, mounted on a cart, was purchased for
Wood Products classes held in the Hodges Laboratory. The monitor is currently
connected to the MTS testing machine that is heavily used by students in WPS 441
(Timber Mechanics), WPS 444 (Wood Composites), and WPS 483 (Senior Project).
The cart can be easily wheeled to different locations and so we expect that the
monitor will also be used in WPS 491 (CNC Machining) to display machine codes
for the router, and in WPS 309 (Wood Products Processing: Facilities and
Infrastructure) to display process simulation results.
e. To facilitate self-guided instruction and lab demonstration videos, two
laboratories were equipped with small LCD monitors on movable carts, enabling
“learning in a technology-rich environment” and freeing up the lab instructor from
repeated instruction on the same testing techniques.
f. A portable laminar flow hood, a tabletop autoclave, and an incubator were
purchased to enhance our teaching capabilities in the area of wood bio-deterioration
and bioconversion. These topics are now being covered in WPS 301 (Wood
Chemistry).
b) Actions taken to improve efficiency/return on ETF investments
CNR has increased the length of the replacement cycle for computers in the college. To
capitalize on campus-wide IT savings, we continue to partner with the Office of Information
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Technology (OIT) to provide classroom technology at a discount/bulk rate. We have also
partnered with Classroom Effectiveness group to leverage donated and ETF funds with
University funds to improve acoustics and visibility/sightlines in 2 classrooms. We rely on
NCSU Classtech support resources, where appropriate, rather than develop and maintain our
own. In addition, the college thoroughly researches purchases in order to maximize the
field-ruggedness of our purchased equipment. The departments plan strategically to provide
equipment across several courses where possible, and to leverage ETF funds with other
funding sources to provide for major capital purchases that will be used in both
undergraduate and graduate education.
c) Unmet ETF-eligible needs – submitted for 08-09 in requested template on 8/4/2008
 For any program that is heavily technology-based – whether IT or lab/field technology –
the need for upgrades and repairs to stay even near state-of-the-art is significant. Since
the programs in FER and WPS, as well as the GIS program in PRTM, require high levels
of technology, a large number of departmental requests for equipment for teaching go
unfulfilled. A sufficient level of base support is needed to provide a replacement plan
that will address this continual upkeep of equipment such as PDAs, GPS units,
laboratory balances, etc., as well as computers. Sufficient base funding also allows
better coverage of expendable supplies, allowing more innovation with college one-time
allocations to departments. In addition, we have not been able to update the technology
in the multi-media classroom to maintain our ability to tape DE lectures and provide
teleconferencing capability.
 As noted previously, two of the CNR departments (FER and PRTM) have started or
absorbed 3 new programs with no increase in ETF allocations to provide for the
technology needs of those programs. The two programs added in FER (Environmental
Technology, and Fisheries and Wildlife) both have high technology demands in a
department that is already high in technology needs. The recent increase in our base
allocation has help address those needs without penalizing existing programs as much as
in the past.
d) Assessment of impact of ETF investments on student learning
 In each of the departments, it is clear that ETF funds are being used to enhance student
learning by recreating “near real world” experiences in course activities. Program
evaluations by students and alumni have supported the value of having equipment and
technology that has helped them bridge the gap between the theoretical and the applied.
Review of assessments (course-based and senior interviews) from all of the departments
show responses that are very positive; students confirm the value of hands-on learning,
as opposed to only classroom learning. They report that such practical education gives
them an advantage as they go into the professions that CNR prepares them for. Without
ETF funds we would not be able to offer these opportunities and to continue to upgrade
and refine the technology that supports these learning experiences.
e) Planning and review process
 Planning for allocation of ETF funds is accomplished by the CNR ETF Committee,
composed of mainly teaching faculty representatives from each of the departments, as
well as the IT manager and the Academic Dean. After student computer lab
replacements and any new college-wide one-time purchases are agreed to by the
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committee have been covered, remaining funds are divided among the departments to
use for capital expenditures. The departments are required to submit proposals for use of
the funds for review of appropriateness by the CNR ETF committee, which subsequently
identifies the proposals that best fulfill the standards for ETF investment. Each
department has a process by which they receive student input. The CNR Student
Council reviews the proposed distribution developed by the ETF committee, as well as
the final report of ETF expenditures.

Distribution within the departments is handled by the faculty, normally by a submission
of proposed equipment purchases with justification, which outlines the functional needs
for the technology, its scope and scale, as well as the direct benefits to the students.
o For example, the Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources polls all
faculty members for instructional equipment requests. The ETF funding requests are
reviewed for appropriateness and impact through the departmental members on the
CNR ETF Committee.
Students are informally surveyed through laboratory
sessions and student organizations (The Forestry Club and Society of American
Foresters).
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3) Itemized List of Expenditures by Account Code
CNR ETF EXPENDITURES FOR FY 2008-09
Account
51219
51270
51410
51450
51811
51813
51821
51830
51891
51990
52101
52300
52400
52590
52600
52650
52821
52823
52824
52850
52870
52872
52873
52874
52875
52900
53144
53210
53230
53272
53510
53550
53600
53923
53925
53928
53929
54437
54511
55200
55223
50000-59999
Description
Spa-reg. Salaries
Spa Longevity Pay
Non-student Reg Wage
Student Regular Wage
Social Security
Federal Health Ins
State Retirement
Medical Insurance
Staff Benefits
Other Contr Services
Household Sup-janitorial/cln
Educational Supply
Repair Supplies
Other Mtr Veh Suppl
Office Supply
Data Processing Supplies
Other Comp Software <$5,000
PC Software Purch <$5,000
Server Software Purch <$5,000
Other Equip-Voice Comm <$5,000
Other DP Equipment <$5,000
Video Trans Equip <$5,000
LAN Equipment Purch <$5,000
PC & Printer Purch <$5,000
Server Purchases <$5,000
Other Supply
Board/nonemp Travel-sub
Telephone Service
Comm-telecomm Services
Telephone Wiring Service Charg
Repairs Bldg/gnds
Repairs And Maint-oth Eq
Freight And Express
Svs Agree-lab Svs
Svs Agree-waste Remove
Svs Agree-lawn & Grnds
Service Agreements-other
Maint Agrmt - PC Software
Insurance-property
Edp Equipment
PC Software Purch >$5,000
Total Expenditures
Total
113,439.31
654.36
192.00
3,591.23
6,753.82
1,579.43
9,367.78
5,918.18
648.36
300.00
13.56
71,978.87
3,332.82
373.30
5,772.70
344.95
2,116.45
15,272.00
5,241.75
3,071.88
305.98
1,179.00
44.18
84,598.16
1,500.00
2,637.26
2,004.00
1,226.62
2,967.00
50.00
60.86
763.00
201.89
280.00
24.67
170.00
2,248.29
163.54
550.00
2,803.35
9,500.00
363,240.55
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