EDUCAUSE2006: Gerald D. Hinkle et al.
From Labs to Collaborative Spaces: Development of Temple University's TECH Center
Gerald D. Hinkle, Director, Computer Services, Temple University
Timothy O'Rourke, Vice President, Computer & Information Services, Temple University
Sheri Stahler, Associate Vice President, Computer Services, Temple University
Effort started with consolidation, did inventory to learn there were 112 labs on campus, most in schools and colleges, 14 run by computer services. There was a classroom shortage too, 11,000+ courses on blackboard, lab usage expanding over 2 yr period; Teaching and learning center too.
They had a budget of 11 million dollars, large building originally used as corporate data center that had been vacant for 10 yrs., lots of AC, no heat (computers would generate?), raised floors
Question: why not make campus wireless and buy students computers instead??
Did surveys, why use labs, what computers they had, etc.
Results: was already wireless, can’t buy 35,000 students laptops, but why couldn’t they buy their own? Urban institution, board of trustees wouldn’t do
Most students had computers, about a third had laptops (82% said never brought on campus: heavy, could break, might get stolen)
Went to academic affairs committee of board: if we want to be leader in technology, need to provide this to students; student work no longer done in study carrel in library (!); more collaborative, with TV, etc. Students work all hours of day and night, need help desk open 24 hrs. Convinced one board member not to fight it by having a personal meeting with him—not for it, but would wait and see.
Budget: 10M construction, 4M computers, 2M furniture (1M/year set aside for replacements) (From question: students pay a $100 tech fee per semester, ½ goes to colleges, ½ to central IT)
700 workstation lab (600 fixed, 100 laptops), 13 smart “breakout rooms”, faculty wing, university welcome center; don’t want to see “sea of computers”, central operation, keep faculty separate from students, need to be flexible
Open in second semester now
6 specialty labs (e.g, music, AV, computer science--separate network so can take it down without breaking the campus,-- etc.), lots of open social spaces
150 software packages (Endnote, ESRI, Avid, etc.) all needed to be represented in tech lab (metered to cut costs)
Equipment/capabilities:
• Dell optiplex and precision/ macs
• AMX control systems
• IIS
• Bluecoat proxy servers
• Fortress
• Symantec sygate and antivirus
• Samba authentication
• Computrace for laptops
• Vbrick to bring tv to desktop
• Uniprint 400 free per semester, 10 cents/page after that
• My backpack: roaming profile, can store files on “virtual drive”
Open 24 hours Sunday/Friday with Saturday hours
“ask a librarian” service—desk and chat
Large format scanners, plotters, color printing
Laptop friendly furniture (small movable tables near chairs)
30+ flat screen wall displays (show world cup, etc.)
Security was a concern (inner city) so they cut off areas at night so can be more easily controlled, have round the clock security guards; ID swipe brings picture up on display, security videos at guard station; Security cameras w/ dvr; Cable locks for desktops; Lockers and cameras for laptops; Close relationship w/ police
Social spaces and student life: Starbucks 24 hours! (Only covered drinks in lab)
Vending machine: headphones, flash drives, school supplies, etc.
Lab is staffed by full-time employees until 10pm, walk in help desk area separate from phone center as people want customer service; pc clinic: teach how to troubleshoot, rebuild systems, very successful
Faculty wing: instructional support center, teaching and learning, 35 seat presentation room (classes can use only once a semester or so), breakout room, lounge
6000 visits per day—to the lab (not help desk, welcome center, etc.) at 9am overflow area is in use, 8000 visits a day during exams, etc.
Lessons learned:
Hits : quickly adopted; very positive “premier spot on campus”.
Popular labs: breakout rooms booked from noon- 3am, internet lounge a hit, quiet, music and video labs have high usage
76% rise in help desk walk ins, #1 Starbucks in Philly area, #4 in east coast
Misses: overwhelmed with video lab support, software development lab “sandbox” wasn’t enough, wanted access to real networks etc., language lab: largely unused; quiet lab too popular, now additional one; faculty were jealous, perils of popularity: students groups wanted tables in lobby
Flexible: regularly solicit feedback, change as necessary
Design counts: the wow factor
Computer ownership does not mean access to expensive software and peripherals (some may buy, but many don’t want/need for cross-disciplinary
Questions/answers:
• Didn’t cut down on staff, in fact hired 5 extra people
• Closed 4 of the 12 IT labs, probably about a dozen department labs have closed and been turned into smart classrooms
• Does the help desk support the specialized software: Yes!
• Metering software: spent about 15K on licenses, put some in special rooms because couldn’t pay for everywhere.
Gerald D. Hinkle, Director, Computer Services, Temple University
Timothy O'Rourke, Vice President, Computer & Information Services, Temple University
Sheri Stahler, Associate Vice President, Computer Services, Temple University
Effort started with consolidation, did inventory to learn there were 112 labs on campus, most in schools and colleges, 14 run by computer services. There was a classroom shortage too, 11,000+ courses on blackboard, lab usage expanding over 2 yr period; Teaching and learning center too.
They had a budget of 11 million dollars, large building originally used as corporate data center that had been vacant for 10 yrs., lots of AC, no heat (computers would generate?), raised floors
Question: why not make campus wireless and buy students computers instead??
Did surveys, why use labs, what computers they had, etc.
Results: was already wireless, can’t buy 35,000 students laptops, but why couldn’t they buy their own? Urban institution, board of trustees wouldn’t do
Most students had computers, about a third had laptops (82% said never brought on campus: heavy, could break, might get stolen)
Went to academic affairs committee of board: if we want to be leader in technology, need to provide this to students; student work no longer done in study carrel in library (!); more collaborative, with TV, etc. Students work all hours of day and night, need help desk open 24 hrs. Convinced one board member not to fight it by having a personal meeting with him—not for it, but would wait and see.
Budget: 10M construction, 4M computers, 2M furniture (1M/year set aside for replacements) (From question: students pay a $100 tech fee per semester, ½ goes to colleges, ½ to central IT)
700 workstation lab (600 fixed, 100 laptops), 13 smart “breakout rooms”, faculty wing, university welcome center; don’t want to see “sea of computers”, central operation, keep faculty separate from students, need to be flexible
Open in second semester now
6 specialty labs (e.g, music, AV, computer science--separate network so can take it down without breaking the campus,-- etc.), lots of open social spaces
150 software packages (Endnote, ESRI, Avid, etc.) all needed to be represented in tech lab (metered to cut costs)
Equipment/capabilities:
• Dell optiplex and precision/ macs
• AMX control systems
• IIS
• Bluecoat proxy servers
• Fortress
• Symantec sygate and antivirus
• Samba authentication
• Computrace for laptops
• Vbrick to bring tv to desktop
• Uniprint 400 free per semester, 10 cents/page after that
• My backpack: roaming profile, can store files on “virtual drive”
Open 24 hours Sunday/Friday with Saturday hours
“ask a librarian” service—desk and chat
Large format scanners, plotters, color printing
Laptop friendly furniture (small movable tables near chairs)
30+ flat screen wall displays (show world cup, etc.)
Security was a concern (inner city) so they cut off areas at night so can be more easily controlled, have round the clock security guards; ID swipe brings picture up on display, security videos at guard station; Security cameras w/ dvr; Cable locks for desktops; Lockers and cameras for laptops; Close relationship w/ police
Social spaces and student life: Starbucks 24 hours! (Only covered drinks in lab)
Vending machine: headphones, flash drives, school supplies, etc.
Lab is staffed by full-time employees until 10pm, walk in help desk area separate from phone center as people want customer service; pc clinic: teach how to troubleshoot, rebuild systems, very successful
Faculty wing: instructional support center, teaching and learning, 35 seat presentation room (classes can use only once a semester or so), breakout room, lounge
6000 visits per day—to the lab (not help desk, welcome center, etc.) at 9am overflow area is in use, 8000 visits a day during exams, etc.
Lessons learned:
Hits : quickly adopted; very positive “premier spot on campus”.
Popular labs: breakout rooms booked from noon- 3am, internet lounge a hit, quiet, music and video labs have high usage
76% rise in help desk walk ins, #1 Starbucks in Philly area, #4 in east coast
Misses: overwhelmed with video lab support, software development lab “sandbox” wasn’t enough, wanted access to real networks etc., language lab: largely unused; quiet lab too popular, now additional one; faculty were jealous, perils of popularity: students groups wanted tables in lobby
Flexible: regularly solicit feedback, change as necessary
Design counts: the wow factor
Computer ownership does not mean access to expensive software and peripherals (some may buy, but many don’t want/need for cross-disciplinary
Questions/answers:
• Didn’t cut down on staff, in fact hired 5 extra people
• Closed 4 of the 12 IT labs, probably about a dozen department labs have closed and been turned into smart classrooms
• Does the help desk support the specialized software: Yes!
• Metering software: spent about 15K on licenses, put some in special rooms because couldn’t pay for everywhere.
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