How does UTC compare?
In the May 2000 issue, Yahoo! Internet Life
magazine published the results of its 100 Most Wired Colleges survey,
conducted in partnership with Peterson’s.
This is the fourth such survey compiled by Yahoo! The methodology for the survey is described
below, taken from: http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/college/college2000/college2000.html
The Yahoo! Internet Life survey was conducted
in partnership with Peterson's, the nation's leading provider of education
information in print and online. All 3,631 open-enrollment accredited
undergraduate two-year and four-year institutions in the U.S. were invited to
participate in this year's survey. Peterson's collected data via an online
survey instrument. Results were then tabulated and reviewed by the editors of
Yahoo! Internet Life, who determined the rankings that appear in this article.
Peterson's did not develop the ranking methodology and was not involved in the
ranking process.
The actual value of a ranking on such a survey is
dubious. Indeed, several prestigious colleges refused to participate in this
year’s survey, and one college was accused by its own students of cheating when
it answered the questions last year (Chronicle, 4/28/00 pA49). We
certainly do not suggest basing policy decisions on the issues addressed in
this survey. However, the issues used
by the editors to determine the rankings can be taken as an indication of what
issues are important to prospective students and their parents. Many of these issues are also raised in the
EDUCAUSE guide to evaluating information technology on campus (Educause,
2000; see http://www.educause.edu/consumerguide/
).
UTC was not
in the list of institutions responding to the Yahoo! survey. We can, however, examine the issues that the
editors felt were important in judging the “wiredness” of a college, and how
UTC is positioned on those issues. An
overview of the issues addressed by the survey follows, taken from
http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/college/college2000/criteria.html
Recent Computer Buys (%): Percentage of public computer purchased in the last
two years.
Computer Required: All incoming freshmen receive or must purchase a computer.
Wired classrooms (%): Percentage of classrooms wired for high-speed net
access.
Dorm Equipment (%): Percentage of dorms on campus with computer labs.
Wireless access: School offers wireless coverage to institution buildings on a trial,
limited, or unlimited basis.
Electronic Application: Prospective students can apply to the school electronically.
Online Registration:
Students can register for classes via the web, an online registration system,
or a touch-tone phone.
Online Drop/Add: Students can drop or add courses via the web, an online registration system,
or a touch-tone phone service.
Online Transcripts: Students can access their grade reports online.
Online Course Schedule: Students can access course schedules online.
Web Space: Amount (in megabytes) of Web space guaranteed to students
Network File Space: Amount (in megabytes) of shared file network space available to all
students.
Library Resources: Students can reserve/check the status of books electronically.
Multiple E-mail Accounts: Students can
have more than one free institution-hosted email account, or multiple aliases.
Free printing: Students are permitted to print, for free, an unlimited number of
pages each semester.
E-mail for Life: Students can keep their e-mail accounts after graduation for free.
Alumni Access: Alumni have free access to the school's network.
Tech Support: School offers at least eight hours of one-on-one tech support, seven days a week.
Internet Orientation: Incoming freshmen are required to attend Internet orientation.
Equipment for the disabled: School has large-screen monitors, voice-to-text and
text-to-voice technology, or wheelchair-accessible computer terminals.
Summary Survey Results:
Yahoo! prepared the following summary of the 2000 survey
results:
|
98% |
Allow prospective students to apply electronically |
|
84% |
Allow students to reserve library books
electronically |
|
68% |
Offer Web-based registration |
|
64% |
Offer Web-based drop/add |
|
59% |
Provide eight-plus hours of tech support, seven
days a week |
|
56% |
Offer high-speed access in all classrooms |
|
41% |
Offer some wireless access on campus |
|
38% |
Offer students more than 25MB of server disk space |
|
35% |
Provide public computer equipment or labs in all
dormitories |
|
11% |
Require students to own computers |
The
following summary of the major trends indicated by the 1999 survey was
prepared by Yahoo! (reference http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/college/colleges99/intro4.html):
In 1998, 64 percent of the Top 100 reported that students could register online, while only 31 percent were offering distance-learning courses. In 1999, those percentages soared to 82 percent and 54 percent, respectively, as schools succeeded in getting their network infrastructures in place and their Web-based services online.
Of the 100 Most Wired Colleges...
98% Offer online course
schedules
90% Allow prospective students
to apply electronically
82% Allow students to register
for courses online
72% Allow students to drop and
add courses online
54% Offer distance-learning
courses
51% Permit graduates to keep
their e-mail address for life
48% Offer alumni free access to
the campus network
45% Allow students to set up
multiple e-mail accounts
24% Restrict Web access for
content reasons
13% Offer students unlimited
Web server space
The 2000 Survey
The 2000 survey ranked 100 institutions in four
groups: Universities, Colleges, Two-year institutions, and Baccalaureate II
colleges. The 52-part survey was posted on the Web and each school could respond to
the questions at its own pace. The
questions were changed from previous years.
New criteria included information about the deployment of on- and off-campus
high-speed services, such as DSL and cable modems, and wireless coverage to
campus buildings. The pool was increased from the 1999 pool of 571 schools to
include more than 3,600 accredited two-year and four-year U.S. institutions,
including community and vocational colleges. The participation rate more than
tripled, making this year's survey the largest yet.
Universities |
Colleges |
Baccalaureate II |
|
1.Carnegie Mellon University 2.University of Delaware 3.N.J.I.T 4.Indiana University Bloomington 5.Dartmouth College 6.M.I.T 7.Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 8.University of Virginia 9.Washington State University 10.University of California |
1. Williams College 2. Colgate University 3. Bates College; 4. Occidental College 5. Oberlin College 6. Sweet Briar College 7. Albion College 8. Illinois Wesleyan University 9. Smith College 10. Trinity College |
1. University of Minnesota, Crookston 2. Susquehanna University 3. Mount Union College 4. Cedarville College 5. York College of Pennsylvania 6. Buena Vista University 7. Valley City State University 8. Regis College 9. Dakota State University 10. Fort Lewis College |
37. Knox College
41. Rhodes College
62. University of the South
65. Furman University
66. Davidson College
The 1999 Yahoo! survey ranked 200 colleges and universities in one list. The top-ten were as follows:
1. Case Western Reserve University
2. Massachussetts Institute of Technology
3. Wake Forest University
4. New Jersey Institute of Technology
5. Rensselaer Polytechnic
6. Carnegie Mellon University
7. Washington State University
8. Gettysburg College
9. Indiana University, Bloomington
10. Dakota State University
In the 1999 survey, only one college from Tennessee was among the 200 colleges and universities listed, Knox College ranked 162. Three colleges from the Southern Conference were ranked:
93. Wofford College
112. Furman University
153. Davidson College
The methodology for each year’s survey was different, but the top ten ranked colleges and universities from 1998 and 1997 were as follows:
|
1998 |
1997 |
|
1. Dartmouth College 2. New Jersey Institute of Technology 3. MIT 4. Rensselaer Polytechnic 5. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 6. Carnegie-Mellon University 7. California Institute of Technology 8. Indiana University, Bloomington 9. University of Oregon 10. Worcester Polytechnic
Institute |
1. MIT 2. Northwestern University 3. Emerson College 4. Rensselaer Polytechnic 5. Dartmouth College 6. University of Oregon 7. New Jersey Institute of Technology 8. Indiana University, Bloomington 9. Middlebury College 10. Carnegie-Mellon University |
Comparing
UTC using the 2000 survey:
While we do not have access to the exact questions asked, and we do not know the ranking procedure used, we can examine the responses UTC would have made and compare these with the responses of ranked colleges.
The responses reported in Yahoo! for each ranked institution were tabulated and are available online. The responses were presented as shown below for the 2000 top-ranked university, college, and Baccalaureate II institutions. It is important to note that the footnote at the bottom of the charts indicates that not all of the criteria used to determine the rankings appear on the chart. Yahoo! indicates that 52 questions were asked of respondents, while the charts below describe only 18 responses.
|
Universities #1 Carnegie
Mellon University 89.15 |
Universities #2 University of Delaware 88.88 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Colleges #1 Williams College 61.23 |
Baccalaureate II #1 University of Minnesota,
Crookston 80.48 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga |
Notes on the UTC Responses |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comparing
UTC using the 1999 survey:
The responses reported in Yahoo! for each of the 200 ranked institutions were tabulated and are available online. The responses were presented as shown below for the 1999 top-ranked college, Case Western Reserve University (reference: http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/college/colleges99/1.html). It is important to note that the footnote at the bottom of the chart that indicates that not all of the criteria used to determine the rankings appear on the chart. Yahoo! indicates that 39 questions were asked of respondents, while the chart below describes only 20 responses.
Case Western Reserve University: #1
|
University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes on the UTC responses for the 1999 survey:
UTC has 86 computers
in the open computer labs and 559 (estimated) in the Library and Departmental computer labs. For 7018 FTE students, this represents
645/71 or 9 per hundred.
No online transcripts are supported; students will be able to obtain their RAP sheets online by the start of the fall semester, 2000
The UTC Help Desk
operates 5 days per week, 8 hours per day; it directly supports faculty and
staff, but does not directly support students.
Student assistants in the Computing Labs do provide help for
students. The Labs are open 118 hours
per week on regular schedule, and 168 hours (7x24) during the end-of-semester
period.
Email accounts are not automatically given to every UTC student. An account is opened for any student that requests an account; multiple accounts and aliases are not permitted. After graduation, the account is deleted; alumni and email-for-life accounts are not supported. Alumni are permitted to use the UTC open computer labs and the UTC network.
Every account is given 5M bytes of storage space. If the student requests more space and has an academic reason, additional space is given to the account. Students may also be given storage space on Departmental LAN servers.
There are no access
restrictions on the general UTC website.
Some departments and faculty members have restricted access to their
course content. The on-line courses
supported by WCB have restricted access.
An electronic
application will be operational at UTC in the summer of 2000.
Recommendations,
based on the UTC responses:
1. Every student at UTC should be given an email address. A server should be established for students to search for an email address, similar to that in use for faculty and staff.
2. Every member of the UTC Alumni organization should be offered a UTC email address. Such an address should remain in effect as long as the individual remains a member in good standing of the Alumni organization as indicated by, for example, yearly contributions.
3. Students should be allowed to create personal web pages on Moccasun, and these should be retrievable over the Internet.
4. It should be the policy of the University that any information produced by the University should be available over the Internet. This is especially true of information made available to the students (e.g. admission materials, application, Undergraduate Catalog, Graduate Catalog, Student Handbook, STARS) and publicity information.
5. Since it is the de facto policy, free student printing should be institutionalized, with proper support and management.