At the University of South Alabama, we charge computer use fees
based on the amount of computer use required for the course:
Low Use: $10.00 per course
High Use: $15.00 per course
Not all courses have a computer-use fee, but almost all of those in the
College of Education do have the fee.
> What do they get for these fees?
In the College of Education:
1. Access to the best computer labs on campus. We have several Pentiums
with W95 connected to the Internet, a number of Power PCs (Macs), 30+
Performas (that are not Power PCs), several dual-platform Macs (which are
Power PCs), and others. The students have access to a number of software
programs including ClarisWorks, MS Office, WordPerfect (Windows and Mac),
Authorware Professional 3.0, Macromind Director, Adobe Photoshop, etc.
The students also have access to a CD-Writer for one course. We have
video editing equipment and distance ed hardware as well.
> What are your institution's plans for future technology and how
> will it be funded?
Unfortunately, I cannot fully answer that question, as I am a grad student,
but I'll relate what I think ours is. We have a real vision for
Instructional Technology, which is to be on the cutting edge.
> We (Winona State University) have 100% (7,000) enrolled students on EMail
> through Vax/VMS systems, about 15 students per personal computer in the
> lab environments, and all dorm rooms wired for etherent - one port per
> resident with an average of two ports per room.
>
> For this, students now pay $1 per credit hour with a maximum of $36 a year,
> however we need and hope to get $2.60 per credit hour to a maximum
> of about $130 a year.
Hey, you're getting by cheaply, although the $2.60 would nearly match our
low-use fee.
> Our future plans include the possibility of a laptop computer for every
> student and faculty member with public printing and internet (ethernet)
> ports in every classroom, in the library and other public places.
Not a bad idea. I think that for a university to have this as their goal
for students to have a laptop apiece, though, may be unrealistic until
the computer industry rids the market of "lame-duck" hardware (like my
286 and most automobiles on the market). It would be a great idea to
offer equipment to the students that has been carefully screened and
approved by the "gurus" in the Educational Technology Dept. at your
institution. But to have computer companies to come in and offer "any old
machine" is not a good idea. We should aim to have an adequate supply
of accessible hardware for the students, to which we at USA are committed.
Addendum about our program: The computers in the College of Education
are only accessible for students registered for Education courses. We
have a system wherein to the lab is cleared by scanning the student's
photo ID; only those who are cleared may use the labs. Monies from
computer-use fees generated from students outside the COE are not
accessible to the COE, so we had to curtail access of the labs to these.
We had a lot of students who, though not paying fees in the COE, were
using (or parasitizing) our labs and resources so that those who actually
paid didn't have access things for which they paid. Additionally,
since teachers outside our area were requiring students to use software we
did not have, the students were loading software onto our machines, which
violates the University Software Policy. And we had students who "messed
up" the configurations on several computers as well.
David R. Faulkner
g061587@jaguar1.usouthal.edu