Major findings

What questions attracted the most responses?

A total of 111 people took the survey. Not all survey participants answered all the questions in the survey. Some questions received more responses than others did. Thus, the number of responses may be indicative of how important the question is to survey participants.

The survey was composed of two types of questions: 1) qualitative questions and 2) numeric questions. The qualitative questions are open-ended questions where survey participants were asked to type their own answers. The numeric questions are ones where participants were asked to rate the level of importance of given technologies in a range of 0 - 5. These questions were numbered in the form of “X_x”. These numeric questions also have a couple of open-ended qualitative questions within them (i.e., Q7_38_TEXT).

The number of responses may indicate the following:

Q7 Below you will find a list of the most common technology equipment installed in PSU classrooms. Please indicate how important the following equipment is to you when teaching in one of these spaces. If you don’t use the technology, or are unfamiliar with it, leave the slider at 0.

“Speakers” was reported as the most frequently mentioned technology equipment in classroom with five responses.

Q9: Name of survey participants

Q10: Email of survey participants

Q11: Is there anything else you would like to share with us in regard teaching with technology at PSU and the impact it has on your instruction?

29 of 111 survey survey participants answered this question. The most frequent words mentioned in the responses are classroom, training and staff.

Five responses include the word, “classroom”. They all seem to speak to the importance of classroom technology and the current status of classroom technology being inadequate.

## [1] " I would like to have more training in google classroom and the use of onenote for classroom use"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
## [2] "Let's be sure IT regularly checks up on classroom equipment to avoid unexpected failures."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
## [3] "It is integral to keep up with technological advances to keep students aware of what's out there and keeping the classroom experience up to date."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
## [4] "It is embarrassing when students pay for school and the most basic tech support is not available for classrooms. Let's make our university work well, instead of worrying about reinventing higher education as a whole, please."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
## [5] "Our classroom technology carts need to be updated.  They're big, heavy, hard to move, and always in the way.  We can't access ports, so we can't adapt them to our needs.  Their wiring is frustrating at best.  We have these huge bundles running around the front of the classroom that are easy to trip over.  The wiring is bad and causes the outlets to short.  Literally, a 6 inch white flame sparked out of one of the wires while I was teaching.\n\nThe carts need to be updated.  We are calling in for support several times a week."

The word, “training”, shows up in four responses. They all seem to speak to the need for technology training.

## [1] " I would like to have more training in google classroom and the use of onenote for classroom use"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [2] "I would appreciate more information on available training for existing teaching tools. Thanks"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
## [3] "Adjuncts do not have the time or funding to attend training sessions.  It is unfortunate since the university relies heavily on their participation.  Add this to your discussions!  If I want to attend any educational sessions or participate in any committees its on a volunteer basis.  How many full-time faculty would attend training sessions on a voluntary basis for no pay?"
## [4] "My students have been involved in training their mentors in the field with educational technology.  I would like to continue these trainings in the field, and it would be very neat to offer something on campus for our community school partners.  If my students could facilitate a yearly workshop, that would be fantastic."

Three responses include the word, “laptop”. See below for responses that contain “laptop”. They seem to speak to the important role of laptops in education for both instructors and students.

## [1] "I think we do a great job with limited resources. My biggest goal is to try to help students become better able to seek out answers to their own questions and challenges, and so having multiple paths for them to do that is a big help, and I think we've done a pretty good job of that. Also: being able to borrow laptops, chargers, etc. from Lamson is a huge help. Without that, there are giant parts of my classes I couldn't possible do as well, because our students come from a wide range of economic backgrounds and we can't expect they're all going to have laptops, but I really really need them all to have laptops in class. (Also, it's a big help when their laptops die just before or even in class, as they sometimes do. Stuff happens, and our ability to deal with stuff happening is a real strength.)"
## [2] "Replacing computers and laptops, specifically macs, every four or five years is inadequate."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
## [3] " Tbs used to be able to purchase used laptops ect at reduced rate but that has ended.  Again PSU needs to provide their staff with laptops."

Q12 Are you willing to be contacted to further discuss your experiences with technology in the classroom? If you would prefer your answers to remain anonymous, please select No.

Q18 Please indicate how important the following software packages are to you in your teaching and ultimately to the success of your students. If there are any you don’t use, or are unfamiliar with them, leave the slider at 0.

“SPSS” was reported as the most frequently mentioned other important software package with three responses.

Q20 Are there things you wish you could do in your courses that would enhance the student learning experience but cannot due to a lack of technology (hardware or software)? If so, please describe.

44 of 111 survey participants answered this question.

The word, “video”, stands out. “Video” was mentioned in seven responses. See below. They are about the need for either video conferencing or instructional video.

Although “classroom” is the most frequent word by far (mentioned in 10 responses), it doesn’t seem to mean anything particular.

## [1] "I need my students to acquire a 1TB hard drive to store the raw footage of their video work."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [2] "I would like to make Skyping easier to do in Rounds.  Perhaps I just need to become more familiar with Zoom and talk with IT about how to make a video chat happen for my students."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
## [3] "A smart-board in Hyde 413 & 419 would enhance our experience (especially if we had some training on it). And the ability to effectively video-conference (meaning that the room would have to be effectively mic'ed) in those rooms would allow us access to expert guests all over the country."                                                                                                                    
## [4] "I have begun a collaboration with UNH where we are opening up one advanced course per semester to each others' students via Zoom. I am currently teaching in Hyde 116 which is a \"Zoom enhanced\" classroom. It is difficult to reserve, however. I would like to see more classrooms on campus with the same set up (front and rear cameras, smart mats, and ceiling microphones) to allow for video conferencing."
## [5] "I would like instruction on how to prepare instructional videos."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
## [6] "I would like to be able to create short video lessons to enhance the flipped classroom "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
## [7] "'- Better speakers - a proper screening room - a document reader that casts on to the projector - A monitor to play students' work in the hallways - I NEEEEED a MacPro with the fastest processor, 32GB RAM, 2TB Harddrive and other specs for video editing 4K footage. - I also need more Canon C300 cameras, or Black Magic Cameras to use for the film students."

Q21 Are there things you wish you could do in your courses that would enhance the student learning experience but cannot due to a lack of technical support? If so, please describe.

33 of 111 survey participants answered this question.

The most frequent word is “time”. It was mentioned in five responses. See below. Two speak to the need for access to tech support all the time. For example, tech support should be available for classes that start at 8 am.

## [1] "I teach 8am classes (but arrive at 7:15am to prep)  IT support is not available at this earlier time."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
## [2] "Billions of things. We have great people, but we are anemic in instructional design and support from technologists. Just having workshops and sessions isn't enough. We need comprehensive support available all the time, and we need to embed it into the places where faculty are working (disciplines, clusters, committees) so that IDs and technologists are full-time partners in rethinking PSU's educational structures and curriculum delivery. We don't have technology expertise embedded in our conversations now because our tech folks are too busy with daily tasks because we just don't have enough folks. IMO!  "
## [3] "I hesitate to call for support as I cannot spend a great deal of time to have the issue resolved.  Currently, the projector is having issues in a room.  We plan to make sure we can work around not having a projector."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
## [4] "Some students do not have laptops or their laptop is broken for a period of time.  I believe they can always rent one for free from the library.  Let's be sure this system  stays in place so on any given day we can be sure all our students have a laptop for their assignment."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
## [5] "I know that we have some support. I just need to make time for accessing it and learning new tech."

Q22 What kinds of professional development and training might help you to better use technology to achieve your teaching and learning goals?

49 of 111 survey participants answered this question. This may be the question that faculty deemed most important.

One of the most frequent and important words is “Moodle”. It was mentioned in seven responses. See below. The seven people spoke to the need for training on Moodle.

## [1] "Additional instruction on Moodle. quizzes.  They are extremely clumsy.  I've stopped using them."                                                                                                                                                     
## [2] "A beginning Moodle training session for Teaching lecturers  ."                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [3] "Iâ\200\231d love to have a session(s) on using Moodle. Iâ\200\231d also like to learn the best way to share (for editing) documents digitally, Google docs seems like the best choice but I have difficulty transferring docs into other programs."               
## [4] "Moodle"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
## [5] "training on how to use moodle tools and to incorporate them into learning experience, moodle site design, and integration with Pearson mylab"                                                                                                         
## [6] "Moodle training/support sessions held regularly throughout the semester on different areas (Gradebook, Discussion Forums, Assignments, etc.). I love Moodle drop-in hours. They have been very helpful to me in the past."                            
## [7] "I am aware that there are training sessions held for moodle and various technologies. I often miss these sessions due to living very far from campus or  having other work on days I don't teach... sounds like it's mostly my own problem though. :)"

One other frequent and important word may be “workshops”. It was mentioned in six responses. See below. The six people made suggestions regarding workshops.

## [1] "Training/orientation during Jamboree or University Days. BUT, if it is one of many options of workshops during university days, usually \"how to use this tech\" options don't make the cut and I end up going to another workshop. So scheduling it is pretty tricky. I have found Katie Martell such a wonderful resource for these types of tech how-to questions, and am so sad that she is leaving!!! I hope the university will invest in a great replacement, because she was really stellar."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
## [2] "This is a sort of \"I don't know what I don't know\" situation. I'm sure there are a lot of useful technologies and software packages out there, but frankly, I don't have time to search for them or test them. Also, I have see far to many instances of the \"latest and greatest\" tools being rolled out with great fanfare, only to be abandoned a short time later.  I am more than happy to adopt technology that 1) is proven to enhance student learning, and 2) we make a long-term commitment to maintaining. In the absence of those, to be honest, I couldn't care less about the newest, exciting technology just for its own sake, and I do not have the time to be constantly learning about new things. So, to answer the question: If we could have workshops or presentations during, say, University Days, in which we were informed about / trained on a small number of tested technologies, with the promise that these will be supported for the long haul, that would be great. Further, in-depth workshops to help us put the rubber to the road and actually implement them into our curriculum would be even greater."
## [3] "A combination of \"how to\" and \"how would I use this\" workshops or videos would be fantastic!"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
## [4] "Summer workshops, evenings etc"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
## [5] "I have students using voice recorder, iMovie, and Flipgrid to share writing with other classes in the country/world. I will use Zoom with authors next fall. I'm always ready to learn more... so workshops on other tools are welcome."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
## [6] "Classes with the manufacturer to learn After FX and other aspects of the Adobe Suite. Also workshops with the camera manufacturers. "

Q24 Are you aware of the Technology Innovation Proposal (TIP) process, which provides the opportunity to apply for funded support from the Academic Technology Committee?

73 people reported that they were not aware of the TIP process, while only 30 said that they were. This finding speaks volumes to the need to find better ways to communicate with faculty.

Q26 If yes, briefly describe your experience with the Technology Innovation Proposal process. How can these processes be improved to serve our community?

Only 17 of 111 survey participants answered this question. Many are brief saying that they were aware of the process but have not submitted one yet. Since they are only 17 brief responses, no analysis seem useful or necessary. Reading the actual responses is faster.

##  [1] "I am aware of it as I served on the committee for three years when we intially developed the proposals. However, I have not had an opportunity to use it yet. "                                                                                                                                               
##  [2] "Essentially reading emails that come out of the office."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
##  [3] "I was on ATOEC so I knew about it. I applied for and got one. I think the process is ok, but most folks don't know about it. But we also suffer from the lack of a larger technology guiding strategy so it's hard to rank one expenditure against another without that."                                     
##  [4] "I am aware of the TIPs process, but have not made a proposal of my own. I'm not entirely sure I would know what is and is not \"innovative\"."                                                                                                                                                                
##  [5] "Overly long and complicated."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
##  [6] "I am aware of it's existence but have never submitted a TIP so am unaware of the process"                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
##  [7] "I have not interacted with the process.  Ensure there is a master plan to update lectern and provide technology enhancements to keep pace with demands. "                                                                                                                                                     
##  [8] "Most of my teaching is done online, so making it clear that these resources are available for online classes would be beneficial."                                                                                                                                                                            
##  [9] "I have not submitted a proposal, but I know the opportunity exists!"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
## [10] "I have not submitted one, but my impression is that they might be better advertised. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [11] "I am aware of the process but I have not submitted a proposal."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
## [12] "I havenâ\200\231t had any experience ."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
## [13] "Havenâ\200\231t used it yet."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
## [14] "I have not used it. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
## [15] "I haven't submitted a TIP proposal in many years (over a decade?). When there were no longer funds for replacement/upgrade of existing technology, I wasn't motivated to submit a proposal. Also at one point, I had a couple of TIP proposals that were unfunded because they were to support computer labs."
## [16] "None. But I've heard about it from the Committee."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
## [17] "I have not apply to TIPS but I am aware they are available."

Q28 How has technology enhanced your ability to facilitate students’ learning experiences at PSU?

This is another question with a few responses. Only 16 answered this question.

##  [1] "I do utilize technology in all of my classes. It enhances my ability to analyze and record student learning initiatives that I typically build into my classes. I sometimes use publisher developed technology to supplement my teaching. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
##  [2] "Having a working IT console in the classroom."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
##  [3] "Using connected learning approaches has revitalized the program I work in (IDS) and transformed my own teaching by helping me engage students more authentically in work that really matters to them and to their fields."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
##  [4] "The ability to bring the world into the classroom and to take student learning and share it with the world is almost entirely facilitated by technology."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
##  [5] "Moodle is essential. Classroom technology podiums are essential. Prompt desktop support is essential."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
##  [6] "I could write a paper on this.. I don't know where to even start to answer this question. The technology available at PSU facilitates learning in all my classes in all assignments and projects. It allows me to communicate, streamline, and present content in a way that makes sense to me, keeps me organized, and allows most students to engage at a level/medium they are comfortable with."                                                                                 
##  [7] "I use technology in class every day.  I can differentiate the curriculum I deliver in a deeper fashion through technology."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
##  [8] "Technology makes learning possible for my students. Most of of the candidates in my programs are located in various regions around the state, New England, the country, and the world. Using tools like Moodle, Zoom, email, and the electronic informational texts made available via Lamson is the only way my students can learn. Allowing students to enroll in online programs creates a more equitable higher educational environment for learners, especially in rural areas."
##  [9] "I definitely do not utilize the technology we have to its fullest, so honestly, I am not sure"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
## [10] "It's crucial as it is not only part of how I connect with my students (use of AV/Tech in the classrooms, smartphones for live Tweeting, and the CMS, etc), but also what we study in the classroom."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
## [11] "I love using technology. We "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [12] "I cannot teach without it but the MANY unexpected outages are a problem. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
## [13] "Technology is absolutely critical to facilitate learning in my discipline - meteorology. We need specialized software for viewing meteorological graphics and data. We need software for doing calculations and examining scientific data. We have servers that bring in real-time data that we use the classroom each and every day."                                                                                                                                               
## [14] "In so many ways. My students have domains on plymouthcreate. I have a domain there where I have created space for my teaching materials. I have had students collaboratively create OERs using Office 365 collaboration tools and then Pressbooks. I'm creating an OER on PSU's installation of Pressbooks right now."                                                                                                                                                               
## [15] "I have used speakers from remote locations. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [16] "I use technology to support student blogging, publishing of online, open-access, student-created, textbooks, which show students the value of their voice in the public knowledge commons. I also use hypothes.is, which allows students to annotate digital reading and respond to one another's annotations. "

Q32 What kinds of technology or support do you need (that you do not already have) to help facilitate these experiences?

This is the least answered question outside of the text questions in the numeric questions. Only 15 answered this question.

##  [1] "I would like to see the university adopt clicker technology or at least provide them for those of us who appreciate how they can more actively engage students during class time by providing immediate feedback to their responses. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
##  [2] "INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN! So glad we have that new position coming, but one is not nearly enough for a whole university. I envision a CoLab deeply integrated with Academic Technology, with a drop-in full-time lab open for students, faculty, and staff to get help on course design and assignments. But at the least, we need a couple of more IDs and a more developed AT/CoLab integrated plan for service and outreach and institutional tech planning."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
##  [3] "I wish there were a first-year/new student required tech course. Not TECO, which is great, but an introduction to technology at PSU. I know it wouldn't solve all the problems of students not knowing how to turn computers on, etc., but it seems to me that we need to do a better job of letting students know what technologies are available to them and then some basics of how to use those technologies. We assume these are students who have used technology from the moment they were born, and in a certain sense they have, but their use of it is often superficial and they often seem paralyzed in the face of it and unable to figure out how to even Google a tech question."               
##  [4] "I would like more computer storage space for big data."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
##  [5] "Apple TV in my classroom"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
##  [6] "Ability to have non-concurrent apps running in lecterns.  PSU accounts for major apps.  Learning opportunities to introduce new technology.  Smartboards. Portable projectors.  "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
##  [7] "I'm frustrated with the lack of support for the Outlook app on my iPhone. I spend a lot of time traveling for site visits and efficient mobile communication is an imperative for me and my students. I've been continually told that PSU can no longer support the Outlook app and I should use a different tool for organizing contacts, emails, calendar events, and to do lists. This is extremely frustrating and time consuming because it forces me to continually hop between apps and programs rather than using one connected application among all of my devices. I know this is not a typical request but I've been shot down every time I bring this up with our Technology Department at Lamson."
##  [8] "I need training on the technology we have and use. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
##  [9] "I don't think so much about what I need, but what I have that might work better. Many days the equipment in my classroom is a challenge (Projection, Audio, etc.) I turn things off and back on again fairly often. (The speakers are tough particularly for students with any hearing challenges - and closed captioning is not always dependable.)  "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
## [10] "Mahara should be more user friendly."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
## [11] "None at this time. Just need the infrastructure to be reliable!"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
## [12] "We had a dedicated technology support person (for both hardware and software) but that person's job was shifted to ITS and then they left the university. For over a year we cobbled together support with the help of ITS and ITS was just able to find a replacement, so we're back to where we were a little while ago."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
## [13] "I feel like I have had the support I need although I'm worried about the huge gap that will be created because of Katie Martell leaving. We need someone outstanding in that position and Katie's shoes will be difficult to fill."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
## [14] "The classrooms in Mary Lyon are lack the appropriate equipment for appropriate teaching with technology. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
## [15] "Currently, I am supported in my course technology needs."

Q34 Please indicate how important the following web-based tools are to you in your teaching and ultimately to the success of your students. . If you don’t use the tool, or are unfamiliar with it, leave the slider at 0.

Q35 Please indicate how important the following Statistical Software packages are to you in your teaching and ultimately to the success of your students. If there are any you don’t use, or are unfamiliar with them, leave the slider at 0.

In general, statistical software packages recevied lower ratings than other general-purpose technologies. That is to be expected because not everyone does quantitative research or teach quantitative courses. SPSS and R seem to be the most popular software at Plymouth State.

Q36_1 Please indicate how important it is that students bring their own technology to class in order to participate in your planned instruction. - Students use their Personal Laptops in class.

A large number of faculty seem to have students bring their own personal laptops to class. Nearly half of the survey participants (41 of 84 people who answered this question) marked 5 or 4.

Q36_2 Please indicate how important it is that students bring their own technology to class in order to participate in your planned instruction. - Students use their Personal Mobile devices in class (Phones, tablets, etc.)

Personal mobile devices don’t seem as important as laptops. Still, a large number of faculty seem to use students’ phones and tablets in their class. More than a quarter (22 of 79 survey participants who answered the question) gave the highest rating, 5.

Appendix