To date, the universities have not invested much money in discipline-specific instructional software or in encouraging faculty to develop their own unique software packages. Rather, they have focused on encouraging faculty to use more generic software tools and on providing faculty with templates useful within particular disciplines. Both colleges use similar procedures for supporting faculty and students. For example, VCSU employs two people in the computer center plus one network specialist. True, we have good people.
Standardization is key.
After a year of the project, VCSU has some interesting data to share. Other surveys were conducted by Professor Kathryn Holleque. The evaluations were conducted in order to provide useful feedback to faculty and administrators on what was going well, what needed improvement, and what students and faculty had to say about their experiences in the first year of the notebook initiative. The results are very encouraging and should be reassuring to institutions of higher education contemplating similar projects. About 60 to 65 percent of students use them in class.