Policies and Procedures for Learning Research Studio Use

The purpose of the Learning Research Studio (formerly known as the Experimental Classroom) is to support San Diego State University faculty who wish to experiment with teaching strategies involving the use of instructional technologies. Located in Adams Humanities 1112, the facility enables the conduct of research aimed at measuring and documenting the use of technological tools and associated pedagogies to improve teaching and learning.

Facility Reservation and Preparation for Use

1. To schedule the room, complete the Learning Research Studio Room Reservation Form. You may submit it via the Web or return it to Jim Julius, ITS, Mail Code 8114.
2. The requestor will be notified by phone and/or email of the availability of the Learning Research Studio for the requested times/dates.
3. Requests are processed as they are received and decisions are based on priority and availability.
4. In order to best assure your ability to utilize all the equipment and resources available, faculty who wish to use the room must receive an orientation/training session on the equipment prior to the date of the use. Contact the ITS Associate Director, Jim Julius at 594-5852 or jjulius@mail.sdsu.edu to make arrangements at least one week prior to use.
5. Practice using the technologies is highly recommended; please contact Jim Julius to arrange a time for you to have access to the room prior to your class.

Facility Usage: General Guidelines

1. No smoking, food, or drink is allowed in the classroom. A cart is provided outside the room for leaving food and drink until the end of class. Instructors are responsible for enforcing this policy with students.
2. Only ITS personnel should make software and/or configuration changes to the student laptops and instructor workstation computers. See below for more information.
3. Faculty must be present during the entire class session.
4. If a break is to be taken resulting in everyone leaving the classroom, the door is to be closed and locked. When you are ready to resume the class, contact a Faculty Room Consultant or a technician in Master Control for readmittance to the room.
5. If problems occur during a day class session, go to the Faculty Room (AH 1109) and ask for assistance. In the evening, call Master Control (x46435) for assistance.
6. Please notify Jim Julius, ITS Associate Director (jjulius@mail.sdsu.edu, 594-5852), at least one day in advance if you will not be using the classroom at a scheduled time.

Class Access

1. To gain access to the classroom, please see a Faculty Room Consultant in AH 1109. The Faculty Room can be very busy at times, so please allow a few minutes for a staff person to be able to unlock the door. If you need access after the Faculty Room is closed, go to Master Control (AH 1120A) and a technician will open the room for you.
2. ITS staff will ensure that the carts containing the laptop/tablet computers are unlocked and available for those who have expressed need for their use.
3. Make sure students are accountable for laptops/tablets by having them leave an ID card in the slot in the cart when they check out a laptop/tablet for use during class. If you would like to have a stronger accountability procedure, have students sign the Laptop Usage Agreement.

End of Class Procedures

1. If classroom laptops/tablets were in use, they must all be returned to the appropriate slot in the laptop cart and plugged in. The carts should be resecured in the closet and plugged in, unless an ITS technician or the instructor teaching next in the room has asked you to leave the carts out.
2. All equipment in the instructor workstation (podium) should be turned off and podium doors closed. Locking the podium doors is not required.
3. The Smart Board, if used, should be powered off.
4. Please leave viewing screens in the down position.
5. Please return the room to its original condition.
   • Pick up items left behind on the floor or desks.
   • Return tables and chairs to the configuration they were in at the beginning of class, with chairs pushed in.
   • Turn off the main lights and close the door
6. Notify a Faculty Room Consultant (or Master Control technician, if the Faculty Room is closed) that you are finished with the room. Please report any problems you may have encountered at this time, if you have not already done so.

Research Policies

1. Research on room usage can provide valuable information about how ITS can best support faculty members using instructional technologies to support and enhance academic performance. Therefore, faculty will be asked to share with ITS the experimental approaches they will use in the room, as well as their evaluation strategy and results.
2. With permission, use of facilities will be observed and ITS will periodically request feedback about room usage from faculty and students (information will be kept strictly confidential and will only be reported in aggregate). No individuals (students or faculty) will be in any way identified, and specific data will remain completely under the control of ITS. Nothing about this effort is intended as an evaluation of faculty instruction, and all observation protocols will be designed to illuminate the current situation, and to provide information for subsequent efforts to improve ITS faculty support services.

Scheduling Priorities

Use of the Learning Research Studio is prioritized in the following order (i.e., faculty who request to use the room for):

1. An entire semester's course that is part of an research study involving technology and its impact on the teaching/learning process
2. An entire semester's course being taught by a faculty member using the Learning Research Studio for the first time, in order to become more familiar with the use of the room and its potential for research
3. Selected class days during a semester that involve a research study
4. Selected class days during a semester that involve a faculty member exploring the uses of specialized technologies and their relationship to the teaching/learning process*
5. A faculty member who wishes to explore the use of specialized technologies and their relationship to the teaching/learning process by him or her self*
6. When available, and when it will not impact the room configuration, the room may be used for standard Smart Classroom types of teaching activities*

*In lower priority cases (e.g., 3-5), the room will not be scheduled for full semester use and will involve limits on the number of uses per semester. The Experimental Classroom Committee will set limits.

With 3 weeks notice, a request for the use of the facility for research purposes may supersede an already scheduled lower priority use.

TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES

The Learning Research Studio instructor's console is equipped with two computers, a Macintosh G4 (OS 9.2 and OS X) and a Dell Pentium IV (Windows XP) with the following capabilities:

• 256 MB RAM
• ~20 GB Hard drive
• CD-ROM/DVD player
• 3.5" Floppy and Zip 250 disk drives
• Built-in Ethernet

The Learning Research Studio features:

• Integrated touch panel control system
• Two video/data projectors (for alternate classroom orientation or to display multiple sources simultaneously)
• VHS player (with CCTV connection)
• Visual presenter (document camera)
• Touch-sensitive (Smart) whiteboard
• Connections for tying a laptop computer into the room's presentation system
• Traditional dry erase boards
• Overhead projector
• Tables and chairs that can be rearranged in various configurations
• 16 tablet PC computers (HP tc4200), 20 PC laptops (Gateway), as well as 10 older Dell laptops. All have wireless Internet-connectivity
• Power connections for extended use of laptops/tablets
• Built-in video cameras and microphones for capturing classroom interactions for research purposes

Software

• Laptop and tablet computers have the following software installed:
  • MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
  • MS Internet Explorer
  • Netscape Navigator
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Virex
  • Ubiquitous Presenter (see http://up.ucsd.edu)
• Software Changes
  • To request additional software in the room, contact the ITS Associate Director, Jim Julius at 594-5852 or jjulius@mail.sdsu.edu to make arrangements at least 10 days prior to use. Lead time is needed to load and test software on the instructor's station and the student computers.
  • Software change requests are approved only if they are compatible with existing system applications.
  • Sponsoring faculty or departments must be able to provide the software and proof of licensing upon request.
  • The ITS Associate Director, in consultation with ITS support staff, will determine the feasibility of loading software based on staff schedules, system configurations and possible conflicts with other software.