edtech 501 maturity benchmark evaluation

8/13/2019 EDTECH 501 Maturity Benchmark Evaluation

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Evaluation of ABC Community College using the Maturity Benchmarks Survey

By Justin Keel

Demographics

ABC Community College (the college) is a rural community college consisting of three

campuses in two separate states. The college has an average full time enrollment (FTE) of

3,500 students and 318 faculty(120 Full Time). The college has approximately 40 career and

30 transfer programs and has added numerous online courses over the last few years.

Administrative

Policy

Behavioral - Integrated: Certain technologies like Microsoft products, a LMS, and a

administrative system are embraced and required for many operations at the college.Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: Some polices exist including AUP for student,

faculty, and staff, but many technology areas lack direct policy. Little policy exists for LMS and

technologies other than Internet access.

Planning

Behavioral - Islands: Planning takes place on individual projects; however, there is little

institution wide comprehensive technology planning.

Resource/Infrastructure - Islands: Planning is only for individual projects with little

connection to other plans or projects.

Budget

Behavioral - Islands: There is a relatively small technology budget for the intuition that

mostly serves the IT department to replace computers in labs and to maintain existing networks

and the department of instructional technology with assists faculty with distance learning and

technology integration. Both departments function with limited staff and little money for new or

emergent technologies.

Resource/Infrastructure - Islands: The two budgets mentioned above are use for

technology unless a specific project or grant is funding additional technology purchases.

Administrative Information

Behavioral - Integrated: A new administrative program has been implemented across theinstitution. This system reduces or eliminates paper processes and is required for all

administrative offices and faculty.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: As stated above with the new integrated system, all

faculty and staff are required to use the administrative software for administrative tasks

(including payroll).

Curricular


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Electronic Information

Behavioral - Integrated: Students and staff are dependant on the Internet, the

administrative system, and most use these resources regularly.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: Students have access to technology in a variety of

computer labs. The library and an additional computer lab have extended hours for students toaccess technology. We also provide wireless Internet for all three campuses for students to use

there own equipment to access information.

Assessment

Behavioral - Islands: Some of the faculty use our LMSs testing features to evaluate

student learning. Other than documents created by a word processing program, there is little

technology used for assessment.

Resource/Infrastructure - Islands: Our current LMS has a testing feature that provides

faculty with some measures of student performance.

Curricular Integration

Behavioral - Islands: Technology used in the curriculum is largely dependant on the

individual faculty member. While some faculty overwhelmingly support and use technology in

the classroom, most use very little other than posting handouts and quizzes on the LMS system.

Resource/Infrastructure - Islands: Technology related resources are available for our

communication arts program and our computer science. Our allied health programs have some

technology, but the remaining programs share technology resources.

Teacher Use

Behavioral - Integrated: Faculty are required to post grades and check rosters through

our new administrative system. The approved method of communication with students, staff,and faculty is through college email.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: All faculty have a networked computer in their

office. All students, faculty, and staff have a college issued email address.

Student Use

Behavioral - Integrated: Students widely use the Internet for most subjects, but most

courses do not require it.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: Students have access to technology in a variety of

computer labs. The library and an additional computer lab have extended hours for students to

access technology. We also provide wireless Internet for all three campuses for students to use

there own equipment to access information.

Support

Stakeholder Involvement

Behavioral - Integrated: With the new integrated administrative software, the committee


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(one person from each administrative department plus a vice president and the IT department)

meet once a week to handle the integration of this software. This is the only project with this

amount of stakeholder involvement.

Resource/Infrastructure - Islands: In all other projects (then mentioned above) some

groups such as IT and instructional technology are included, but not representatives of all of the

stakeholders.

Administrative Support

Behavioral - Integrated: There are constant conversations with administration regarding

technology.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: The president and some of the vice presidents sit

on various committees that discuss technology for the institution.

Training

Behavioral - Islands: Training provided on LMS and several classroom technologies

provided at least twice per month. Low percentage attendance from faculty.

Resource/Infrastructure - Islands: Training is provided by a staff of three. Most training

deals with the button-ology of how the technology works. Little time is allowed to explore

pedagogy.

Technical/Infrastructure Support

Behavioral - Islands: Some staff and faculty use formal support for issues. Most try to

figure it out alone as they have needed to do in the past.

Resource/Infrastructure - Intelligent: The college has a help desk staffed with

technicians to assist in solving technology related questions or direct the questions to the

appropriate expert. Questions can be submitted by intranet ticket, email, or phone.

Connectivity

Local Area Network (LAN)

Behavioral - Integrated: Faculty and staff have access to network drives to access files

on any computer they log into. They also have access to the colleges intranet and

administrative services software.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: Network is high speed and wireless throughout all

three campuses.

District Area Network (WAN)

Behavioral - Integrated: See LAN

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: See LAN

Internet Access

Behavioral -Integrated: Faculty, Staff, and students use the Internet frequently for many


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uses including research.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: Although all areas of the college are connected to

the Internet through hard wire and wireless, the college is hitting our ceiling on bandwidth during

peak hours. With out enhancing bandwidth to the college, we will be unable to add additional

technologies that utilize the Internet (including streaming video services).

Communication Systems

Behavioral - Intelligent: Email is an integral part of school communications. Email is the

recommend communication method to get information to students, faculty, and staff when not in

the classroom.

Resource/Infrastructure - Intelligent: All students, faculty, and staff are issued a college

email when they enroll or are hired.

Innovation

New Technologies

Behavioral - Islands: When new technologies are purchased, most faculty members are

accepting of the technology, but little effort is placed on training or experimentation.

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: When new technologies are adopted, the IT

department and the department of instructional technologies quickly experiment and learn about

the technology to provide some limited training for faculty before implementation.

Comprehensive Technologies

Behavioral - Integrated: Technology includes projectors and document cameras in most

classrooms, 14 computer labs, 7 SMART classrooms (which include SMART boards, SMART

podiums, projectors, speakers, and document cameras), 3 distance learning rooms (1 at each

campus that connect all campuses for shared classes and meetings), and multiple simulationlabs in the allied health programs (the simulation labs are supported by individual programs and

not the college).

Resource/Infrastructure - Integrated: Although the technology is available it is not used

to its full potential. For example, the SMART classrooms are scheduled to have classes at least

6 hours a day. Most faculty use the SMART rooms simply to project PowerPoints or show

streaming videos. Some faculty members use overhead projectors in the SMART rooms to

avoid using the new technology.

Conclusion

Overall I would rank ABC Community College between Island and Integrated. The key to

planning and moving forward in the area of technology will be adding support staff to enhance

training opportunities for staff to utilize technology.

edtech 501 maturity benchmark evaluation

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