Strategic partnerships for managing labs

At Iowa State University, the Office of Academic Information Technologies, the English Department, and the Department of Residence have developed a strategic alliance to plan and manage a collection of eleven computing facilities. These computer classrooms support hands-on writing instruction for a broad range of composition classes within the English curriculum. What makes this partnership especially unique is the involvement of three departments, and in particular the Department of Residence. Six of the eleven classrooms are located in various residence halls; four are housed in Ross Hall – home of the Department of English, and one is housed in the Durham Center – home of Academic Information Technologies. AIT worked with English and Residence to design the original labs, and we continue to provide annual support for specifications such as power requirements, network connectivity recommendations, server specifications, and software and hardware upgrades. In the current program, English and Residence combine to pay the operational costs associated with the labs. AIT manages the annual budget, as well as provides the expertise and labor for hardware and software upgrades and ongoing maintenance. English and Residence cooperate to provide hourly student monitors in the writing labs. A student monitor is always available during scheduled classes. This frees the instructor to concentrate on the content of the class while the monitor provides assistance by helping students with questions. These monitors are funded by the English Department during class hours, and the Residence Department funds monitors during evening hours in the six labs located in the residence halls. In the event of a workstation failure, student monitors are trained to diagnose and resolve a wide range of problems. As a first line of software support, the lab monitors can contact AIT’s Solution Center for assistance, and when the problem is determined to be hardware related, the monitors contact AIT – either directly or through the online Trouble facility – to schedule repair. LEAVE THIS TEXT BOX IN PLACE