Lee Maier

jlmaier@mtsu.edu

Lee Maier

Computer Information Systems

N/A

BAS S304

Replacement of Existing Technology

These computers are the original equipment placed in the classroom and are now more than 4 years old. They have received heavy and sustained use throughout this time. Their capacity in terms of processing speeds, storage, and memory is no longer sufficient to effectively and efficiently accommodate today's operating systems and a business applications software. In addition, because of the sustained heavy and varied use by students with little or no experience with computers, the computers have experienced accelerated "wear and tear." As a consequence, in any given class, 5-6 computers "freeze up" and have to be restarted or have disk drives that fail to read. These type malfunctions cause the entire class to be interrupted while the teacher "fixes" the problem. The existing computers simply cannot support the operating systems and applications software changes that have occurred in the last 4 years and that are critical to our academic program if we are to produce students who exposed to current business applications environment.

Replace 35 student computers, 1 teacher station computer, and 2 printers in BAS S304. Based on the number of classes scheduled and the enrollment per class, this classroom supports approximately 1320 students per year (1270 undergraduate and 50 graduate). The few hours available in the classroom that are not dedicated for "official" class time are used by faculty to provide ad hoc help labs to their students.