Acknowledgements
The Web Integration & Sustainability Project is being supported by
a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Technology Transitions: The Challenge for
Small Colleges
During the past few years it has become increasingly evident that one
of the most serious problems facing higher education is how to keep up
with the unprecedented rate of technological change. The impact of such
change is being felt in every area of the academy, from instruction and
research to admissions and financial aid. The dizzying speed at which
new technologies are introduced makes it difficult to hire and retain
qualified technical staff, allocate resources effectively, and provide
suitable training for students, faculty, and staff. With institutional
investments in information technology rising dramatically, colleges and
universities must develop new ways to manage transitions from one technology
to the next.
The problem is especially acute for small liberal arts colleges. Unlike
research universities and other large institutions, small colleges are
rarely able to achieve the economies of scale required to make the acquisition
and support of new technologies cost-effective. There are too few technical
staff members available to investigate new technologies without jeopardizing
critical daily operations. Likewise, there are insufficient funds available
with which to purchase software or hardware for product testing and evaluation.
As a result of these limitations, small colleges are often forced to choose
between increasing the size of the technology budget or foregoing the
potential benefits of new technologies. Neither option provides a tenable
long-term institutional strategy.
The problem of technology innovation at small liberal arts colleges raises
four key questions:
1. Can colleges remain current with new technologies and at the
same time maintain a rigorous cost-containment discipline?
2. Are there ways for existing technical staff to investigate and
develop expertise in new technologies or must staff size be permanently
increased each time a new form of information technology takes hold?
3. Are there cost-effective ways to provide training for students,
faculty, and staff that will enable them to keep up with useful technology
innovations?
4. Can small liberal arts colleges establish methods of selecting
and implementing new technologies in a timely fashion while minimizing
the risk of making costly mistakes?
We believe the answer to all four of these questions is 'yes' and that
the solution lies in collaboration. While individual small colleges may
not be able to achieve critical economies of scale, groups of colleges
have the potential to do so. Occidental, Reed, Swarthmore, and Vassar
Colleges are committed to testing this assertion by entering into a new
technology partnership.
A Case Study in Collaboration: The World
Wide Web
This project focuses on the integration of web technology into diverse
areas of instruction, research, communication, and college operations.
The use of web technology poses a number of challenges. At most small
colleges, staffing and budgets for computing support are already stretched
to capacity. Allocating additional resources to support the integration
of web facilities into existing technology infrastructures is extremely
difficult. The majority of small colleges, even leading liberal arts institutions,
employ ad hoc approaches to web support that are often costly, labor-intensive,
and technologically fragmented. In the long run, ad hoc practices that
lack a flexible, long-range strategic foundation are destined to fail.
This situation exemplifies the problems of technology transitions in
general and provides an ideal context in which to explore the benefits
of inter-institution collaboration. The rapid, unpredictable changes in
web technologies, along with the difficulty of finding, hiring, and retaining
qualified staff, require us to develop new ways of working together and
better strategies for managing continuous change. Identifying solutions
to this problem may enable us to deal more effectively with other technology
transitions in the future.
The project comprises two phases. In Phase I (2000 - 03), the four colleges
are pooling their resources to investigate the methods and costs of integrating
web technologies into the routine functioning of small colleges. Based
on this investigation, models for staffing, training, and technology deployment
will be developed to enable small colleges to provide web support in a
cost-effective, sustainable manner. An external assessment of the support
strategies and demonstration software we develop, as well as the results
of the collaboration itself, will be conducted throughout Phase I.
During Phase II (2003 - 05), the collaboration will be extended to other
small colleges, including both national and regional consortia. In this
phase, the focus will be on the implementation and evaluation of the software
and support strategies developed in Phase I.
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