Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments/Online Learning
10. Describe plans to use technology-enhanced learning environments to bring courses and programs
to a broader range of students, including opportunities in both degree and non-degree/continuingeducation programs. What are your plans to prepare and encourage faculty to deploy electronic
media, especially the Web, in their disciplines and classrooms to enhance academic quality,
including teaching, research and scholarship, publishing, and collaboration (see question 35)?
Describe current and planned online activity in terms of numbers of students, courses and
programs offered, and faculty participation.
Response : Faculty are routinely provided the necessary hard- and software and internet
connections in their offices to use electronic media, including the World Wide Web, in
support of instruction. Departments or individuals who need special resources may seek
them through the institution’s budget processes for these purposes. The College employs
the Blackboard system to be used by faculty in support of research and instruction. The
Office of Academic Computing provides training in its use. Currently there are 30 smart
classrooms. In the past four years we have averaged nearly 10 additional smart
classrooms annually. There are now nearly 50 rooms equipped to delivery courses with
computer based media and Internet access in classroom buildings across the campus.
Synchronous distance learning technologies have been used extensively to deliver
graduate programs in Nursing and the collaborative doctoral program in Educational
Administration with SUNY Albany and are central to New Paltz’s new grant supported
initiate in collaboration with Sullivan County Community College to bring bachelors
level instruction in Nursing, Sociology and Elementary Education to that county.
Discussions have been held with the foreign language department and with Liberal Arts
Dean at other SUNY institutions regarding collaborative delivery of language courses
using this technology to achieve at least the minimum class size necessary for the
efficient use of instructional resources. The provision of electronic access to library
materials for students and faculty has resulted in a major improvement to efficiency in
campus support for teaching and research.
New Paltz focuses its distance learning efforts upon delivering General Education
courses and upper division courses in heavily enrolled majors and academic programs
during summer sessions. This is responsive to institutional research done in 1999 that
demonstrated that most summer session attendees at the college are enrolled New Paltz
students, and is pursuant to an institutional priority to support timely progress to
graduation An early effort to establish an on-line Liberal Studies undergraduate degree
program was not supported in the faculty, reflecting the view that the college’s
comparative advantage was as a residential comprehensive college with targeted (mostly
professional) graduate degree programs designed to serve regional needs.
In the summer of 2004 the college delivered 33 courses (37 sections) on line. These
enrolled 639 students; average enrollment was 16.8. Most on-line courses offered during
the summer reach enrollment limits in the first days of registration. The online program
has allowed the college to sustain summer enrollments and revenues in a period of
general decline in demand for summer session courses. With departmental approval, a
limited number of on-line courses is offered during the academic year as a part of fulltime faculty member’s regular teaching loads.
In the 2003-2004 academic year there were 33 faculty members who taught on line at
New Paltz. In the ten years between 1995 and 2004 a total of 66 faculty were trained for
an offered on-line courses. The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
supported by The Associate Dean for Continuing Education and her staff, administers the
on-line program for the institution. An annual call letter is issued every fall to seek
faculty participation in on-line instruction. Courses must be approved for on-line offering
through the institution’s curriculum approval process. Budget permits development
support of 5 to 10 new on-line courses annually. A stipend of $3,000 is provided for the
development of a first on-line course by a faculty member and $2,000 for a second
course. Faculty are also provided the use of a lap top computer while they are teaching
on-line. Colleagues who receive development stipends must teach their course at least
three times. If courses are taught beyond three times, support is provided for a high-speed
Internet connection at the faculty member’s home. Academic Computing, through the
SUNY Learning Network, provides training and technical support.
Technology
(Plans for ensuring technology infrastructure supports academic quality)
34. Describe your planning process for ensuring that technology appropriately supports your mission,
including relevant assessment processes. In addition,
a. What is being done to ensure faculty and students have access to sufficient technology and
training? Describe your plans for increased integration of technology in the classroom,
including the proportion of instructional space that provides an instructor with network
connectivity and projection capability, and the proportion of instructional space that provides
network connectivity for each student seated in the classroom.
b. What changes or investments in technology will be needed on campus by 2010 to support
academic program directions, research, libraries, student support services, administrative
initiatives, federal or state requirements, etc.? Describe the financial impact of these changes
and how the initiatives will be funded.
c. What new roles, responsibilities, and organizational changes have been implemented or are
being considered to ensure that technology is adequately supported and integrated across the
institution?
d. How are you currently working with other campuses or organizations within SUNY to share
technology resources and what opportunities do you envision for more collaborative efforts
within the University?
Response: Two years ago, Computer Services developed a strategic plan covering
academic/instructional computing, administrative computing, and network services. The
Central Committee on Educational Technology (a standing committee of the faculty), the
college Cabinet and members of the campus at large reviewed the plan. The AVP for
Technology meets with the CCET on a regular basis and two members of the professional
support staff (one from academic computing and one from instructional media services)
are members of the CCET.
The campus is aggressively pursuing a schedule for introducing and maintaining
classroom technology. This includes replacing classroom technology and computer labs
on a regular basis and the introduction of additional smart classrooms every year.
Approximately one-half of our classrooms are equipped with network connectivity and
projection capability. The balance of our classrooms are served with mobile equipment.
Classrooms equipped with individual student workstations number less than 10%. In
addition, we have sophisticated, state of the art special purpose labs in many disciplines
and the SCAP program is used to fund curricular-specific, faculty-initiated technology
projects.
We have adopted the Blackboard teaching and learning platform and automatically enroll
every student and every course. Blackboard has been very successful and is heavily used
across the curriculum. We have recently activated the ‘community space’ under
Blackboard and now use the student records system to automatically create dozens of
special purpose groups of students.
In the coming years, we will be spreading network access, both wired and wireless,
across the campus and into virtually every classroom. We will continue to improve the
speed and resilience of our network infrastructure. This will support the anticipated
increased reliance on technology as a means of delivery, and the anticipated increased
need for bandwidth to support voice, video, and image repositories and digitized
resources.
These tasks require substantial funding to implement, and recurring funds, typically three
years out, for replacement and upgrades. Thus far the majority of these projects have
been funded through the Technology Fee, and we have had to increase this fee on a
regular basis in order to continue to have the necessary funds to address our projects as
well as to support the growing installed base of hardware, software and services. The
campus’ reliance on key technology services has grown to the point where we are being
asked to provide 24x7 support. This is putting a significant strain on our existing staff. In
addition to an incremental increase in staff we will be relying on improvements in
redundancy and remote monitoring capabilities to provide a more stable and recoverable
environment.
Over the past few years, the instructional media organization has become a part of the
technology and information systems group. In addition, as the campuses technology
resources continue to evolve, what was formerly ‘academic computing’ continues to
reexamine and redefine its roles and responsibilities to address the changing environment.
We are actively involved in COA, EdTOA, and the SUNY Council of CIOs. We are also
a member of ITEC.