Texas A&M established a fee-based funding system for technology improvements involving administrators and students in the development of recommendations for use of funds allocated to support student access to technology. In addition, A&M utilizes grants, which often provide funding for technology resources.
In fiscal year 2003–04, approximately one-half of the students paid $9.25 per semester credit hour for Computer Access/Instructional Technology fees, and the other half paid $14.05 per semester credit hour. The $4.80 difference is due to a fee increase that is not charged to students who were “grand fathered” at the lower level.
For fiscal year 2003–04, the Computer Access/Instructional Technology Fee generated approximately $10,450,000. Funds were allocated to 25 different accounts, some of the more significant of which were:
• Open Access Labs – $2,334,263 (for both recurring and non-recurring expenses) • Lab Printing Supplies – $334,750
• Adaptive Technology Services – $25,000 • Internet2 Access – $78,256
• High Performance Computing – $473,280
• Multi-User Systems (email, web operations, and more) – $1,183,200 • Network Operations and Internet Access – $2,850,295
• Network Help Desk – $187,340
• Faculty Tuition for the CIS Training Center – $32,954 • Instructional Technology Services – $484,000
• Instructional Media Services – $713,000 • Internet Media Services – $87,000.
All of these funds were used by the central technology support organization except for the following: • $800,000 allocation to colleges by formula (the formula considers number of students and
courses; Liberal Arts received the most at $181,033 and the Bush School received the least at $763).
• $200,000 allocation for computer access competitive grants (a program that funds grants to colleges and departments based on proposal submissions; grants ranged in size from $9,082 to $38,398).
• $200,000 allocation that is used to fund classroom instructional technology matching grants (grant applications are received, evaluated, and funded so that grant funds cover two-thirds of the cost, with the college covering the remaining one-third).
Colleges receiving funds from any of these categories must use them to support instructional technology in some fashion.
In the spring of 2004, A&M proposed an increase in the fee of $3.25 per semester credit hour to the Board of Regents. The board approved the proposal in March 2004. This increase will be “phased in” by moving the Computer Access/Instructional Technology Fee from $9.25 to $12.50 per semester credit hour for one-quarter of A&M students. The other 75 percent of A&M students will be paying $17.30 per semester credit hour. This increase is expected to generate an additional $3,390,000 in revenue.
The following are some of the uses to which $3.00 of the increase will be applied:
• Replacement of the Student Information Management Systems (SIMS)—$2,360,000 per year to replace SIMS, which has been used by A&M since 1985. Despite updates over the last 19 years, the system no longer meets the needs of students, faculty, and staff for web-based self- service.
• Network operations and Internet access—$475,000 per year to implement and maintain a more advanced and faster network.
• Wireless and wired network access—$75,000 per year to install and maintain new wireless networks that will be placed in student areas (for example, the Memorial Student Center, residence halls, academic building communal areas, and more). These networks will allow connections via either laptops or handheld devices.
• Adaptive Technology Services—$25,000 per year to increase adaptive support services, such as book-on-tape, textbook scanning, adaptive software, and more, for students with
disabilities. This unit has not received an increase in the CA/IT fee in several years, although the number of students who require service has increased.
The remaining $.25 increase per semester credit hour will be used to support faculty, teaching assistants, and staff that assist faculty in making use of technology. This part of the increase is expected to generate $282,500 in new revenue.
Of the $282,500, $207,000 will go to Instructional Technology Services to support salary and benefits for the following new positions:
• lead system administrator for the WebCT course management system; • training consultant for Instructional Technology; and
• part-time server administrator.
A total of $75,000 per year will go to the Internet Media Services unit. This unit interacts directly with faculty, teaching assistants, and staff in producing and archiving video streaming lectures and laboratories.
In addition to the Computer Access/Instructional Technology Fee, there is also a $40 Distance Education Fee per semester credit hour that is paid by distance education students. The funds generated by this fee go to support the Office of Distance Education and distance education program development and services.
The A&M Academic Program Council, which is chaired by the executive vice president and provost, recommends changes in these fee allocations from year to year, subject to approval of the president. Other members of the council include the student body president, the Graduate Student Council
president, the speaker of the Faculty Senate, the chair of the Executive Committee of Distinguished Professors, the president of the Council of Principal Investigators, the deans of each college, and the provost’s administrative team.
FINDING 5-1
The conversion process to WebCT Vista as A&M’s Course Management System has not been smooth. The university is still in a transition period that began in fall 2002 in which it is changing from WebCT Standard Edition (SE) to WebCT Vista, a newer, enhanced version of the product. Information Technology Services (ITS) provides university wide support for the product. WebCT Vista is specifically built to address the challenges of enterprise wide deployment and provides a state-of-the-art teaching and learning environment that is designed to streamline course management for faculty, offer features to help improve student outcomes, and improve efficiency institution wide.
WebCT Vista is designed to be quickly adapted across an institution and provide immediate value to faculty. WebCT Vista enables the following:
• easy course preparation • efficient course management
• positive impact on learning outcomes
A&M’s experience with WebCT has not been completely positive. Although the product offered “great potential,” staff was surprised at the number of difficulties they had encountered. Some other interviewee comments included the following:
• The implementation of WebCT has been a “bumpy road.” • It is challenging to support.
• WebCT is a “nightmare.” • “I gave it up. It is cumbersome.”
• “Grades are the main reason most people use it.”
• “WebCT does not work well” and that is “because of the out-dated student information system that is still being used.”
While several individuals were not complimentary of the product, representatives of the colleges of Education and Liberal Arts indicated that the product is widely used in their colleges. Other
interviewees from other colleges indicated that the support for WebCT is “outstanding.”
Although not all of the WebCT comments from interviewees were positive, the fact is that the system was used extensively. In spring 2004, the standard edition supported the following:
• 46,000 automated student enrollments across all sections • 427 academic courses requesting loads
• 859 academic sections being loaded
During that same period, the WebCT Vista system supported the following: • 6,700 automated student enrollments across all sections
• 142 academic courses requesting loads • 275 academic sections being loaded
There are difficulties with implementing almost any new system, and there is no reason to believe that WebCT would be any different. If, as one person suggested, some of the problems with WebCT can be attributed to the university’s old student information system, that problem will correct itself as the student information management system (SIMS) is replaced over the next two to three years. It should be noted, however, that CIS personnel contend that the relationship between WebCT and the SIMS system is limited and therefore has little or no effect on the operation of WebCT.