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What Presidents Need to Know About the Payoff on the Information Technology Investment - Complete Set of Background Papers

Background papers forHEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #4

"What Presidents Need to Know... about Payoff the on theInformation Technology Investment"

-------------------------------------------------------------prepared by representatives of

Brigham Young UniversityDalhousie UniversityKenyon CollegeSinclair Community CollegeUniversity of Maine at Augusta

-------------------------------------------------------------Copyright 1994 by HEIRA. The Executive Strategies reports arepublished by the Higher Education Information ResourcesAlliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projectsbetween the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and

EDUCOM. This material may be reproduced for noncommercialpurposes with appropriate credit to the HEIRAlliance.

For information about ordering this material or the , contactCAUSE at 303-449-4430, [email protected]

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Background paper forHEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #4

prepared by representatives of

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

Rex E. LeePresident

Sterling J. AlbrechtUniversity Librarian

Douglas M. ChabriesAssistant Academic Vice-President, Computing

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WHAT PRESIDENTS NEED TO KNOWABOUT THE PAYOFF ON THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT:

THE VIEW FROM BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

THE HUMAN COMPONENT



The User Community

Information "bites" are of little value in and of themselves.It is only when these building blocks of knowledge areintroduced to the intellect that they can produce furtherunderstanding of the cosmos and thus promote the elevation ofhumanity. It is important, therefore that we understand thenature of the community for which we seek access to thiscommodity called information. This community has multiplesubsets whose numbers are growing.

Our scholars--the professor, graduate student or deeplyinquiring undergraduate--are of paramount concern because noone single depository of data/information/knowledge iscapable of satisfying their cravings and needs for mentalnourishment. Of the faculty it can truly be said that theWorld is their campus. We know that our local universitiesand colleges only provide a foundation for their endeavors--formal organization, administrative support and resources.Their true colleagues, however, are often found hundreds oreven thousands of miles from their own academic institution;their scholarly interests span the universe. This situationalso applies to a multitude of graduate students who findthemselves participating in the great experience of discovery

in very remote and foreign locations.

Technology that facilitates access to information, whether itis located in their institutions' libraries or on the otherside of the globe, increases our scholars' productivity.Properly managed and fully taken advantage of, electronicaccess can also prove to be an economizing factor forresearch budgets. How many faculty have traveled to distantlibraries and archives to spend days and even weeksdeveloping bibliographies before they began any profitableresearch? Full text retrieval of significant journalliterature, much that is significant in published monographs,and even unique research materials will soon reduce distant

research excursions.

Undergraduates whose learning is assisted with user friendly,electronic avenues to more extensive information will bebetter educated individuals with a better grasp of theirsubjects of expertise. Their ability to seek out neededinformation and knowledge will serve them well as theymaintain currency in their profession or occupationthroughout the productive years. More undergraduates maydevelop the skills and inclination to continue theireducation with graduate work.

Mention was made of multiplying subsets to the community

seeking access to information. Newspapers in even the smallercities and towns of our nation have begun to educate theirreadership to the benefits of the developing "electronicsuper highway." In both rural and urban America, secondaryschools and public libraries are hooking up to the Internet.(This current "network of information networks" never reallybelonged to Academia; it was spawned and promoted bygovernment to link itself with both the research communityand industry.) These new information technology players wantaccess to many of the sources that our campuses do. In fact,



they want access to our information resources. Before wethwart their desires with passwords, account codes, and fees,we need to review some of the pluses and minuses in expandingour select community.

The democratization of information can bring a new andpowerful meaning to the founding fathers' declaration that,"all men are created equal." Common access to informationresources will go a long way in providing equality ofopportunity to each and every individual who desires todevelop to his or her full potential. The opportunity toassist in the nurturing of intellect in its infancy is both anoble and, at the same time, a practical cause for ourinstitutions to adopt. How many potential giants of learningand scholarship have America and its institutions of highereducation lost because they were raised in localities poor inthe information resources that would have stimulated andexpanded their mental processes? How many scholars neverblossomed under a sage professor's tutelage because theirintellects withered in infancy? A fully educated and informedAmerica will be both a politically and an economically strongAmerica. Our country's vigor and health will be transmittedto its colleges and universities.

Measures can be taken to ensure that the primary users of ourinstitutional information resources retain appropriate accessto these assets. We must work with traditional publishers toensure conformance to copyright laws while making resourcesmore readily available through imaging and digitizingtechnology.

Shared Responsibilities

Sharing of information resources within an enlarged communityof scholars and students isn't just the responsibility of thepublic institutions of higher education. Private colleges anduniversities have unique contributions to make to scholarship

and learning. The public universities and colleges receivesupport from the private sector of higher education and visaversa, and both have a shared responsibility to the newermembers of the information technology community. A privateinstitution providing its information resources to the publicsector may, under certain circumstances, rightfully expectsome public monies to provide support for such services. Thismay particularly be the case when public monies arespecifically earmarked for the support of universal access toinformation resources within given political boundaries.

The need also exists for increased cooperation among sisterinstitutions. Because of the electronic highway, electronic

journals, and client servers ownership of electronicresources is now shared. Decisions regarding what resourcesto acquire (or purge), what means of access will be availableto the library patron, and how the system will be maintainedand financed are now responsibilities shared by institutionsthat previously may have been autonomous. Universitypresidents should ensure that the level of cooperation neededamong their library directors is sufficient to accomplish theinformation requirements of their institutional goals.



Training Issues

Training of librarians and archivists to guide scholars andstudents to the information they require demands a new mind-set among these individuals--access to information intomorrow's universal collection of information is of equalimportance to the acquisitions of materials for their locallibraries. (Funding for electronic information must alsoshare equal importance.) Bibliographic Instruction, a termapplied to training the library patron in locating books,journals, media materials, etc., must now include extensivedirections for traversing the "electronic super highway" forits exhaustive resources. Some automation software advanceswill ease this task with previously mentioned, user friendlyapproaches to exploring tomorrow's information network.Still, only effective training of information users willresult in worthwhile use of the new information technology.Our stewardship responsibilities will also necessitate amonitoring of the effectiveness of this training and the newtechnology itself have on the productivity of our scholarsand students.

ACCESS ISSUES

The Virtual library

One of the true benefits of technology in libraries isexpanding the walls of the library beyond physicalboundaries, while at the same time better utilizing theuniversity's investment in technology. Traditionally, anyonewho wished to use the library's facilities had to come inperson to the building to use the card catalog, printindexing sources, and to retrieve materials. With the adventof automation the information in the card catalog wassuddenly transportable. Soon to follow were some indexing

sources, then full text articles, electronic mail,interlibrary loan and document delivery services. Facultymembers can now sit at their personal computers and have fulllibrary service without ever coming to the physical librarybuilding.

As library services via computer links are extended tonumerous personal computers throughout campus and from homes,the university's investment in PC's for faculty and studentsis better utilized. That PC on the faculty members deskdoubles as a PC for his or her word processing and academicpursuits as well as serving as access to the library.University libraries actually support far more ports to

access the library system to users from outside the librarythan it supports PC's within the walls of the library. Asservices have expanded the library has added access to allfaculty offices and via phone to all students having personalcomputers.

As our universities become increasingly virtual, they will bebased on a multitude of ad hoc associations of people,instruments, and knowledge. Thus, scholarly collaborationwill happen anywhere in the world at any time of the day or



night. It will happen when the scholar wants to work. Withrespect to our scholars' informational needs, the challengeis to provide transparent information navigation tools thatwill assist them in accessing to information. Finally, thevirtual library needs the kinds of electronic resources thatwill provide the scholar with information delivery--includingdocument delivery.

Timeliness

In today's fast-paced world, information changes and becomesavailable at rapid speeds. Technology has provided the meansfor more timely communication of information. Typically,periodical indexing services from publishers are provided inshorter intervals than the same index in print versions.Automated library catalogs provide access to materials themoment they are cataloged instead of waiting for cards to befiled in the card catalog. Often information is available forpublic access the moment materials are ordered or consideredfor purchase. Many online databases and news services areupdated in real time, as the event happens. Electronicbulletin boards and electronic mail allow access to ideas andinformation as they are forming, prior to the publicationprocess. Through today's technology, access to information

does not lag far behind the event or creation of information,and the timeliness of access to information is continuallyincreasing.

Shared Resources

There are benefits that can be reaped in the areas ofcollection sharing among libraries and speed with whichinformation can be made available. The state of Utah hasjoined in a cooperative venture to make periodical indexingavailable. Indexing is mounted at a host site in the state,but access to the indexing via the internet is available toall of the partners within the state. In many cases this

provides indexing services to small, rural colleges thatwould be unable to purchase and mount such services on theirown, and at a price they can afford because everyone issharing some portion of the cost on one instead of multiplelicensing agreements.

As technology continues to improve, digitization will allowlibraries to preserve and make available their uniquecollections to everyone. Imagine a special collections orarchive collection entirely digitized. Many items are one-of-a-kind, currently only available onsite at a specificlocation only to authorized researchers. With digitizationentire collections could be available online for perusal from

your office or home.

Search Protocols

As common searching strategies are made available vianational and international translations standards (such asthe Z39.50 protocols), patrons can access disparate databaseswith the command language of their local system. It may nolonger be necessary to actually travel to a library toresearch. Research can occur from the comfort of one's home.



Indeed, a democratization of information access will becomepossible.

TECHNOLOGY FOR ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION

The convergence of three technologies has changed the way ourculture acts--the entrance of high-speed, low cost computing;the availability of high-capacity, low cost mass storage; thedevelopment of high-capacity, low cost telecommunications.Adding to this the extraordinary developments in computersoftware and expert systems offers the promise that userswill be able to focus on their task rather than thetechnology as they access information and knowledge.

University libraries should begin to take advantage of therapid increases in computing hardware performance that hasalready influenced other industries. In addition, costsavings in hardware should be realized as libraries begin toutilize "open" systems, built on competitive standards.Although libraries with smaller collections have utilizedopen-systems technology for a number of years, even thelargest automated collections will now be able to takeadvantage of the computer industry's rapid advances that are

occurring in the open-systems marketplace.

The cost to store information is decreasing rapidly astechnology improves the density that data can be stored onmagnetic and optical media. However, the real advantage toeffective use of storage will be the utilization of softwarethat determines the appropriate media for a given collectionof information. In addition, data is automatically migratedfrom one media to another, depending on the requirements foraccess. This will allow the vast storage potential of opticalmedia and other technologies to be effectively utilized.

Although a good deal of "mis-information" has been circulated

concerning the future Information Super-highway, one fact isclear; the relative cost per unit of networking bandwidthwill continue to decline. This fact will spawn the increasedsharing of information resources as the information super-highway becomes more of a reality. Less data will need to bestored locally at individual library locations, if it isaccessible to the scholar via the network.

Conversion to Electronic Format: Textual Versus Image.

If the records of the past are to be included, severalchallenges must be surmounted to fully realize the benefit ofthese technologies. First, data must be converted to machine

readable (MR) form--a labor intensive process. Modernelectronic methods used to publish materials yield as abyproduct MR text. But where electronic text does not existeither manual rekeying or optical scanning is required. Butsignificant errors result when attempting to optically scan.One company that has extensively studied optical scanning anddocument structure analysis is OCLC (Online Computer LibraryCenter). Their analysis concluded that when the opticalcharacter recognition error rate exceeded five percent, itwas more cost effective to rekey the entire document.[From



Stuart Weibel, "Tutorial on Text Recognition," Paperdelivered at the 55th Annual Conference of the AmericanSociety for Information Science held October 26-29, 1992, atPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Recorded by InfoMedix, tape E268-44.] Of course, if the text is handwritten, or containsgraphs, figures, pictures, etc., any automatic recognitionprocedures are non-existent, or, at best, still at theexperimental stage. In contrast to text, the only electronicform available for visual images is digitization into "bit-mapped" form--an electronic format requiring about 1000 timesmore storage space than that required for text.

Even when the text is converted to MR form, the challengestill exists to determine what the strings of characters andwords are "about." One aid in minimizing miscommunication isto build structure in a textual record by appropriatelylabelling each of the words or terms with its field type,that is, if the record's author, title, source, publicationyear, etc., can be identified, then a name, for example,could then be differentiated from being an author, a title,or a subject. A higher quality retrieval will result. On theother hand, since no standard language of description existsfor digitized visual images, only adhoc methods exist forretrieving these.

Transmitting Data in Electronic Format: CHUI Versus GUI

Once in electronic form (MR text or bit-mapped) the data canbe transmitted over telecommunication networks. Anotherdistinction is necessary. Most information transfer is incharacter mode. Thus, the most common interfaces on computerterminals for these textual displays are "character userinterfaces", or CHUI's. On the other hand, in order todisplay bit-mapped images a "graphical user interface", GUI,must exist. ("Windows", created by Microsoft Corporation, isan example of a GUI.) CHUI's cannot display images, but GUI'scan display both images and characters when those characters

have been converted to a bit-mapped format.

Since GUI accommodates both worlds why not use it as thestandard interface? Eventually it will be. But remember thatthe bit-mapped format requires about 1000 times more storagespace and transmission capacity. However, some very efficientcompression techniques are being developed to reduce storagerequirements for visual images. Thus, in time, libraries mayexpect to display their unique, special collections to usersin digitized format. High resolution images of art, pictures,manuscripts, etc., could then be studied by scholars onvisual display terminals (VDT's) without endangering theoriginal. (The JANUS project at Columbia University is a

pilot project to demonstrate, among other goals, thispossibility.)

Increasing User Needs and Telecommunication Capacities

Increased telecommunication capacities will be needed notonly because of the shift from CHUI to GUI interfaces, butalso to accommodate the increased volume of usage. Because ofincreasing numbers of full-text databases, individual usersare spending more time at terminals. In addition, the numbers



of journals that exist only in electronic format isincreasing. Thus, we may expect both the numbers of patronsand the duration of time they spend using VDT's tocontinually increase.

New Patterns for Using Electronic Journals and Databases

We expect that additional read-only ports connected to ourelectronic databases will be available throughout the campus-- including faculty offices. These will permit patrons,having their own computers, to connect into the informationnetwork. Several economies will be achieved by the library.First, the library's terminals will be free for use by otherpatrons. Additionally, the on-campus patrons will bedownloading to their own media rather than using thelibrary's printers. The read-only nature of these connectionsis essential to protect the library's system from viruses andboth accidental and intentional sabotage.

Preparing for the Information Networks

Current technology could accommodate pods of "wireless"terminals located throughout the library. But the currentcapacity of this type of technology (without encountering

exorbitant costs) is limited when displaying bit-mappedimages. Laser optical fibers, on the other hand, wouldprovide 100 million times the capacity at reasonable cost toperformance ratios. Given that the numbers of terminals willincrease and the need for displaying visual images exists,the best advice is to select communication channels providingthe highest capacity.

Remote Access

Remote access will be constrained by the institutionalnetworking infrastructure. What is the network's capacity?What is the breadth of access to the library and

institutional network? To what extent are network connectionsdistributed within buildings? Do each of these connectionpoints support access to regional and national networks?Modem access does provide a short-term solution. However,telecommunication use will increase rapidly and BAUD rates(the amount of information per second) of these lines may notsupport future user needs.

Other Considerations

The information system must accommodate multiplecommunication protocols, platforms, and applications. In theemerging open systems environment it will be possible to mix

and match both software and hardware. It would not beuncommon to see a MacIntosh computer, a PC with Windows, a PCwith text, and a UNIX platform--operating in character mode--all connected directly to the network. The university'sstrategic information technology plan must include a diversecollection of information services and host computers andensure that a broad suite of network communications protocols(eg., Novell's IPX and TCP/IP), and workstation hardware andsoftware will be present.



SOURCE CONSULTED

Douglas E. Van Houweling, "Knowledge Services in theDigitized World: Possibilities and Strategies," In:Electronic Access to Information: A New Service Paradigm.Proceedings from a symposium held July 23 through 24, 1993,Palo Alto, California: 5-16., eds. Win-Shin S. Chiang andNancy E. Elkington (Mountain View, CA: The Research LibrariesGroup, Inc.)

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DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITYHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Howard C. ClarkPresident

William F. BirdsallUniversity Librarian

H. S. Peter JonesExecutive Director,University Computing & Information Services

Ken R. MaharajDirector, Administrative Computing Services

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WHAT PRESIDENTS NEED TO KNOW

ABOUT THE PAYOFF ON THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT:

THE VIEW FROM DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

1 Introduction-------------------

1.1Information is the life-blood of universities; thus it isevident that I.T. should be of major benefit to universities.In fact, Dalhousie like other universities has becomedependent on I.T. in most areas and can no longer function

without the technology.

1.2But not all benefits have been realized and not all asefficiently as they might have been. So an importantquestion is whether universities are getting good oroptimum value from their I.T. investment. It is a verydifficult one to answer because of the difficulties ofmeasuring payoff in most cases.



1.3Initial use of I.T. investment enabled universities toautomate processes that were formerly manual and hence todo them faster and with less human labour. The situationhas now evolved and I.T. enables researchers to undertakeproblems that they could not even contemplate before,enables universities to provide a much higher quality ofservice to its students, and is changing the way studentslearn, faculty teach and do research, administratorsmanage etc. In fact, it is likely to change the natureof universities. Effective use of I.T. is essential forsurvival in the increasingly competitive and fiscallyrestrained world of higher education.

2 Specific examples of payoff--------------------------------------

2.1I.T. is enabling Dalhousie and other universities tobetter serve their prime clients: the students. For example:

- A good student information system can streamline theprocess of registration and provide students with

accurate information on their progress to date and whatthey need to complete their degree program. Dalhousiestudents and faculty have been given increasing accessto such information and we are in the process ofrewriting our student information system to improvesuch access further.

- Dalhousie offers on-line access to universitycalendar and other information providing quick up-to-date information to prospective and existing students.

- Students in widely separated regional towns caninteract with several local universities, using access

from high schools, libraries and their own homes. Theycan receive general or specific academic informationabout these universities, from calendar description tocourse registration, from fee-paying to how thebasketball team fared at its last game.

- Automated systems assist students in acquiringresidence or other accommodation that suits theirindividual needs.

- Computer technology has become an essential andintegrated part of many courses for such purposes assimulation, statistical and mathematical analysis,

information searches, document preparation etc. Whenused effectively the technology gives students betterinsight into their subjects and enables them toundertake more realistic assignments. Faculty atDalhousie have noticed an improvement in the qualityand breadth of term papers since students have hadaccess to electronic data bases.

- The technology offers an effective means ofdelivering course material (text, graphics, sound and



video). This together with its two- way communicationscapability provides excellent tools for distanceeducation. Several universities are already offeringcourses via the Internet. In this way specialists at auniversity can make their expertise available to aworld-wide audience which has the potential of majorpayoff for them, their university and those they serve.

- Local and wide-area networks, and the Internet inparticular, are opening up a whole new world ofinformation for students facilitating much more selfgenerated learning. In Nova Scotia nine degreeawarding institutions share a common electronic database of library holdings. This joint catalogue isavailable via the Internet and students may borrow fromany of the libraries. This has greatly extended thelibrary resources available to students.

- Many Dalhousie students keep in regular touch withtheir teachers and peers using e-mail and participatein asynchronous discussions on topics of interest usinge-mail lists and/or electronic conferencing. Thesediscussions are sometimes between small groupsbelonging to the same class and some are open to world-

wide groups over the Internet. Some courses makesignificant use of the campus network. Students whomight be shy to contribute in class sometimes find iteasier to do so in an electronic discussion group.

- The technology is also becoming of great benefit tophysically challenged students, enabling them toundertake courses of study that would have beenvirtually impossible without the technology.

- Computer networks also have significant socialbenefits for students; particularly those whosephysical movements are restricted.

Taken together the above examples provide a much richerlearning environment for students. Although almostimpossible to quantify, these payoffs are probably themost important ones.

2.2Faculty and researchers are also major beneficiaries of I.T.

- Computers have long been essential tools forresearchers in the physical and social sciences. Insome disciplines progress is directly related to the

power of available computers as researchers explorelarger and more accurate models. This is the case forseveral research groups at Dalhousie in Chemistry,Medicine, Oceanography and Physics who make extensiveuse of local and remote high performance computers.

- Of benefit to all researchers is the ability tocommunicate easily and cheaply with colleagues aroundthe world, and to be able to access from their studiesor labs library catalogues and other data bases



wherever they may be located. For example, ProfessorDeborah Hobson of Dalhousie University is a classicsscholar and a papyrologist who is also an enthusiasticuser of the technology. Recently she was unable tolocate a copy from local university libraries of a rarebook from which she needed vital information. She sente-mail messages to fellow papyrologists around theworld asking for help and twenty minutes later the twopages of the book she needed were faxed to her by afellow researcher in Amsterdam. Researchers and othersare realizing similar benefits on a regular basis andtogether they constitute a significant payoff.

- Although computer assisted instruction took muchlonger than many predicted to realize its potential,its effective use is now more widespread. It can allowteachers to give students more individual attention andallows students to self-pace their learning. In fact,"computer assisted learning" is a better description ofthe way I.T. is used effectively to supplementclassroom teaching. However, to realize these benefitsthe curriculum and teaching methods need to be revisedand significant preparatory work is necessary. Thus itis important for universities to encourage this by

giving credit for such work in promotion and tenuredecisions; something that many have been reluctant todo. At Dalhousie, one of the most successful such usesof I.T. has been in the School of BusinessAdministration. This school gave a high priority tointegrating I.T. into its curriculum and produced amulti-year plan known as the "Courseware DevelopmentProject". All faculty and all students now use thetechnology as part of their everyday teaching andlearning. Other areas at Dalhousie where I.T. isplaying a major role in teaching and learning includeMedicine and Law.

2.3Prudent use of I.T. can enable university administratorsto manage more effectively and efficiently, thusproviding better services to their clients in a costeffective manner. Fully realizing these benefits hasbeen elusive and in many universities there is stillsignificant potential for improving administrativesystems and reducing costs.

Some examples of the benefits of I.T. to universityadministration follow:

- Ability to communicate in a timely manner with

faculty, staff and students dispersed across one ormore campuses. At Dalhousie electronic communicationis being used increasingly to better prepare membersfor committee meetings through asynchronous exchangesof views using e- mail prior to meetings, to setupmeeting times and to distribute information. Thelatter saves paper, reduces the load on the campus"snail mail" and is quicker than traditional methods.Some committees now do most of their work in thismanner. In fact the technology can significantly



reduce the number of necessary meetings and could eveneliminate the need for them altogether in some cases.This surely would be a major payoff for universities!

- I.T. can improve the efficiency of physical plantand its maintenance. Dalhousie has reduced its oilbills through the use of an electronic monitoringsystems and has reduced maintenance costs by automatingschedules and records.

- Improved and more cost effective campus security ispossible using monitoring devices networked to acentral security service. Members of DalhousieUniversity are now alerted to security dangers usingthe campus computer network.

- I.T. has enabled some Dalhousie departments to reducestaffing costs and/or to divert staff to more productiveactivities thus improving services. For example, theuniversity libraries have been able to reduce staffingcosts as they have automated many of their recordkeeping activities (cataloguing, ordering, circulation,etc). The payoff of this type of automation ismeasurable. More recent and future potential benefits

of I.T. in libraries are more difficult to measure.Library technical services are now able to communicatedirectly with binders, books and journal vendors,bibliographic utilities, and providers of electronicinformation sources. This is allowing libraries to shiftstaff to public service units to provide direct serviceto users. This is a critical need at this time becausethe impact of I.T. has really hit the public serviceareas due to the development of CD-ROM technology andthe Internet. A Dalhousie student recently submittedthe following comment: "Whoo-hoo! Love those CD-ROMs!They save me a lot of time and give me an enormousamount of timely info (pass the firehose, Verne, I'm

thirsty)". This captures the attitude of most students,and faculty have commented that they are getting betterresearched papers from students because of their use ofCD-ROM data bases and the Internet.

- One major benefit of I.T. which has yet to be fullyrealized at Dalhousie and many other universities, isthe timely provision of good university managementinformation. To achieve this requires a majorcommitment by the university to coordinate itsadministrative data and to implement the necessary datamanagement technology. Technology alone is notsufficient; it is important to have agreed policies and

procedures for handling university data. Dalhousie hascreated a Committee On Data Administration (CODA) todevelop and oversee these policies and procedures. Itreports to the president. We feel there are majorpayoffs to be gained from treating university data asan important resource and this is therefore a centralpart of our strategy for administrative computing. Werealize that it is impossible to determine completelyin advance what specific information senior managementwill need so we are aiming to establish an integrated



data base of all important university data, themeanings of which are clearly defined. By providinggood secure access to this data base and appropriatesearch and reporting tools managers should be able toextract the information they require in future,whatever it may be.

2.4Finally, other benefits of I.T. can be grouped under theheading of "outreach." Some examples at DalhousieUniversity follow:

- As the area of university advancement continues toexpand and becomes more vital to the future ofDalhousie the role of information technology becomesincreasingly important to its success.

Dalhousie Development Office relies on easy access ofinformation to cost effectively raise an everincreasing amount of funds from private sources. Muchof their solicitation is faculty based, or segmented insome other way. The ability to draw down prospects byfaculty of graduation, age, etc and produce and address

personalized solicitation letters is vital in theeffective use of this approach to fund raising.Maintaining appropriate data on prospects is crucial tothe success of major gift or capital campaignsolicitations. Manipulation of data to provide avariety of reports for internal usage as well as tovolunteers is another effective use of our computersystems. The use of computers to generate pledgereminders, tax receipts, and thank you letters enablesthe office to efficiently utilize staff resources.

The Alumni Office utilizes I.T. in much the same way.Dalhousie's alumni data base is extremely useful in

maintaining contact with alumni around the world, andin providing them with current information about theuniversity. Alumni events can be more quickly andefficiently organized with ready access to graphicalinformation. Information regarding the interests ofalumni helps to ensure that the talents of individualsare utilized to benefit the university.

- Providing services for the local community andparticipating in community affairs: Dalhousie is amajor player in the local community "freenet", is anactive participant in a Nova Scotia movement to useI.T. as an economic stimulant (known as NovaKnowledge),

and provides and manages the technology for some fund-raising activities such as the Christmas DaddiesPhonathon. These all promote and benefit university-community relations.

- Dalhousie collaborates with other institutions in theuse of I.T. Two notable examples are Novanet ( acooperative project involving the libraries of nineNova Scotia institutions referred to earlier) and thecomputer store known as PCPC (Personal Computer



Purchasing Centre). PCPC is run by Dalhousie but isused by several other higher educational institutionsin the area. These cooperative ventures save andgenerate money, and promote good inter- institutionalrelations.

- Dalhousie takes advantage of its I.T. expertise andresources to provide services for private companies,government departments and other universities. Forexample, Dalhousie operates the Nova Scotia regionalnetwork on contract from NSTN Inc and provides highperformance computer services to externalorganizations. These services generate income withoutseriously impacting services to internal clients.

3. Concluding Remarks.------------------------------

3.1The payoff of I.T. is very real and extensive but, inmost cases, difficult to measure. It is clear thatuniversities must make effective use of I.T. to remaincompetitive and maybe to survive. But with decreasing

budgets, increasing emphasis will have to be put on the"effective" use: getting close to optimum return for theinvestment. This means, that despite the difficulties,better ways will have to be found to measure the payoff.This might mean more fees for specific I.T. relatedservices and allowing "market forces" to determine thevalue of the services.

3.2I.T. is increasingly changing the way we teach, learn,research and administer, and current developments incommunications technology might change the very nature ofuniversities. Ultimately, the ability of computer

technology to place a wide range of information processingcapabilities and decision-making advice on the desktop ofevery member of the student body, staff and faculty,provides the capability for enhanced individualproductivity at every stage of the various work beingaddressed by these individuals. Such enhanced capacitythroughout an organization must result in a generalqualitative improvement, whose long-term effects can onlybe salutary for our institutions, and for the societieswhich they serve.

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KENYON COLLEGEGambier, Ohio



Philip H. Jordan,Jr.President

Paul GhermanDirector of the Library

Thomas F. MobergVice President, Information & Computer Services

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THE VIEW FROM KENYON COLLEGE

OUTLINE

I. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT KENYON COLLEGE: 1986 - 1994

A. The Development of Kenyon College's IT Environmentfrom 1986 to 1994B. IT Services and Resources Currently Available at

Kenyon CollegeC. Some Budget Information Related to IT at Kenyon

CollegeD. Some Staffing Information Related to IT at Kenyon

College

II. SUMMARY STATEMENT ABOUT IT PAYOFFS

A. CommunicationB. Educational Mission and Empowerment

C. Quality of Instruction and ResearchD. Productivity, Efficiency, and EffectivenessE. Informed Planning and Management of ResourcesF. Issues of Status and CompetitionG. Community and CollegialityH. Connectivity and Service to the Local Community

III. CONTRIBUTED STATEMENTS

A. Philip Jordan, Jr.; PresidentB. Reed Browning; ProvostC. Paul Gherman; Director of the LibraryD. Scott Siddall; Director of Academic Computing

E. Michael Fox; Assistant Director of AcademicComputing

F. Bill Quimby; Manager of Library AutomationG. Bev Actis; Office Operations Manager/User Services

SpecialistH. Ron Griggs; Director of Networks, Systems, and

Technical ServicesI. Glen Turney; Director of Administrative Computing

ApplicationsJ. Joseph Nelson; Vice President for Finance



K. Teri Leonard; ComptrollerL. Jack Finefrock; Manager of the BookstoreM. John Kurella; Manager of Business ServicesN. Karen Frasca; Director of Fringe Benefits and Staff

RelationsO. Tom Stamp; Director of Public Affairs

The material in this document was compiled, edited, andsummarized by Bev Actis (Office Operations Manager/UserServices Specialist) and Tom Moberg (Vice President forInformation & Computing Services).

I. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT KENYON COLLEGE: 1986-1994

Kenyon College was a late follower in developing acomprehensive campus Information Technology (IT) program.While computing was used for academic and administrativeapplications as far back as the early 1970's, it wasn't untilthe mid-1980's that a significant emphasis was placed on thisarea. In the past seven years or so, the Kenyon ITenvironment has changed from mediocre to being comparablewith those of the high-quality, selective institutions inKenyon's peer group. This section provides information about

the development and current status of information resources,services, and technology at Kenyon.

A. The Development of Kenyon College's IT EnvironmentBetween 1986-1994

1. Strategic Planning

In 1986-87, the College had no coherent long-range plans forcomputing or networking. A set of basic goals for developinga campus network and substantially improving access tocomputing resources for faculty, staff, and students was

defined in 1987-88. Those goals were basically completed by1991-92. The College recently developed an institutionalStrategic Plan which treats information as a strategic asset.The Plan has goals and objectives related to informationaccess, management, and technology integrated throughout.

2. Organization and Management of IT

Prior to 1988, the College had separate academic andadministrative computing departments, reporting to differentsenior administrators. Cooperation between the twodepartments was minimal. Computing services and resourceswere very limited, with various campus constituencies

completely ignored. Network development was primitive. Use ofcomputing as an instructional and administrative resource wasminimal. Discontent among faculty and staff was high. InNovember, 1988, the College created a new division,Information and Computing Services, to oversee informationtechnologies on the campus. A Vice Presidential position,reporting to the President, was created. A new staffstructure was created with three departments: AcademicComputing; Administrative Computing; Networks, Systems, andTechnical Services. These departments support all central



computing, microcomputing, library automation, networking,campus information systems, media delivery systems, andequipment installation, maintenance and repair.

3. Network Development

The campus "network" consisted of a few low-speed,unreliable, leased phone lines providing terminal connectionsto the VAXes in 1986-87. Now, the campus network, built onfiber optic cable between buildings and twisted-pair coppercable within buildings, covers almost every building oncampus, with a network architecture which includes Ethernetand FDDI components. Network resources include central VAXsystems, library resources, a microcomputer LAN, optionalnetwork connections from student residence rooms, and fullInternet access for everyone.

4. Central Computing Facilities

Since the mid 1980's, the central computing facilities havegrown from two small VAXes, with no communication linkbetween them, to the current complement of five VAX systems(3100, 4100, 4200, 4300, 4500) with about 22 gigabytes ofstorage arranged in a single cluster. The total VAX

processing power has increased nearly 900% (from 6.[5] "VAXProcessor Units" to the current 63 units.)

5. Access to Computing and Network Resources

Access to the network and computing resources for studentshas increased from about one access device (terminal,microcomputer) for every 30 students to about one accessdevice for every 8 or 9 students, with access locations inclassrooms, laboratories, studios, the Library, and residencehalls. In 1986-87, only a handful of faculty and staff hadoffice computing resources. Now, essentially all faculty andstaff have desktop computing resources and full network

access. The College currently has about 250 terminals and 350microcomputers deployed, compared to roughly 50 terminals andperhaps 30 microcomputers in 1986-87. About 300 studentscurrently have subscribed to the optional Student NetworkAccess Program, which gives them dedicated network ports intheir living quarters. Four technological instructional areashave been developed, with several more in the planning stage.

6. Use and Applications of IT Resources

In 1986-87, less than 10% of Kenyon's faculty, staff andstudents made any regular use of College supplied computingresources. Now, almost everyone on campus uses the central

systems every week and hundreds of people use microcomputers.Faculty use of IT for instructional support is accelerating.In the past six years, the Academic Computing Awards Programhas allocated about $130,000 to fund curricular developmentprojects using technology, with about 50% going to theNatural Sciences, 40% to the Fine Arts, and the rest to otherareas. Virtually all faculty, students, and staff useelectronic mail, word processing, and other on-lineinformation resources. Internet use is growing rapidly. Thebasic library automation system has been completed, and new



initiatives to provide access to information are continuallyunderway. The early ICS staff emphasis on simple dataprocessing support for administrative departments has changedto a much more comprehensive perspective involvingdevelopment of campus information systems and reengineeringof major administrative operations.

7. Development and Operating Costs

Funding for the major information technology developments hascome primarily from off-budget sources: campaign gifts,reserves, operating budget surpluses. Between 1986-87 and1991-92, Kenyon spent an average of about $600,000 per yearon information technology development, including networkconstruction, installation of access devices, VAX systems,library automation, and facilities. The ICS operating budgetfor 1993-94 is $1,265,000, about 4% of the College E&Gbudget.

B. IT SERVICES AND RESOURCES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ATKENYON COLLEGE

This section describes the information technology services

and resources currently available to the Kenyon Collegecommunity under the auspices of the division of Information &Computing Services (ICS). Most of these services were addedsince 1986-87.

1. General support for campus community

* Fully supported, standardized word processing availablefor everyone.

* Electronic mail available to everyone.* Full Internet access available to everyone.* Wide range of information resources available via

KCInfo, a campus-wide electronic information system.* Telephone HelpLine to provide a single call-in point forall questions related to computing, networking, andaudio-visual services.

* Training in computing and networking provided throughindividual helpand dozens of workshops per year.

* Discount purchase program for personal microcomputers.* Supported standards in place for major software and

hardware tools.

2. Services and resources to support student work

* One computing device (and network access point) for

every 9 students, with locations in residence halls,classroom buildings, laboratories, and the library.

* Staff of well trained student computing assistants toprovide problem solving support at various locations.

* Widely available laser printing at no extra charge.* Student Network Access Program to provide optional

network connections from student residences.

3. Services and resources to support faculty and staff



* Fully supported desktop computing stations, with networkaccess, in every faculty and staff office.

* Laser printers in all academic and administrativedepartments.

* Individual printers in about half of all faculty officesand many staff offices.

* Fully configured, standardized software loads installedin all faculty and staff microcomputers.

* Regular upgrades for faculty and staff office computingequipment to support changing needs.

* Standard office productivity tools, includingmicrocomputers, terminals, software, and laser printers,for all academic and administrative clerical staff.

* On-going program of training and support for support andadministrative staff.

4. Services and resources to support instruction andresearch

* Management and support of all campus media deliverysystems.

* Four computer-equipped instructional areas.* Academic Computing Awards Program to provide funding for

innovative projects using instructional computing.

* Planning and implementation support for grants.* Individual consulting with faculty on curricular uses ofinformation technology, start-up equipment, etc.

* Access to all Internet resources, includingsupercomputing, through OARNET membership.

* Assistance with installation of microcomputer software.

5. Library automation

* On-line catalog for Kenyon collection.* On-line searching of catalogs at hundreds of other

institutions.* Large collection of CD-ROM databases.

* On-line interlibrary loan services.

6. Technical and management services and resources

* Extensive collection of supported VAX resources.* Continuing development and support of the campus

network, including the fiber optic cable based Ethernetbackbone and a Novell Netware microcomputer networksystem.

* Installations and relocations for all faculty and staffcomputing equipment.

* Full diagnostic and repair service for all College ITequipment.

* Central purchasing and management for all College ITequipment.

* Central purchasing for all printing supplies.* Consultation and advice on IT purchases related to

grants, start-up funds, departmental needs, etc.* Regular program of planning and funding upgrades to all

computing and networking equipment.

C. SOME BUDGET INFORMATION RELATED TO IT AT KENYON COLLEGE



The comments in this section are related to trends inKenyon's enrollment, E&G budget, faculty salaries, studentaid, library budget, and information technology (IT) budget.

1. During the five fiscal years from 1989-90 to 1993-94,Kenyon's enrollment decreased by about 5%, the College's E&Gbudget grew 38%, the faculty salary pool grew 40%, andstudent aid grew 110%.

2. During the five fiscal years from 1989-90 to 1993-94,library expenditures grew by about 4% in dollars, but as apercentage of the College E&G budget, dropped from 5.7% to4.3%. Note: The staff line associated with the libraryautomation position was transferred from the library to ICSin 1988-89, and the staff line and budget associated with theaudio-visual hardware services were transferred from thelibrary to ICS in 1992-93; these transfers of responsibilityaccount for some of the changes in the associated budgets.

3. During the five fiscal years from 1989-90 to 1993-94,information technology expenditures grew by about 38%, thesame as the growth rate in the College E&G budget during thatperiod. Thus, as a percentage of E&G, the IT budget stayed

constant at about 4.1% during that period.

4. The growth areas in the information technology budgets inthe past five years have been desktop computing hardware, theAcademic Computing Awards Program, equipment repair andmaintenance, and networking costs. The major area ofshrinkage, and the one which has provided for growth in otherareas, has been in hardware maintenance contracts withvendors. This large decrease in maintenance contract costsparallels the rapid decrease in the cost of VAX equipment.

D. SOME STAFFING INFORMATION RELATED TO IT AT KENYON COLLEGE

The comments in this section are related to the use ofKenyon's VAX systems and ICS staffing and load trends.

1. Since 1986-87, the number of individuals using Kenyon'sVAX systems per week has grown from about 100 to nearly 2000,a rough increase of about 1900%.

2. Over the past 8 years, the total number of College staffcommitted to information technology has grown from 14 FTE's(not counting A/V staff) to 22.[6] FTE's (including AVhardware staff), about a 60% increase. During that sameperiod, the number of VAX users per IT staff member (a rough

measure of "load") has grown from 11 to 87, an increase ofnearly 700%.

3. Notes about the ICS staff composition:

a. Prior to 1988-89, Kenyon had separate academic andadministrative computing operations, with no networking staffand no library automation staff. The composition of the ICSstaff since the new organization was created has been instate of continual evolution as positions have been added,



eliminated, and modified to reflect the changing supportneeds of the user community and the addition of major newservice areas (e.g., library automation, networking, mediatechnology).

b. The ICS staff includes 1 FTE to support libraryautomation and 1 FTE to handle media technology; at manycolleges, these positions would be counted as part of thelibrary staff.

c. The ICS staff includes 2.[5] FTE to handle dataentry and accounting functions; at many colleges, thesepositions would be counted as part of the Accounting staff.

d. The ICS staff has about 2 FTE's committed to directsupport of microcomputer use by faculty and staff; at manycolleges, these support tasks are handled by staff members inindividual departments.

e. ICS handles all information technology purchasingfor the College, which requires about .[5] FTE.; at manycolleges, this work would be done in a purchasing department,by academic departments, or by individual faculty and staff.

f. The ICS staff has 3 FTE's to handle all theCollege's IT equipment installation, repair, and maintenance.Two of these positions were originally funded by savings fromcanceled maintenance contracts on peripheral equipment, whilethe third position is funded by revenues generated from theStudent Network Access Program.

g. ICS has one vice presidential position to head thedivision; these leadership and management tasks are handledby the chief academic officer or chief finance officer atmany other colleges.

II. SUMMARY STATEMENT ABOUT IT PAYOFFS

One of the greatest benefits from Kenyon's IT investment isthat the College is now ready to fully take advantage of therapidly developing world of information resources provided byinternational networking. The College has essentiallycompleted the basic work of building a networkinfrastructure, providing wide access to computing resourcesfor students, installing desktop computing devices for allfaculty and staff, and nurturing a campus culture whichembraces electronic communication as an essential tool ofscholarly and administrative work. We are now in a period of

integration and transformation, where we are using our ITresources to develop new paradigms for teaching, learning,and working. We believe that the payoffs which the Collegehas already realized from our IT investment will multiply andcompound rapidly in the coming years.

This section of the report describes a number of specificareas in which Kenyon's investment in information technologyhas yielded payoffs for the institution. Most of the claimsabout payoffs are based on anecdotal and qualitative



observations. Nevertheless, in the aggregate, there have beensubstantial positive changes in Kenyon's teaching, learning,and administrative environment as a result of the ITinvestment.

A. Communication

Nearly everyone at Kenyon would agree that the area where IThas made the largest impact is in communication, both on andoff campus. Campus communication patterns have changedsignificantly since e-mail became a standard mode ofcommunicating. As President Philip Jordan, Jr., said"Kenyon's connectivity through our fully-integrated campusnetwork, with virtually all students, faculty, administratorsand staff as users, has created a sense of interconnectednessamong all of us. We can reach each other easily, conversewith several people about the same topic, get out messages toall hands or just to one group of people, carry on anexchange of views, review texts in composition and much else-- all by electronic mail."

The presence of a full campus network, desktop access for allfaculty and staff, and a very large number of public access

points available for students provided the necessaryinfrastructure to make universal electronic mail a reality.Most people on campus saw the virtue and utility of e-mail ontheir own, and endorsement of the use of e-mail by thePresident helped push the skeptical members of the communityto become users. Full access to the Internet for all membersof the campus community has also been a significant factor inthe ubiquitous use of e-mail.

The installation of a campus-wide information system based ona gopher server (KCInfo) has also been very useful forcentralizing, simplifying, and distributing Collegeinformation of all types. Between e-mail and KCInfo, the

volume of phone calls, paper memos, and business forms aroundcampus have decreased dramatically.

Some of the examples about the value of electroniccommunications cited by members of the community are:

* E-mail provides access to College personnel thatstudents may not otherwise get to see or know. It also playsa critical role in better, more efficient communication amongstudent organizations.

* Automatic generation and updating of e-mail distributionlists facilitates distribution of announcements to special

interest groups, broadcasting of critical messages to theentire campus, and advertising for campus events.

* The Internet allows communications around the world tobe almost instantaneous, and it's simpler than mail or phone.This has greatly facilitated communications with Kenyonstudents studying abroad, which has aided in advising,retention, etc.

* KCInfo allows campus information to be posted in one



convenient location, updated quickly and easily, andavailable 24 hours a day.

* The Student Affairs division finds communication to bethe principal benefit of IT. It is easier to reach studentsfor meetings, to respond to questions, to "post" informationin KCInfo, to announce residence hall programs, and to sendout quick notices about Maintenance issues (cold weathernotices, heating concerns, shutting off water or power).

B. Educational Mission and Empowerment

Kenyon's mission is to empower students with knowledge,through the right use of information, so that they canfunction successfully in the world that they are about toenter. IT serves the educational mission of Kenyon because itprovides students, in their pursuit of knowledge, with theresources and tools to access and use informationeffectively, which is crucial in an increasinglytechnological world. In commenting on the capacity of theInternet to support the College's mission, Provost ReedBrowning notes that "The product of this attention to theinstructional implications of the Internet will be an alumni

body that is comfortable in the new world of digitizedinformation and instantaneous linkages."

C. Quality of Instruction and Research

Kenyon's IT investment has already had a significant impacton the style and quality of instruction at the College. Whilethe range of technological expertise in the faculty is stillfairly large, nearly every faculty member makes use ofinformation technology in some form to enhance, simplify, andfacilitate teaching and research activities. This was noteven remotely true five years ago.

Kenyon has several programs designed to incorporateinformation technologies and resources into the curriculum.The Academic Computing Awards Program, basically an in-house,peer-reviewed grant program, provides funding to help facultymembers develop new curricular applications using technology.Under a three year grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts,staff members from ICS and the Library are leading facultydevelopment and course development activities which aredesigned to incorporate new information resources andtechnologies into the first and second year curricula. Thesetwo programs are having a significant impact on the use of ITat Kenyon, and increasingly, are focusing attention on major

issues of pedagogy and scholarship.

Attempts to incorporate IT into the instructional programprompt personal and institutional self-evaluations anddiscussions about teaching. For example, in the SummerInstitute on Academic Information Resources funded by the PewFoundation grant, faculty discuss ways to use new technologyin teaching, and thus confront the old paradigms ofinstruction. The role of faculty members is changing astechnology facilitates and requires new teaching



methodologies. The immense access to information via theInternet obliges faculty members to teach new skills ofsource discrimination to students. President Philip Jordan,Jr. notes "IT makes possible a new focus on pedagogy, sinceit provides new ways to teach, and on student learning, sincemuch more self-directed, on-your- own-time learning ispossible... Faculty are more guides and critics thaninformation-delivering authorities."

At Kenyon, everyone has full access to the Internet, aresource which Provost Reed Browning describes as "... analmost inexpressibly grand tool for learning andinstruction." This obviously gives both students and facultyaccess to rich information resources around the globe. Newsgroups offer "hot off the press" information resources thatchange daily, giving greater exposure to the dynamic world welive in. A number of faculty members encourage or requiretheir students to participate in discussion groups to enhancetheir understanding of the discipline area.

In the area of pedagogical impact, the use of IT has hadperhaps the greatest payoffs in teaching mathematics andscience. For example, by using tools of computationalscience and visualization, faculty members can explain very

complex concepts which were previously almost impossible toillustrate clearly. Faculty and students can do quantummechanics calculations right in the classroom or laboratory,instead of having to use a super-computer somewhere off-campus. In chemistry, the use of sophisticated softwarepackages like HyperChem makes it possible for students tostudy molecular modeling concepts. Visualization has alsobeen used effectively for such diverse applications as modelsof population growth and tutorials on laboratoryinstrumentation. In biology, teachers are able to focus onstatistical design issues, and use graphs more in teaching.Some faculty members note that, by exploiting thecomputational power available to them in classrooms and labs,

they can work with real, "messy" problems, not justunrealistic ones that have tidy, analytic solutions.

Electronic communication and use of new IT resources have apositive impact on faculty/student interactions. Using e-mail, students ask "little" questions they wouldn't askotherwise. Faculty members can ensure better communicationabout class business, assignments, exams, etc. using e-mail.Faculty-student contact can be increased through on-lineconferences, which can take place outside the normalconstraints of time and place. These out-of-class electronicdiscussions extend and expand the in-class discussions andallow participation by ALL students.

The use of multimedia materials enables instructors to conveyknowledge more effectively. One faculty member has developedan extensive 3-D animation of synapse activity to illustratethis complex concept. With these materials, which thestudents can use at their own pace and on their own time,learning is more customized and student-centered. Studentsare able to construct their own bases of knowledge in newways using IT. For example, seniors in the Asian Studiesclass collaboratively developed a multimedia publication on



political, economic, and religious systems. This IT-facilitated activity provides an expanded and richer learningenvironment for students, outside the traditional classroommode.

Writing has always been a key part of the instructionalprocess at Kenyon. Students typically write dozens of papersof all sorts each year. Since virtually all writing now takesplace in some electronic format, it is easier for facultymembers to require rewriting of student research papers toimprove the quality of both the writing and the research.Also, e-mail and on-line discussion groups each requireunique writing styles which are different from the moreformal writing expected in research papers, so students aredeveloping more comprehensive writing skills appropriate forparticular contexts. These skills will be very useful for ourgraduates who will live and work in a world where electroniccommunications are increasingly important.

A key feature of scholarly work at Kenyon is that theresearch activities of the faculty are closely intertwinedwith the instructional program. Students in all disciplineareas participate collaboratively with the faculty as realpartners in research activities. Through electronic

communication, use of Internet resources, expanded access toscholarly information, and use of data in new forms, theCollege's IT resources have enhanced the research environmentfor faculty and students. Some examples:

* IT improves access to research tools and resources forboth students and faculty. The on-line library catalog isavailable from all classrooms, labs, offices, and studentresidence rooms with network connections. Also, access toelectronic databases and on-line catalogs from otherinstitutions via the Internet improves researchers' options.\As Provost Reed Browning say: "(The Internet) is an avenueto a world of unexampled bibliographic richness, and,

increasingly, to a world of centrally important full-textdocuments."

* Students and faculty are able to communicate with otherscholars around the world by using Internet e-mail and byparticipation in scholarly discussion groups. Faculty cantrack the latest developments in their fields and have almostimmediate response to queries that used to take weeks.Students can contact and share ideas with students engaged insimilar research activities and who are enrolled in similarcourses at other academic institutions.

* In the Library, IT has had a great impact on the

qualitative and quantitative access to information by libraryusers. Students can quickly and easily locate informationfrom sources such as specialized CD-ROM databases ofbibliographic information, on-line commercial databases, andInternet-accessible library catalogs around the world. Thishas led to increased borrowing through the inter-library loanservice.

* A wide variety of new information services are availableto faculty and students. A subscription to Lexis/Nexis gives



access to major law journals and newspapers for $325/month.FirstSearch allows users to search a 28 million itemdatabase, articles of which are available by FAX withinhours. Faculty and students have fast access to the full textof federal government reports which are increasinglyavailable on-line, directly from the point of creation,without waiting weeks or months for the printed version.

D. Productivity, Efficiency, and Effectiveness

One of the common areas where the use of IT provides payoffsfor an organization is in administrative operations. Almostall administrative processes can benefit from someapplication of technology, ranging from the basic "paving thecowpaths" to complete reengineering of entire systems ofoperation. The payoffs are generally in productivity,efficiency and effectiveness.

Kenyon is probably typical of small institutions which haveproceeded in a generally piecemeal fashion to use technologyto change administrative processes. The examples range fromthe earliest computer applications for managing financialdata to the current efforts to reengineer the purchasing

system. In addition to business and administrativeapplications, all staff members at Kenyon profit from the useof e-mail and other electronic information resources.

In many ways, the benefits from using IT can be measured byrealizing what couldn't be accomplished without it. Everydepartment of the College has come to depend upon technologyas an essential tool. Without the use of IT tools, theroutine work people do would take much longer, be done muchless efficiently, or simply couldn't be done at all.Following are some specific examples of the payoffs from ITin the administrative areas:

* The College Bookstore manager, Jack Finefrock, says ITdoes the "drudge" jobs. The use of the TOMTRACS softwaresaves 8 person- weeks of work in ordering and processingtextbooks. The on-line Books- In-Print and PUBNET servicereduce ordering and shipping time, provide instant stockconfirmation, and yield higher discounts. Book orders areplaced directly with the publishers, rather than through adistributor, and the Bookstore can keep less inventorybecause of quick delivery.

* The administration of staff contracts is done on-line,including information gathering and record keeping onspreadsheets by the Staff Relations office, preparation of

contract materials and payroll revisions by Accounting, andissuance of renewal contract letters by the President'soffice. The degree of coordination among departments would beimpossible without IT tools. This procedures saves countlesshours of staff work and provides better data more quickly tothe senior management staff to use in their decision-making.

* Kenyon's Comptroller, Teri Leonard, notes that IT hashelped the Accounting office work more efficiently inhandling the College payroll, processing student loan



materials, planning the College budget, paying billselectronically, doing bulk mailings, printing forms andreports, etc.

* The College Relations office maintains databases ofexternal contacts which include information on alumni,parents, donors, businesses, and foundations. This datasupports the targeting and development of potential donors toKenyon, and is also used for other applications such asdeveloping career advising contacts for graduating seniors.

* On a residential campus, allocation of student housingis a significant issue. An on-line housing lottery systemenables the Student Housing office to administer this complexprocess fairly and non-politically.

* The Registrar's office has a number of on-line systemsthat includes both the usual ones related to student recordsand registration and others that are less typical, such as avery popular course enrollment system which provides earlywarning of full classes. The Registrar also uses a roomassignment package (Schedule25) which assigns classes toclassrooms in an optimal manner. Use of this package hasreduced the complex room assignment process from three weeks

to a few minutes, and also allows the Registrar toinvestigate a variety of "what if" scenarios involving classsize, room capacities, etc. which would be impossible withoutan on-line system.

* Kenyon's Admissions staff have become heavy users ofcomputing and networking tools to help them in their crucialtask of recruiting excellent students. While most of the workinvolves fairly standard applications such as trackingprospectives, managing lists, producing mailings, andevaluating data, the use of IT has made it possible for theAdmissions staff to work more effectively and efficiently.

* The administration of the student aid program is beingincreasingly streamlined by the use of IT systems. TheMicroFaids software, running on a Novell network linking theFinancial Aid staff, is used to compute allowable aid fromFAF information, do follow up on paperwork received, andreport on aid awarded. This improves the accuracy of theprocess and reduces clerical and management time.

* The Kenyon library has a wide array of on-line systemsto handle its administrative processes and informationcollections. Examples include the on-line catalog, inter-library loan, circulation, budget management, governmentdocuments, etc. Use of these systems has had many payoffs

including reduction in staff time, more efficient use ofstaff time, better budget management, and faster service topatrons. The availability of a mature on-line catalog systemwas one reason why the library embarked on an extensiveproject to convert the catalog system from Dewey to Libraryof Congress.

* The implementation of microcomputers and desktoppublishing software, along with access to the campus network,has revolutionized the work of the Public Affairs office. Tom



Stamp, Director of Public Affairs, observes that "So greathas been the impact of computing on the Office of PublicAffairs that it is becoming increasingly hard to remember thedaily routine of just ten years ago, when typewriters satwhere microcomputers and printers now hold sway." Thewriting, editing, design, layout, typesetting, and printingof publications all depend heavily on IT. This has not onlyincreased productivity and faster generation of time-sensitive materials, but has also led to cost savings in theproduction costs of printed materials. The Public Affairsstaff has also come to depend heavily on the use of thecampus network for access to e-mail, library resources,information resources on the Internet, and KCInfo, thecampus-wide information system.

The productivity of faculty has also been enhanced by the useof IT. All faculty secretaries have networked microcomputersand laser printers in their offices, and now handle manytasks which would have been difficult or impossible severalyears ago. Most faculty now prepare their course materials ontheir office computers, which frees the secretaries to handleother things. Administrative work, such as searches, are mucheasier with the help of e-mail, databases, and word-processing tools. Faculty can handle many routine student

questions via e-mail and discussion groups, a form offaculty-student contact which is often more convenient forstudents and which increases faculty productivity withoutreducing the interaction between faculty and students.

Productivity discussions often center on faculty work andadministrative operations, but students at Kenyon have alsoprofited greatly by the access to computing and networking.For example, writing small and large papers is one of themajor learning activities for students. This involves notonly research and writing, but also the often time-consumingtask of producing clean, readable copy to hand in to thefaculty. The combination of a single word- processing package

(WordPerfect) on all microcomputers and on the central VAXsystems and a large number of distributed laser printersprovides a standardized, well-supported word processingsystem which greatly simplifies the production of studentpapers. With production burdens eased, students can spendmore time on writing and re-writing to improve the quality oftheir work. The recent addition of scanning equipment,graphics software, and color printers has added a newdimension to the kinds of papers students can produce. Forexample, one student scanned in Mayan hieroglyphics andincluded them in a report.

Most of the applications of technology in the Library have

been directly beneficial to students in their work. The on-line catalog provides a fast, easy, efficient way to locateinformation from any network access point on campus. The on-line circulation system identifies materials which arechecked out or available. To obtain materials from otherlibraries, students can submit inter-library loan requestsover the network.

The implementation of the HelpLine, Kenyon's help deskfacility, has had a significant positive effect on the



productivity of students, faculty and staff. The HelpLineprotects and extends the College's computing investment byhelping callers use their computing resources moreefficiently without wasting time hunting for hard-to-findanswers. By using an on-line referral and tracking system,the HelpLine staff responds to callers more efficiently byquickly directing problems to the most appropriate ICS staffmember. The HelpLine also provides a central feedback pointfor evaluating and improving IT services at Kenyon.

E. Informed Planning and Management of Resources

The existence of a campus network has led to "networkedthinking" about important College data. The central fileconcept, made possible by the full campus network, allowsdata management at one central location, distributed fileupdating at the point of data origin, and access from anylocation on campus. One-time data entry for employee andstudent information, for example, increases data accuracy andallows for automatic updating of information resources likethe phone directory, e-mail distribution lists, mailinglists, donor information, scholarship information, andpayroll updates. All of this saves time and resources.

Staff members from many departments contribute data to thecampus employee master database and student master database,and in turn, are able to use the data with confidence in itsaccuracy and reliability. Most databases are used by severaldepartments without quarrels about "ownership." For example,the central billing file is used by Financial Aid, StudentAdvising, and Accounting. The student prospect file is usedby Admissions and Athletics. The data file developed byCollege Relations is also used by Admissions and the CareerDevelopment Center.

Databases of this type, and the management and communications

systems built on them, are viewed as significantinstitutional assets which enable administrators to makebetter, more informed decisions. For example, the Information& Computing Services division has systems for trackingequipment and software, for handling the acquisition of allCollege IT equipment, for managing network and computingfacilities, and for tracking technical and user supportproblems. With an inventory of thousands of items, theCollege's equipment tracking system maintained by theAccounting office is essential for good management andplanned budgeting.

Joe Nelson, Vice President for Finance, notes that "the real

value of technology is that the precision it provides to thedecision making process allows for the ramifications of thedecision to be almost instantly evaluated. This hasdramatically reduced the number of poor decisions that wouldhave been otherwise made because data would not otherwise beavailable. In short, technology makes us all better managersand that should result in better products for the consumer."

F. Issues of Status and Competition



Colleges such as Kenyon exist in a highly challengingenvironment, competing for the best students and faculty withother selective, high quality institutions. While many thingscontribute to an institution's competitiveness, IT resourcesplay a positive role. Scott Siddall, Director of AcademicComputing, states that "Information technology enhances ourability to recruit and retain the best students and faculty.According to annual survey data, each year's entering classarrives with greater experience and skill in computing andnetwork communications, which translates into greaterexpectations for access to such tools. Our investment ininformation technology has helped us meet those expectations.Our new faculty have elevated expectations as well, and thisis an issue in the retention of the best instructors. Forexample, Professor Sullivan (Physics) worked extensively withhis Los Alamos colleagues over the Internet while he was avisiting member of our faculty. Our ability to support hiscollaborative work was an important element in his decisionto accept our offer of a tenure track line."

Kenyon strives for excellence and high quality in all aspectsof its programs in order to attract and retain highly capablestudents and outstanding faculty members. In the IT area,Kenyon aspires to have an IT program which is comparable to

those of the best colleges of our type, thus enhancing ourcompetitiveness and stature. With resources such as thecampus-wide information system (KCInfo), the on-line Librarycatalog and information resources menu, the Student NetworkAccess Program, the Academic Computing Awards Program, theKenyon Microcomputer Purchase Plan, the HelpLine service, andthe unified, standardized campus network, Kenyon often servesas a model for other liberal arts colleges. This plays a partin projecting the image of a strong, high-qualityinstitution.

Kenyon College is located in a small town in a rural part ofOhio. This isolation could be perceived to be a drawback in

terms of access to the scholarly world which is oftencentered in large, urban areas. However, Kenyon's full campusnetwork and Internet access makes it possible to have thebest of both worlds: the beauty and calm of the rural settingalong with full access to the global information pool. Thenetwork also allows prospective students, parents, Trustees,guests, and other members of the "Kenyon family" to use thecampus-wide information system (KCInfo) to find informationabout Kenyon simply by browsing the menus. As PresidentPhilip Jordan put it: "The availability of information hasbeen revolutionized. From local bulletin boards andinformation reference collections, through to nationaldatabases and international networks, we have on Kenyon's

rural hilltop electronic access to information that brings asense of currency and being in touch. No longer does acountry college feel isolated by the distance to the nearestmajor city: the world is seconds away."

G. Community and Collegiality

One of the often touted characteristics of small liberal artscolleges is the sense of community and collegiality which



exists on these campuses. Faculty, students, and staff tendto know each other better than in larger, less personalinstitutions. While some people may view the use ofinformation technology as potentially depersonalizing, atKenyon the use of IT resources such as e-mail and KCInfotends to reinforce the sense of close and friendly contactamong all members of the campus community. E-mail simplifiesand supplements business and social conversations. Theegalitarianism of e-mail makes communications among faculty,students, and staff easier and more open. "Our fully-integrated campus network, with virtually all students,faculty, administrators and staff as users, has created asense of interconnectedness among all of us" notes PresidentPhilip Jordan, Jr.

The campus-wide information system (KCInfo), although only infull use for this academic year, has already provided manypositive benefits for the community. KCInfo provides a singleentry point and a logically organized central repository forall sorts of on-line information about the College,departments, programs, student organizations, classes, etc.This gives all members of the community information which iseasily accessible 24 hours a day, and which is more currentthan paper-based information. Besides the information value,

this centralized information resource helps people thinkholistically about the community while still allowingconstituent groups to maintain and project a sense ofidentity.

The universal use of e-mail on campus and Kenyon's link tothe Internet have contributed to a stronger sense of ourparticipation in the global academic community. Kenyon'sfaculty and students listen to and join in on Internetdiscussion groups on a wide variety of academic topics.Faculty "attend" virtual conferences in their disciplineareas, read and contribute to e-journals, and join scholarsfrom around the world in research projects. Students are able

to collaborate on projects with students from otherinstitutions. For science students whose sequential majorcourses often preclude off-campus study programs,collaborative work with students from other institutions canprovide a useful and productive alternative to off-campuswork. The College's investment in our IT infrastructure helpsdevelop and reinforce feelings of community and collegialityin the scholarly world.

H. Connectivity and Service to the Local Community

While information technology has allowed our students and

faculty to reach resources all over the globe, Kenyon's ITresources have also provided opportunities to forge new linksto our local community and members of the "Kenyon extendedfamily." Members of faculty and staff families, as well asparents of students, alumni, donors, and Trustees, are givenaccounts on the College's VAX systems at no cost if they wantthem. Faculty members at a neighboring college which has nothad an Internet link use Kenyon's dial-in facilities to gainaccess to Internet resources. Library staff members fromlocal K-12 schools and public libraries are also allowed to



use Kenyon's library and technology resources.

Rural communities in particular are unprepared for the newopportunities afforded by the rapid developments in computingand communications. In Knox County, where Kenyon College islocated, local K-12 staff members have turned to Kenyon forthe expertise we have assembled as our IT program has grown.Staff members from Kenyon's Information & Computing Servicesdivision are providing advice to help county schools andlibraries develop IT programs and networking systems. TheseCollege-community partnerships bring members of the communityto the campus, help them become familiar with the College'sprograms, staff, and physical resources, and break downbarriers which have tended to isolate the College from thecommunity.

III. CONTRIBUTED STATEMENTS BY KENYON COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS

A. Philip Jordan, Jr.; President

Kenyon's connectivity through our fully-integrated campus

network, with virtually all students, faculty, administratorsand staff as users, has created a sense of interconnectednessamong all of us. We can reach each other easily, conversewith several people about the same topic, get out messages toall hands or just to one group of people, carry on anexchange of views, review texts in composition and much else-- all by electronic mail. I can, for example, learn from thestudent newspaper how they plan to quote me and makecorrections before they go to print. The flow of paper iswonderfully diminished, and the telephone is reserved forreal conversations.

As communications have been revolutionized, so also hasbeen the availability of information. Through local bulletin

boards and information reference collections, through tonational data bases and international networks, we have onKenyon's rural hilltop electronic access to information thatbrings a sense of currency and being in touch. No longer doesa country college feel isolated by the distance to thenearest major city: the world is seconds away.

Information technology makes possible a new focus onpedagogy, since it provides new ways to teach, and on studentlearning, since much more self-directed, on your own timelearning is possible. Faculty are thinking differently abouttheir teaching -- in some subjects at least -- and becomingmore guides and critics than information-deliveringauthorities. There is more collaborative learning as well.

And we are teaching students how to use information sourceswith strategic purpose and discrimination, so as to find whatthey need and not be drowned.

B. Reed Browning; Provost

Access to the Internet opens up an almost inexpressibly grandtool for learning and instruction. Kenyon faculty members canstay in hourly contact with colleagues around the world,



getting almost instantaneous responses to queries that asrecently as a decade ago took weeks to explore. Evidentiaryfinds, testing strategies, and interpretive hypotheses can bepublicized and critiqued in a matter of days; errors can beidentified and corrected almost as promptly. Moreover,targeted "surfing" of the Internet allows faculty members tomeasure the pulse of disciplinary activity. For Kenyonstudents the Internet opens up the possibility ofestablishing contact with and sharing ideas with students whoare engaged in similar activities (e.g., enrolled in similarcourses) at other colleges and universities. It is an avenueto a world of unexampled bibliographic richness and,increasingly, to a world of centrally important full-textdocuments. The existence of the Internet obliges facultymembers to teach new skills of source discrimination, to beguides rather than authorities. The product of all of thisattention to the instructional implications of the Internetwill be an alumni body that is comfortable in the new worldof digitized information and instantaneous linkages. Thesound you hear is the crumbling of walls.

C. Paul Gherman; Director of the Library

The impact of technology on libraries falls into twocategories. The first is the impact of technology on thelabor intensive operational activities of running a library.The second impact is on the qualitative and quantitativeaccess to information by users of libraries.

Local systems, or the software systems which facilitateacquisitions, cataloging, circulation, and public access tothe collections has helped libraries maintain or increaseservices with the same or fewer numbers of staff. By havingthe DRA automated system in place, Kenyon College was able toembark on the conversion of its collection from the Deweydecimal to the Library of Congress classification system.Conversion from one system to the other was done by machine

matching of the electronic records. By converting to theLibrary of Congress cataloging system, the speed of currentcataloging has improved so that within two years fewer staffmembers have reduced the cataloging backlog by two-thirds.

The investment in the campus network has paid off byallowing overdue notices to be sent via electronic mail.Paper notices no longer need to be printed or delivered viacampus mail. Electronic mail also will allow interlibraryloan and new book orders to be made without paper beinggenerated.

The acquisitions process moves much faster with fewerduplicates due to the automated ordering system. Work is nowunderway by many book vendors and OCLC to link the ordering

process and the cataloging process to eliminate much of theexisting staff intervention. Within one year, new bookinformation will be linked to an acquisition process, so thata book order will automatically be sent to a publisher. Asthe book is delivered to the library, the catalog record willautomatically be sent to the local library system, so thatthe entire cataloging process will take place without humanintervention on the part of the library. This new processshould cut staffing needs in cataloging significantly.

In interlibrary loan, a nation-wide billing system has



been suggested which will tally debits and credits forinterlibrary lenders and borrowers. Once a year payments willbe made by libraries who are net borrowers saving the cost ofconstantly issuing small checks for each transaction. Thissystem will greatly reduce the workload of interlibrary loandepartments at a time when use of these departments areincreasing at fantastic rates. At Kenyon, the use ofinterlibrary borrowing increased 41% in the fall semesteralone.

This increase in interlibrary loan borrowing is directlylinked to the second payoff that technology has brought tolibraries. College libraries now have access to a rich worldof information, available only to the largest researchinstitutions only a few years ago. This change has beenbrought about by CD ROM databases which allow easy access tohuge specialized databases of bibliographic information, online commercial databases and access to hundreds of librarycatalogs accessible via the internet. Low cost or free accessto bibliographic information about millions of books andjournal articles has given undergraduate students at a smallrural liberal arts college like Kenyon information accessbeyond the dreams of the most fortunate research scholarworking in the world's richest libraries. Interlibrary loanhas increased dramatically because undergraduate students now

have knowledge of and access to these rich resources.The conjunction of computing and telecommunications inwhat is known as the Internet can be seen as the greatestadvance in information access since the invention of theprinting press. The investment colleges have made in linkingto the internet and extending that link to classrooms anddormitories will pay off at significant rates. Millions ofcomputers linked to the Internet now offer access to fulltext journals, graphic files, music, full motion video, andstatistical data. Access to these files is being made easierand retrieval more powerful due to wide spread use ofsoftware such as gopher, WAIS, Archie, and most recentlyMOSAIC. MOSAIC will require new investments in high band-

width connections to the National Information Infrastructureas well as powerful desktop workstations. But the payoff willbe access to information in dramatic new formats, asdocuments and multimedia databases are linked together intothe virtual library of tomorrow.

A small example at Kenyon is that via our subscriptionto Lexis/Nexis, costing $325.00 per month, our students haveaccess to the full text of all the major law journals andmost of the major newspapers in the US. Through FirstSearch,another commercial service, students can search a 28 millionitem database of the holdings of 17,000 libraries or adatabase of millions of journal articles, each of which isavailable via fax within hours.

The federal government is moving rapidly to distributegovernment information via the Internet. Kenyon students andfaculty can access many government reports at the very pointof creation, rather than waiting long periods for theGovernment Printing Office to release them. Federalinformation on CD ROM allows our students and faculty toextract large chunks of data and manipulate it, and analyzeit on their own personal computers.



D. Scott Siddall; Director of Academic Computing

Planning for change is difficult at best; planning for changein a traditional academic setting is like announcing plans torelocate a cemetery. Herein lies one of the benefits ofinformation technology. IT is encouraging if not forcing along-overdue reconstruction of the undergraduate teachingparadigm. At Kenyon, this is happening during the SummerInstitute On Academic Information Resources as facultydiscuss ways of using new technologies in teaching. Theseunprecedented debates focus on fundamental questions aboutteaching. The benefits of IT are compounding as facultysucceed with projects funded by our incentives program, theAcademic Computing Awards Program.

Information technology provides powerful tools for ourstudents to construct their own bases of knowledge as ourfaculty guide and facilitate rather than direct theeducational process. For example, this year our seniors inAsian Studies collaboratively developed a multimediapublication integrating their individual work on political,economic, and religious systems. We are only beginning torevise our teaching but it is clear that IT is prompting bothpersonal and institutional self-evaluations and opendiscussions which were unlikely in the absence of this

instructional change agent.Information technology is helping us build a strongersense of our academic community, both locally and globally.Electronic mail coordinates and supplements our conversationsand has made routine business at Kenyon much more efficient.Electronic conferences accommodate the varied learning stylesof our students. Networking our resources has tied us to ourlocal community through the K-12 networking projects, andpromises efficiencies as we develop stronger ties toneighboring colleges. No longer isolated "on the hill," weare members of the global community, with facile connectionsto scholars and scholarly materials worldwide. For example,the research efforts of Professor McCarthy (Sociology) were

made more effective as he browsed libraries in Ireland andGermany over the Internet prior to his sabbatical travel.Information technology enhances our ability to recruit

and retain the best students and faculty. According to annualsurvey data, each year's entering class arrives with greaterexperience and skill in computing and network communications,which translates into greater expectations for access to suchtools. Our investment in information technology has helped usmeet those expectations. Our new faculty have elevatedexpectations as well, and this is an issue in the retentionof the best instructors. For example, Professor Sullivan(Physics) worked extensively with his Los Alamos colleaguesover the Internet while he was a visiting member of our

faculty. Our ability to support his collaborative work was animportant element in his decision to accept our offer of atenure track line.

Information technology is enabling the instructor toconvey knowledge more effectively. For example, ProfessorLeccese (Psychology) has developed a three-dimensionalanimation of complex biochemical processes which take placeas a nervous impulse is transmitted from nerve to nerve. Theinstructional effectiveness of this remarkable imagery provesonce again that humans are visual learners.



E. Michael Fox; Assistant Director of Academic Computing

Information Technology pays off as both an educational andadministrative tool to keep Kenyon College in a competitivemarket. Much of the education students receive at Kenyon isbased on IT delivered through many services and resources bythe administrative and academic divisions of the college. Thequality of education and the quality of students at Kenyonare tightly interlinked with the quality of IT. Without highquality IT Kenyon would be crippled in its ability to providea high quality education to high quality students. IT ischanging the way education is provided to students. Facultyno longer must rely solely on their own knowledge base,teaching skills and the information provided in books. Withthe aid of computers and specialized software, faculty areable to better illustrate complex concepts. With the aid ofthe computer labs, students are able to continue theirlearning experience outside the classroom. Students enjoy aricher learning experience as a result. Thus, IT is enhancingthe quality of education at Kenyon.

Not only is Kenyon providing IT but more and morestudents are bringing it with them. Students provide their

own computers, software, printers, and modems to be used intheir room. The computer network on campus allows thesestudents to access information resources and lessen the needto compete with other students for access. The availabilityof personal computers and public computers allows studentsand faculty to expand the curriculum outside the classroom asstudents and faculty continue after class discussions usingVAX Notes. This technology improves student growth byallowing ALL students a chance to participate in discussionwith well conceived ideas. Students are motivated to becomebetter thinkers and communicators. Thus, IT is enhancing thequality of students at Kenyon.

IT is providing access to a global community of

information resources. Each faculty member has the ability toaccess both information and people over the Internet. Throughnews groups and list servers faculty are able to incorporateoutside discussions and material into their classroom. Thismaterial is "hot off the presses." The material changes fromday to day and allows faculty a greater opportunity to exposestudents to the dynamic world we live in. The Internet isbeing used as a tool by faculty members too augment thecurriculum in ways never before possible. The Internet is aninvaluable tool to faculty looking for current researchmaterial, literature, and other materials for their ownresearch. Thus, IT is enhancing the quality of faculty atKenyon.

As IT becomes more and more common on campus it becomesmore accepted and is changing the way we interact The biggestexample of this phenomena is the use of electronic mail. E-mail has become an accepted tool for handling everydaycommunications at Kenyon. Much like the phone has become avital method of communicating so now has e-mail. E-mail hasmade communicating more convenient. It's common for students,faculty, staff, and even guests to correspond with oneanother in a way that wasn't previously possible. Everythingfrom simple messages between two people to campus wide



announcements are sent through e-mail. This allows the entireKenyon community to be kept up to date at a moment's notice.And now with KCInfo on the VAX much of the information oncampus is maintained in one convenient location. This allowseven people off campus and outside our community to be intouch with information about Kenyon and the Kenyon community.This has been especially helpful to Kenyon alumni and evenprospective students. Electronic mail brings the communitycloser together by keeping current information within easyreach. Thus, IT is enhancing the quality of the Kenyoncommunity.

Benefits of IT can be seen not simply by what isaccomplished using IT but by realizing what isn'taccomplished if IT were not available. I occasionally hearemployees remark, after experiencing a problem with theirmicrocomputer which required a repair, that if theirmicrocomputer isn't working they might as well not show upfor work. IT is becoming an essential tool. Users are gettingthings done more effectively and doing things they could nothave done without the tools and resources of IT. For example,an employee in the Bookstore who relies on her microcomputerwith a CD-ROM drive and modem to search and order books wouldbe lost without these tools. The service she provides wouldtake longer and be inefficient and possibly ineffective

without IT. This would have a very negative impact on thefunction of the Bookstore to obtain textbooks in a timelymanner and thus would diminish the quality of serviceprovided to students and faculty. Likewise, I often find thatstudents are getting much more accomplished with the tools ofIT. Students papers now include color graphics to illustrateimportant concepts. Students are working on multimediaprojects which include sound, graphics, and video to providea full impact. As students see how much more effective theirwork can be with IT tools they come to expect these tools tobe available. More and more prospective students realize thebenefits of IT and understand its importance as a tool inobtaining the best quality education. Thus, the lack of high

quality IT will diminish the quality of students attracted toKenyon College.

F. Bill Quimby; Manager of Library Automation

In that my position enables me to get an intimate view ofboth the Library at work and ICS at work, I find a sharedinterest in the provision of research tools throughtechnology. The humble Library catalog, after all, is aresearch tool, and its accessibility via the network to alloffices and (in potential, at least) to dormitory roomsvastly improves the researcher's options. As does the

provision of electronic databases mounted on differentcomputers on different campuses, for example the ABSEES(American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies)available to our campus via the Internet and presented underthe umbrella of the Selected Electronic Information Resourcessection of KCInfo.

We have known of the utility of our Library catalog inelectronic form (particularly through its various indices)but are just now discovering the utility to the researcherand instructor of the other catalogs that are made available.



I am particularly pleased to use as an example the experienceof Professor George McCarthy during his research sabbatical.His ability to peruse the catalogs of Irish and Germanlibraries from Kenyon prior to his travels helped him morecarefully plan his research time, and led him to materialsabout which he was not aware.

There may be even better things to come, solutions toold problems, solutions to problems which we may not beseeing at this point because existing technology often bothdominates and limits our perception of what technology maybring. An example of a potential solution to an old problem:one of the major dilemmas in the Library world is thepresentation in electronic catalogs of materials written innon-Roman alphabets. I was recently able to identify, andcall to the computer screen via our link to the Internet,materials in Kanji and Cyrillic using a computer programtitled Mosaic. I am certain that we will in just a few yearssee a Library that enables the researcher to do that from itspublic access catalog terminal!

G. Bev Actis; Office Operations Manager/User ServicesSpecialist

The impact of the Information Age gives Kenyon no choice butto use IT in imaginative ways to create a technologicallyliterate campus. Because of the stiff competition fortalented students, Kenyon must strive not only forcompetence, but excellence in this area, in order to keepattracting the kind of student that Kenyon has attracted inthe past. How well we do that will determine our verysurvival.

Kenyon has risen to the challenge by taking a leadershiprole among small liberal arts colleges of its kind indeveloping exciting applications of IT such as the KCInfoCWIS, the on-line Library catalog and information resourcesmenu, the Student Network Access Program, the Academic

Computing Awards Program, the Kenyon Microcomputer PurchaseProgram, the HelpLine facility, and the unified, standardizednetwork at Kenyon.

Kenyon's mission is to empower students with knowledge,through the right use of information, so that they canfunction successfully in the world that they are about toenter. IT serves the educational mission of Kenyon because itprovides students, in their pursuit of knowledge, with theresources and tools to access and use informationeffectively, which is crucial in an increasinglytechnological world.

The Computing HelpLine, Kenyon's help desk facility, hashad a significant effect on the productivity of all college

groups by helping callers to solve computing problems thatwould otherwise cause delays in the completion of theirduties. The HelpLine uses an on-line referral/tracking systemwhich directs problems to the most appropriate ICS staffmember for more efficient service. It also provides a centralfeedback point for evaluating IT services at Kenyon andimproving on them.

IT at Kenyon has allowed all departments to developmanagement information systems and office automation systemsthat enable them to make better, more informed decisions.



Data from these systems is easier to access and analyze, andit is more complete, accurate and up-to-date than previousmanual systems. Some examples of the management informationsystems used in Kenyon's division of Information & ComputingServices are: the equipment inventory tracking system, thesoftware inventory system, the ICS budget monitoring system,network facilities tracking systems, and the HelpLineproblem/repair tracking systems.

KCINFO, Kenyon's campus-wide information system, hasimproved communication and information distribution among allCollege groups because it is easy to access, logicallyorganized, available 24 hours a day, and is more current thanpaper-based information. KCInfo also enhances our sense ofcommunity by providing a central repository of informationfor and about the Kenyon community. KCInfo allows access byother institutions and even prospective students, so they canget an idea of what Kenyon is all about in a very detailedand "real life" way, by browsing its menus.

Although development and maintenance costs of IT arehigh in terms of dollars, it is important to keep in mind thecost/benefit ratio. The benefits realized in every aspect ofCollege activity from our investment in IT are nothing shortof astronomical. It has completely revolutionized the way weteach, learn, and work and has literally opened up our doors

to the world.

H. Ron Griggs; Director of Networks, Systems, and TechnicalServices

The oldest private liberal arts college in Ohio, KenyonCollege is isolated on a hill in rural, north central Ohio.Traditionally, Kenyon has used that isolation as a focus tobuild a community of scholars. With approximately 1450students all residing in College housing, 135 facultymembers, and 300 members of the administrative and supportstaff, the college maintains an important sense of community

unavailable at larger institutions. The development of thecampus network at Kenyon served to reinforce and enrich thiscommunity concept.

Kenyon's information technology infrastructuredevelopment took its shape and direction from this largerideal of a community of scholars. The Kenyon network stressescommunication and inclusiveness for every member of thecommunity, with as many resources as possible available toall.

The Kenyon network is profoundly influenced by thegeography and the architecture of the campus. Though thecampus is located in a relatively small area--one can imaginean elongated oval about a mile in length and approximately

half a mile at its widest point--it is not physicallycontiguous. The village of Gambier is situated at the centerof that oval. And though Kenyon is a small institution, thereare over 70 separate buildings on campus that are eitheracademic buildings, administrative offices, or studentresidences. More than 20 of these buildings are formerprivate houses, some dating back to the 19th century.

The physical network is based on an inter-buildingfiberoptic cabling plant that can be described as a semi-collapsed backbone, i.e., a small, interconnected set of



strategically selected network hub sites from whichfiberoptic cabling extends in a star configuration to othersites. Inside each building, twisted pair wiring supportsnetwork connections in each residence, office, laboratory,and classroom.

The campus network is organized logically with a 100Mbps FDDI ring as the campus backbone supporting 12 Ethernetsubnets. This structure has a high degree of fault toleranceand reliability, and is easily extendable. Kenyon supportscentralized computing resources with a cluster of five DECVAX systems: a VAX 4500, 4300, 4200, 4100, and a MicroVAX3100. These systems share a variety of software, hardware,and peripheral resources, with limitations placed only forsecurity and privacy. The community also has access to manymicrocomputer applications and resources via two NovellNetware file servers.

All Kenyon faculty have microcomputers on their desks;all members of the administration have either microcomputersor terminals. Students enjoy access to computing at over 150stations (microcomputers or terminals) situated across thecampus, including 40 stations inside student residence halls.Additionally, students with microcomputers can subscribe tothe Student Network Access Program (SNAP) for individualnetwork connections in the residence room. All faculty and

staff microcomputers are connected to the network, eitherthrough serial connections or direct 10BASET Ethernetconnections. Over 300 students are SNAP subscribers. As aresult, effectively 100% of the faculty and staff at Kenyon,and 99.5% of students use the network at least once per week.

The effect on Kenyon College of essentially 100%community participation on the network has been astounding.The various communication tools--electronic mail, of course,but also KCINFO (the Kenyon CWIS), VAX Notes conferences,Usenet News discussion groups, on-line newsletters, on-linepolls, on-line student elections, etc.--have served to pullthe community closer together and establish a powerful sensethat we are all accessible to each other, despite the

sometimes disparate schedules of student life, administrativeoffice hours, and academic research and teaching.The network enables the Kenyon community to tap into the

vast resources of the outside world, as well. Over 80% ofKenyon students regularly use Internet information tools, forexample, enriching their access to information and toscholarly work beyond the traditional classroom material.Through the network, Kenyon students are becoming globalcitizens and scholars, at ease in a world with globalresources at their fingertips. The "splendid isolation" ofKenyon's community on the hill remains, but it no longerlimits.

I. Glen Turney; Director of Administrative ComputingApplications

Economies have been achieved in administrative departmentsusing Information Technology to electronically file andaccess critical information in one central location. Severalexamples of this central file concept have been implementedat Kenyon.

Employee and student information is maintained



electronically in one central facility. Portions of theinformation is updated from different locations on campus andtotal campus access over the network ensures its accuracy.Phone directories, electronic and paper, are created fromthis information. A variety of e-mail distribution lists areautomatically generated on a daily basis. Mailing lists andlabels can also be extracted in various groupings.

The main economies center around one basic point - "onechange affects all." Savings are achieved by the eliminationof numerous duplicate department files, simplified access tothe information via the network, and less development effortfor reacting to policy changes. Most important, thegeneration of reliable e-mail distribution lists provides thecapability to communicate instantly with the total campus.Savings in time and money are achieved through the use of theelectronic network, as opposed to flooding the campus withpaper, for major and emergency announcements.

The creation of the central billing file providesFinancial Aid, Student Advising, and Accounting instantaccess to the students' financial position with the college.This central file has provided better service to the studentand reduced the level of frustration of students and theaffected departments.

Student prospect information by the Admissions and

Athletic departments. Again this is one electronic fileaccessed and updated by all personnel in both departments.Time is saved because the status and activity for eachprospective student is electronically available. Savings areachieved by focusing mailings and contacts on the bestprospects. Finally research information is compiled toimprove the efficiency and focus of future prospect searches.

The Advising office has access to the Registrar gradefiles enabling them to quickly identify students requiringfollow up for academic intervention or advising.

The Career Development office has access to the CollegeRelations files to enable students to build a network for jobsearches.

The Admissions office has access to the CollegeRelations files to enable them to identify volunteerrecruiting personnel to contact prospective students.

Payroll information for Maintenance employees istransferred from the Maintenance system to the payroll systemto eliminate duplicate data entry.

Donor information is transferred from the CollegeRelations system to the general ledger to eliminate duplicatedata entry.

Scholarship information is transferred from theFinancial Aid system to the Student Billing system toeliminate duplicate data entry.

The use of Books in Print, inventory control, and PUBNET

ordering systems in the bookstore provide electronic look up,inventory control, and ordering of books in the bookstore.These software tools reduce clerical paperwork and provideimproved service to students, faculty, and staff.

Printing of payroll W2 forms was changed from acumbersome pre-mailer form to the laser printer reducing thecost and labor required to print the forms.

In College Relations, an extensive data base of giftgiving plus an extensive personal and professional profile ofalumni, businesses, foundations, and friends provides on-line



information access to efficiently support the targeting anddevelopment of potential donors to the College.

An important part of supporting student life at Kenyonis the assignment of housing rooms through a complex lotterysystem. This system is a combination of on line and batchprograms enabling the housing office to administer thiscomplex process fairly.

A Registration system supports the class registrationwith an on-line process creating a data base for the postingof grades, etc. An on-line course file is created from thisdata base. The course files is accessible by all students andfaculty and provides an early warning of full classes. Theresult is less time in the registrar's office, duringregistration, trying to enroll students in full classes.

The Schedule25 scheduling system was installed tooptimally assign classes to classrooms. The time of thisprocess was reduced from three weeks to four minutes. Anadded benefit is the ability to simulate several cycles ofclassroom assignment previously impossible on a manual basis.

Microcomputers with Pagemaker and a laser printer havebeen installed in the Public Affairs office to provide in-house typesetting resulting in savings in outside typesettingcosts and reducing turnaround time of generating releases andarticles.

Financial Aid uses the MicroFaids software system tocompute allowable aid from FAF information, follow up toassure that all necessary forms and paperwork are receivedfrom prospective students, and to report on the amount of aidrewarded in relation to budgets. The automation of theseprocesses reduces the amount of clerical and management timeand improves the accuracy of the process.

J. Joe Nelson; Vice President for Finance

I think the real value of technology is that the precision itprovides to the decision making process allows for the

ramification of the decision to be almost instantlyevaluated. This has dramatically reduced the number of poordecisions that would have been otherwise made because datawould not otherwise be available. In short, technology makesus all better managers and that should result in betterproducts for the consumer.

K. John Kurella; Manager of Business Services

The primary benefit is easy and widespread sharing ofinformation. This ranges from getting assistance/informationfrom a counterpart thru the Internet (don't have to reinvent

the wheel if someone has already done it), to as simple assending info to a group of associates working on the sameproject (as in a distribution list for e-mail).

A second major payoff is in having accurate and easyaccess to large, complex collections of data in simpleformats. An example is attendance records of employees andthe ability to track and find current status of vacation,sick leave, hours worked, premium time paid, or any otherspecific info on an individual or the group.

Although we don't have it to a great degree,



centralization of data such as the employee or student masterfiles eliminates a great deal of duplication of effort. If wehad a purchasing system on-line, information could be enteredone time only instead of many times on various forms to placethe order and pay the invoice.

L. Teri Leonard; Comptroller

Some examples of ways that technology has been useful in theAccounting Office:

1. Direct deposit of payroll2. Contract process - eliminated hand figuring of fringebenefits and hand typing of contracts and the information ismoved automatically to the payroll system3. Student loan process - eliminated hand typing ofpromissory notes and moves information directly to the loansystem without reentering4. Credit memo system - eliminated the hand matching ofcredit memos in the payable system5. Vendors requiring 1099s are now flagged in the system6. While not a complete process, the student payable screenallows more than one person at a time to access student

account information (including those in financial aid and theDeans)7. The budget model has allowed us to see the future effectof choices under consideration8. Kenyon receives government and AMS cash through directdeposit to our account9. Kenyon now pays its gas and electric bills throughelectronic bank debit--this eliminates the last minute hand-typing of many checks10. An example of low level technology--the coin counter11. The direct entry of payroll updates eliminates the needfor duplicate effort--i.e. one person writing it on a pieceof paper and another entering it into the system. The Student

Account Coordinator now enters address changes directly andwe hope to move to direct entry in other areas.12. Word processing has allowed us to personalize largemailings.13. Some aspects of e-mail are useful. It can serve as a wayto discuss and resolve issues without playing telephone tag.

M. Jack Finefrock; Manager of the Bookstore and AdjunctInstructor of Classics

Our new TOMTRACS software package, which cost only $400,saves two weeks times four people for the textbook

department. Returns are easier, and the computers calculatesaverage margins for us. It also types up all the mailinglabels and shelf tags. The computer does the drudge jobs.

Our new global Books In Print on CD-ROM merges with GE'selectronic ordering system, PUBNET, which reduces order timeto overnight in some cases. We also can have instant in stockconfirmation and higher discounts since now the direct sourceis faster than the distributor.

We receive higher discounts, faster shipping, instantout of stock notice, and are saving mailing orders through



stationery and art supplies direct links. We don't have towait for a salesperson. Our orders go directly into theircomputers with no order taker on their end. We can keep lessstuff in stock because we can get it here a week faster.

The library and the bookstore can share software costssince cross-permissions are sometimes free or at a discount.This will be a big area of savings as actual books go on-lineas well as periodicals. We will actually print out textbookshere on demand.

Academic bookstores will only be as good as the softwareand systems available to them. Making the bookstore a secondfull library and second full computer center helps with themerging of all three of these functions in the next ten yearsat a terrific savings. Three locations for the same thingswith some specialized functions at each. The big gains forcolleges in the next ten years will not be how much they havebut how well they integrate what they already have. It's likecross-fertilization in plants. Everything does better. Alsofrom the Kasha Upanishads "He who sees the diversity and notthe unity wanders from death to death." It's not what we'vegot but how imaginatively and intensively we use it.

N. Karen Frasca; Director of Fringe Benefits and Staff

Relations

The biggest impact technology has had on our department is innonexempt compensation administration. The entire processruns electronically. Spreadsheets listing all employees,their compensation, positions held, years of service andrelevant salary ranges are sent electronically to each memberof senior staff. Senior staff inputs their decisions onincreases and the spreadsheets give them an instant read outof how those decisions affect each employee and the generalpool of money they have to distribute for their division.Staff Relations compiles information from all the divisionsand generates a summary spreadsheet showing the new salaries,

how the salaries compare to other staff members withcomparable positions and years of service, and how thosesalaries affect the grand total of dollars allocated for alldivisions. Once senior staff has given final approval on alltheir decisions, the spreadsheets are sent to Accounting forcalculation of benefits on each employee. The purpose of thecalculations is twofold: Accounting uses them for budgetarypurposes and staff relations incorporates them into letterssent to each employee advising them of their new compensationand benefits for the coming year. Once Staff Relationsreceives the calculations they execute electronic commands toextract information from three different data bases. Theinformation is used to generate the above mentioned letters.

Before this system was implemented, each spreadsheet washand typed and then retyped after final decisions were madeby senior staff. All the letters were typed by hand as well.This system has saved countless hours of time spent by staffand administrators. It has also provided more information ata much more rapid pace to senior staff which has helped themin their decision making.

O. Tom Stamp; Director of Public Affairs



So great has been the impact of computing on the Office ofPublic Affairs that it is becoming increasingly hard toremember the daily routine of just ten years ago, whentypewriters sat where microcomputers and printers now holdsway.

Because the news operation in the Office of PublicAffairs is especially information-intensive, considerable andvaried use is made of computing technologies. On the mostbasic level, we write all our stories for news releases andpublications in WordPerfect on microcomputers, preparinglabels using the same software. But we receive a great dealof information from other campus sources as well, and weinitiate, closely monitor, and respond to e-mail,determining, for example, which faculty member might be bestto respond to an inquiry from a reporter. E-mail is also thebest way, on occasion, to inform all community members ofbreaking news, which we send from the e-mail address of ourcampus newsletter, Fortnightly.

Of course, we also tap into programs on the VAX to mergenames and other student information into articles. KCInfo andits resources are increasingly important to us for both localand distant information.

Internet has become essential for daily use, not only

for extensive fact-checking through FirstSearch, InfoTrac,and library systems around the world (particularly theCleveland, Ohio, Public Library), but also for services suchas ProfNet, through which reporters look for experts in givenareas.

In the publications area of the Office of PublicAffairs, the writing and editing of materials produced forboth external and internal audiences has been streamlinedwith word-processing software and equipment. Meanwhile, thedesign, typesetting, layout, and even, in some cases, theprinting of those materials has been revolutionized bydesktop-publishing systems. Software tools includeWordPerfect, Windows, and PageMaker, and equipment includes

large-scale monitors that allow for full-page and multiple-page viewing of documents, along with rapid manipulation oftext and graphics. Finished pages--which, in some cases, areused as camera copy for printing purposes--are produced on anHP LaserJet 4 printer.

To take one publication as an example of thepervasiveness of computing in the office, production of theCollege's alumni magazine, the Bulletin, has been transformedin recent years. Almost all copy for the magazine (except forclass notes) is generated in WordPerfect, including storieswritten by freelance writers who provide us with both hardcopy and diskettes of their work. Copy is then edited by thestaff in WordPerfect before the pages are designed and laid

out in PageMaker. After final proofreading, the PageMakerfiles are conveyed to the printer, who converts theelectronic files to negatives from which plates are produced,thus bypassing an expensive typesetting stage.

==========================================================================================================================

Background paper for



HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #4


THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT AUGUSTA

George P. ConnickPresident

Jane A. RussoExecutive Assistant to the President

Pamela S. MacBrayneDean of Telecommunications and Academic Development

Thomas E. AbbottDean of Learning Resources and Institutional Development

Fred HurstAssociate Dean of Information and Learning Systems

Robert S. TolsmaAssociate Dean of Instructional Development and EducationalTechnology

=============================================================


THE VIEW FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT AUGUSTA

Faculty and staff at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA)convene to discuss the logistics of delivering college

courses through local cable systems to ten Maine communities.Another group wraps up the design of a lab science kit,complete with fetal pig, instructional videotape and a set oftools for home dissection. Such discussions would not haveoccurred on this small regional campus ten years ago. Buttoday UMA has dramatically expanded both its mission and itsenrollment. The campus continues to serve 3,000 students inthe Mid-Maine community, but it also delivers courses andservices to 3,000 more off-campus students through anextensive learning network: the Education Network of Maine.

Background

In 1985, Maine was 49th among states in the number of highschool graduates going on to college and last in the numberof adults enrolling in any form of higher education. Alarmedby these statistics, the UMS Board of Trustees asked UMA toextend learning opportunities to the state's isolated ruralcommunities. At the time, UMA had no practicable way todischarge this responsibility without incurring the enormousexpense of recruiting and hiring large numbers of facultywilling to travel to the icy northern reaches of the state.The plan that unfolded was both ambitious and timely:



emerging information technologies would be used to transportthe college classroom into Maine's most geographicallyisolated regions.

In the years that followed, UMA established eleven off-campuscenters, developed an office of distance education andconstructed a comprehensive statewide telecommunicationssystem comprising 43 transmitters and 700 miles of fiberopticcable. The Education Network of Maine, as this alliance oftechnology and education providers was later named, wasofficially inaugurated on September 4, 1989. Today, theEducation Network delivers 70 credit courses leading to fivefull associate and two master's degrees to more than 100Maine locations each semester.

Maine's Education Network was developed by the University ofMaine at Augusta in consultation with the Technical CollegeSystem, Maine Maritime Academy, other University Systemcampuses, Maine Public Broadcasting System, New EnglandTelephone and the Maine Department of Education.

Such broad community collaboration and support, crucial tothe Network's development, was won as a result of theoverwhelming educational need that informed and propelled the

creation of the original plan. Maine's lagging educationalachievement at all levels could be directly attributed to itslong history of uneven public access to higher education. Theresulting plan, which would broadly and equitably extendlearning opportunities across the state through the use ofemerging technologies, was met with approval throughout theeducation, government and business communities, clearing apath for the development of a complex statewide network andhelping to attract significant external funding:

-- 1986: $3.[5] million awarded by Federal Title III grantfor the construction of the fiber optic spine and othersystem components.

-- 1988, the governor recommends, and the Legislatureapproves, the first-year funding of $2.[2] million.Development of the ITFS (Instructional Television FixedService) System and network of new centers and sites begins.

-- 1990: An additional $1.55 million was approved by theLegislature.

-- 1990: A $300,000 grant awarded by the Annenberg/CPBProject to help improve instruction and support services fordistant learners through a new Center for Distance Educationat UMA.

-- 1993: Another Title III grant, in the amount of $1.[7]million, was awarded to UMA to develop a statewide studentinformation system and extended program of developmentalinstruction.

An Investment in Technology

Without clear indications that the new technology could



effectively deliver upon the University's promise ofeducational access to the state's underserved populations,Maine's significant investment of funds in technology,personnel and faculty and staff development would only haveexacerbated already attenuated budgets, alienated faculty andinspired the distrust of public policy makers and taxpayersalike.

Questions about the quality of such telemediated instructioninvariably arose and, indeed, continue to be discussed today.In the past, educational quality was seen as antithetical tobroad educational access. Real quality was defined by theextent to which institutions selected and sorted students onthe basis of ability. But in a world where the quality ofone's life increasingly depends on an ability to graspcomplex skills and reason both creatively and critically,broad and equitable access to education is crucial. Andstudies have documented that students in telemediated coursesdo as well academically as their on-campus peers. In a recentindependent survey conducted by the Muskie Institute duringthe summer of 1993, UMA students enrolled in ITV coursesrated their satisfaction with the learning experience at thesame level as those attending courses where the facultymember is "live" (89 percent).

Still, the decision to turn to information technologiespresented a challenge in 1985, when the only videotransmission system design option available in Maine wasmicrowave. Subsequent negotiations with New EnglandTelephone, however, led to the creation of a fiber opticnetwork connecting all seven university campuses that wasboth technically feasible and cost competitive with otheravailable delivery alternatives.

Construction began on the resulting interactive televisionsystem (ITV) in 1988. Today, a four-channel audio, video anddata fiberoptic spine, leased from New England Telephone,

connects electronic classrooms located at each of theUniversity of Maine System campuses. At each of these sevencampuses, the classroom signal is broadcast via point-to-point and ITFS (Instructional Television Fixed Service) fromtransmitters to multiple receive antennae at the variousreceive sites. The signal can be transmitted from each campusthroughout its own geographic region or throughout the entirestate. Courses are offered to students over the Network from7:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 7:00 a.m.until noon on Saturdays.

Students in remote ITV classrooms are taught by a professorwho is simultaneously teaching to a classroom of students on

campus. The instructor and any visual images areelectronically transmitted to the remote sites where thestudents can see and hear the instructor on televisionmonitors. A cordless telephone audio talk-back system permitsstudents in these distant locations to interact with theinstructor and with other students.

Although interactive television is the primary medium ofcourse delivery, a variety of supporting technologies providestudents and faculty with additional opportunities to



communicate, both in and outside of class. Computerconferencing, for example, allows students and faculty tocorrespond regardless of time and distance. Audioconferencing brings guests from anywhere in the world intothe college classroom. Voice mail, fax notes, and electronicmail all help to expand the diversity and range ofcommunication available to Network students.

UMA's investment in technology proved to be a solidinvestment in its own future as well as in the future ofeducation in Maine. As the 1980s waned and the contraction ofthe national economy began, state funding for educationslowed dramatically and the wisdom of UMA's technologicalinvestment became evident. In the early nineties, while mostof the other campuses of the University System saw theirenrollment flatten or begin to shrink, UMA enjoyed anhistorically high headcount as first generations of collegestudents across Maine found college available in their localcommunity. Today, more than 55% of UMA students are enrolledat an off-campus center or site.

The Payoff

The economies of scale afforded by information technologies

seem obvious, yet the financial payoff is difficult toquantify by traditional measures.

Historically labor-intensive, higher education has seen costsrise regardless of how resourcefully it has responded to thechanging needs of society. The contributions of informationtechnologies are realized to the extent that they replacepaper processes, eliminate duplication, reduce the time andexpense of travel and generally relieve faculty and staff ofthe more repetitive aspects of the operation, freeing them tospend their time on higher level tasks. Ideally, technologiescan help us to do what society is demanding we do--serve agreater number and diversity of students with the same level

of quality.

UMA's payoff from its technological investment is best seenin the great success it has had in carrying out its statewidemission of educational access. Students living on coastalislands and in towns deep in the northern forest can todayattend college at their local school. To accomplish thismission by attempting to construct off-campus facilitiesacross the state and hiring many more faculty to teach inthese remote areas would have been impossible. A new highschool, serving 500 students in a small Maine city, forexample, will cost $18 million to construct this year. Bycontrast, the total cost to construct the Education Network

to date is approximately $15 million--and it can serve 10,000students on any given day.

Academic

UMA associate degrees in General Studies, BusinessAdministration, Social Services, Liberal Arts, and Libraryand Information Technology are available through theEducation Network of Maine. Two master's degrees will be



offered on the Network this fall and a systemwideBaccalaureate is currently being finalized.

Challenging courses in laboratory sciences, foreign languagesand mathematics and other advances in course design arelargely the result of a grant from the Annenberg/CPB Project,which has funded faculty and staff proposals aimed atupgrading curricula and support services for distantstudents. This program is supported by the Center forDistance Education at UMA, which regularly offers workshopsand training in the educational application of technology.

As a result of the Education Network of Maine, UMA hasdeveloped

* new programs (Associate in Library and InformationTechnologies)

* increased number of course sections (from 350 in 1987 to2500 in 1993)

* new partnerships with other education providers(University of South Carolina and MassachusettsCorporation for Educational Telecommunications)

Faculty/Staff

The introduction of technology into the teaching process,whether it be through the development of a statewide distancelearning program or by simply including computer conferencingin a traditional course, must include ample opportunities forfaculty and staff development. Our experience has shown that,given proper incentives and training, faculty and staffrespond with creativity and resourcefulness to theopportunities and challenges of distance learning. Suchinvestment has resulted in

* increased collegiality among faculty* innovation in course design* advancements in pedagogy* greater productivity* understanding of a greater diversity of learning

styles and information

Academic and Student Services

Students of every age and from every region of the stateenroll in Network-delivered courses and programs, but women

who live in Maine's rural communities make greatest use ofthe Network's services. Surveys of students show that themajority are over the age of 30 (60%), female (74%), andtypically travel a distance of 11 miles to the ITV classroom,compared with the 31 miles it would have taken to commute tothe nearest University campus.

Materials are distributed to students and faculty through theOffice of Information and Learning Systems. All coursematerials, including syllabi, handouts, quizzes and exams are



sent to this central office for copying, collating anddissemination to all locations. Classes are videotaped andcan be viewed at a later time should a student miss a classor wish to review before an exam.

Student and academic support services are an importantcomponent of any educational program, and distance educationis no exception. The distant student, like the student oncampus, needs ready access to academic, personal and careerguidance. One of the primary roles of the Network's off-campus centers is to provide a conveniently located, friendlyenvironment where students can receive assistance and supportand find opportunities to socialize with their peers.

Eleven University off-campus centers located throughout thestate serve the bulk of the students enrolled in courses onthe Education Network of Maine. Off-campus centers coordinateregistration, academic advising, admissions, financial aid,counseling and other services for students at the centers andat the high school sites in their region. Statewide studentservices programs such as "College Plus," bring a wide rangeof helpful information to students enrolled centers and sitesacross Maine.

In 1993, UMA established a Teleservice Center, a one-stopsource of information and services accessed through a toll-free number, through which students and the general publiccould register, add or drop courses, receive assistance withinstitutional forms, find referral to appropriate supportservices, and request information about the institution andits services. Teleservice operators have an extensivedatabase of student and institutional information at theirfingertips; soon UMA students will have the same resource.UMA's 1993 Title III grant will fund the development of astatewide student information system, allowing students tocreate learning portfolios and gain access to a range ofimportant student information. Developments like the

Teleservice Center and other projects that encourage greaterself-direction by students have already begun to reduce thenumber of informational calls to office staff both on andoff-campus.

Students at University campuses, and at all off-campuscenters and sites have access to URSUS, the University ofMaine System's computerized public access library catalog.This database lists the book holdings, periodical indexes andstate and federal documents of the University of MaineSystem. URSUS also contains collections of the Maine StateLibrary and the Law and Legislative Reference Library at theState House and allows students to search the collections of

Maine's Colby, Bates and Bowdoin Colleges and other on-lineUniversity libraries across the country. Journal articles maybe searched through CARL, the Colorado Alliance of ResearchLibraries or through INFOTRAC, which includes an expandedindex of academic, business and health journals. Students mayorder materials from their computer terminal and have themsent directly to a specified location.

Positioning for the Future



Colleges and Universities throughout the country have begunto actively use the powerful technologies that have alreadyrevolutionized the publishing and music industries, notsimply to manage the campus more efficiently, but totransform the instructional process itself and attempt tokeep greater control of their destiny.

The costs of not equipping our campuses to compete in afuture where students will learn and communicate in a virtualclassroom linked to international networks of digitizedinformation will be substantial. Our faculty and staff willlack the tools and expertise to develop new learningmodalities and be unable to help students learn to select,synthesize and give meaning to the vast array ofinformational choice with which they'll be presented. Ourinstitutions will be lost in the growing competition fromfor-profit learning corporations, some in league with hugecommunication conglomerates, which are already beginning toseriously challenge higher education's monopoly on theprovision and credentials of learning.

Perhaps the most important payoff from higher education'sinvestment in information technology will not be found in thebalance sheet but among the more qualitative measures of an

institution's health. How have the technologies furthered theinstitutional mission? How have they helped the institutionmeet the needs of its community for relevant courses andservices? How have they increased both the community's needfor access and our ability to share resources with others?

Information technologies, like any good tools, can enhanceour craft and boost our productivity; how skillfully andefficiently we use them depends on how comfortable theybecome in our hands. And this will take time, as faculty andstaff become adept at managing learning networks, electronicand voice mail, as paper processing gives way to digitalnetworking, and as we all learn to adjust to the intricacies

of the electronic workplace.

To the extent that these technologies become second nature toour operational and educational purposes and more preciselyfit that function, they can assure our relevancy in a rapidlychanging world and allow us to contribute to education'sevolving, and increasingly important, role in society. As welearn to embrace and utilize these tools to respond to theparticular needs of our community, we will become moreeffective at shaping our own future and enhancing the livesof our students--surely the most satisfying payoff of all.

==========================================================================================================================



SINCLAIR COMMUNITY COLLEGE



David H. PonitzPresident

Ned SifferlenProvost

Stephen JonasVice President, Administration

Joe GormanVice President, Business Operations

Karen WellsVice President, Instruction

Edna NealVice President, Student Services

Ed RennieDirector, Information Systems & Services

Virginia PetersDirector, Learning Resources Center

=============================================================WHAT PRESIDENTS NEED TO KNOWABOUT THE PAYOFF ON THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT:

THE VIEW FROM SINCLAIR COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Methodology

Sinclair Community College President Dr. David Ponitz andother administrators at the college held three meetings togather input for this report. Each meeting lasted two hours.

The sessions were facilitated by Neil Herbkersman, Director,Grants Development and Governmental Information. He led thefirst meeting in a storyboarding effort, a two-part processthat included brainstorming ideas on the topic and organizingthe ideas into categories. The other two meetings involvedelaborating on and prioritizing the material outlined in thefirst session. Consultant Bob Gremling served as an observerand summarized the information that was presented.

The participants in the sessions included:Dr. David Ponitz, PresidentDr. Ned Sifferlen, ProvostDr. Stephen Jonas, Vice President, Administration

Joe Gorman, Vice President, Business OperationsDr. Karen Wells, Vice President, InstructionDr. Edna Neal, Vice President, Student ServicesEd Rennie, Director, Information Systems and ServicesVirginia Peters, Director, Learning Resources Center

The report is organized around seven questions identified inthe work sessions:

1) How does the institution shape its IT strategicvision?



2) What are the key assumptions?3) What is the leader's role in IT investment?4) What are the issues involving "payoff"?5) What technologies should be adopted?6) What are the transforming issues?7) What are the issues involving measurement?

How Does The Institution Shape Its IT Strategic Vision?

* Establish an IT vision that is aligned with and supportsthe institution's strategic vision.* Work in collaboration with faculty and administrators to

establish a vision of a redesigned or reengineered approachto teaching and learning utilizing IT.* IT investment can be a strategy for attaining the vision

while at the same time satisfying the spiraling demand forattaining strategic business objectives. What learning modelsare available for doing this?* Considerations when making decisions: determine payoff

for whom; short- versus long-term. A pure economic approachwill not support risky but vital investments in aninfrastructure that will permit a quantum leap to embracesome indefinable future model of operation.

* Determine the optimum ways of moving the institutiontoward the IT vision and infuse technology into the fabric ofthe college.* Establish how IT will be supported and how the college

will react to global IT changes.* Beyond the vision, determine what the target is. Should

the college be a leader or a follower in IT? Is the fieldchanging so rapidly that you can't afford to be theleader...or, if you wait, do you lose strategic position? Ineither case, the full capabilities of technology should betapped to access the global community.* Determine the ideal way of creating strategic

opportunities. This includes determining what processes

should be adopted to alter and enhance the teaching/learningenvironment.* Determine how IT can be utilized to accommodate

potential new constituencies.

What Are The Key Assumptions?

* Let the mission and business decisions drive theimplementation and use of technology. Strategies and goals,not the technology, must come first. It is important forpeople to determine what is possible before institutingstrategies and goals. Develop a checklist of assumptions that

helps direct how to proceed.* Colleges are becoming market-based. There is no longer a

monopoly on learning, and one must be concerned withcompetition, costs and productivity.* IT investment sends a message about where the college is

headed.* Colleges will fall out of step with the rest of society

if they wait for research results before making a commitmentto IT. The rapid pace of technology development results intechnology that is obsolete by the time studies are



completed.* IT is only one of many tools of transforming the

teaching-learning relationship.* Utilize IT to help students learn how to learn.* There are many aspects of IT beyond a single type of

technology. There are myriad options and alternatives.* What methods should be adopted to institute change? TQM

vs. reengineering (incremental improvement vs. totalreinvention) vs. both. The method selected will depend on anassessment of the organizational culture.* IT investment alone will not produce change. There must

be a concomitant investment in people.* IT is only one way of promoting productivity.* Work value is enhanced when the work force is

recalibrated to assume higher work functions.* Access is different for two-year and four-year

educational institutions because of student demographics.Sinclair Community College's mission is to provide theopportunity for anyone in Montgomery County to have access topost-secondary education.* Ways of looking at access and other IT investment

issues:- Geographical

+ Where students are physically

+ Who is the teacher (availability of globalresources)- Financial

+ Declining resources are available to highereducation. The demand for services is on the rise,as are expectations. How does one balance ITinvestment with other competing needs?

+ Disruptions from external forces precipitatechange. Public call for efficiency/accountability...colleges must make a clear case that thebenefits outweigh the costs.

+ As more technology is adopted, different kinds ofservices can be provided. What costs will be

incurred and what pricing structure will berequired as a result?+ Affordability+ Build in cost, efficiency and measurements intoevery IT expenditure.

+ Hardware vs. professional developmentconsiderations

+ How to provide access given the financial resourcesof two-year students

+ Networking/integration. Leverage partners/alliancesto pool resources to promote reinvention, learningand productivity.

+ Can we afford to continue giving students a great

many program options?+ IT investment is just like any other investment.Challenge each investment. Benchmark againstyourself and others. Determine how the investmenthelps accomplish your mission. Don't hesitate tobenchmark outside of education.

+ Define what level of access is desired, and whatresources must be provided to accomplish this.Build in flexibility for growth in access.

- Logistical



+ Access to information: who will have it. The levelof access will depend on the user.

+ How to provide access internally. Infrastructure,physical access issues

+ How will various technologies be linked together?+ Facilitate anytime/anywhere access forfaculty/staff/students

+ Providing access, such as distance-learning andjust-in-time learning, as a marketing strategy.

- Psychological+ Foster belief students "belong" in college+ The promise and the reality of IT causes internaldisruption. Some faculty members want facets of ITnow. Some faculty will not be receptive, not havethe time, or have other priorities right now. WhenIT investment is made, there must be a redesign ofinstructional delivery and this also causesdisruption. For example, faculty members have tomove out of their isolated niches in the classroomand work in teams. Faculty must be redirected andgiven rewards/incentives to facilitate fundamentalchange.

- Cultural+ How can IT be used to remove barriers for students

to level the playing field? Access is empowerment.+ Make access decisions based on the neglectedmajority.

What Is The Leader's Role In IT Investment?

* A college president must strike a balance between macroand micro considerations in IT investment decisions. Themiddle ground between "grand philosophers" and "realitycheckers" must be staked out.* Change must be driven by vision and strategic

opportunity. At some point, one must toss aside the

blueprints for building a boat to cross the river of doubtthat exists about IT investment. Take a deep breath, jumpacross, and hold on. After making this "leap of faith,"utilize continuous improvement methods to move throughobstacles.* Transformation becomes easier, and risk is minimized, if

focus is maintained on the college's vision.* Quality innovations are the hallmark of a prospering

institution; anything less accommodates mere survival.However, reaching the jumping off point requires research andasking appropriate questions in light of the president'sunique position in the institution. That position involves:

- Dealing with multiple (15-20) constituencies;

- Maintaining a major tolerance for ambiguity;- Knowing/supporting key players;- Being a scholar of the process to create the vision,

and articulating and promoting it;- Insisting that the proper issues are studied;- Educating the Board of Trustees;- Developing board cohesiveness;- Revisiting the mission of the institution based on

community needs;- Providing a seed bed for a creative faculty and staff



to function within the mission of the college;- Influencing national/local external forces to support

the college's vision.- Encouraging external decision makers to be supportive

of the institution's mission, and discouraging themfrom erecting obstacles.

- Positioning the college as the repository for IT inthe community in order to leverage partners and newopportunities.

- Ensuring effective external partnerships withcommitted vendors. Institutions need more thaninternal IT resources to respond to market-basedissues.

What Are The Issues Involving "Payoff"?

* It is important to remember that payoff comes indifferent forms. Three classifications of payoff: economic,cost reduction, strategic.* Economic Approaches: Net Present Value (NPV); Internal

Rate of Return (IRR); Return on Investment (ROI);Breakeven/Payback.* Cost Reduction Approaches: Cost Displacement/Avoidance;

Work Value Analysis; Cost of Quality.* Strategic Approaches: Option Value; TechnicalImprovements; Business Objectives.* What competitive advantages does IT investment provide?* It is incumbent upon each institution to define payoff

and productivity in terms unique to that institution and toits vision.* Evaluating benefits is difficult because of IT's

complexity/magnitude/high integration/distribution/rate ofchange.* Higher quality (more productive learning) is part of the

productivity equation.* Gauge what traditional investments may be displaced by

IT investment.- Investment types:+ Infrastructure (Examples: computers, networks,database systems, etc.)

+ Applications (Examples: human resources,audiovisual/graphics software)

+ Access (Examples: telephone registration, SinclairElectronic College)

* Each investment type has associated costs for hardware,software, maintenance, renewal, documentation, training, andsupport (people). Cost allocations and/or charge-backs shouldbe based on relative use of these services.* Issues of different technologies. The need to make one

investment.* IT investments create opportunities, and the challenge

is to maximize those prospects. Utilize IT to improve crossfunctional processes and applications that support thestudent learning processes.

What Technologies Should Be Adopted?



* At what level is the president concerned with the ITinvestment? The role of the president is not to do the workof the institution, but to see that it's accomplished.* The president must ask the appropriate questions and

have the proper IT evaluators in place.* How to choose. Differentiate between "leading edge" and

"bleeding edge."* How do you bring faculty and technicians together to

make IT decisions without creating too large a bureaucracy?Not everyone should be in lockstep, but they should betraveling in the same direction.* If possible, build in evaluation criteria and strategies

in advance. However, keep in mind, that most innovationsinvolve measuring something for the first time or in a waythat differs from the past.* Determine who pays and how (charges to internal

departments, student fees, etc.). Determine how direct costsand costs for other campus support will be recovered.* Determine the optimal way to select partners and

alliances, both internal and external.* Seek out who possesses profound knowledge in IT. The

president must have a process by which he/she candifferentiate between "tech wizards" touting bells andwhistles as opposed to IT that is supportive of the

strategic plan of learning.* From the point of view of external audiences, can wedepend on the president as the expert?

What Are The Transforming Issues?

* The institution must prepare itself and its variousconstituencies to accept the results of transformation, theinevitable fallout of change. Incentives must be provided forpeople to embrace change.* Mechanisms must be established to deal with internal

personnel issues, such as: determining which instructors will

use IT; handling formal/informal conflict; allowing power toshift from traditional constituencies to others.* Promoting IT as a tool of transformation and not merely

an add-on engenders outside support for it.* How does a college president link the community at-large

with the collegial community to achieve the desiredtransformations? (internal versus external considerations).* Total Quality initiatives must go hand-in-hand with IT

investment.* A critical mass of people is required to make change.* If one big leap is not possible, consider segmented

implementation.* Once change is implemented, you will get a flood of

requests from people wanting to learn about it.* Who makes decisions regarding IT investment? Determining

who makes IT investment decisions is crucial. To whom doesone listen? How/when does the institution hire an informationspecialist?* Coping with the effects of external forces and limiting

factors (funding, etc.) that affect transformation.* There may be internal/external pressures impeding

change.* On the issue of control, care must be taken that the dog



wags the tail; the college must control the technology andnot vice versa.* Determine how to best utilize IT to reengineer processes

and systems as part of overall quality initiatives.* Business alignment first; systems alignment second.* Care must be exercises to ensure that the learning

styles of students are accommodated by the new technologyoptions that are adopted.* Coping with external mandates for change without

providing the wherewithal to accomplish it; for example, astate system of electronic transfer of information isinstituted without funding being made to implement it.* Recognize the significant initial cost curve for people

and organizational transformation.

What Are The Issues Involving Measurement?

* It is vital to maintain a clarity of mission/vision andmeasure payoff in light of that.* You must devote time to test IT investment.* How do you measure attainment of IT investment goals?

How do you assess/measure productivity? How do you install ameasurement process? The measurement strategy varies by the

type of investment; for example, infrastructure versusspecific projects. In addition, other considerations tend tobe lumped in with IT investment. However, IT provides keydecision makers with data for making decisions regardingbusiness/organizational objectives.* Can you measure the payoff? It is difficult to measure

real benefits, and it makes a difference whether one isexamining global issues or individual processes. As statedabove, most innovations involve measuring something for thefirst time or in a way that differs from the past.* There is a need to combine traditional and

nontraditional systems of measurement.* It is important to establish a limited number of

critical indicators of performance to determine if themission is being met. Each institution must develop its ownset of key indicators to assess payoff. Global indicators canbe tailored to function as a gauge for individual ITinvestments. Some examples of indicators that may be used:

OUTPUT INPUTFTEs Faculty Pay Hr/FTEPenetration rate Academic Admin/FTE"Markets" (degree seekers...) Class sizeDay 1, 14th day, completions Staff/FTEC or better Function cost/FTELong-term retention State/Local/Student Revenue

DegreesJob placementWelfare to work conversionsCareer upgradesInitial careers

* Other key indicators: cost structure; providing accessfor more people; payoff by cost reductions; how long will ittake to get returns.* Measure internal change over time and vs. peers.



* Progress toward the vision must be gauged and investmentin IT (and other areas) must be continually challenged. Isadoption of technology ensuring the institution's future?* Cost issues: cost reduction -- cost displacement and

avoidance; current payoff versus future investment; cost ofquality -- how to minimize cost while maximizing added value.Decision makers are often disappointed with returns from ITinvestment. Also, productivity problems often result inconfusion about an objective; lack of clarity about thecustomers and their needs.* Does the investment in IT result in efficiency,

effectiveness, quality (is value created, value lost)?* Measuring expanded/additional services versus the number

of staff as a productivity indicator.* Measuring service beneficiaries/job accounting systems.

PRODUCTIVITY/CHANGE RESEARCH SOURCES

1. An Agenda for Reshaping Faculty Productivity, RichardB. Heydinger & Hasan Simsek, joint publication of the StateHigher Education Executive Officers and the EducationCommission of the States, with support from Pew CharitableTrusts, November 1992.

2. Total Quality Management at Oregon State University,L. Edwin Coate, National Association of College andUniversity Business Officers, 1992.3. Assessing the Value of Information Technology, NCR,Strategic Consulting Group, NCR World Headquarters, March1992.4. "Do Computers Increase Productivity? The Battle LinesAre Drawn," Walter Kleinschrod, Beyond Computing,September/October 1993.5. "As Instructional Technology Proliferates, SkepticsSee Hard Evidence of Its Value," Robert L. Jacobson, TheChronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 1993.6. Collected information and notes from conference on

"Restructuring and Re-engineering the Academic Enterprise,"Peat Marwick, December 6-7, 1993.7. Re-engineering Administrative Processes: A Case Studyat Oregon State University, L. Edwin Coate, NationalAssociation of College and University Business Officers,1993.8. The Dynamics of Academic Productivity, transcript froma March 1990 seminar sponsored by the State Higher EducationExecutive Officers, conducted by William F. Massy, Director,Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research, and RobertZemsky, Director, University of Pennsylvania Institute forResearch on Higher Education.9. Managing for the Future, Challenges & Opportunities

for Higher Education in Ohio, Task Force Report, Ohio Boardof Regents, July 1992.10. "On Values and Market Forces," William F. Massy,Policy Perspectives, The Pew Higher Education RoundtableProgram, June 1993.11. "Prospects for Restructuring: A Sampling of theFaculty Climate," Andrea K. Wilger & William F. Massy, PolicyPerspectives, November 1993.12. "An Uncertain Terrain," Policy Perspectives, November1993.



13. "Colleges Urged to Make Sweeping Change," AliceDembner, The Boston Sunday Globe, November 21, 1993.

COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF INTOUCH KIOSK PROJECT

Sinclair Community College is located in Dayton, Ohio, andhas an enrollment of over 20,000 students. Sinclair's Intouchkiosk project was initiated during the summer of 1990 as anartificial intelligence project, funded in part by a grantfrom the State of Ohio to promote the use of AI. Sinclairformed a team of faculty, academic counselors, and computertechnicians to design and prototype an expert system forautomated academic advisement. The AI project was calledCWEST (Counseling With Expert Systems Technology).

After a year of prototype development, the team decided touse touch-screen kiosks to implement the software, so thesystem would be easy to use, appealing, and readilyaccessible around the campus. In December 1992, Sinclairformed a partnership with The Robinson Group, Ltd. (TRG) tomerge TRG's kiosk software product "Intouch" with Sinclair'sadvising expert systems. The software merge was accomplished

during the winter and spring of 1993, and implemented atSinclair during the summer term.

Following is a summary created in October 1993 of costs andbenefits of the InTouch kiosk system. In this analysis, kioskcosts are compared with human academic advisors,and with printed items such as catalogs and brochures, whichis definitely a comparison of apples and oranges. Thecomparison is not meant to imply that kiosks, counselors, andcatalogs are interchangeable entities! Rather, the purpose ofthe comparison is to provide a basis for judging the costeffectiveness of a new high-tech system in terms of moretraditional, or familiar, methods of disseminating

information and advice.

Itemized cost breakdowns and usage data for this analysis aregiven in the last section. Kiosk costs include the initialcost of installation, spread over an estimated lifespan offour years, plus estimated annual maintenance costs.

*** The cost of a kiosk is about $1.54 per hour, based onthe following estimates:

1) A kiosk costs roughly $600 per month.2) Each kiosk is available for use about 390 hours/month

(15 hours per day, 26 days/month).

*** Each kiosk is providing the following services in onemonth, based on September 1993 activity:

41 hrs/month -- academic advising42 hrs/month -- access to personal records15 hrs/month -- financial information & assistance2 hrs/month -- employment information

11 hrs/month -- general campus information--------------------------------------------------------



111 hrs/month -- total time in actual use

The equivalent human cost to provide these services can beestimated as follows (rates include salary and fringebenefits):

41 hrs @ $23.50 (academic counselor) = $ 964 /month59 hrs @ $ 9.00 (clerical staff ) = $ 531 /month11 hrs @ $ 4.[25] (student employee ) = $ 47 /month----------------------------------------------------111 hrs/month $ 1,542 /month

Note that this is a low estimate, since the hourly rates donot include overhead such as office space, furniture,computers, telephones, office supplies, etc.

Based on the above estimates, the services provided by thekiosk system (with six kiosks) would cost the institution atleast $9,252 per month if performed by people, compared with$3,600 per month for the kiosks. In other words, the kioskscost about 39% as much as people providing equivalentservices.

Actually, the kiosks are even more cost-effective than these

numbers suggest, since the above analysis is based on timethe machines are actually in use. The monthly cost ofproviding available service (6 kiosks, 15 hours per day, 26days per month) would run about $32,500 per month, or$390,000 per year, at human rates. Computed this way, kioskscost about 11% as much as people.

*** Another analytical perspective is the cost per studentand the cost per instance of use.These are estimatedas follows:

The cost of the kiosk system per year is estimated as$43,250. This works out to:

$ 2.16 per student per year (for 20,000 students), or$ .54 per student per quarter (counting summer), or$ .30 per interactive session (current volume), or$ .15 per session, if volume were to double, or$ .07 per session if kiosks were busy at all times.

This compares rather favorably with costs of altenativemeans of delivering information and advisement:

a. printed catalog, about $ 1.58 eachb. brochure (e.g., Business Division), about $1.00 eachc. session with an academic counselor (30 min.) $11.75

*** Additional factors and considerations:These are some characteristics and personality traits ofkiosks that should be considered when pondering theirproper role in the institution:

1. QUALITY OF INFORMATION AND ADVICE



Positive attributes of kiosks:

- Convenience to students (no appointment needed;available weekend and evening hours; convenientlocations)

- Consistency of information and advice- Timeliness (often more up-to-date than printed catalog

or brochures)- Unbiased with respect to ethnicity, gender, etc., and

non-judgmental- Quick response; short session time- Access to large volumes of information (more detail

than a person would know)- Actual use can be recorded and tracked, which is not

true of printed media

Weaknesses and limitations of kiosks:

- Lack of portability; can't carry the kiosk around orwrite notes on it, or mail it

- Kiosk has no ability to detect emotional reactions ofstudents; it doesn't know if it offends someone

- Expert systems are based on hypothetical norms; kiosk

cannot respond to unanticipated individual situations;its intelligence is purely artificial!- Some students are intimidated by technology, no matter

how user-friendly

2. INTANGIBLE BENEFITS AND IMPACTS OF KIOSKS

In addition to direct hands-on services provided by thekiosks, there are several intangible benefits, impacts, andconsequences that are difficult or impossible to evaluate indollars:

a. Student RetentionThe kiosks can help students avoid potential academicproblems, and encourage them to seek help whenneeded. The kiosks can also eliminate circularreferrals (from one office to another) and reduce thelevel of frustration caused by administrative redtape.

b. Staff AwarenessThe kiosks can serve as a learning resource for newfaculty, staff, administrators, adjuncts, etc. asthey are becoming acquainted with the facilities andservices available at Sinclair. Enhanced

institutional knowledge on the part of employeesshould have a positive impact on service to studentsin all areas.

c. Technical Talent BaseThe InTouch project is helping to develop an expandedtalent base at SCC in technical areas such asmultimedia, artificial intelligence, and networking.

d. Student Learning Experiences



Sinclair students have a unique opportunity to gainhands-on experience with advanced technology by usingthe kiosks. Many students are also benefiting fromparticipation in the kiosk project in the areas ofmultimedia, graphics design, and beta testing.

e. Showcase for SCC InnovationThe Intouch project has brought Sinclair nationalrecognition for innovative technology throughpresentations at the League for Innovation, CAUSE andother conferences, as well as through publications,demonstrations, and national marketing of Intouch byThe Robinson Group.

3. PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCES

The kiosks (especially the automated advising portions) areintended to complement human counselors, not to replace them.

Some specific categories of students will benefit most fromthe kiosk system. By and large, these are individuals who arecurrently not receiving counseling services at all (by theirown choice), and others who might be mis-using counselors'

time with trivial matters that can be handled easily by anautomated system. Additionally, the kiosks provide servicesthat were never available before, such as direct access topersonal records.

Primary Target Audiences:

a) All students needing access to their academicrecords.

b) All students needing general campus information suchas office locations, directories, hours, etc.

c) Students who are highly resistant to seeking helpfrom a human counselor, such as:

o Students who deny that they need helpo Students with a cultural tradition of extreme

independence and self-reliance (e.g.,Appalachian)

o Students uncomfortable with college jargon, whoare unsure about how to phrase questions; this isoften true of adults returning to school, andstudents who are the first in their family to goto college.

o Students who are shy or suffering from low self-esteem.

o Students who are too busy with their jobs and

families to take time to see a counselor.d) Evening and weekend students who are normally on

campus when counselors are not available.e) Students with mainstream, predictable questions that

do not require interpretation by a counselor.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, Sinclair's InTouch kiosk system is providing a



cost-effective service (or collection of services) to theinstitution's student population. Further, the costeffective-ness of the system can be expected to improve withan increase in transaction volume as more students becomeacquainted with the system, and as more functionality isadded.

SUPPORTING DETAILS: Kiosk Costs

I. DEVELOPMENT AND INSTALLATION COSTS (one time)

HardwareDevelopment system (PS/2 Model 57) $ 5,500Kiosks (6) $ 70,242Ethernet cards (6 x $150) $ 900Network cabling $ 8,375Art work (external signs) $ 1,000

--------$ 86,017

System softwareToolBook 1.53 $ 350

Windows 3.[1] (6 x $75) $ 450LAN Workplace for DOS (10 units) $ 1,500--------$ 2,300

Kiosk software development (year 1993)SCC staff: 1,140 hrs @ $24.00 $ 27,360student: 600 hrs @ $ 5.75 $ 3,450TRG travel and lodging $ 4,500

----------$ 35,310

TOTAL $ 123,627

rounded to $ 125,000

= $5,200 per year per kiosk, based on a 4-year lifespan

II. COST OF ON-GOING MAINTENANCE & SUPPORT

programmer/analyst: 200 hrs/yr @ 24.50 $ 4,900student: 200 hrs/year @ 4.[25] $ 850annual hardware maint (1st yr free) $ 6,000printer paper & ribbons $ 250

-------Total system $ 12,000

One kiosk $ 2,000-----------

Total cost per kiosk per year:Installation $ 5,200Maintenance $ 2,000

-----------TOTAL $ 7,200



SUPPORTING DETAILS: Kiosk Usage

These breakdowns were extracted from actual kiosk log filesrecorded during September 1993. September volume is probablyrepresentative of a typical month; although the use isparticularly heavy during the first week of classes, thefirst two weeks of September were rather light.

Average kiosk session time: 4-5 minutesAverage topics per session: 3 main menu items

light day: about 10 sessions/day per kioskmoderate day: about 35 sessions/day per kioskbusy day: about 100 sessions/day per kiosk

------------------------------------------------------------KIOSK USE BY TYPE OF INFORMATION:MONTHLY SUMMARY FOR ALL KIOSKS

TotalTime/ Count/ Time/ Equivalent

Advising Topics Session Month Month Human Time

--------------- ------- -------- ----- ----------Career/major choices 4 min 400 26 hrs 66 hrsCredit hour load 2.5 min 300 12.5 hrs 75 hrsCourse information 2.5 min 2,000 83 hrs 83 hrsProgram information 1.5 min 1,000 25 hrs 25 hrs

--------- -------146.5 hrs 249 hrs

Note: Recommendations given by the InTouch expert systemwould typically take a person somewhat longer than the kiosksession time. Equivalencies estimated by Gordon Robinson:

career/major choices = 10 minutescredit hour load = 15 minutes

Clerical Functions:-----------------------The following kiosk information involves some amount ofinterpretation or guidance, and would be provided by aclerical person. However, some of these kiosk services arenot currently available elsewhere, so we do not have anestimate of human equivalent time.

Time Count Total Time------ ------ ----------

College costs 2.5 min 700 30 hrs

Fin. Aid & Schlrships 4 min 900 60 hrsPersonal records 5 min 3,000 250 hrsEmployment information 1 min 800 13 hrs

----------353 hrs

General Campus Information-----------------------------------



General campus information is currently provided by studentpeer counselors and by students working in the StudentActivities office. The information includes office locationsand hours, admissions and registration processes, academiccalendar, and general information about student services.Human time and computer time is probably about the same forthese functions:

Time Count Total Time------ ------- ----------

Maps & directories 2 min 1,400 47 hrsServices & facilities .5 min 2,200 18 hrs

---------65 hrs

Based on the totals given above, one kiosk in one monthprovides the following services:

41 hrs/month -- academic advising15 hrs/month -- assist with financial information42 hrs/month -- access to personal records (clerical)2 hrs/month -- employment information

11 hrs/month -- general campus information

-----111 hrs/month

Comparative human costs -- salary plus fringe benefits:(source: Jeff Boudouris)

$ 23.50 /hr -- academic counselor$ 9.00 /hr -- clerical person$ 4.25 /hr -- student$ 24.50 /hr -- programmer/analyst

Cost of:printing catalogs: $ 95,000 for 60,000 = $ 1.58/each

(source: Ann Armstrong)

printing a brochure: $ 10,000 for 10,000 = $ 1.00/each(source: Ann Armstrong; example is the BusinessDivision's brochure)

session with a counselor = $ 11.75 (1/2 hour)(source: Gordon Robinson)

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