The role of the Center for Teaching Excellence could be expanded or a new center created to provide faculty assistance. New university, college, or departmental software support may be needed in addition to the hardware support. The university already finds funding is stretched thin to support the computational needs of faculty and students beyond the use of e-mail and word processing. The cost of providing support for enhancement of electronic learning tools may require new financing. If so, justification must be developed.
Numerous difficulties arise at times in developing and extending electronic communication.
There are a number of players on campus who assist in providing electronic services, including ADP, Computation Center, Instructional Technology Center, and Telecommunications. Some difficulties result from differing management objectives among the support units at Iowa State. One such example is to have student e-mail addresses provided as part of the class list. ADP prepares the class list and the usernames come from the Computation Center. Substantial effort is required by the students or the instructor or the TA or a secretary to assemble the class e-mail list and relate usernames to real names.