paper -
40 Strategic Partnerships for Managing Labs
Linda
Hutchison, Iowa State University
Dennis Engholm, Iowa State University
At Iowa State University, the Office of Academic
Information Technologies, the English Department, and the Department of
Residence have developed a strategic alliance to plan and manage a collection
of computing facilities. Eleven
computing classrooms support hands-on writing instruction for a broad range of
composition classes within the English curriculum.
What makes this partnership especially unique is the
involvement of three departments, and in particular the Department of
Residence. Six of the eleven classrooms
are located in various residence halls; four are housed in Ross Hall home of
the Department of English, and one is housed in the Durham Center home of
Academic Information Technologies.
AIT worked with English and Residence to design the
original labs, and we continue to provide annual support for specifications
such as power requirements, network connectivity recommendations, server specifications,
and software and hardware upgrades. In
the current program, English and Residence combine to pay the operational costs
associated with the labs. AIT manages
the annual budget, as well as provides the expertise and labor for hardware and
software upgrades and on-going maintenance.
English and Residence cooperate to provide student
hourly monitors in the classrooms. A
student monitor is always available during scheduled classes. This frees the instructor to concentrate on
the content of the class while the monitor provides assistance by helping
students with questions relating to hardware and software. These monitors are funded by the English
Department during class hours, and the Residence Department funds monitors
during evening hours in the six labs located in the residence halls.
In the event of a workstation failure, student
monitors are trained to diagnose and resolve a wide range of problems. As a first line of software support, the lab
monitors can contact AITs Solution Center for assistance, and when the problem
is determined to be hardware related, the monitors contact AIT either
directly or through the online Trouble facility to schedule repair.
The paper will include a history of the program, but will concentrate on operational issues including policies, procedures, security, training and funding.
Keywords: RESnet, facilities, partnerships, distributed support, computing classrooms