Campus reacts to technology fee

Published: Monday, September 28, 1998

Monday, September 28, 1998

WEB PAGES: Ambitious project funds new computer labs, web sites for all College of Letters & Science courses

By Teresa Jun

Daily Bruin Contributor

Introducing thousands of new class websites, four new computer labs, and the my.ucla webpage, the Instructional Enhancement Initiative (IEI) made a sudden debut last fall.

Now, after just one year, IEI, an ambitious but expensive project meant to enhance the quality of education through modern technology, has engendered both positive and negative reactions from students and faculty.

Last year, IEI funds produced class websites for every course in the College of Letters & Science, the personalized my.ucla webpage offering status and degree progress information, and hundreds of new computers on campus.

But this new technology comes attached to a heavy price tag - a $4.1 million price tag, $2.4 million of which students in the College of Letters & Science are forced to bear the burden of.

Amounting to $10 for every humanities and social science class, and $14 for every life and physical sciences class, this fee will remain in effect for the next two academic years, after which point the program will be re-evaluated.

Currently, almost 70 percent of the IEI fee is going to the purchase and maintenance of campus computer labs and equipment, including new printers, scanners, monitors, memory, and upgrades.

The other 30 percent will fund the construction of class websites, my.ucla, and computer lab personnel.

But for students, the main issue is whether these technological benefits are actually worth the per-course fees they are required to pay.

The approximately 3,000 undergraduate class websites introduced through IEI are capable of providing links to other websites as well as basic class information, syllabi, virtual office hours, chat rooms, and e-mail access, potentially offering a wide range of educational tools at the fingertips of professors and students.

Many students, however, question the actual value of these course websites, arguing that most of them consist of little else besides basic class information and a syllabus.

"Your syllabus comes with the course. Contact with the professor comes with the course, and e-mail already exists for students," said Stacy Lee, Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) president.

"I'm sure there are some students who do like (the websites), but for many, it's not worth it," she added.

Other students also worry that they are not getting their money's worth, for they can pay anywhere from $90 to $140 each year.

"If I could see an impact, I wouldn't mind paying the fee," said Jeff Hsu, a 4th-year History and Asian-American Studies student. "But the majority of my professors don't even update their websites."

Professors, like Russell Schuh, intend to develop their websites but say the process has practical constraints. "I would like to use (the websites) more than I do," said Schuh, a linguistics professor.

"But I just don't have the time and imagination to do all that I want to do with it. There is technical support available to help, but working with them also takes time."

As of last year, IEI also made four new supervised computer labs available to students across campus, featuring about 700 new computers and upgrades.

Though the labs are supported by a large percentage of the IEI fees that students in the College of Letters & Science pay, other students on campus could potentially use these computers without paying the extra fees.

The IEI fee is not the only thing costing some students extra money.

"The computer labs are hardly suitable to do research on because if you have to print anything, you have to pay an arm and a leg for it," Hsu said.

The my.ucla personalized website, which provides important class status information and records for students, is also an IEI innovation.

Eric Splaver, director of the College Information Services, expects that students this year will even be able to take care of administrative matters with departments at Murphy Hall via my.ucla.

Instead of walking all the way down to Murphy Hall, this is one method that will make things "easier, and facilitate the actual process" for students, said Splaver, who had a hand in creating my.ucla.

Student surveys conducted last school year indicate student enthusiasm for IEI technology has increased every quarter, said David Wilson, assistant dean of humanities.

Wilson, a member of the committee that originally drafted the IEI proposal, also pointed out that according to their records, 95% of students logged on to my.ucla.

Though some professors like Schuh were "not real happy with the way (IEI) was implemented" because it was just "foisted onto the faculty and students", many, including Schuh, remain optimistic about the future success of this program.

"I'm glad that we have it," Schuh said. "It's got a pretty decent outlook for the future."

Last year's statistics show the potential for IEI's success.

"Usage has increased quite a bit from fall to spring," said Karie Masterson, director of the Humanities Computing Facility.

"So we expect it to increase even more this year."

Some students are not surprised by the increasing use of IEI technology.

"The fees are not really that bad, considering we get a lot back for it," said Allison Chew, a 4th year Communication Studies student.

Chew, who said my.ucla is a "really great website" and the new computer labs are "really useful," noted that a couple of her professors last year utilized the class websites by posting lecture notes, grades, and incorporating chat room discussions into the curriculum.

"In those classes, I really got my money's worth," she said.

After two more years of the IEI fee, various factors will determine whether the Instructional Technology Fee will rise, fall, freeze, or disappear altogether.

"Who know s what the state budget will be in two years?" Wilson said.

"We want these fees to go away," he added, calling them a "necessary evil for a greater good."

This "greater good" refers to students' access to new computer labs, websites, and multimedia education - all technological features that are available to some degree at other campuses (such as UCSD and UC Berkeley) without a separate technology fee.

"It's difficult to measure the costs and benefits here," Schuh said.

"But you've got to start someplace, and that's what we did."

Taking a retrospective look at its first year of implementation, the planners and proponents of IEI acknowledged progress as well as problem areas.

"We've made quite an impact. It's better now than when it started, and we want it to get even better," Copenhaver said.

"Some of the websites are very rich while others are not," he added. "We want to get them all to be rich."

In addition to constantly upgrading computer labs and making my.ucla more useful, IEI planners will also improve class websites and aim to increase faculty familiarity with the websites, Copenhaver said

As far as fees are concerned, Wilson acknowledged that while some students may not be getting their money's worth, others are getting far more from this than they are investing.

Since IEI aims at "delivering education more effectively to students," Wilson remains optimistic and enthusiastic about the program.

"Right now, we're focusing on increasing the quality of education, improving student awareness, and really making these dollars go as far as they can," he said.

But for students like Lee, USAC president, these seem like "high ideals" and "fine ideas," which have yet to prove themselves effective.

BAHMAN FARAHDEL

Graduate student Damion Thomas works in the IEI-funded Powell computing commons.

Related site:

• MyUcla

• About the College Instructional Enhancement Initiative

• UCLA Campus Computing Labs

• Daily Bruin (10/20/97): High price of class web sites raises concerns

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