Classrooms

MISO

This survey helps provide a framework within which we can examine some of our broader technology inititiatives, such as the work of the Classroom Committee. The Classroom Committee includes members from ILS, Facility Services, the Registrar and the faculty. With regular infusions of capital funding, the Committee has been working since 2001-02 to systematically improve the College’s classrooms as learning environments, including technology, but also including furniture, lighting, window treatments, paint, carpet, etc. By the fall of 2009, the Committee had recommended installed technology in every classroom scheduled by the Registrar, and ILS had completed installations. The MISO survey gave us some framework within which we could examine the effort to bring information technology into the classrooms, and its perceived effectiveness. Here are some observations from the survey and related data:

  1. Classroom and meeting space technology is very important to the Bates faculty and its perceived importance to faculty is higher than at other colleges like Bates.
  2. Bates faculty members use classroom technology heavily.
    • In the 2008 survey, 1/3 of the faculty members said they used classroom technology more than three times per week; 65 percent said more than once per week.
    • In 2009, we installed technology that allows us control many technology installations in classrooms and to measure use directly. In the 2011-12 academic year, this classroom technology was used in more than 10,500 class sessions.
    • By the fall of 2012, more than 70 percent of the courses taught at Bates were active users of Lyceum, the College’s course management system using Moodle software.
  3. Satisfaction with classroom technology among the faculty in 2012 was high (3.47 on a scale of 1-4), higher than that expressed by faculty at other colleges like Bates.
  4. In the early part of the decade, Bates was a bit behind the trend line among liberal arts colleges as measured by the percentage of classrooms with installed technology. At 100 percent, Bates is now a bit ahead of the trend line.
  5. As capital funds have been used to expand the number of classroom technology installations, ILS has received and allocated operating funds to cover replacements and upgrades.
  6. The College has an ongoing commitment to funding improvements in the classroom environments with additional capital funds.

MISO Survey 2012