Author: Dana Lee Ling
Last Update: 27 March 2000
The core to the transition design is to continue a system that has proven successful at operating the laboratory and providing faculty support and training for the past two years.
The laboratory would be overseen by a faculty laboratory coordinator. The coordinator's primary responsibilities would include maintaining the software on the computers in the laboratory, supervising the training of student laboratory monitors, supporting and training faculty in computing technologies, and providing academic content tutoring to students during open laboratory. The coordinator would have reduced load in order to carry out their duties, carrying a couple sections worth of course load.
The laboratory would continue to be used by the upper level mathematical courses on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The laboratory would be open to students to work on assignments all day Tuesday and Thursday. Students in lower level courses would have access to the laboratory on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The coordinator would be present in the laboratory on Tuesdays and Thursdays providing academic content tutoring. To the extent possible, blocks of open laboratory time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, should be consolidated and the laboratory opened during these consolidated blocks of time.
The tutoring role of the coordinator is a critical student services and support role. The low rates of student success in math and science courses and the difficulty students at the College have in mastering these subjects make this role particularly important. The role of the faculty coordinator as a tutor is one of the core reasons the laboratory should be overseen by a member of faculty: the faculty coordinator is able to provide content support to the students in the laboratory. The coordinator position is not just a technical position, the position is a critical new component to student academic support and services. While other schools may offer students a technician who cannot provide academic support as a laboratory monitor, the College of Micronesia-FSM would be offering a full faculty member to assist students. This would be a part of our unique role in supporting the student's in this nation and helping them attain their educational dreams, this would also be a point of differentiation between the College and other schools in the Pacific basin.
| Issue | Recommendation | Justification/Benefits | Status March 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A204 laboratory computer software installation and maintenance | Have the faculty lab coordinator handle these tasks. | This would be one of the basic responsibilities of the coordinator. The software in use in the laboratory is, in many cases, unique to the laboratory. | Faculty lab coordinated has been selected. |
| A204 laboratory software licensing renewals and upgrade costs. These costs are presently $920.00 per year. | Have the department pick up these costs. | These costs are generated by software that supports the math and science courses at the College. | Present Chair has proposed budget for reported expenses |
| A204 laboratory computer hardware maintenance. | Continue to have these services provided by computer maintenance technicians at the College. | These tasks are currently centralized in what will one day become the College's Information and Technical Services subdivision, permitting centralized ordering of parts that common to all machines on campus. Money for parts should also come from the ITS budget. Routine maintenance and simple tasks such as replacing a removable drive (floppy disk, etc.) would also be done by the faculty lab coordinator to offload trivial work from the College's maintenance personnel. All such work would be previously cleared through the computer maintenance division. | Maintenance technician is an extent position at the College |
| A204 laboratory evaluation, adoption, and purchasing of new software. | New software should be evaluated for adoption by the department chair, the laboratory coordinator, and the course instructor. The coordinator should work proactively to keep the department current in terms of educational software technologies. | This was a basic responsibility of the Math Science Software Specialist. | |
| A204 print cartridge replacement costs | Centralize the purchasing of ink cartridges inside the VPIA's office. | In one study 55% of the printing in the laboratory was done for courses outside of the department. The network cannot tell whether a print job is for a math/science course or for another department. Thus the options for controlling this cost center are to either limit lab use to math and science assignments only or to find a way to centrally provide ink to all of the laboratories on campus. | Adopted |
| Monitoring of the laboratory during open laboratory time when the faculty lab coordinator is not present. | Have the faculty lab coordinator train of College Work Study students as laboratory monitors. | Provides training in the operation of computer technologies as well as in the operation of a computer laboratory. Offers an opportunity for students to experience personal growth and responsibility. Provides a leadership opportunity for students. | Adopted |
| Students in the laboratory often need academic content support. The lab has become known as a place to which students can turn to for assistance. | Have the faculty lab coordinator perform tutoring function while in the laboratory. | The students need one-on-one tutorial assistance in many of their math and science courses. This has been identified as a key role for the faculty lab coordinator during open laboratory time. | Faculty lab coordinated has been selected. |
| Staff and faculty in the department need ongoing technical support and training. New faculty will need training in existing software. | Have the faculty lab coordinator perform training function. | This would be one of the basic responsibilities of the coordinator. | Adopted |
| Provide computer user support and help desk services within the department. | Have the faculty lab coordinator perform user support functions. | This would be one of the basic responsibilities of the coordinator. | Adopted |
| Provide future support for the development and delivery of distance education offerings. | Have the faculty lab coordinator work with and support members of the department in developing materials that could be delivered to remote sites. | Distance education offer involves a technical component married to content expertise. The faculty coordinator would provide the training and technical support necessary to other members of faculty in this area. The faculty lab coordinator would also liaison with the appropriate technical units involved with delivering distance education at the College. | Additional support may come through AV with new head of AV in place. |
| Provision of student access to computers for students in all math and science courses. | Limit the courses that actually meet in the laboratory to the upper level math courses that currently meet in the laboratory. Courses that meet in the laboratory include MS 101, MS 150, MS 152, and MS 154. Attempt to consolidate open lab hours MWF to create additional open lab time on MWF. | Maximize access to the computers for students. | Present policy |
| Provide school evening access to mathematics and science software. | Currently the use of college students who are under contract to Title III is being piloted. The use of contractual workers is due to present limitations in the duration of employment and maximum number of hours under the College Work Study program. At present it is not clear that the department has the ability to shoulder these contractual costs. | The laboratory is used academically in the evenings, primarily by the dormitory students. The lab provides a place to work on math, science, and English assignments. Lab demand in the evening is, at present, as strong as peak daytime demand. | Evening access Fall term 1999 to date has been dominated by email and chat usage (80% of the walk-ins come in to do email and chat). If this trend holds, then the department should not be expected to bear contractual costs. Currently work study students provide some evening access. |
| Provide Saturday access to the laboratory. | The current pilot study suggests that weekend usage is non-academic. If current trends in the data hold, then the recommendation will be to not open the laboratory on weekends. | At present there is no academic return on the investment of money into hiring weekend laboratory monitors. | Internet access will be available from the library. Math software access will be limited to Internet-abled LiveMath modules. |
| Ensure that the laboratory is used to the best benefit of the students. | Have a faculty coordinator for the laboratory who speaks as a voice among equals in faculty department meetings, understands the academic needs of faculty and students, who has a direct stake in the laboratory being accessible and functional for students. | In another department at one point in Title III's past a laboratory's schedule was heavily restructured to benefit a single instructor and their course at the expense of other instructors and courses. A contractually hired laboratory monitor would have difficulty rectifying such decisions; a co-worker coordinator could work diplomatically to find a resolution that would best serve the students. | Faculty lab coordinated has been selected and can help seen to best utilization of lab for the benefit of the students. |