The Fletcher Jones Foundation

Student Peer to Peer Training Program to Ensure Student IT Fluency

Claremont McKenna College was notified on September 10, 2004 that The Fletcher Jones Foundation has approved a grant of $500,000 over two years to implement a new and innovative student peer to peer technology training program.

CMC’s program will follow the National Research Council’s newly developed “FITness” approach to information technology instruction. This novel approach emphasizes the development of information technology fluency, suitable for a lifetime of information technology advances and improvements, rather than a narrow skills-based approach.

Claremont McKenna College’s mission of preparing students for leadership is one that is particularly well suited to a residential college with an emphasis on intensive student-faculty interaction. To accomplish our mission, we must ensure that the quality of teaching at CMC is second to none and that it makes use of the latest forms of technology, pedagogy, and student learning modes. Moreover, students graduating from colleges and universities today need to be well prepared to deal with the challenges they will face in a work environment that is increasingly driven by information technology applications. In the past, CMC – like many other institutions – has partially relied on students developing information technology skills at their own discretion. The College has not had an information technology requirement that all students must fulfill. More recently we have begun to address the need for all students to develop a minimum level of competency for information technology applications and skills through the FITness program.

To integrate systematically an understanding of information technology, or literacy, into our curriculum we have pioneered the adoption of a novel concept, FITness: Fluency in Information Technology. We are among the first undergraduate liberal arts colleges to adopt a FITness-based program as a means of assuring that our students are fully prepared for the information world they will face after graduation.

FITness is an approach to information technology literacy developed by the Committee on Information Technology Literacy (CITL) of the National Academy of Sciences, under the umbrella of the National Research Council. Traditional approaches to technology instruction in colleges and universities generally take the form of a narrow skills-based computer literacy course that stresses competency in specific applications. In the world of rapidly changing technology applications, a single computer literacy course familiarizing students with specific current applications cannot serve their long-term needs. The FITness approach provides students with current skills, an ability to adapt to new technologies, and an appreciation for how to use technology. Students fluent with information technology (what CITL calls FITness) should be able to know and understand enough about information technology to adapt to new advances and use technology productively.

With the assistance of a $1.3 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to perform a feasibility study focused on the development of our curriculum and faculty FITness, CMC’s faculty has developed and unanimously approved a series of seven FITness goals. The goals are drawn from the CITL report and have been modified to suit CMC’s curriculum and student body. CMC’s Teaching Resource Center has provided instruction to faculty in integrating these goals into their courses and departmental programs. We have been remarkably successful in our efforts to develop a more information technology capable faculty. The seven goals are:

• Databases: students will be able to use databases to enter data into a pre-existing database, conduct inquiries, sort records, extract relevant data, and generate a report.
• Data Analysis: students will be able to use spreadsheets to analyze quantitative and qualitative data
• Online Research and Databases: students will be able to use electronic tools for research and evaluation including online search techniques, database usage, understand intellectual property issues and proper citation of online sources, and in economics and accounting
• Online Ethics: students will understand plagiarism including proper citation for online and traditional sources, understand the ethics of copyright and property law as applied to electronic materials, and be aware of the implications of information technology for democratic institutions and practices
• Presentations: students will be able to properly give technology-enhanced presentations including the use of software packages, graphs and web links, and various media
• Structure Documents: students will be able to use and create structured electronic documents including using word processing programs, desktop publishing, and designing web pages
• Online Communication: students will be able to engage in electronic collaboration including e-mail, chat rooms and discussion groups, and collaborative writing

What We Have Learned

• It is impractical to ask students to become proficient in each of our goals through classroom instruction only.
• Faculty are reluctant to exchange instruction in subject matter for instruction in information technology skills. Efforts to incorporate training in the FITness goals in many classroom situations detract from the faculty member’s ability to cover adequately the subject matter at hand.
• Students learn at all times, especially non-traditional work and learning hours.
• Students often do not attend workshops; they prefer one-on-one mentoring/coaching.
• Faculty are willing to integrate technology into courses if they are guaranteed support.
• Students enter college at various levels of information technology knowledge and skills, thus need differing degrees of individualized instruction.
• Students respond best to student peer to peer instruction, rather than that provided by staff or faculty. Students report they experience less anxiety learning from a fellow student, and they are less intimidated in asking questions on mechanics.
• From one course to the next, and from one faculty member to the next, even within the same department, there is a wide range of faculty skill in the use of information technology; thus some students may not be enrolled in classes that specifically target developing FITness, or in classes where the FITness content is not substantial or pertinent to their needs, yet they may still require technology assistance.
• The College needs to create an entirely new program designed to link able students with their peers to assist them in acquiring technology skills relevant to the tasks being performed in real time.

The Fletcher Jones FITness Implementation Project

Over the course of the next two years, we intend to develop a cadre of Fletcher Jones Technology Consultants. These trained student FITness consultants will be assigned to work closely with faculty members who are incorporating FITness goals into their classes. These consultants will learn how technology is used in the class, and will support students in the curriculum-wide FITness goals as they pertain to specific course needs. The consultants will provide on-demand personalized instruction to students in our three computer laboratories and in the Fletcher Jones Technology Classroom. Further, much of the instruction will take place outside of the traditional classroom, given the limited hours available. Our computer laboratories are open much of the day and two are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Second, we also intend to offer students opportunities to attend workshops that meet their schedules on specific skills sets associated with FITness. We will offer workshops on demand. Working in conjunction with the Teaching Resource Center, Fletcher Jones Technology Consultants will schedule a workshop with students whenever three such students are available. The students may request workshops on any aspect of our seven FITness goals. To prepare our consultants to meet this challenge, we propose to develop a comprehensive technology advanced training camp. These extensive training modules will prepare the consultants to work effectively with faculty and ready them to provide instruction to students in any of the FITness goals.

Third, to assist all CMC students in becoming adequately prepared with regard to each of the FITness goals, we will create a FITness Course Matrix, indicating the FITness expectations of each professor. This matrix will be updated regularly as courses are modified, and we will publish the matrix on our FITness website. (We have just begun the creation of this matrix this fall.)

Fourth, the Teaching Resource Center, working with faculty and Fletcher Jones Technology Consultants, will create a series of online study guides for each of our seven FITness goals. These will include subjects such as the use of databases, technology assisted presentations, spreadsheets, word processing, email, and the Internet.

Finally, we will impanel a faculty/staff/student FITness Peer to Peer Training Committee to oversee the Fletcher Jones grant and to evaluate our progress. This Committee will be assisted by seeking guidance from external consultants, who will work with us at retreats.