Background
The over-riding purpose of collecting computer lab usage data is NOT to drive specific infrastructure changes in colleges, libraries, and centers. No assumptions are being made in collecting and reporting data from one computer lab compared to another. The University is primarily interested in our computer lab capacities (physical & virtual), their overall utilization, usage trends, and cost sharing in either equipment or software when and if that is feasible or advisable.
Enormous amounts of usage data is possible to collect, but would all of it offer insights? The enormous effort expended to collect any and all possible data would not likely lead to useful information.
This computer lab data will be forwarded to the annual Learning Spaces-Student Computing Fee Awards Process (LS-SCF) in order to help the Teaching & Learning Portfolio governance committee gain perspective on the status of our campus computer labs that receive extensive funding from LS-SCF for hardware and software. In fact, as of the Spring 2019 round of proposals, gathering and submitting usage data is now mandatory (see memo sent to college deans).
Data Collection & Data Points
Slightly different data is to be gathered, depending on the nature of the "physical" or "virtual" computer lab. Is the lab one of these three environments?
⚪️ Software is installed on individual workstations in a physical computing lab
⚪️ Software is deployed virtually for a physcial computing lab
⚪️ There are no physical computing labs. Software is deployed virtually to any remote computer or mobile connection
An online report form is designed to ask only for data relevant to your computing lab situation.
• All reports include the following data points:
- Academic Semester for data collection
- Start and End Dates for data collection
- Description of how you configure your physical lab or virtual environment
- Total logins recorded for the collection period
- What system or methods did you use to collect your data
- Additional comments or clarifications
• Physical Labs add the following data points:
- Location of the lab
- bldg name
- bldg abbreviation (see List in Campus Directory or use the Campus Map)
- room number
- managing college/dept/division
- What are the primary and secondary purposes of the computing lab
- Open access lab for any University student
- Restricted-access lab for specific student users in a college or department
- Scheduled instructional/class lab
- Lab with specialized equipment of software
- Student assessment and testing
- Other (please specify)
- How many hours a week is the computer lab available for open use by ALL students across campus
- How many computer workstations are in the lab
- What are the types of computers in the lab
- Desktops
- Thin clients
- Laptops
- Other (please specify)
• Link to Online Report Form
A link to an online report form is supplied to IT Managers/Lab Managers through an email invitation. Below are some bullet points about the online report form:
"What Data Should be Collected for the Student Computer Lab Usage Initiative"
• Have all of your data organized before filling out a report form:
You cannot start a form, save your work, then return to that same form to complete it at a later time.
At the end of each form, you may provide additional comments or clarifications.
Additional report forms are available from a link at the end of this form or by re-using the original link provided in your email invitation.
Reporting period is for Fall Semester 2018.
Deadline for submitting computer lab usage data is January 15, 2019.
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.