WHY WE WANT TO PARTICIPATE
There are two primary reasons why Dartmouth College is eager to participate in
CNI's assessment project. The first is to determine what impact Dartmouth's
long history of campus networking has had on its academic environment.
Dartmouth has provided a range of network-based applications and resources for
many years and has been fully networked since 1984. In the seventies and early
eighties, these networked resources consisted of campus-wide access to local
mainframe systems, which utilized a locally-developed operating system
(Dartmouth Timesharing). With the move to desktop systems, local development
work continued, such as the development of an on-line campus name directory,
our own email system (fondly called BlitzMail), our own implementation of
AppleShare on a UNIX host, Fetch (the standard FTP application for the
Macintosh), as well as many others. Since 1989, Dartmouth has been at work on
its information system (Dartmouth College Information System or DCIS), which
provides access to a variety of on-line content as well as navigational
assistance for accessing both local and remote content resources in a variety
of formats. We have recently completed work on a Web interface to DCIS.
Having provided such a rich variety of network resources, we are eager to take
advantage of the opportunity afforded by the CNI's call to assess these
resources. The outcome of this assessment will be critical to our planning
future efforts. In addition, we feel that our efforts would be substantially
leveraged by the opportunity to work in conjunction with similar efforts at
other campuses.
The second reason is our library expansion project. In 1998, Dartmouth will
break ground on a $50 million project to expand our existing library by some
80,000 square feet. The program for this building currently calls for
Dartmouth's academic computing organization to be housed in this facility. The
academic computing support group includes the help desk as well as support for
curricular development and research computing.
A project of this magnitude has caused us to think carefully about the role of
network-based resources in scholarly work. The results of the assessment as
outlined in the CNI's assessment project will be vital to our planning our new
facilities. As the assessment is conducted, planning on the internal
schematics for the new library will also be proceeding, with the former closely
informing the latter.
SPECIFIC AREAS OF ASSESSMENT
Following the suggestions in part II of the McClure/Lopata document, Dartmouth
proposes to undertake assessment of these areas listed below. We anticipate
using primarily qualitative techniques, with quantitative data providing a
framework or context in which to understand more fully the results of
qualitative investigation.
Network and Help Resources.
As do most institutions, Dartmouth provides end user assistance via a variety
of channels (the primary ones being the help desk, documentation, training).
Our focus here will be ways in which users find networked-based resources (such
as our FAQ, on-line documentation, and requests for help via email) more or
less useful than person-to-person assistance (classes, phone and walk-in
assistance). In short, the assessment here should help us answer the question:
in which alternative should Dartmouth more heavily invest, in networked-based,
self-help resources or in help delivered person-to-person?
Network and Teaching.
This assessment will focus on the faculty. We will focus on specific
network-based vehicles and assess their usefulness to the faculty in curriculum
development. We will also have the faculty speculate, based on their
understanding of the network, on what aspects will grow in importance over the
next several years. In both this area and in the area of learning, we will
focus heavily on usage of the World Wide Web.
Network and Learning.
This is the flip side of the teaching area, with the focus on students. Again,
we will assess what aspects of the network are the most useful and why. Our
focus will be on the Dartmouth requirement for a "culminating experience,"
which is a significant independent project students are required to complete
during their fourth year in their major discipline.
Network and the Library.
Here we will focus on the ways in which DCIS has contributed to and, indeed,
altered teaching, learning, and research at this campus. What impact have the
resources in DCIS had in curriculum development? What kinds of use do the
students make of the content available via DCIS?
To support our involvement in the assessment project, Dartmouth will endeavor
to devote the equivalent of an FTE to the assessment effort for the duration of
the project. This assessment effort will be lead by Dartmouth's Computing
Services division, with active participation by the Dartmouth Library.
ASSESSMENT EXPERIENCE
Dartmouth has conducted a modest amount of assessment research. As early as
1976, during the days of Dartmouth timesharing, assessment research was
conducted ("Computing as a Matter of Course: The Instructional Use of Computers
at Dartmouth College"). In the mid-eighties, Dartmouth completed assessment
studies on the distribution of personal computers (1984) and on the impact of
the Macintosh (1985). In the late 1980's, another assessment project measured
the use of personal computers in the humanities disciplines. In 1993,
Computing Services conducted an in-depth assessment study of its classroom
technology infrastructure. Article length studies on computing at Dartmouth
have also appeared ("Computing across the curriculum: Academic Perspectives,"
EDUCOM, 1989; "Campus Computing Strategies," McCredie Ed., 1990).
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS
The principal contact for the Dartmouth assessment effort is Malcolm Brown
(malcolm.b.brown@dartmouth.edu). The leaders of the assessment effort include
two staff from Computing Services (Levine and Brown) and two staff from the
Library's Information Resources group (Brentrup and LaMarca).
Robert Brentrup is the Director of the Information Systems department,
providing technical leadership and management of the development team.
Information Systems is a group reporting jointly to Dartmouth College Library
and Computing Services. Information Systems is responsible for the Dartmouth
College Information System (DCIS) project and the library's automated systems.
Robert earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from
Michigan Technology University and a Master of Science degree in Computer
Engineering from Boston University. He was on the faculty of Northeastern
University in Boston teaching programming languages. He worked for Raytheon
Company and Lotus Development Corporation before coming to Dartmouth.
Malcolm Brown is director of Academic Computing at Dartmouth College. He
received a doctorate in German Studies from Stanford University with a
dissertation on Nietzsche. While at Stanford he started and directed the
Academic Text Service, including the development of one of the first
network-based text analysis tools and an on-line, full-text library. Among his
current projects at Dartmouth are participation on the library and computing
building committees and chairmanship of the subcommittee on classrooms. He has
been active in several CNI endeavors, including facilitating the CNI's "Working
Together" workshops.
Mary LaMarca is the Assistant Director of the Information Systems department, a
joint unit of the Dartmouth College Library and Computing Services. Mary leads
and develops library and campus information system projects. Mary earned a
Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Clarkson
College and a Master of Science degree in Library and Information Science from
Simmons College. She worked for Academic Computing at Brown University before
coming to Dartmouth.
Lawrence Levine Ph.D. has been at Dartmouth College since 1984, serving as
director of social science computing, director of academic computing, and
director of computing since 1990. Previously Dr. Levine held various computing
positions at Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Levine's doctorate is in
research methods, and, counseling psychology from the Indiana University
(Bloomington) School of Education. He has written a number of articles and made
numerous presentations in the field of statistical computing and higher
education computing services. Dr. Levine is a member of EDUCOM, CAUSE, and ACM.
He has served as a proposal reviewer for NSF and other agencies and
foundations, and as a consultant to various institutions of higher education
and to computing vendors.
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