Section 3: Comprehensive Standards
3.4.14 The institution's use of technology enhances student learning, is appropriate for meeting the objectives of its programs, and ensures that students have access to and training in the use of technology.
Judgment of Compliance:
Compliance
Narrative/Justification for Judgment of Compliance:
Christopher Newport University is in compliance with this comprehensive standard.
Information Technology (IT) Vision and Mission
The multiplicity of programs and technologies at Christopher Newport spring from the philosophy that creative application of technology enhances student learning and faculty teaching, and stimulates and supports academic inquiry. Students not only acquire knowledge; they also learn how to acquire knowledge. Technology enables CNU to offer dynamic, relevant learning experiences, to prepare students and faculty. At its best, IT changes student perspectives on what is possible and evokes student imagination as to what might be possible. At CNU we view IT as a digital landscape. We are committed to create a digital landscape that will inspire an enhanced liberal arts experience, promoting the education of our students and the effectiveness of our faculty and staff. We see IT as an infrastructure that will bring us together, increase our communication, enhance collaboration among faculty and students, remove barriers between departments and unite our diverse University constituency.
According to the Mission of CNU's Information Technology Services Center, which supports the University's Mission Statement, “IT Services will be an exemplary center for the planning, development and implementation of information technology to enhance the teaching, learning and business missions of the University.” The statement enumerates three major goals:
• Provide the University community with high-quality, secure, reliable and well maintained computing and communications resources that support the educational and administrative needs;
• Evaluate emerging information technologies for their impacts on the teaching and learning environment and on the administrative systems; present to the University community those with potential to improve that environment; and develop/implement software systems that facilitate decision-making, assessment and service;
• Provide computing and media support services (training, software development, maintenance and installation) that enhance the development of courses and curricula and make more effective the University's business practices.
Required Proficiency
The CNU philosophy of education requires "the ability to use information technology for research and communication" as one of seven intellectual competencies. Students majoring in programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Science may acquire the tools for this competency by taking CPSC 110, Introduction to Computing, learning word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, multimedia and webpage development. Students majoring in programs in the School of Business must take CPSC 215, Software Packages for Business Applications, which develops competence in spreadsheets, databases and database management, as well as desktop publishing. Section VI of the Student Handbook lays out acceptable-use guidelines for the CNU network.
Tools to Enhance Student Learning
Access to email and web space
All CNU students are assigned e-mail accounts when they first register for classes. The University has 52G of space available on a University server for the development of individual and organizational web pages. The e-mail addresses are used for all university email correspondence lists and for populating lists for classes. E-mail is an official method of communication at CNU. Students are responsible to read, in a timely fashion, University-related communications sent to their official accounts.
Enhancement of Courses by Use of Web Components
Every course at CNU has a WebCT support tool automatically attached. This widely-adopted course management tool provides chat, threaded discussion, syllabus, course submissions, links to course pages and other web links as activated by a professor.
Technology to Support Program Objectives
Academic Instruction
Beginning in Spring 2005, all courses have the WebCT course management system. Previously, faculty had to request augmentation individually. In a typical semester, under the request-option, fewer than 10% of the nearly 1600 course sections used WebCT. In the fall of 2005, under the automatic populating protocol, about 60% of the 1600 courses show WebCT activity that indicates the use of discussion or chat and about 25% show significant units of course material loaded for student use.
Many academic programs have specific courses that focus on the use of information technology in the discipline—for example, BIOL 300W (General Biology for majors), COMM 355 (Broadcast Writing and Production), ENGL 123 (First Year Writing Seminar), ENGL 350 (Web Page Writing), FNAR 370 (Computer Art), MATH 380 (Numerical Analysis), MUSC 315 (Music Technology), CPSC 125 (Introduction to Computer Science), PSYC 300 (Statistical Applications in Social Science Research), SOCL 392 (Methods and Tools of Social Research), BUSN 370 (Business and Accounting Information Systems) and MKTG 455 (Database Marketing).
Access to University Services
CNU has an enterprise level information management system called CNU Live, which offers continuous access to academic history, financial aid, course information and admissions data. It offers online registration for classes, as well as checking of course grades, for application to the university, and for unofficial transcripts. The self-service features of CNU Live are tied to online access to course materials through the University portal—MyCNU.
Student Access to Technology
Computer Accessibility and Software Accessibility
There are six computer lab/lecture rooms in classroom buildings that have PCs running the Microsoft Windows operating system and feature Office, web browsers, SPSS and other general-use applications, offering 137 computers:
All Windows labs have the following software installed: MS Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2003, WS-FTP, Netscape Communicator 7.1, Internet Explorer 6, Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0, Norton Anti-Virus 8.1, Zoom Text level 2, Telnet, Realplayer, QuickTime Player, Windows Media Player, InfoZip, SPSS.
Also, commons areas in the residence halls contain 22 computers:
Several departments have computer labs with specialized software. Biology has 30 PCs; Mathematics 30 Macs; Physics, Computer Science and Engineering a lab with 20 Macs, a lab with 25 Sun workstations, an IT lab with 8 PCs, a hardware lab with 6 PCs, 26 PCs in introductory course labs, and an electronics lab with 6 PCs; and Fine and Performing Arts has 14 Macs and 16 PCs.
Although CNU does not require students to have their own computers, this year IT Services registered 2900 individual devices on the Campus Manager for residential students, evidence that a majority of CNU students own computers.
Network Accessibility
All of the rooms in CNU residence halls have at least two network jacks linked to the University's 45 megabit full-duplex connection to the internet. The backbone of the campus is a gigabit Ethernet network. The University has a separate wireless network accessible in all outdoor gathering spaces and important commons rooms. The new Student Union and expanded library will have extensive distributions of access points. Computers in the library offer access to over 500 bibliographic and full-text databases as well as to ProQuest, Infotrac and JSTOR.
Multimedia Classrooms and Production Facilities
As of Spring 2006, all classrooms have computer projection systems connected to the campus network. Ten rooms have smart boards and ten have touch-screen systems. Three large lecture halls have multimedia capability for voice, data and video projection.
There are two multimedia production areas—one in the Media Center (temporarily in the Information Technology Services Center ) and the other in Gosnold Hall. The multimedia production equipment includes two video production stations, two graphics production stations, video streaming facility, video conferencing units, two video preview stations and two video editing stations. There are also supporting VHS and DVD players, cameras, sound systems and software. Typical software includes Final Cut Studio, Creative Suite, Studio MX with Flash Professional, QuarkXPress Passport, Poser 6 and Dreamweaver.
National Survey of Student Engagement Results
The 2005 survey of CNU's freshmen and seniors provided information that they use technology often. For the four items reported here, the scale used was: 1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, and 4 = very often.
NSSE Item |
Freshmen Mean |
Senior Mean |
Used an electronic medium (listserv, chat group, Internet, instant messaging, etc.) to discuss or complete an assignment. |
2.68 |
2.97 |
Used e-mail to communicate with an instructor. |
2.82 |
3.31 |
Using computers in academic work. |
3.03 |
3.38 |
Using computing and information technology. |
2.61 |
3.15 |
Training in the Use of Technology and Technical Support
Students receive training in the many IT-related courses offered each semester, in tutorials available on the ITS website and from the Media Center staff. Faculty are trained in WebCT and the classroom management system on the University's portal by the Academic Computing sector of the ITS. This training is available for groups (16 sessions in Spring 2005, for example) or individually. Academic Computing also trains faculty and staff individually to use of multimedia equipment. A training room with 12 networked computers is available for instruction in SCT Banner, Luminis Calendar and Mail, FERPA, WebCT, and best practice in instructional design.
ITS technicians support faculty and staff as well. Service calls come through the ITS Help Desk, open from 7:30 am to midnight during the week, 7:30 am to 8:00 pm on Friday, and 18 hours on the weekend. The Help Desk can be accessed in person, over the phone, and on the University's intranet. In addition to serving faculty and staff, the Help Desk also provides level-one assistance to students, particularly for network problems and wireless connection problems.
Support Documentation:
Student Handbook, Section VI
CNU IT Strategic Plan
CNU Email Policy
CNU IT Continuity of Operations
CNU IT Call Center Specifications
CNU Classroom Technology Inventory
Additional Live Web Resources:
None