Sharon S. Coleman

scoleman@mtsu.edu

Dellmar Walker

Human Sciences

Smart Classroom

EHS 200

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The Ellington Human Sciences (EHS) 200 computer lab is used by the Interior Design program as a computer aided design studio for 9 different classes (two sections each) per year, serving 217 students as averaged over the last three years. Students use AutoCAD, Autodesk Architecture, Autodesk Revit, Sketchup and Photoshop and MS Office Suite in various combinations in these courses to complete design projects and presentation boards for class assignments and ultimately, their portfolios. Autodesk has gone to an annual lease requirement meaning that the software must be upgraded each year, requiring more memory and video capabilities. The current computers, while less than 2 year old, do not have sufficient RAM or video to funtion dependably. They run very slowly with large drawing files and "blue screen" frequently, losing student work. The request is to upgrade memory to 4GB and upgrade video to have a dedicated video card with hardware support for MS DirectX9. Since the student work produced in these courses are the junior and senior level projects presented to the site team for CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation), computers that work with the required software and are reliable are essential to continued program accreditation.