Dominican changed its printing system and upgraded classroom computers just before the beginning of classes. The switch has led to confusion and unhappiness among some students and faculty.
“Many students believe that we changed over because we’re trying to save money. In reality, we are trying to get more environmentally friendly and save trees,” said Jill Albin-Hill, Dominican’s Vice President for Technology and Operations.
It seems as though Dominican is staying true to saving trees as they are not giving away free student planners this academic year.
After the Pharos licensing ended on Aug. 17, the office of Information Technology switched to PaperCut as a way to encourage students to use less paper and more technology.
The new PaperCut system was messy for the first few days because students were confused on how to use the new system.
“Printing is more confusing now because there are more steps involved and downloading the new software doesn’t seem to work,” says junior Danielle McCullough,
On Aug. 23, the IT office sent out an email detailing the new updates and link to IT’s website. Though the list is detailed and helpful to some, it seems that many personal computers are not able to process the steps. This is where Assistant Director, Support Services, and Information Technology, Alex Oquendo ensures that students can come down to the Support Center in Lewis Hall.
Another technological update – a five-minute automatic log-out for classroom computers – has been an issue for faculty.
On Aug. 28, professors who decided not to print out their syllabi found themselves running back and forth from focusing on class to focusing on the computers. The new update with the classroom computers meant that computers were logging off every five minutes of inactivity. As of the second day of fall semester, IT had already worked with over 800 cases.
“It is upsetting the educational environment, and that is what is so irritating about it,” said David Dolence, Associate Professor of Political Science.
IT had announced to faculty, via email, on Aug. 29 that the computers had been fixed yet, some professors say they are still experiencing the black log out screen every so often.
As of Aug. 31, afternoon, IT officials say they have fixed the problem so that the logout screen would log out every 90 minutes giving professors enough time finish a class session. Some professors however, are still skeptical because the communication between IT and faculty seems to be strained.
“Technology did this with complete disregard for the classroom. They just say this is better,” Dolence said.
Faculty members feel as there should have been a different time to test these updates, before classes started last week, especially since the updates were announced late spring. Officials say they only had the week inbetween summer session II and fall semester to upgrade and test the new systems.
Chair of Academic Technology and Facilities committee, Aaron Zerhusen states, “I feel that this week highlights the need for faculty input in decisions that affect teaching in or out of the classroom. My job this year is to make sure that faculty input is considered in matters concerning technology used in teaching and learning. I hope that the student voice is also heard, via the Student Government Association.”
hendsabr@my.dom.edu