Monday, September 28, 1998
Campus reacts to technology fee
WEB PAGES: Ambitious project funds new computer labs, web sites
for all College of Letters & Science courses
By Teresa Jun
Daily Bruin Contributor
Introducing thousands of new class websites, four new computer
labs, and the my.ucla webpage, the Instructional Enhancement
Initiative (IEI) made a sudden debut last fall.
Now, after just one year, IEI, an ambitious but expensive
project meant to enhance the quality of education through modern
technology, has engendered both positive and negative reactions
from students and faculty.
Last year, IEI funds produced class websites for every course in
the College of Letters & Science, the personalized my.ucla
webpage offering status and degree progress information, and
hundreds of new computers on campus.
But this new technology comes attached to a heavy price tag – a
$4.1 million price tag, $2.4 million of which students in the
College of Letters & Science are forced to bear the burden
of.
Amounting to $10 for every humanities and social science class,
and $14 for every life and physical sciences class, this fee will
remain in effect for the next two academic years, after which point
the program will be re-evaluated.
Currently, almost 70 percent of the IEI fee is going to the
purchase and maintenance of campus computer labs and equipment,
including new printers, scanners, monitors, memory, and
upgrades.
The other 30 percent will fund the construction of class
websites, my.ucla, and computer lab personnel.
But for students, the main issue is whether these technological
benefits are actually worth the per-course fees they are required
to pay.
The approximately 3,000 undergraduate class websites introduced
through IEI are capable of providing links to other websites as
well as basic class information, syllabi, virtual office hours,
chat rooms, and e-mail access, potentially offering a wide range of
educational tools at the fingertips of professors and students.
Many students, however, question the actual value of these
course websites, arguing that most of them consist of little else
besides basic class information and a syllabus.
"Your syllabus comes with the course. Contact with the professor
comes with the course, and e-mail already exists for students,"
said Stacy Lee, Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC)
president.
"I’m sure there are some students who do like (the websites),
but for many, it’s not worth it," she added.
Other students also worry that they are not getting their
money’s worth, for they can pay anywhere from $90 to $140 each
year.
"If I could see an impact, I wouldn’t mind paying the fee," said
Jeff Hsu, a 4th-year History and Asian-American Studies student.
"But the majority of my professors don’t even update their
websites."
Professors, like Russell Schuh, intend to develop their websites
but say the process has practical constraints. "I would like to use
(the websites) more than I do," said Schuh, a linguistics
professor.
"But I just don’t have the time and imagination to do all that I
want to do with it. There is technical support available to help,
but working with them also takes time."
As of last year, IEI also made four new supervised computer labs
available to students across campus, featuring about 700 new
computers and upgrades.
Though the labs are supported by a large percentage of the IEI
fees that students in the College of Letters & Science pay,
other students on campus could potentially use these computers
without paying the extra fees.
The IEI fee is not the only thing costing some students extra
money.
"The computer labs are hardly suitable to do research on because
if you have to print anything, you have to pay an arm and a leg for
it," Hsu said.
The my.ucla personalized website, which provides important class
status information and records for students, is also an IEI
innovation.
Eric Splaver, director of the College Information Services,
expects that students this year will even be able to take care of
administrative matters with departments at Murphy Hall via
my.ucla.
Instead of walking all the way down to Murphy Hall, this is one
method that will make things "easier, and facilitate the actual
process" for students, said Splaver, who had a hand in creating
my.ucla.
Student surveys conducted last school year indicate student
enthusiasm for IEI technology has increased every quarter, said
David Wilson, assistant dean of humanities.
Wilson, a member of the committee that originally drafted the
IEI proposal, also pointed out that according to their records, 95%
of students logged on to my.ucla.
Though some professors like Schuh were "not real happy with the
way (IEI) was implemented" because it was just "foisted onto the
faculty and students", many, including Schuh, remain optimistic
about the future success of this program.
"I’m glad that we have it," Schuh said. "It’s got a pretty
decent outlook for the future."
Last year’s statistics show the potential for IEI’s success.
"Usage has increased quite a bit from fall to spring," said
Karie Masterson, director of the Humanities Computing Facility.
"So we expect it to increase even more this year."
Some students are not surprised by the increasing use of IEI
technology.
"The fees are not really that bad, considering we get a lot back
for it," said Allison Chew, a 4th year Communication Studies
student.
Chew, who said my.ucla is a "really great website" and the new
computer labs are "really useful," noted that a couple of her
professors last year utilized the class websites by posting lecture
notes, grades, and incorporating chat room discussions into the
curriculum.
"In those classes, I really got my money’s worth," she said.
After two more years of the IEI fee, various factors will
determine whether the Instructional Technology Fee will rise, fall,
freeze, or disappear altogether.
"Who know s what the state budget will be in two years?" Wilson
said.
"We want these fees to go away," he added, calling them a
"necessary evil for a greater good."
This "greater good" refers to students’ access to new computer
labs, websites, and multimedia education – all technological
features that are available to some degree at other campuses (such
as UCSD and UC Berkeley) without a separate technology fee.
"It’s difficult to measure the costs and benefits here," Schuh
said.
"But you’ve got to start someplace, and that’s what we did."
Taking a retrospective look at its first year of implementation,
the planners and proponents of IEI acknowledged progress as well as
problem areas.
"We’ve made quite an impact. It’s better now than when it
started, and we want it to get even better," Copenhaver said.
"Some of the websites are very rich while others are not," he
added. "We want to get them all to be rich."
In addition to constantly upgrading computer labs and making
my.ucla more useful, IEI planners will also improve class websites
and aim to increase faculty familiarity with the websites,
Copenhaver said
As far as fees are concerned, Wilson acknowledged that while
some students may not be getting their money’s worth, others are
getting far more from this than they are investing.
Since IEI aims at "delivering education more effectively to
students," Wilson remains optimistic and enthusiastic about the
program.
"Right now, we’re focusing on increasing the quality of
education, improving student awareness, and really making these
dollars go as far as they can," he said.
But for students like Lee, USAC president, these seem like "high
ideals" and "fine ideas," which have yet to prove themselves
effective.
BAHMAN FARAHDEL
Graduate student Damion Thomas works in the IEI-funded Powell
computing commons.
Related site:
“¢bull; MyUcla
“¢bull; About the College Instructional Enhancement
Initiative
“¢bull; UCLA Campus Computing Labs
“¢bull; Daily Bruin (10/20/97): High price of class web sites
raises concerns
Comments, feedback, problems?
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