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Standard 6.5
Securing Resources
As noted above, the university has
secured funding for developing a state-of-the-art
College of Education
building
 . As in Buskey Hall, the most recent (2002) building on campus,
the new college building will support technology of all types and at all
levels. The college maintains partnerships with several educational
institutions and these partnerships include sharing facilities,
including technology. Candidates in the off-campus classes
have access
to technologically well-equipped classrooms and computer laboratories at
each off-campus site.
Support for Assessment
As the unit assessment system has
evolved, funding has been provided from several sources. The unit assessment
system is headed by a full-time director, supported through the use of Title
III funds, with operational funding provided through the office of the dean
of the College of Education. Routine assessments, such as candidate
assessments of instruction, grading, program evaluations, and comprehensive
examinations, are derived from departmental funding, as in past years. The
University Testing Center conducts the candidates’ assessment of courses
(Student Course Evaluation).
Since 1994, the College
of Education has maintained and upgraded its fully interactive electronic
assessment data base, Advisement, Certification, and Evaluation
(ACE)
Database
. This database extracts
current data from the university mainframe-based student database and allows
advisors, faculty members, and administrators in the College of Education
easy access to the full range of candidate assessment data specified in the
college’s assessment plan.
Technology Services
As noted above, a considerable range
of facilities is available for supporting the college’s efforts to serve as
an information technology resource that extends beyond the unit’s
boundaries. Seven laboratories--one portable laboratory and access to 21
laboratories on campus--provide this support base. The main portion of
campus offers wireless Internet connectivity for classrooms, dormitories,
and candidate areas. Technical support is available to the college through
the university’s Management Information Systems and Academic
Computing services. These services include the planning, development,
acquisition, and operation of institutional networking and
telecommunications services, information systems, data administration, and
information technology infrastructure support. In
response to requests made to the university’s computer help desk,
technicians come to the labs and to faculty and administrative offices to
assist with networking or software problems. Through the office of the
academic computing coordinator,
workshops
are available on an on-going
basis, helping full and part-time faculty acquire the necessary skills to
use such college-prescribed software as Blackboard and LiveText. Each
semester workshops are also held to update faculty on the latest advances in
instructional technology, such as podcasting, Camtasia, SPSS, N6, Eluminate,
VoxProxy, Audacity, and SmartBoard. Each of these programs is utilized in
one or more programs of the College of Education, with Blackboard and
LiveText utilized in almost all programs.
The College provides many
technology-related services to the university and to the community. College
faculty have provided several technology and mathematics workshops in
cooperation with the arts and sciences faculty for both university faculty
and high school teachers. The college’s Central Alabama Regional Education
Inservice Center provides major outreach services to local schools across
seven counties. These have included service technology training for P-12
school faculty under a Technology in Motion project.
Library Services
The
Levi Watkins Library and Learning
and Resources Center
supports the College of Education’s mission with a variety of resources.
Descriptions and actual services, including the library catalog, can be
found on the Internet. In
addition to the availability of traditional print and microfiche materials,
the library maintains a broad collection of
databases
; many support
education directly and include ERIC, Academic Search Elite (containing
information on 3200 journals including 1000 with full text), Nexus Lexis,
and Academic Search Premier (which maintains a total of 3500 full text
scholarly publications)
as well as many other databases related to specific fields.
The Curriculum and Materials
Center in the library is dedicated primarily to materials and assistance for
College of Education candidates and faculty.
This facility is staffed with a library assistant who keeps the
collection current and provides technical and instructional development
assistance for COE faculty and candidates.
The collection includes a variety of resources that preservice
educators find useful in their preparation courses, field experiences, and
internships. Services include assisting candidates in identifying materials
useful to them in preparing units, lesson plans, and other programs;
conducting story hours, tours, and lectures as requested by the university
and community; encouraging in-class and group meetings and the use of print
and non-print media. The types of material available for use include
curriculum guides, motion pictures, video cassettes, lesson plans, units,
textbooks, school report forms, bulletin board materials, education games,
devices, dictionaries, vertical file materials, and encyclopedias. The
Educational Media Center provides a range of similar materials and services
and houses the library collection of media software.
The Alabama State Library is a
member of The Montgomery Higher Education Consortium, a partnership formed
to promote cooperation in the services offered by the Montgomery area higher
education community. Consortium members include Alabama State University,
Auburn University Montgomery, Faulkner University, Huntingdon College, Troy
State University Montgomery and the Alabama Public Library Service.
Descriptions of the breadth of services this consortium
provides include access to all library materials at other
participating institutions on the same terms as at ASU, access to on-line
catalogs from at least one location at each participating institution's
library, and, where feasible, dial-up access is provided from remote
locations. This consortium allows a broader constituency the opportunity to
engage the services of the ASU library. This includes access to special
collections.
Housed in the library are
significant electronic facilities. These include computer stations,
laboratories, and a state-of-the-art distance education laboratory. Faculty
and candidates can electronically access the main catalog, electronic
databases, and other functions from the library, residence halls, and from
home or any location with Internet access.
The
library collection
contains over 286,682 book volumes,
47,326 electronic books, 1,496 serial titles, 2,645,183 microforms, 529
electronic serials, 148 electronic resources, and 42,798 audio-visuals. In
addition, budgets for 2006-2007 show a total allocation of $1,888,524 for
the library’s general fund plus $459,000 from Title VI program funds.
Added to this amount each year
for the past four years, the College of Education’s doctoral program has
provided $200,000 for materials and for a librarian dedicated to supporting
the doctoral program and the College of Education. These dollars are
guaranteed by the federal court for a period of eight years as a means of
assisting in the development of graduate-oriented holdings. With these
funds, the library is assured of having a developing collection well into
the future.
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