Student Media Production Center
SIM-PC response to fee board general questions
November 17, 2009
- Where do your funds come from? Please list all major sources.
The capitalization money came from Media’s state budget and from a 06-07 UTF request. On-going materials, supplies and equipment is funded by the Media state budget. Tutor costs are largely paid for with an S&A fee allotment and supplemented with the state Media budget and the equipment rental budget.
- What are the major funding categories and expenses for your program?
Our principal, on-going expense is for hiring tutors to provide assistance to students working on class assigned projects. This is the heart of the service that we provide. The other principal expense is for minor equipment and supplies (DVD blanks, cameras for check out, batteries, memory cards, poster board, mount supplies, cords, etc.), which are paid for with Media’s state budget.
- How do you get feedback from, students, peers and yourself to assess your program?
Anecdotally by actively questioning clients – both students and faculty – about what we are doing and how it works for their needs.
See comments for question #4 and #7.
- What methods do you use to assess your program and how do you use assessment to continuously improve or to address changing needs of the students you serve?
(See answer to #3)
They also have a signature sheet and a comment box. I also informed him about the ongoing need for swipe cards. -Z
- What major goals or direction do you have for your program?
The goal of the SIM-PC is to help students and faculty in the teaching and learning process, leveraging whatever tools are available. My goal is to provide relevant and useful help for students who are assigned media based projects. Secondarily, I want to make media tools available for all students who have an interest in this area.
- What would you prioritize if faced with limited funds?
The only thing I can – limiting access and hours of operation.
- What would you tell all students about your program to get them involved?
• It is free.
• Equipment is available for check out.
• Enumerate the services available.
• Emphasize the expertise of the tutors.
• Relate it to their current area of study.
Dave had not gotten a lot of response from direct marketing to students. I informed him that neither myself nor my peers knew that such a program existed on campus. I suggested that he may have not been getting much return on his direct marketing because he was simply not communicating well enough. I explained how usability studies worked (akin to a modified focus group).
I also discussed that his doorway was visually obstructed. We talked about moving the TV’s and an odd cubicle-like partition to improve visibility from the stairs. I also suggested adding a new banner that contained some of the information in the bullet points above.
I also noted that the working area did not suggest that this was a general use student area- much like the jewelry studio or Act one staging area. Students may be there, but it felt like it had some official function that unless you were a part of, you shouldn’t be there. Sadly, David had his space cut in half and was doing the best he could. I offered my support for funding space-saving storage furniture if it would help. He also said he would try to clean up the front area a bit more. I hope he can get rid of some of the older equipment (or at least move it to external storage) soon. Maybe we can get a container in the garage- one parking space isn’t asking much….-Z
- How do you collaborate with campus departments, programs and people?
In a personal and direct way. I have a long and involved history with the college, which provides me with a lot of personal and professional contact with faculty and staff. We encourage students to use the SIM-PC on a casual, drop-in basis, however, at the core of our mission is the need to directly support instruction. With that in mind, we have been working with faculty to get them to introduce our services in relation to their curriculum, or to directly assign projects that may be worked on in the SIM-PC.
David is obviously very good at navigating the academic system within the college. He has worked hard to promote the service among staff and faculty, has started networking with the other tutoring centers, and had recently been emphasizing working with the business group on campus.
However, I had told him that the duplicated functions across three separate tutoring center facilities and 4 separate tutoring programs was very wasteful. He agreed, and we both lamented the lack of space. As mentioned, he the tutoring centers seem to be coalescing into a unified front. -Z
- How does your program support North’s mission statement and core values?
Our mission is to support the teaching and learning process – which is in direct support of the school’s mission of committing to change lives through education. When you examine each of the values – caring, collaboration, quality, etc – it is evident that the SIM-PC nicely dovetails into and supports these values.
- How does your program impact student success and retention?
We are here for one reason – to help students. By helping students with their academics, we are helping them to succeed. Successful students tend to stick around and take more classes.
During our interview, I had brought up the need for media presentation training early on. I had recently sat through a painfully bad power point the previous week and hit upon an analogy of how most college courses assign both written, oral, and visual research projects yet we only offer courses in English writing, indeed English 101 is a requirement. How can a student be fairly graded when s/he has no training?
I offered an example of how the math and science tutoring center can be taken for credit hours. I also enlightened him as to how the full time requirement for funding had a minimum of 12 credits, when meant many students would take two core classes at the normal 5 credits/class while taking a yoga or library research class to fill the gap. Even a one or two credit offering would be a big draw.
This struck quite a chord with him. He felt this was the way he needed to be pitching his program to his superiors, not as a tutoring center but as an integral part of classes with a presentation component. -Z
- How do you accommodate students with different needs such as: students with disabilities, students from different ethnic, cultural, and financial backgrounds and veterans? Please provide examples.
In many ways, the SIM-PC grew out of the need to be able to provide services for those who come to the school with non-typical backgrounds and experiences. We always try to be sensitive to the special needs – what ever they may be – of our clients.
During my observation time I watched David gracefully handle an older ESL student with a strong accent and a phobia for technology. He demonstrated and gently encouraged her to try the recording equipment herself. He stuck the perfect balance of courtesy and “hands off” help to lead the woman to operate all the equipment herself.
This is one of the reasons he has resisted using a work study student. He did not want someone whom would be rude or resist helping others. I sympathized with him, as my background in usability as my job is to communicate the users plight with developers who wish users would just “think.” However, I also told him that there were plenty of very nice work study students in the other tutoring programs and a workstudy student would be useful if only to cover during shift transitions between regular staff and to keep the area clean. -Z
- Besides funding how could student leadership help your program succeed?
You all can help by using the facility and encouraging others to do the same.
I spoke with Dave about using us as a way to coordinate on getting institutional support for projects that might otherwise not get done. Specifically, we talked about how every tutoring center wanted a swipe card system but how information/management silos had kept it from getting done.
He requested that we advocate for the program directly to administration. He has failed, so far, to make the program has high priority as he would like with the administration. I would suggest that the SFB make some sort of official recognition of his work/notify administration of how valuable we feel his program has become. -Z
- How does your program address sustainability?
Carefully. We are keenly aware of the major issues around sustainability and try to promote it in our daily actions by reducing paper use, fixing and re-purposing old equipment, and recommending new equipment with energy consumption in mind.
While David’s department does, extensively service and fix old equipment, his department does not appear to be especially focused on sustainability issues. All videos are recorded to a one-time use DVD. I did not discuss this aspect with David, but I would suggest issuing reusable DVD’s and having some sort of option to record to disk for those with portable HD’s and thumb drives. DVD-RW’s are a very unreliable medium, however, so it would not surprise me if David’s equipment does not support it. Even if it does support it, it may require a lengthy reformatting of each disc, reused discs could have a high failure rate, etc. BUT that does not mean it would, and it should be experimented.
While David does not directly provide foam core, promoting biodegradable foam core should be a priority. I am attempting to find out how feasible it is to get the bookstore to carry it.
David has experimented with “co/low VOC spray-on glue for posters which failed miserably. I related how eco friendly inks in the printing industry took about 3 generations to get up to par with the traditional inks, and to maybe look around later. The media center does use a special table for gluing which sucks in air and runs it through an air filter.
Finally, I also agreed with David that the smart boards had a very limited usefulness. He felt the document cameras, “elmo,” while useful for teachers, should not be placed in meeting rooms. I related to him about how other campuses had cut their printing budgets by using a projector to display meetings and agendas and other documents, instead of printing out one-time use copies for each person. He graciously took this as an insight and said he thought the meeting room we had been using (which has a digital projector) was ripe for an elmo. We both agreed, however, that the classroom should get priority for the elmo.
I believe funding additional elmos for all classrooms and meeting areas equipped with projectors would greatly impact sustainability at North. -Z