On Computer Literacy

Preamble

"... as one of the University's goals, that by the year 2000, all students graduating from Brock University will know how and when to use computers in their selected disciplines"

thus committing the University to undertake steps to address student computer competency.2 The authors hope that this report will serve as a guide to the implementation of this commitment.

Computer competency (as any competency) is attained through practice. Practice alone, however, is not enough. A skill learned is soon lost unless it is evident to the learner that the skill is of value and the learner has continued opportunity to make use of the skill. Any policy implemented to address the acquisition of computer competence must take this into consideration. This means that the student must perceive that the computer is a valuable tool to him/her and must have continued need to make use o f the tool in her/his studies. To achieve this, computer use must be integrated throughout the curriculum and we must foster a climate in which computer use will flourish.

Our primary recommendation, then, is that computer use be integrated throughout the curriculum. This will require changes in the way both academic and administrative departments operate and will require support from all levels within the university.

• Motivating Students

  Motivating Students

  Additionally students must perceive that computer use is an integral part of the academic process. They must believe that their mentors and role models (i.e. the faculty) see computers in this light. Thus falls to faculty the responsibility of demonstrating the use of computers within the academic disciplines.

  If students are to be expected to make extensive use of computers, it is imperative that they have the opportunity to do so. This implies that there must be sufficient laboratories (both scheduled and open access) available. To reduce the load on these facilities, the University must encourage students to acquire their own equipment. This support would include:

  1. hardware and software recommendations
  2. adequate provision of telephone lines for external access
  3. special pricing for student computer purchases (and possibly lease or purchase plans)
  4. wiring residence rooms to the backbone
  5. providing open connection points in laboratories and library carrels for student computers
  Motivating Faculty If faculty are to encourage student computer use and serve as role models, it is imperative that they also have opportunity to become computer competent. Even when literate, the integration of computing into the curriculum will require significant effort on the part of the faculty. Faculty must be motivated to expend this energy. It must be made clear to faculty that their efforts in integrating computing into the curriculum are encouraged by the University. Deans, department chairs, promotion and tenure committees and other administrative groups must all lend their support. Deans and chairs should support the acquisition of computers within departments, support attendance at conferences dealing with integration of computers into the curriculum and consider such efforts favourably in annual reviews of faculty performance. The Promotion and Tenure committee should consider the development of courseware and novel approaches to integration of computing into instruction and research as strong evidence of meritorious teaching and scholarly activity. Motivating Staff The success of any of these efforts will hinge on the ability of the staff in various areas to support them. Three areas are especially critical: the Library, the Department of Computer and Communications Services and the Instructional Development Office. However, staff in all areas will be affected and must likely provide support. Many of the staff already have reasonable levels of computer competence. Those who do not should be encouraged to acquire computer competency. Those who do should be encouraged to increase their competency and make use of their acquired skills. Staff should be granted release time to attend seminars, workshops and courses on computer use both within and external to the university. Efforts to acquire and improve computer competency should be recognized during performance reviews. Much of the innovation in the use of computing within the university will likely come from staff. These efforts should be encouraged by managers through the acquisition of resources, release time to attend conferences and workshops and recognition during performance reviews. Sharing of knowledge and information exchange should be fostered through seminars and/or workshops within administrative departments. Skills What skills do we expect students to learn? While this is clearly dependent on the discipline that the student is following, there are some basic functions that computers support. Computers are essentially information processors, that is they provide a mechanism for locating, capturing, organizing, and disseminating information. It is clear that students should be aware of these roles and be able to make use of computers in these ways. To make use of the University information resources, students will need to have or to acquire a number of basic skills including: 1) basic computer use 2) use of e-mail 3) use of gopher 4) use of information search facilities 5) use of basic computer applications (e.g. word processing) Other required skills will be Faculty, Department and/or course specific and will need to be identified by the Faculty, Department and/or instructor. Skill Acquisition The skills required by students will be acquired in a number of ways. These include (but are not limited to): 1) Credit courses (e.g. COSC 1P90) 2) Non credit courses offered by the Library or Computer & Communications Services 3) Faculty/Department/Course seminars It may be appropriate for some credit computer competency courses to be granted context credit status. This would make it easier for students to include them in their programmes. In addition, it would acknowledge the importance of these skills for all "educated" people. This could be done by adding courses to the appropriate context course lists or establishing a fourth context area: "information technology". Some students (and this will become more prevalent as time goes on) will already have a set of basic computer skills when they reach University, either through high school training or self study. Some departments may eventually wish to establish computer competency entrance requirements for their programmes. It must be possible to determine the level of competence that students have at acceptance and possibly recommend or require remedial work for those who fail to meet standards. Support Two kinds of support are required within the university to foster the environment we foresee. The first is support for faculty and staff in becoming computer competent and in integration of computing into the curricula. The second is support for students in their use of computing. Faculty and staff computer competence can be fostered by the provision, by the Library and/or Computing and Communications Services, of short courses on computer use. Additionally, collegial support within Departments and Faculties is required, and such activities should be supported and recognized by Deans, Chairs and other managers. The support services of Computer & Communications Services must be strengthened as another level of support for faculty and staff. Integration of computing into the curricula must be championed by some group within the University. The Instructional Development Office appears the be the most obvious choice. Faculty should be able to get support in their curriculum development efforts from IDO. It would also be desirable for IDO to sponsor a grant programme for Integration of Computing into the Curricula in parallel to its current grant programme, to fund pilot projects and novel approaches. Student support must come from a number of sources as well. It is important that students be able to acquire both hardware and software on campus at special student prices. Support in the selection of hardware and software must be provided. Computer troubleshooting and repair must also be available on campus. Courses (both credit and non-credit) and seminars on computer use must be available. When students have problems in using a piece of software, they must be able to obtain help. This help can (and should) come from a number of sources including: 1) course instructional staff 2) general access lab supervisors 3) Computing and Communications Services Help Desk Long Range Considerations While this report has dealt primarily with the immediate future, the committee has a number of observations to make on long range efforts in promoting computer competency. One outgrowth of the increased emphasis on computer literacy will be increased demand for the computer resources on campus. As was predicted in the 1988/89 CCCP report, it is unlikely that the University itself will be able to supply all of the resources required. At some time in the future we must expect that students will provide their own computing resources (much as they do now with calculators when previously universities provided calculator labs). We foresee moving towards this end gradually and through a number of phases. Firstly that recommendations for hardware/software configurations be made so that students will know what to purchase. Secondly, that the Bookstore stock these configurations and sell them at aggressive prices. Later, a lease-to-own plan should be established to make it easier for all students to make a purchase. Finally, Brock could require (as a condition for registration) that a student have a micro-computer of the recommended configuration. If we are to achieve our goal, we will need to monitor our progress towards it. This will require some mechanism for determining the levels of computer competency of incoming students (a proposal mentioned elsewhere) and of graduating students. CCCP should consider this in the future. Conclusion We believe that the steps outlined herein will move us closer to our desired goal. However, we will not reach this goal overnight. The progress must be monitored and approaches adapted as time goes on. We recommend that the Subcommittee on Computer Literacy (probably renamed the Subcommittee on Computer Competency) be reconstituted each year with some continuing membership to oversee the progress towards our goal. Summary of Recommendations To achieve the goal of student computing competency, the subcommittee makes a number of recommendations. The following is a summary of the recommendations embodied in the above listed by the responsible office, department or committee. Instructional Development Office (IDO) IDO should take on the role of champion of computing in the curricula (even if it means hiring or seconding). In particular: 1) introduce a parallel grant programme for computing in the curricula 2) provide resources for faculty looking for support in integration of computing in courses and/or programmes 3) provide direct assistance in curricula development Faculty Should actively promote student computer competency. In particular: 1) become computer literate if not already so 2) integrate computing into course curricula as appropriate 3) make students aware of potential uses of computers within their discipline 4) require, as appropriate, assignments, presentations and projects to be prepared using computer tools Faculties/Deans/Departments/Chairs Should support the principle of computer use in the programmes. In particular: 1) support faculty efforts in integration of computing in the curricula 2) establish budgets for computer hardware/software acquisition 3) consider recommendation of computer credit courses in the programme 4) provide seminars on computer use in the discipline 5) provide Faculty, Department and course information on-line (i.e. gopher) 6) consider e-mail correspondence with students 7) establish recommendations for student computer hardware/software purchases (with reference to the CCCP standard suite) 8) Deans should strongly support faculty efforts when awarding merit rankings Library Should strongly embrace electronic information distribution. In particular: 1) continue to provide the library catalog on-line 2) provide as many other library resources (e.g. bibliographic databases) as possible on-line 3) continue to acquire CD-ROM and other electronic information sources in addition to or as an alternative to books and journals, and provide access to these on-line 4) provide support services for internet searching (non-credit courses, help) Computing and Communications Services (CCS) Should provide greater support for faculty and student computer use. In particular: 1) improve external dial-up access 2) wire all classrooms to the backbone 3) wire all residence rooms to backbone 4) provide open connection points for student computers in labs and library carrels 5) increase support for faculty, staff and student computer use (i.e. the Help Desk) 6) provide non-credit courses in computer use (coordinated with Library and credit courses) for faculty, staff and students 7) directly support the CCCP standard suite through non-credit courses and the Help Desk Administrative Departments Should embrace use of electronic medium and support staff in acquisition of computer competency. In particular: 1) provide the calendar on-line 2) provide the timetable on-line 3) provide on-line registration (in addition to BIRT) 4) make use of e-mail for faculty and student queries etc. 5) provide release time for staff to attend courses, seminars and workshops on computer use 6) support staff innovation in computer use 7) give consideration to staff efforts in acquiring computer competence and computer innovation in performance reviews Bookstore Should actively encourage and support student purchase of computers. In particular: 1) provide special pricing for student computer purchase 2) provide student computer purchase/lease plans 3) provide on-site hardware servicing 4) support the CCCP standard suite by stocking those items and providing appropriate hardware/software bundles Committee on Computing and Communications Policy Should continue to champion computing within the university. In particular: 1) provide appropriate support for efforts to achieve computer competency 2) continue to monitor the results of these efforts 3) develop a generic recommendation for student hardware/software purchase which should be included in the calendar 4) develop a statement regarding computer competence to be included in the calendar 5) annually update the list of standard hardware/software that is to be supported within the University (the standard suite) Committee on Academic Policy Should consider making some credit computing courses accessible as context courses (or introduce a new context category for computing or information technology). Committee on Promotion and Tenure Should consider courseware development and efforts towards integration of computing into the curricula as indication of meritorious teaching and scholarly activity. Committee on Admissions Should consider how entrance level computer competency can be determined in support of departments which may wish to require computer competency for entrance to their programmes. Appendix We include here statements that could be incorporated in the 1995/96 calendar regarding computer competency. Statement on the value of computer competency: "The University is rapidly moving towards an electronic environment. In many departments, a great deal of information about instructors, schedules, courses and special projects can be retrieved quickly by means of electronic communication. Computer competence and familiarity with Internet resources are highly desirable and useful tools of scholarship which students can bring with them to Brock. If a student lacks these tools on admission, s/he will have the opportunity to acquire them while attending the university." [Here one might include a statement about the Bookstore's Brock Micro which handles both hardware and software at educational prices, about the credit courses and non-credit seminars/workshops through which computer literacy can be acquired, improved, maintained, or refreshed.] Statement on Hardware/Software requirements: "The nature of information exchange at Brock University is changing. The University Library no longer regards its holdings as the sole resource it can make available to students and faculty; vast stores of information from global sources are now available instantly to anyone in the Brock community. Many faculty members now regard communication via the electronic medium of the university network as commonplace as using the telephone. In urging students and faculty to exploit these valuable on-line resources, the Senate Committee on Communications and Computing Policy recommends that a minimum startup configuration for computer purchasers should include not only the computer itself, but also a modem and a communications software package. For further specific recommendations for one's discipline, purchasers are strongly advised to consult their departments." 1 "New Directions for Academic Computing at Brock University," Final Report of the 1988-89 Committee for Computing and Communications Policy, M. F. Richardson et al, p. 2. 2 We prefer the term "computer competency" to the term "computer literacy" as it more clearly addresses the notion of knowledge of how to apply the computer to the task rather than just general knowledge about computers.