Directions for completing this assignment:
In this assignment, you will analyze the Student Computer Lab case study (towards the end of this document). To effectively meet the requirements of this assignment, analyze the qualitative data derived from the primary research found in the case study scenario.
To successfully complete this assignment, write a 3 page critical essay in APA style format covering the following topics:
1. Determine overall student satisfaction with the computer lab.
2. Do you think it was wise to have a group with both graduate and undergraduate students included?
3. Analyze the focus group transcript very thoroughly. Make a list of problems and ideas generated for the student computer lab.
4. What do you see as the benefits and limitations of the focus group findings? Do you think the task force plan for utilizing the focus groups is appropriate?
5. What changes would you make to improve the problems or to capitalize on the opportunities identified in the primary research? Collect and describe student recommendations for improvements.
Additional Requirements:
Case Scenario
Student Computer Lab
A major university served over 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students majoring in business administration. The large number of students enrolled in the Business School coupled with increasing use of computer technol- ogy by faculty and students created overwhelming demands on the Business School's computer center. In order to respond, the Business School decided to upgrade its computer facilities.
Rod Stevenson, director of the Student Computer Center (SCC), opened a new computer lab in the fall of 2007. The new lab offered specialized software required by student courses and the latest technology in hardware and software.
Computer Lab Project
After operating for six months, Stevenson recognized some potential problems with the new computer lab. Although the number of computers had doubled, student suggestions and complaints indicated that the demand for computers at times exceeded the available resources. To address this problem, Stevenson established a task force to investigate the level of student satisfaction with the computer lab. The task force was made up of four graduate students and was established in January 2008. The task force aimed to help the computer lab identify student needs and provide suggestions on how those needs could be most effectively met.
The first activity of the task force was to examine available information on the lab and its functions and resources. Services offered by the computer lab included network and printer access. The lab usually had three to four lab monitors to collect money for printouts and answer any of the student's questions. Lab hours were 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
After reviewing available information on the lab, the task force decided it needed to conduct some research before making recommendations on the services offered. Exhibit 1 displays a proposal written by the task force outlining the information to be obtained and the time frame for the research.
Focus Group Study
Stevenson received the proposal and approved it. He agreed with the task force's use of focus groups to gain a
preliminary understanding of the students' attitudes. The focus groups would identify existing problems better than secondary research, although the process of collecting and analyzing the data would be more time consuming. After receiving approval, the task force posted information around the Business School to alert students that focus groups were being conducted. Free laser copies were offered as an incentive for participa- tion. Students were selected based on their interest. The student focus group was held on March 10, 2008. Seven students participated, five graduate and two undergradu- ate. Transcripts are provided in Exhibit 2.
Because one of the responsibilities of the lab moni- tors is to assist students with questions and problems, separate focus groups were also conducted on March 9, 2008, and March 11, 2008, with eight lab monitors. Information from both the student and lab monitor focus groups was used as a guide to develop questions for the second phase, a student survey. Information from the focus groups was reduced to a list of key issues, which were then categorized. An exhaustive list of state- ments was devised to address potential user attitudes with respect to each issue. When the list was complete, statements were revised, combined, or eliminated to a set that succinctly covered the original key issue categories. The questionnaire was then pretested and finally admin- istered to a sample of students attending class in the Business School.
Questions
1. Did the moderator do an adequate job of getting the information needed by the SCC?
2. Do you think it was wise to have a group with both graduate and undergraduate students included?
3. Analyze the focus group transcript very thoroughly. Make a list of problems and ideas generated for the student computer lab.
4. What do you see as the benefits and limitations of the focus group findings? Do you think the task force plan for utilizing the focus groups is appropriate?
1The contributions of Monika E. Wingate to the development of this case are gratefully acknowledged. © Cengage Learning
E x h i b i t 1 Task Force Proposal
DATE: February 1, 2008 TO: Rod Stevenson
FROM: Computer Center Improvement Task Force RE: Computer Lab Research Proposal
Background: In 2007, the Business School opened a new student computer lab. Through suggestions and complaints, the SCC realizes that there is a service delivery problem in that student demand for computers at times exceeds available resources.
The aim of this research is to help the SCC identify student needs and provide suggestions on how those needs can be most effectively met. The results of this research will be limited to the student computer lab. Other Business School computer facili- ties, such as the computer classrooms and the multimedia lab, are outside the scope of this project.
Objectives: The research objectives are as follows:
? Determine overall student satisfaction with the lab
? Identify current problem areas
? Collect student recommendations for improvements
Methodology: The research design is divided into two parts, exploratory research followed by descriptive research. The exploratory research would attempt to gain a better understanding of students' perceptions of the computer lab and to identify the issues that concern them. The student survey would aim to quantify the magnitude of these problems and to develop recommendations.
Focus Groups: The task force feels that focus groups would be the most appropriate method for exploratory research. Two sets of focus groups are recommended. One set will focus on students who use the computer lab, while the other will address the lab monitors who deal with student problems on a daily basis.
Student Survey: The focus group information would be used to develop questions for a subsequent survey. Since the population of interest is students enrolled in the Business School, this survey would be administered to students attending classes within the Business School, both graduates and undergraduates.
Time Schedule Completed By
Focus Groups March 11
Questionnaire Design April 2
Pretest Questionnaire April 9
Survey April 23
Data Analysis May 10
E x h i b i t 2 Student Focus Group Transcript
Moderator: I'm Robert from Professional Interviewing. I really appreciate your participation in this group session. As you can see, I am taping this session so I can review all of your comments. We are here tonight to talk about the computer lab at the Business School. As business students, you all have access to the lab for your class assignments. How do you think the computer lab is meeting your needs?
Lisa: I think there is a problem with the lab because the folks who are using computers don't know about computers. That's been reflected in the fact that you go to one computer and you pick up a virus. These people don't know anything about viruses, they're transmitting them all over the place, nobody is scanning for viruses, and there's something that could easily be put on the systems.
Oliver: I think there has to be training for the people who are watching the computers. They are ignorant. You ask them any question and they can't answer it. It's a computer lab and this computer doesn't seem to be doing the thing that it should be doing, why? Why is this network different from the rest? How are we supposed to handle this network? They don't know.
Lisa: Not only that, they don't know any of the software.
Oliver: Absolutely!
Lisa: This is like I have Word at home and this is WordPerfect, ‘‘How do I do XYZ in WordPerfect?'' They don't know. They say, let
me go check with John and it takes three of them to try to answer the question. (Continued)
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E x h i b i t 2 Student Focus Group Transcript (Continued)
Marion: And there are three of them!
Lisa: I know!
Oliver: There is always a big queue so you cannot get onto a Windows machine; you have to go to Pagemaker Plus if you need to make a presentation. You cannot go to these WordPerfect machines that have just keyboard entries. But there are very few computers and a lot of lines in the peak times and they are just not equipped to handle it. They have so many staff over there, five people, all of these people, but not one of them will help anyone.
Moderator: How about you, Jennifer, have you experienced this?
Jennifer: Yeah, I even had it today. I just don't have time to wait in line to get a computer. It's a half hour sometimes to go in and get one.
Lisa: And that's now. At the end of the semester it's worse.
Jennifer: Yeah, it gets worse.
Lisa: It takes an hour and there's no sign-up. There's no regular sign-up.
Mike: They truncated the hours the last two weeks of the semester.
Jennifer: You could take these four people and turn that into one educated person, or take the four people and have one uneducated person there 24 hours a day. That would be nice. If all they're going to do is take your card and give you your copy, why do you have to have four of them? That's all they're doing. And studying.
Moderator: How about you, I didn't get your name?
Tammy: Tammy.
Moderator: Welcome, Tammy, how about you. What kind of things have you come across?
Tammy: What I'm hearing are a lot of the problems I've seen, too. I just think there needs to be more computers in the lab and the hours need to be longer.
Mike: I don't think they need more computers. They just need to expand the hours and the computing labs.
Oliver: I had an idea where they don't need more computers. One suggestion I already put in the suggestion box is to have people bring their own computers. Why doesn't a grad student who is going to be here for two years, going to interface with technology when he leaves here, spend a thousand dollars and go buy his own system? They should do that. Have your own computer here, I'm saying it's a requirement. It's a requirement at a lot of universities that you come with your own system. Then you don't have to worry, you don't need access to our labs. Now for undergraduates we still have similar problems, but it would put less stress on the system.
Moderator: What would you suggest for people who would say, okay I can get this computer system, but I have to get this software for this class, and this software for this class, and this software. That is a lot of money.
Oliver: Yeah, we can already jump into the network from home. All you need is the software.
Lisa: I don't think so.
Oliver: You can get in. I can check my mail and stuff.
Lisa: But not software.
Oliver: Oh, software. I haven't tried, so I don't know.
Tammy: Getting back to the machine. I'd love to have my own machine but I don't want to have it if I don't have to. As long as we have all these other computers, why not use what we've got?
Mike: I can't afford it. If you want to buy a good computer, a decent printer, a decent monitor, you are still going to spend between
$1,600 and $2,000.
Oliver: I think while we're in school the school should support us with computers.
Mike: I think one of the reasons there aren't enough computers is that people who aren't enrolled in the Business School have access to the lab. In the old building, they always checked your ID.
Tammy: Yeah. Why don't we use the card machines? They were working, weren't they? They had the doors closed and you used a key card.
Oliver: I think the old lab was better because they controlled people coming and going.
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E x h i b i t 2 Student Focus Group Transcript (Continued)
Mike: Yeah. Gatekeeping.
Tammy: They had hours when only graduate students could come in. I think that's something that should be started again because they have a lot more papers to type up.
Mike: I don't see why this lab isn't open 24 hours. I really don't. Why aren't the labs open 24 hours?
Lisa: Monitor problem, they need someone to monitor them, to work with them.
Jennifer: Three people, three eight-hour shifts.
Mike: They don't have a budget to increase their hours. They need to double the hours, like not having four monitors at one time.
Moderator: There are peak hours and there are hours that there are a lot of open computers, where people don't generally come in. If there was a way to monitor those times and put a schedule up, people could come in and indicate a time when we could go there. Continually monitor that, what do you think about that?
Mike: Every hour is a peak hour, particularly at the end of the semester.
Oliver: I think it would be a good way of trying to smooth it out, because that's what you are trying to do. Have people go there when it's not so busy. But then what about times like today? I happened to get out of class one-half hour early and went downstairs and used it. But if I hadn't signed up early, there were a million folks in there. There are some trade-offs, but I think it's a great idea to try and smooth it out. This morning there were four of us in there at 8:00 or 8:15 when it opened, and I don't think anybody else showed up until 10:00.
Mike: Another problem in the lab right now is that there are a lot of computers that are broken at one time.
Oliver: Oh yeah!
Mike: There are six of them right now that aren't working.
Oliver: That's from people not knowing what they are doing. I was sitting down there on one of the old machines and there was a gentleman sitting next to me who couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. He took his disk out and shut the computer off.
When it came back on it got a boot error. Then he got scared and he just left. He didn't go tell anyone. The monitors are looking from the other side, so they don't know there is anything wrong. Someone comes in, they just look around, and see that the computer is broken, or it's not booted up, and so on. That's why I am saying, it's the students themselves. People need to know how to use the system.
Ira: I think there should be a small note pasted next to the computers with instructions as to how to use each computer.
Marion: Even a template for the word processing.
Ira: Even a small hint for troubleshooting, please don't do this and do this.
Tammy: I think an excellent model for this are the computer labs in the dorms. The first time you use them, they scan your ID to
be sure you are a dorm resident, they know if it's the first time you are using it, they ask you to make sure you know how to use the software. They have a rack with every different kind of title and anything you need to use the software. They tell you exactly what's going to come up on the machine and what you have to do. I'm sure the Business School can get copies of it all and
then just copy it.
Marion: We have no reference guides for the software.
Tammy: And then they have the guides there. The little orange books.
Moderator: Are there any other concerns we haven't talked about?
Ira: Is there any way the cost for a laser print can be reduced?
Tammy: It kills me.
Ira: It should be 7 cents. It is 6 cents in the library.
Tammy: You used to have the option to go to a dot matrix printer. They changed that this semester. The only way to go to the dot matrix was to go to an AT&T machine. Don't tell me someone is looking at cost.
Ira: I think the initial cost is pretty high, that is why they're keeping it at 10 cents.
Jennifer: If they are planning on getting more printers, I think they should have at least one or two individual print stations where you can grab your stuff. If you're working on your resume and you want to print on bond paper or do envelopes, the people behind the desk won't let you do it because they don't know if other people are going to send before you do, they don't know
what is going to come out. (Continued)
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E x h i b i t 2 Student Focus Group Transcript (Continued)
Oliver: Or they waste your paper because they can't coordinate it.
Jennifer: So I think there should be some individual workstations.
Oliver: I have something to say and maybe I'm the only one with this problem. I always find that when I go there and I am working alone, other groups are creating a racket, so it's really frustrating. I'm working on a project, I need to think. I don't need this kind of heavy distraction, this loud talk. I go and work in groups too, we try to whisper. There should be some kind of discipline in the computer lab. I think I may be the only one being that sensitive, but I think silence has to be maintained. It is a computer lab,
it is a place for people working, if you're having a fun time go have it outside.
Moderator: How effective do you think their waiting lists system is?
Tammy: It stinks.
Ira: I didn't even know they had one.
Tammy: It would be better to set up a physical waiting list where there would be chairs or a bench or something like that.
Ira: Or like a number.
Tammy: Or six chairs in a row and you sit down next to the computers and that means you are next to get on; then if you leave the next person can move down and then you can see that no one is getting in front of you.
Oliver: It worked pretty well for me. Every time I used the waiting list I had to wait for maybe a half hour and my name was called and I could get a computer. I have no complaints. This happened every time. There was no problem. I had no problems at all.
Mike: Until now I didn't even know there was a waiting list. If there was an open computer, I would just sit down.
Tammy: I found out the hard way, I went down and sat down and someone told me.