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BUILDING INSTRUCTION LABS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH KENNING ARLITSCH Unwerslty of Utah ABSTRACT Many llbrarles are workmg to add or redeszgn facdltles m order to accomodate handy-on mstructlon They paper describer the tonstructlon of two hands- on computer labs for library mstructlon at the Uruverslty of Utah’7 Marrcott Library It dlscussesflaws m existing trammg labs, and how thosejawr were taken into conylder- atlon when butldmg the neh labs Costs acyoclated with the project are covered, ar well as specljicatlons offurmture, computers, and proJectlon equipment INTRODUCTION The University of Utah, located m Salt Lake City, servesa student population of 27,000 and is a Research-Iinstitution There are three hbranes on its campus the J Willard Mar- riott Library, the Spencer S Eccles Health SciencesLibrary, and the S J Qumney Law Library The Marriott Library has undergone many changes m recent years, including a maJor expansionduring 1994-1996, a new director m 1995, and a merger with the campus Computer Center m 1997 to form a dlvlslon within the library known as Academic Com- puting and Library Information Systems(ACLIS) Instruction has a long history m the Mamott, albeit often as a peripheral activity and conducted by hbranans whose primary duties lay elrewhere In 1994, the library hired a Technology Instruction Librarian who temporarily reported to the Direct01 for Public Ser- vices In 1996, a Dlvlslon Head was hired, thus formally creating an Instruction Dlvlslon A year later, a staff position, Computer TechTrainer, was createdand filled An additional Instruction Librarian Joined the library at the beginning of 1998, brmgmg the total full- time personnel m the Instruction Dlvlslon to four Librarians from other departments con- tinue to be involved m the program and are valued partlclpants *Direct all correspondence to Kennm~ Arlrtsch, Dqrtal Resources Llbranan, 295 S 1500 East J Wdlard Mat-n- ott Library, Unwersq of Utah, Salt Luke Cih, UT 84112, USA E-mad karlrtsc@ lrbrary utnh edu RESEARCH STRATEGIES, Volume 16, Number 3, pages 199-210 CopyrIght 0 1999 by Elsevler Science Inc All rights of reproduction m any form reserved ISSN 0734-3310
Transcript
Page 1: Building instruction labs at the University of Utah

BUILDING INSTRUCTION LABS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

KENNING ARLITSCH Unwerslty of Utah

ABSTRACT Many llbrarles are workmg to add or redeszgn facdltles m order to accomodate handy-on mstructlon They paper describer the tonstructlon of two hands- on computer labs for library mstructlon at the Uruverslty of Utah’7 Marrcott Library It dlscussesflaws m existing trammg labs, and how thosejawr were taken into conylder- atlon when butldmg the neh labs Costs acyoclated with the project are covered, ar well as specljicatlons offurmture, computers, and proJectlon equipment

INTRODUCTION

The University of Utah, located m Salt Lake City, serves a student population of 27,000 and is a Research-I institution There are three hbranes on its campus the J Willard Mar- riott Library, the Spencer S Eccles Health Sciences Library, and the S J Qumney Law Library The Marriott Library has undergone many changes m recent years, including a maJor expansion during 1994-1996, a new director m 1995, and a merger with the campus Computer Center m 1997 to form a dlvlslon within the library known as Academic Com- puting and Library Information Systems (ACLIS)

Instruction has a long history m the Mamott, albeit often as a peripheral activity and conducted by hbranans whose primary duties lay elrewhere In 1994, the library hired a Technology Instruction Librarian who temporarily reported to the Direct01 for Public Ser- vices In 1996, a Dlvlslon Head was hired, thus formally creating an Instruction Dlvlslon A year later, a staff position, Computer Tech Trainer, was created and filled An additional Instruction Librarian Joined the library at the beginning of 1998, brmgmg the total full- time personnel m the Instruction Dlvlslon to four Librarians from other departments con- tinue to be involved m the program and are valued partlclpants

*Direct all correspondence to Kennm~ Arlrtsch, Dqrtal Resources Llbranan, 295 S 1500 East J Wdlard Mat-n- ott Library, Unwersq of Utah, Salt Luke Cih, UT 84112, USA E-mad karlrtsc@ lrbrary utnh edu

RESEARCH STRATEGIES, Volume 16, Number 3, pages 199-210

CopyrIght 0 1999 by Elsevler Science Inc All rights of reproduction m any form reserved ISSN 0734-3310

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200 RESEARCH STRATEGIES Vol 16/No 3/1998

The library expanclon project, completed m September 1996, nearly doubled the clze of the existing bulldmg creating much-needed shelf \pdce, study dIea\, dn dudltonum, d new Reserve ared, dnd a large area m which the prcvlou\ly separate Audio-Vliual Depdrtment dnd Microcomputer Center were combmed The new Multimedia Center (MMC) 1164 dn open- access ldb with space for 250 computer workstatlonu, two ldlge hdndc-on trdmmg lab\ (thirty- five work,tdtions each), two medium-sized cld\sroom\ with proJectIon ‘md audio capablhtles (fifty chair\ edch), two cmall cl,ls\room\ (thirty chdir5 each). and two <emlntr room\

LAB USE

The new MMC training Idbs serve a variety of campus mtere\t,, and schedulmg conflicts quickly revealed that the two tralmng labs were not sufficient to support all out\lde group5 plu\ the hbrary’\ own growmg mstructlon program In dddltlon, the library’s recent merger with the campus Computer Center to form the dlvl$lon known as ACLIS brought an additional mstructlon presence mto the library While ACLIS instructors hdd previously taught many cld%es in the hbrdry, they dre now d full-time presence dnd have integrated their computer apphcdtlons clas\er with library instruction classe, I In their mole to the library, ACLIS instructor\ brought with them d Macintosh lab of eighteen work\tdtlon\. which wds installed m one of the MMC’\ \rnJl classrooms (Room 170SA) Even this dddltion wd\ insufficient to support m\truction dnd staff trdmmg pldns It became clear that the Instruction Dl\lslon needed it\ own fdclhtles In the fail of 1996, director of the Marriott Library, Sarah Mlch&k, approved funding tor two new instruction labs m \pace in the older part of the bulldmg that once contdined the old PC and Macmtoch lab\

COMPARISON OF LABS

This paper will focus on design problem, wrth the two hdnd?on trammg labs (Room\ 1735 and 1745) m the MMC dnd ~111 dcccrlbe the \olutlons mcorpornted into the con- struction of two new ldbs (Rooms 304A dnd 304B) In the older part of the bulldIng

Room Layout

PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING LABS (1735 AND 1745)

While excellent m terms of computer equipment, the two large trammg labs (PC lab, Room 1735 and Macmto\h lab, Room 1745) were somewhdt of a dlcdppomtment from a design perspective Many suggestion\ had been made to architect5 Loncernmg classroom de\lgn. but few if dny of them were taken mto account m the final construction The nedruly identical rooms are very large and wide, with space for thirty-hve compute1 workstatlons dnd one instructor station dt the front of the room (\ee Figure 2) Three row\ of tables are dhgned in gentle arcs acres\ the width of the rooms, divided by a center al3le The width of the rooms makes it difficult to see the white board and the projection screen from the ends of the rows (See Table 1 for room dimension\ ) The size of the rooms turned out to be unmdnagedble for another reason, when filled to cdpaclty the thirty mdchmes m edch of those trdmmg lath, have proven to be too mdny for one m\trucIor to handle alone TypiLdlly, two to foul m3tructors dnd assistants are required m full classes becauce of the asslrtance needed by students

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Room 304A

Instructor A

FIGURE 1 Diagram of New Instruction Labs

TABLE 1 Marriott Library Hands-on InstructIon Labs

Room Computers* D/mens\ons Size (ft2)

304A 12PC 16ft II m X25ft7m 433 304B 15 PC 21 ft 5 m X 25 ft 7 m 548 1705A 18Mac 18 X 26 ft 468 1735 30 PC 44 x 33 ft 1452 1745 30 Mac 42 ft 6 m X 32 ft 8 m 1374

* Figures do not Include lnstnxtw ?tatlon>

Prolectlon

Proxm~a 5610 Proxmla 5500 Electrohome ECP4100 Proxlmd 5610 Prox~md 5610

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202 RESEARCH STRATEGIES Vol 16/No 3/l 998

SOLUTION IN NEW LABS (304A AND 3046)

The new rooms are not quite ldentlcdl m \lze, 304A being d httle \mallcr thdn 304B (See Table I f-or room dlmenslons ) The walls are zectloned gla\5 from waist height except for the shared wall where tdll white board\ cover mo\t of the \pdce Room 304B has the misfortune of d structural pllldr m Its northeast corner effectively clmundtlng the entlre corner for dnythmg other than \tordge space

Smce we were &u-ting this time with exl\tmg rooms, not much of the phy\lcdl Qruc- ture Louid be altered, even though $ome of the design rdn counter to ;Idvice In the Ilt- erature ? It was clear horn the begmnmg thdt the new tdcllltle< would be considerdbly cmaller than Rooms 1735 and 1745, dnd an Idea to remobe the wall between the two rooms to form one larger lab was entertained However, m hght of- the personnel required to run ldrge se?slon\ in the MMC labs, it wd\ drgued rtrongly that mdller facihtle\ were desirable, and the wdll remdmed It wa\ al\o redsoned thdt for iqer group\ the fdcihtle\ m MMC could stdl be used

The dimensions of Rooms 304A dnd 304B hdd d strong unpdct on the arrangement of the furniture (see Figure 1) In the larger of the two room4 304B, It wa\ mltially thought that rows of ddJoimng station\ would face the white bodrdc on the \hdred wall, but the structural plllar m the northcdst corner of the room precluded use ot that alea lor dn m\tructor %&on With help from the locdl furniture vendor it was detelmmed that the best arrangement wd$ three rowc of hve workstationa edch, tacmg the out\lde wmdou, with the fixed white board\ on the ea\t wall e&y vlewed by d mnety-degree head turn to the right (\ee Figure 3) Since the out\ide wall faces north. and the bulldIng stluLture pro- vldes a Lonslderable overhdng, sunhght wd? not d problem Thi\ drrdngement al\o solved the issue of hdnglng the proJectIon screen over the white hoard\, the \Lreen UJ~ simply hung dt the front of the room

The small \lze of 304A limited the number of work\tdtlons we could m\tdll m a tr‘tdl- tional drrangement of rows fdcmg the front ot the loom, dnd led us to explore other poscl- blllties It was concluded that the be\t drrdngcment would be 12 workGdtion\ arranged m the chape of d large \emmdr table, I e , two rows of \IX workctatlon5 end to end tdclng each other (see Figure 4) The tdble wds to be ldld out m d north-\outh drr‘mgement $0 that the proJectIon screen at the front of the room would be ed\lly vlewable with d mnety- degree head turn to the left or right, depending on which ,Ide of the table the student ~a\ slttmg This nontrdditional arrangement wds received with great enthusldsm when It UJ\ presented to the larger group ot m\truLtor\, it wds thought that the design would foster dl\- cus\Ion and collaborative ledrnmg ‘md would be flexible enough to be used for staff meet- ings as well a5 mctruction \ebcion5 ’ A thirteenth stdtlon was added to the ‘head” ot the \emmar table thdt could dct d\ d jeconddry m\tructor Gmon dllowing the m\tructor to lead discu\\lonr from the tdble If he or \hc derlred

One ADA (wheelchau height) work\tatron was ordered to1 edch room and care was taken to po\ltlon those units clo\e,t to the doorc fol easy access In 304B three of the fifteen workstatIon were ordered ds left-hdnded unit\ dnd m 304A two wele left-handed

When the rooms had been used a\ teaching fdcllltle\ by the Mlcrocomputer Center a constant problem had been the glare from mdln librdry llghtc, whlLh shone through the glass wall5 dnd reflected bddly on the computer monitors For that reason dnd ecpeclally

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FIGURE 2 PC Lab Rm 1735

FIGURE 3 Rm 304B

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204 RESEARCH STRATEGIES Vol 16/No 3/1998

since we intended to uje projector\ In the new labs one of the first modlficatlons was to mstdll \ome sort of window covermg to eliminate out\lde glare dnd to darken the loom5 Several solution\ were examined, mcludlng tmtmg and drapes, and m the end mm- blmdc wele Lhosen

Furniture and Computer Arrangement

PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING LABS (I 735 AND 1745)

Furniture m the larger MMC ldbr consI\& of tables, (6 ft long, 29 m deep) which have only mmlmdl accommodation\ for computeis, such as hollow legs, and holes m the desk- top for wu-m-fedturec th‘lt weie not used m the con\tructlon ot the lab, Desktop-model computers were placed on top of the tdbles momton sitting on the boxes with keyboards and mice in front Tower\ were purchased because of fedn by MMC teLhmca1 staff thdt

they would be accidentally klLked 11 inGdlled under the table\ given the Idch of computer equipment accommodations This arrangement wa\ very tall, re\trlc-tmg sight line\ to the front of the room and making It difficult tor instructor\ to \ee the students A new arrange- ment wrlj lmmedlately deemed nece\\ary, dnd the momtorv weie placed next to the boxe\ endbling d view to the front But thl< r‘nsed another problem, there 5imply wd\ not any room lett on the table\ to write (see Figure 5)

SOLUTION IN NEW LABS (304A AND 304B)

An entirely new approdch wd$ taken with furniture m the new lab\ and thl\ has had the greatest eftect on the cld\sroom\ Havm g visited an instruction facility at nedrby Weber State University’s Stewart Librdry during the winter Marriott mctructors becdme endmored of d type of workstation manufdctured by Novd These work\tatlon\q fedture d clean desktop with all computer equipment ln\talled beneath the de\k surfaLe Momtol\ are supported by angled baskets, and dre vlewdble through tinted plate glass, flush with the desktop A chelf below the de\k provlde5 the storage fol the computer tower unit, and a retrdctdble tray holds both the kcybodrd dnd the moure Each work\tdtion includes accommoddtion~ for wiring, mcludlng d power strip dnd d wire tidy at the bdck dnd bot- tom of the unit with hole\ at the \Ide\ fool contmuou\, hidden wiring through adJoining unit\ (see Figure 6)

Instructor work,tatlon\ drc larger version5 ot the student woik\tdtlon\, medcurmg dpproxlmately 5 ft in length, dnd \tdndm g approxrmately 45 in tdll They also include shelving for ddditional equipment, such a\ a VCR

Upon securing a demon\trdtron unit from the local vendor there was some con\ternatlon from other librdry staff dbout the rddical de$lgn But having reen it In action at Weber State, and having reviewed several other furmture po\\lblhtle\ the mctruLtorc stood fast, and the furniture was ordered

Lighting and Projection

PROBLEMS IN EXISTING LABS (1735 AND 1745)

Row\ of Indirect, hanging light fixtulec had been installed throughout the \tdCk5 In the new expdn\ion d\ well d\ 111 the two trdlmng lab\ This presented a problem for the pro-

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Buidmg instruct/on Labs at the Unwers/ty of Utah 205

FIGURE 4 Rm 304A

FIGURE 5 Close-up of Workspace In Rm 1735

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206 RESEARCH STRATEGIES Vol 16/No 3/l 998

FIGURE 6 Close-up of Nova Workstatlon Furndure

posed celling-mounted proJection umts, since the projection bedm would be partially blocked by the front row of lights The temporary rolutlon waq to leake the desktop projec- tor on a cart m the center aisle, and to use one of the student workstation\ m the middle row as the instructor station while the intended instructor 5tatlon at the front of the room remained idle After almost a year of use on carts, the desktop proJectors were ceilmg- mounted the hghtlng problem hdvln g been solved by manually ralrmg the hont row of lights to within several inches of the cellmg, and removing several fluorescent tubes clo\- est to the projector

No rheostat\ were Installed, so lights Lould not be dimmed, dnd L\ separate row of lights whose purpose could not be divined had been Installed m the cellmg at the extreme front of the rooms When on, they wdrh out the projection screen\ or white bodrd and come- quently are never used

At 6 ft across, the proJectIon screens were too small for the room, creating dn image \lze thdt many people hdd trouble \eem g from the back And m a faux pd\ that ha\ become standard m dual-purpore cld\sroom\, the projection screen covered the white bodrd when it was pulled down Recently, when the proJector\ were cellmg-mounted new 9-ft wide screens were purchd\ed dnd Installed, dllowlng for a ldrger projection Image To solve the other problem, d portdble white board wa\ used and during the summer of 1997, two used white boards were mstalled on either side of the existing board, provldlng writing space wlthout having to pull the screen up and down The otf\et white boards ctlll proved to bc d problem for ctudents slttmg on the opposite 5ldc$ of the toom dnd this mconvenlcncc W‘I\ to figure prommently into the design of the new mstructlon ldb,

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SOLUTION IN NEW LABS: (304A AND 3048)

Exlstmg lighting in the new labs was recessed fluorescent bulbs that could not be altered Rheostats were prohlbltlvely costly and were therefore not mstalled

The Instruction Dlvlslon owned a Proxlma 5500 (640X480 resolution) desktop projec- tor, which had previously been used on the cart m Room 1735, and had been purchased through a grant from the campus Electronic Classroom Committee Current funding from the Committee allowed for the purchase of a newer Proxlma 5610 (800X600 resolution) projector and two celling-mount kits The new 5610 was cellmg-mounted m Room 1735, where the higher resolution was more cntlcal for an engmeermg class which used CAD soft- ware, and the older 5500 was celling-mounted m 304B MMC mdependently purchased and celling-mounted two more 561Os, one for Room 1745 and one for Room 304A

An ELM0 Usual Presenter for the larger lab was purchased with a portion of the furm- ture funds An ELM0 functions like an overhead projector, but with the ablhty to display three-dlmenwonal and opaque objects, ehmmdtmg the need to first make transparencies of prmted matenals It 1s a small, simple video camera mounted on a frame to point downward to the work surface With top or bottom hghtmg options, it can also zoom and display m color or black and white The ELM0 was wu-ed to the proJector’s second RGB input, and can be switched back and forth via remote control

The 6-ft screens recycled from Rooms 1735 and 1745 turned out to be the perfect size for the new smaller rooms Rounding out audlovlsual needs m Room 304B was a video player provided by MMC, which 1s also connected to the projector and 1s housed in the instructor’s station

Computers

Computers for the new labs were exactly the units being m$talled on staff desks as part of a major plan to upgrade the library’s computer equipment (See Table 2 for speclfica- tlons ) The staff and database networks m the library have traditionally been DOS/Win- dows-based, and for consistency’s sake and the fact that two Macintosh labs were already m place m the MMC, it was decided that both new mstructlon labs would contam PCs run- mng Wmdows 95

NETWORK CONFIGURATION

Because of the dual trammg purpose of the labs (students and library staff), the Mlcro- computmg staff were faced with building a network conhguratlon that would meet both needs The student configuration was fairly straightforward since somethmg similar had been used m Room 1735 for nearly a year The staff Image, however, had to be different,

TABLE 2 Computer Specifications

Processor Memory Hard dlyk Monitor Video card

Sound Fystem

Pentmm 200MMX 64MB RAM 2GB 17 m Sony Trmltron Matrox Mdlemum II Yam& OPL-3

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208 RESEARCH STRATEGIES Vol 16/No 3/1998

allowing staff to log mto the Novell network Just as they would from then desks and allow- mg them to retneve documents from their mdivldudl accounts on the network dnd use their own emall accounts This had been a deficiency of the configuration m Room 1735, and the lsyue was pushed hard by instructors to ensure that novlce computer users would be able to easily transfer skills learned m a trammg session to their desk environments

Creating each configuratlon was not nearly co much of a problem as creating an envl- ronment wherein they could both be used without breaching security to the staff network A dual-boot image, dependent upon additional boot manager software, turned out to be the solution Upon booting up the machme, the instructor would have the choice of the student or staff Image Re-booting the machme\ to switch from one clde to the other could result m a 20-mm delay while the {ystem reconhgured itself, but it was not con\ldered to be a problem becduse d “swltchover” in the middle of a class would rarely occur

MaJor software dpphcatlonv loaded onto the network images included Mlcrojoft Office 1997 Profecslonal Edition, Core1 Office Suite, dnd various Internet applrcdtions, mcludmg

Netscape Communicator, Internet Explorer, Pegasus Mdil (for staff use) WS-FTP and EWAN as the telnet software

COSTS

The costs of the project are outlined in Table 3

INSTALLATION SCHEDULE

The decision to build the two mTtructlon labs was reached by October 1996, and the target date for completion of the labs wac set for July 1, 1997 During the winter and spring qudr- ters, mstructlon librarians met frequently to discuss furniture and room derlgn options and to consult with microcomputmg staff dnd facilities personnel

As with any proJect of thl\ size, and with mater& coming from \o many different ven- dors, delays were mevitdble Like others before us we “encountered a hundred problems thdt we had not anticipated-problems thdt m mdny caces pointed to the lack of a common

TABLE 3 Breakdown of Costs for Two New InstructIon Labs

Item un/ts u/7/t cost Total cost

Carpet (Inst‘illdtlon UN) 109 $4 yd\ US$23 00 US$2507 00

Mm] blmdj (malled) 36 us50 77 Lsfll828 00

Chus 18 U9$256 19 lrs$9715 I4

Student worhstatmnj 26 US$397 so LrSB 10335 00

ADA work\t&ons 2 us9115 00 USS870 00

Imtructor leLtem\ 2 us’6 1077 50 us92075 00

Computers 30 US$2 I78 00 US65 310 00

FLMO V~sudl Presenter I US$3000 00 UFS3000 00

Proxllna 56 IO projectors 3 US$5979 00 U%l I 95X 00

ProJector wlmg-mount kit 2 US$52? 00 tJS$ I050 00

ShIppIng (v,ork\t&on\) US$ I785 16

Totdl rJs$lloJ8360

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Bulldmg Instruction Labs at the Unwerslty of Utah 209

culture and language among architects, engineers, teachers, and audlovlsual speclahsts “5 A critical error m the relationship with the faclhtles and mlcrocomputmg staffs was m not followmg up with them on a constant and consistent basis Durmg a time of great change m the Mamott Library, both groups had their hands full, and the Instruction labs constl- tuted only one of their proJects The lme between becoming a thorn m the side of those groups through constant follow-up, and backing off to let them do their work proved to be a difficult one to walk In hindsight, it would have been better to err on the side of too much commumcatlon

Carpeting was installed m early July Furniture and chairs had been ordered m late May, and while the chairs amved by early July, the workstations could not be delivered until mid-August When they arrived, m two separate shipments spaced nearly a month apart, several of the units were damaged and had to be returned By combmmg units from the two shipments, we were able to complete Room 304B The rest of the furniture for 304A did not arrive until sometime m November

Computers also did not arrive until late August, at which pomt it was noticed that some crucial hardware needed for the dual-boot process had not been ordered Other delays were caused by network and power mstallatlon While wlrmg for both of these had prevl- ously been present m the rooms, it had to be reposltloned m order to avoid a situation in which wires would have lam across the floor New holes were drilled through the concrete floor to feed network and power lines from below, creating a very clean look m the rooms

Room 304B was finally fimshed Just m time for classes, which began on September 25 As expected, bugs and glitches m the computer equipment caused some disruptions m the mltlal class sessions, but swltchmg operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows NT smoothed things out Room 304A was completed by mid-November

RESULTS

The new mstructlon labs have been a great improvement m Marriott mstructlonal faclh- ties, and have received generally positive reviews from both students and mstructors The mnovatlve fumlture, with its clean lme of sight, makes for a better student-teacher mterac- tlon, and the semmar table arrangement m Room 304A encourages dlscusslons within the group That room 1s actively sought out by staff and other campus committees who wish to have group discussions with the added advantage of dlsplaymg Web sites or software

Some technical problems experienced with the furmture and proJection are noteworthy Mlcrocomputmg staff who installed the machmes set a momtor resolution of 1024X768 lines, which 1s the default settmg for most machmes m the library The Nova furniture, however, places the monitors a little further away from the user, making It difficult to see text at that high resolution The result was that students had to lean forward over the desk- top, defeating the ergonomic seatmg position Normally, changmg monitor resolution 1s a 30-second operation, but for security purposes, Mlcrocomputmg had locked down the sys- tem m Windows NT with an admmlstrator password, and It took months before they could spare the time to make the changes

Resolution also proved to be an issue m regard to the proJectors The older Proxlma 5500 proJector m Room 304B could not display a higher resolution than 640X480 lines, which caused some mstructors to complam about the reduced screen view Recently, a

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210 RESEARCH STRATEGIES Vol 1 ~/NO 3/1998

new Sanyo 8810 projector, which 1s capable of dlfplaymg 1024X768 hnes, was purchased and connected to the mrtructor work5tdtlon The added brlghtnesc and higher resolution display of this projector mdde it well worth the money

Some crltlclsms from mstructors should also be noted While the clean decktops pro- vided by the new furniture are appreciated, it IC difficult to \ee whdt Ttudents are workmg on without leanmg over their desks, dnd Tome instructors find tin\ annoymg The \mdll

dlmenslons of the rooms caused other problem5 thdt could only have been dllevidted by

reducing the number of workstdtlons For instance, the left endc of the three rows In 304B and the Fouth end of the seminar table m 304A had to be posltloned agamst the wall meaning instructor\ and student? must walk all the way dround to get to d workrt‘ltlon on the other side (see Figure 1)

Several mstructors have hdd dlfhculty using the ELM0 Visual Presenter. hndmg it hard to focus on prmted material\ Other complamts included the lack of rheostats, and the ldck

of a power switch for room lights dt the instructor’s statIon While there 15 dlwdys room for

improvement, the new ldbs have hdd d very positive Impact on mstructional program\ ‘it the Marriott Library

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author IS grateful for mformatlon and insights provided by the foIloR- mg mdlvlduals Lotnse Bmns-Hall, Ann Mane Breznay Glen Cameron, Maxme Hdggerty, Karen Halhday, Jeff Jonsson, Carol Jost, Jay Mumma, Marie Palva, Mary Reddick, Linda St Cldrr, Ame

Scovllle, Theodore Stazeskl, and Ken Tuddenham

NOTES AND REFERENCES

I For a complete schedule of clds\es, pledye see http //www hb utdh edu/mstructlon 2 Laura1 L Adams, “Deslgmng the Electronic Cld\$room’ (ERIC Document Reproduction

Service ED 398, no 921, 1995) 76-86 3 Anthony Blackett and Brenda Stdnfield, “A Planner’s Gutde to Tomorrow’s Classroom\

Plannln~fr,r H&zer Edututmn 22, no 3 (Spring 1994) 25-Z I 4 Workstatlon model number was Nova X50, Nova 5 Ian Hart, ’ Btuldmg the Perfect Classroom\, Or the Labors of Slsyphu\,’ College rend Unr-

verrlh Media RevreL+ 2 no 2 (Sprmg 1996) I l-21


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