Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Classroom Focus
10 Tips for Injecting New Technology into Your Campus
3/26/2008
4. Save time by skipping the pilot if you can.
With clickers, Julius said, "We could have done a pilot; some institutions would have." But pilots take lots of time, he pointed out. "Some schools have done pilots that go on and on. Then the information has changed, so it's too late" to adopt whatever product has been chosen. In the interests of saving time and getting a product selected, Julius' department decided to go with something quicker.
Instead, his department put on presentations around the two products and gathered feedback directly from interested faculty users. There was no clear victor--both products were still highly rated.
5. Get creative to gather feedback.
It's not always easy to convince either faculty or students to take the time to test a product and offer feedback, or to participate in focus groups or other information-gathering forums. Instead, Julius decided to gather student feedback at this point. With a few of each of the two top-rated clickers in hand, he began visiting select classrooms for feedback.
6. Take your input to the vendor.
The case between the two brands of clickers came down to price. Students clearly liked the design and features of one brand, but balked at the pricing model, an online pay-as-you-go arrangement. Julius took that information back to the vendor, who agreed to work with SDSU to alter the pricing model. "If you're a large enough school, you can try this," Julius advised.
7. Remember integration issues.
In the end, with the pricing model re-negotiated, SDSU's final clicker selection was eInstruction's Classroom Performance System. Along with its feature set and design, its integration with Blackboard, SDSU's course management system, was also critical.
8. Keep the initial group of adopters small.
That allows time for lots of support from IT staff early on. Since early adopters get plenty of help, they then pass on their positive experiences, talking up the product enthusiastically to others.
That's part of the reason that Julius added new users so gradually with his clicker rollout. "We didn't rush things," he said, adding just a handful of new faculty the second semester, in spring 2007. With things going smoothly, he convinced the bookstore to provide a handful of lunches, which he used to bring together faculty members to share best practices, tips, war stories, surprises, and problems.
"Faculty actually gave short presentations to new faculty interested in using clickers, but not using them yet," Julius said. He continues to maintain a list of all faculty members who have shown interest since the start, but has not introduced all of them to clickers. "We don't want to open the floodgates just yet," he said.
9. Be ready to transition support when you reach a tipping point in adoption.
Recommended Reading
- Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
- The Quilt Coalition Rolls Out XO Communications for High-Capacity Network Services
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
- Wimba Classroom 5.2 Expands Classroom Capture Support, Adds MP3 Downloads
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
- Automation Chimera: Education Is Not Management
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
- Cognos Releases BI Software for Linux-based IBM System z Mainframe
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
- Facebook and Collegiality: A Serendipitous Social Niche
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
