Connie Schmidt

cschmidt@mtsu.edu

Connie Schmidt

Instructional Technology Support Center

Open computer labs

LRC 101, 101A, 101B, 101S (scanners), tutoring software is web-based

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N/A

The Instructional Technology Support Center (ITSC) provides students with University-wide access to 92 computers in three labs and a graduate multimedia development center 72 hours per week. In cooperation with the College of Continuing Education and Distance Learning, we propose renewing MTSU’s license for online tutoring services through Smarthinking, a web-based application which allows students to connect with an e-instructor and interact with a live tutor over the web. The Smarthinking service extends on-campus tutoring capabilities available in the Math and Writing labs to 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The service allows MTSU to provide distance education students and on-campus students whose schedules are not compatible with the on-campus lab hours access to tutoring. Smarthinking Tutoring is available in Math, Statistics, Accounting, Economics, Spanish, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The Smarthinking service has been used extensively by students. During the first complete year of access (2005-2006), all of the contracted hours were used. During the 2006 calendar year, there were 10,855 enrollments in MTSU’s off-campus and distance education courses (excludes enrollments in the RODP). We also propose replacing 7 aging scanners in the ITSC open computer facilities, which receive 25,000 student visits per year.