Trixie Smith/Hilary Stallings

tgsmith@mtsu.edu

John McDaniel

Liberal Arts

Open computer labs

Peck Hall 326

N/A

N/A

This request is for an expansion of the open computer lab presently operated through the University Writing Center. The purpose behind this expansion is to provide additional services for MTSU students in the areas of Communication and English, as well as other disciplines using writing and oral presentations. The requested equipment would allow students to work with trained assistants on their speeches and presentations by practicing their presentations and recording their presentations for review with a tutor--in order to evaluate and improve. It would also make the space more useful for open student workshops conducted by the UWC on a variety of writing and speaking topics. In order for students to accurately practice their presentations, they need access to all equipment available in standard master classrooms. To provide MTSU students access to online tutoring services through Smarthinking, which allows students to connect with an e-instructor and interact with a live tutor over the web. Students can also submit a question and receive a reply from a tutor. All sessions are archived so that students can review tutoring sessions. MTSU provides limited-hour, on-campus tutoring services through the MTSU Writing Lab and the Math Lab. The Smarthinking service would extend the tutoring capabilities of the Math Lab to 24 hours per day, seven days per week and allow MTSU to provide distance education students and on-campus students whose schedules are not compatible with the on-campus lab hours access to tutoring. In the 2005 calendar year, there were 10,387 enrollments (duplicated headcount) in MTSU's off-campus and distance education courses (excludes enrollments in the RODP). In addition to the Mathematics, students would also have access to tutoring in the following disciplines: Statistics, Accounting, Economics, Spanish, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The Smarthinking service is entirely web-based and requires no software on the part of MTSU or the student. We would like to purchase 300 hours of tutoring at $30.00 per hour, bringing the total FY 2007 cost to $9,000.