Learning Resources

Abstract: This is the 15th in a series of profiles documenting experiences with the use of instructional technology at two dozen colleges and universities. A look at what they have learned may benefit others considering new ways to teach. This report describes why and how the use of multimedia has become intrinsic to the educational process at Brigham Young University. Because this institution is large and well to do, the magnitude of its budget for learning resources is extraordinary, and its instructional technology operations are so sophisticated, some readers may suppose that it is hardly a model for them to consider. But just as the corner grocery store can learn techniques from the supermarket, smaller and poorer institutions can learn from the BYU story.

Abstract: Public, coordinated faculty participation in the planning process can ensure that administrators allocating funds will be informed and guided by the wisdom of the faculty in areas of curriculum, instructional design, and performance measurement. A challenge to both administration and faculty, cooperation between them can result in stronger, more flexible academic programs and in budget decisions attentive to specific departmental objectives. This article has been adapted from the author's remarks at the SCUP Academic Planning Workshop, held in April 1975 in Boston.

Abstract: Enrollment projection is a key part of higher education planning. Up until now, however, projection methods have been generally inaccessible to the executive administrators most involved in final planning decisions. In this article, the author describes the facility with which a computer interactive approach to student flow modeling allowed administrators to participate directly in the dynamic planning required for a fluctuating student population at a medium-sized urban institution.

Abstract: This is the 14th in a series of profiles documenting experiences with the use of instructional technology at two dozen colleges and universities. A look at what has been learned at these places may benefit others considering new ways to teach. This article is a sequel to a story in the previous issue of Planning for Higher Education titled "Games? They're a Serious Approach to Learning," which dealt with the value of gaming as an instructional technique, with classroom uses of simulation games and with "street corner" suggestions on how to introduce them into your own institution. In this continuation, the way an entire course can be shaped around a single game is described. Projects established to promote and support gaming, and sources for more information on the subject, are also presented.

Abstract: This article likens the territory of the chief executive in higher education to the physical science "field of forces"--an area "in constant change, laden with uncertainty and abmiguity" that seems, therefore, intensely, "human." Thus, in the sketch of "Professor X" in this article, we see contained in one university president's modus operandi an awareness that the job requires certainty "as much art as science or technology." This article was presented at the SCUP Academic Planning Workshop in Princeton on April 1975.

Abstract: This is the 13th in a series of profiles documenting experiences with the use of instructional technology at two dozen colleges and universities. A look at what has been learned at these places may benefit others considering new ways to teach. This article describes how computer usage has come to be routine activity among the students and faculty of a liberal arts institution, Dartmouth College, where the presence of computer terminals all over the campus reflects Dartmouth's view that computer literacy is essential to the education of everyone, regardless of his or her special interest.

Abstract: This is the 12th in a series of profiles documenting experiences with the use of instructional technology at two dozen colleges and universities. A look at what has been learned at these places may benefit others considering new ways to teach. This report describes how one institution has traversed successive waves of enthusiasm for various forms of instructional technology and how, in today's trouble waters, its use of technology is frankly focused toward driving down tuition and thereby attracting students.

Abstract: This paper was delivered at SCUP's 10th Annual International Conference in June 1975 in Minneapolis and was the basis of an essay titled "If I Were a University Trustee," which appears currently in Change magazine. To be sufficient, says the author, regents must be no less than "conscious agents of history and posterity." They must determine, and contribute in full democratic chorus, their particular visions of the universities' role in developing the kinds of people and policies needed to sustain life and "the western tradition of free thought" in our complex world. For it is the regent's vision that shapes the administrator's range and the professor's scope in preserving, for present and future generations, the university as a nurturing "country for the city of the mind."

Abstract: What is the role of the faculty in collaborative planning? The authors review the discussion of this question at SCUP's Academic Planning Workshop, held April 1975 in Boston. They note that studies supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education, the Kellogg Foundation, and a number of state and regional planning groups point out the need for collaboration between faculty and administrators that aims to integrate traditional faculty perogatives with other variables of institutional renovation. This article suggests areas of difficulty and guidelines for dealing with problems in the collaboration process at a time when institutions frequently encourage faculty participation in planning.

Abstract: This is the 11th in a series of profiles documenting experiences with the use of instructional techonology at two dozen colleges and universities. A look at what has been learned at these places may benefit others considering new ways to teach. This report presents a look at the present state of simulation/gaming in higher education, two briefs on successful uses of simulation games, and some "street corner" suggestions on how to introduce them into your own institution. A sequel, published in the volume 4, number 6 issue of Planning, will extend the coverage of the subject with further examples of games in use, information on current programs to support simultation/gaming, and a list of souirces for more information on the subject.