CONNECTIONS:

Enhancing the Wells Experience through Information Technology

"Vision Document" of 1994 Planning Work

Prepared, discussed, and passed in this version by the Campus Computer Planning Group, August, 1994. Part 3 was drafted by Head Librarian Jeri Vargo; Professor Bird Stasz contributed many ideas for Part 4.

In spring 1994 Vice President and Treasurer Joseph Carbone convened a Campus Computer Planning Group and charged it with envisioning how information technology can contribute to the College's ability to fulfill its educational mission, and with preparing a plan to implement that vision. This document is an attempt to describe in broad terms how information technology can enhance the Wells experience. A second document, produced through campus-wide planning, will describe in detail how this vision can be implemented.

Wells College has always taken pride in the excellence of the education it offers and in the spirit of community that it fosters: a community that begins when students first arrive on campus and that continues throughout their lives. The goal of the information technology plan envisioned here is to build upon those strengths of excellence and community.

Computers no longer merely compute. Especially when linked together in local and international networks they help communicate. They have become tools for locating and accessing information from around the world, creating ideas, and sharing them effectively with others. Like advanced telephone and video technologies that are the other components of the information revolution changing our world, computers and computer networks have become tools to connect people and ideas, and thus an essential part of education.

We believe that implementing an information technology plan can help build upon Wells' special strengths in at least four significant ways:

¨ Sharing information effectively: In order to make efficient and cost-effective use of any of the resources described below—from around the world, from the Library, or from the classroom—it is first necessary to be able to transmit information effectively from every part of Wells to every other part. Each faculty and administrative office, classroom, laboratory, computer lab, and dormitory will be connected to each other and to the Library, to the Campus-Wide Information Access System (see next paragraph), and to the college's connection to the world via the Internet. Information located anywhere at Wells will be available quickly, reliably, and securely from everywhere on campus; information on the campus computer network will also be accessible by modem from the homes of non-resident students, faculty, and other members of the College community. "Information" should not be narrowly defined as merely texts or numbers; the network or networks that connect the campus will provide for sharing images, video, and voice. Computer, telephone, and video systems, working together, will furnish Wells College with the ability to communicate effectively that is essential for modern education.

¨ Collaborating on ideas and communicating information: There can never be a replacement for the face-to-face communication that is at the heart of the Wells experience. But exactly the kind of intense exchange of ideas and small-group or one-on-one work for which Wells is famous can be greatly enhanced by new information technology. On a campus in which all elements are connected, classes do not need to end when students leave the classroom: the discussion can continue on an electronic bulletin board set up for the course; students can better collaborate on projects, sending documents to each other through electronic mail; they can submit work electronically to professors, who can annotate it and send it back with suggestions for an improved final version. This ability to communicate effectively with fellow students, professors, and administrators will be particularly important to non-resident students. Resident and non-resident students, faculty, staff, alumnae, and others will also benefit from the fact that information about the activities of the College (campus events, registration, course information) as well as major College information resources (the Library's online catalog, full-text and bibliographic databases for which the College has purchased licenses, discipline-specific information) can be made readily accessible from any computer on campus and from homes (via modem) through a Campus-Wide Information Access System. The Wells CWIAS can provide an easy-to-use, consistent interface to information that today is scattered in dozens of locations.

¨ Expediting administration and self-governance: Students could be able to register for classes from their advisor's office, with confidence that they will not be closed out of a class they believe is part of their schedule. They will be able to access many of the records pertaining to their studies at Wells through a secure system, without having to go from one administrative office to another. Faculty advisors will be able to provide better guidance with up-to-the-minute information about their advisees' programs of study and about changes in course schedules and descriptions. Curricular and other kinds of planning that are essential to the self-governance of the institution will be made easier with the ability to schedule committee meetings and exchange documents by electronic mail and to collaborate more effectively on drafting and editing new proposals. Administrative offices of all kinds will be able to share information with each other and with other bodies such as the Library through a system that is fast, secure, and easy to use.

¨ Overcoming distance: One of the most remarkable effects of information technology is that it begins to render geographical separation unimportant. Just as we are able to talk to someone nearly anywhere in the world by phone, it is now possible to have virtually instant access to much of the world's information, no matter where it is located. This information can be in the form of written texts, pictures, sound, or video. Making the physical location of information unimportant helps "level the playing field" for small, non-urban institutions like Wells, since much of the information available in major metropolitan centers and large universities can be accessed just as quickly from any point on the network, including quiet campuses such as Wells.

¨ Information for students and faculty: The wealth of information available on the Internet today is already stunning: the Library of Congress, nearly every important university library, and many small college libraries make their catalogs available online; great databases of information can be searched, and entire libraries of documents can be accessed in full-text. For students, this accessibility means that it is possible to use information that would otherwise have required a trip to a large research library and that is fully up to date—often updated on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis. For faculty, teaching at a small liberal arts college in a rural setting will no longer mean being cut off from the newest developments in the field; the information necessary for staying current and doing research will be immediately available.

¨ Communication for all: For students, faculty, administrators, and others information in the form of databases and documents will be only one aspect of the connection to the world provided by new information technology; the other, equally important side is the ability to communicate instantly and inexpensively with colleagues, family, and friends (including alumnae) around the world. Electronic mail provides an efficient means to stay in touch without regard to distance, further reducing concerns about the potential "isolation" of a rural environment. For faculty and advanced students, scholarly discussion groups using electronic mail create ongoing conferences that are not limited to a few days per year and that do not require travel to distant cities.

¨ Connections through video: Computer networks are not the only new source of the world's information; up-to-the minute news and cultural programming from all over the world is also available via satellite, in English and other languages. For all students and faculty, as well as classes in languages, international studies, and other fields, immediate access to television programming from around the world can give insights into other cultures, help stay in touch with familiar ones, and above all further the sense of Wells' connectedness to the world. A satellite link will also permit video conferencing for both educational and administrative purposes.

¨ Bringing Wells to the world: Besides making the world's information available to Wells, information technology can also make Wells and its resources more accessible to people far from Aurora, whether prospective students, parents, alumnae, or friends. By making the Wells Campus-Wide Information Access System (see Section 1) available on the Internet as well as by modem, our admissions materials, course descriptions, information about campus events, and career services can be easily and instantly accessible to anyone in the world. Resources particular to Wells in its role in fostering women's education and leadership can be highlighted. Wells can use its expertise to become an electronic center for women's education and issues concerning women's leadership, increasing interest in the programs offered on campus. At the same time, alumnae can stay in touch with Wells, with each other, and with students pursuing internships and career development opportunities, further strengthening the sense of community that is a Wells tradition.

¨ Online catalog: The creation of an online public access catalog (OPAC) at the Wells library will open our bibliographic resources to users in new and interesting ways. By linking the library OPAC with the campus-wide information access system, collection information will be accessible both on site in the library and also from dormitory rooms, offices, and (via modem) the homes of non-resident students, faculty, and others. A tie-in with the library's internal local area network (LAN) will then allow the user to pinpoint the location of any title from the moment it is ordered, through receipt, cataloging and technical processing, until it is ready to be added to the collection. The connection of our campus-wide information access system to the Internet will allow access to information about our library resources to scholars and researchers the world over as well as to our alumnae and friends.

¨ CD-ROM databases: CD-ROM is perhaps the most exciting technology available to today's libraries. It allows the user easy access to full-text images in hundreds of periodicals as well as full abstracting and indexing for hundreds more, such as those available through our ProQuest workstations. It also makes available online multimedia encyclopedias, the full Oxford English Dictionary, and many more applications that enhance our curricular capabilities. The availability of many of these resources through our campus network will bring even more currency of information to our faculty and students.

¨ Instructional technology as a teaching tool: Computers and other instructional technology can facilitate the outstanding teaching characteristic of Wells. Computer facilities in the classroom function as enhanced versions of chalk and blackboard, slide projector, and tape player. They make it possible to create multimedia presentations combining images, sound, text, and even video. Since a presentation can easily be revised, these tools give the professor the opportunity to tailor each element of a lesson plan to a particular class and to provide supplementary visual and other information spontaneously as the class discussion progresses. For example, CD-ROMs or laser discs give instant access to many hundreds of images and sound and video clips or texts. Classroom access to the Internet provides virtually unlimited possibilities to pursue links suggested by the discussion and to gather relevant information from all over the world.

¨ Collaborative learning in the networked classroom: Classes meeting in computer labs in which there is a computer for each student or team of students can use new software that encourages collaborative learning. Students in English composition classes can get nearly instant feedback on their writing both from the professor and from other classmates. Students in other disciplines can cooperate on large-scale projects that require the contributions of a number of participants. A connection to the Internet means that collaboration does not need to stop at the classroom door: individuals or the entire class can work together with students at other institutions anywhere in the world. For example, Wells students in an education course could tutor children in inner-city schools from their Aurora classroom; Wells foreign language students could form a partnership with a class in another country that was learning English; a creative writing class at Wells could be linked to one at Cornell or elsewhere so that work can be shared.

¨ Continuing the learning process using the Learning Center: Information technology will allow learning to continue after class is over. Discipline-specific software and online practice materials, often containing visual and audio information as well as text, can be maintained for each course in a Learning Center housed in the Library. Besides being a physical location where students can view and review multimedia presentations and use special software programs to practice difficult materials, the center's staff can maintain a "Virtual Learning Center" as well, with which many of its resources can be accessed through the network from anywhere on campus, including classrooms and dormitories, as well as by modem from the homes of non-resident students.

The vision described here is not of a distant future. Most of the information technology planned for Wells is already employed or is in the process of being employed by colleges and universities, and indeed by secondary schools, around the country. But Wells has a unique opportunity to use this technology in its own ways to accomplish its mission within the context of its special strengths and traditions. We believe that implementing the information technology envisioned here will not only help keep us competitive with other institutions of higher learning but will allow Wells to provide in still greater measure the excellence of education and the sense of life-long community for which it is known and of which it is justly proud.

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