This document summarizes a student group's final project presentation on evaluating current uses of technology in academic settings. The group's goal was to provide insight for future changes. They surveyed SU students and interviewed students from other schools to understand technology usage and preferences. Key findings included a preference for a single login system, online calendar integration, and mobile-friendly websites. The group used tools like Zoho Projects, WordPress, Facebook, and SurveyMonkey to manage their project and gather feedback. Lessons learned included a need for more survey responses, unresponsive faculty, and flexibility when initial plans did not work out.

1. 2021: A Space Odyssey (er, a
Final Project Presentation)
Holden Fenner
Alex Kraus
Brian Reil
Zach Rubins

2. Holden Fenner

3. Zachary Rubins

4. Brian Reil

5. Alexandra Kraus

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GOAALLLLLLLLLLL!

7. Goal
To evaluate current uses of technology
in academic settings to provide insight
for future changes

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9. Stakeholders
SU Students
Students at comparably sized
universities
Our group
Interested faculty

10. What we know about them
Academic mindset
Widely varying range of internet
usage/computer savvy
All have to use current SU technology to
perform in jobs/studies

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OBJECTIVES

12. Objectives
Generate 15 comments on blog
Get 50 student surveys completed
Interview 10 students from other schools
Get 20 faculty responses to survey
Measure through hand counting due to
low numbers

13. Objectives - Final Results
Generated 6/15 comments on blog
Had 67/50 student responses to survey :)
Interviewed 8/10 students from other schools
Had 0/20 faculty responses to survey :(

14. Suggestions based on surveys
Only have one login for all sites
Online Calendar that supports syllabus
transcription, class schedule and events
RSS support to list upcoming homework, tests,
groups (customizable)
Teach how to use features in Freshman Forum
Student position to update for teacher
Make Web sites mobile device friendly

15. Findings from student survey
Students are ineffectively collaborating
92.7% still e-mail attachments
36.5% share flash/USB sticks
Only 1 student used centralized communication

16. Findings from student survey
8/52 students used calendar, but used it well
- “Separate by color to organize groups of
events (assignments, class schedule,
parties/social events, special events on
campus and work schedule)”

17. Reasons why an online calendar would be
useful
75.4% of professors updated content on Blackboard
67.2% of professors notify students of events on Blackboard
75.4% of students get their assignments and exam dates off blackboard
10% of students in open-ended field mentioned using SYR.edu to look up
academic calendar
5% of students in open-ended field mentioned using SYR.edu to look up
events
Findings from student survey

18. Findings from student survey
Students would utilize mobile device friendly
Web sites
 More than half (53.2%) of students surveyed did not have
phones with internet capabilities
 But 80% of those who did said they would use it
 In the near future likely more students will have phones and
devices like iPods with internet capabilities

19. Feedback from Other Schools
Several schools use only one login for all
features
Most homepages aren’t very useful for day to
day classwork
Many students prefer to forward mail to GMail
None of the schools had collaboration tools
Most schools had either Blackboard or Angel
powering online classes

24. Some thoughts
Use all free sites to do everything (aids in
transition from school)
Many students need to use surveys. Have a
tool to encourage them to take other surveys.
Contracts with commonly used services
(Google) to implement academic systems
Facebook/iPhone apps

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STRATEGY

26. Strategy
Get student input about current systems’
tools via multiple channels
Evaluate other schools’ use of
technology
Collaborate once a week to advance
project to conclusion
Raise student awareness of the tools
they use

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TECHNOLOGIES

28. The Tech that made us Tick
Zoho projects (projects.zoho.com)
Wordpress
Facebook
SurveyMonkey
E-mail/Text Messages

29. Zoho Project
Simple and Free
E-mailed us about updates
Kept us on track for meetings
Offered ability to support blogs,
calendars and task organization

30. Wordpress
Familiarity
Statistics easy to track
A blog helped create a Web presence

32. Facebook
Web presence
Status updates allowed us to gain more
interest

34. SurveyMonkey
Our bread and butter
Without dedicated survey tool, survey
would have been much less successful

37. E-mail/Text Message
We lived on this for group
communication
Most comfortable zone for group

38. The Why (Like The Who, but less
musical)
Kept tools to a minimum required
Only used what we needed

39. LESSON LEARNED
LESSONS LEARNED

40. Lessons Learned
Surveys…MORE PEOPLE!!!!
Faculty unresponsive
Talk to university
No plan survives first contact
If it doesn’t work, ditch it
Student projects are not always
“important”