NDSU's dial-in modem service is heavily used. In any given week around 3,000 different computer users (over 25% of the NDSU student, faculty, and staff population of 11,500) call in at least once. On a typical evening (Sunday through Thursday) almost all of the 149 modems will be in use from 4 p.m. until midnight.
NDSU faculty have been actively incorporating Internet activities into their classes having their students use the Internet to submit their homework, to initiate queries, to have electronic dialogs with classmates, and to locate relevant reference and research information. This spring there are 130 courses listed on the campus course index web page as being classes that have at least some of their course material on one of the campus web servers. (This is up from the 113 courses listed for fall 1998.)
With fewer than 2,650 beds in the campus residence halls less than 28% of our students can live on campus and take advantage of the "wired" residence halls for Internet access. The remaining students either have to try to use one of the campus clusters or use the modem pool to access NDSU's computing resources.
A recently conducted brief survey of a sample of campus users (details attached) indicates that these users value the NDSU modem pool highly. While some have indicated that they would be willing to purchase the services of an ISP to gain access to NDSU computing services, a significant percentage suggest that they would attempt to use the already overburdened campus computer clusters to do their computing. So if the modem pool was eliminated, much of the money "saved" would need to be redirected to improving the clusters.
The discussions and questions that have resulted from the survey and from the campus examination of the issue of continuing the modem pool indicate that
This suggests that our users need more education about computing (both the general issues as well as specific details, such as what to look for in an ISP). A more informed user population should help the process of finding an optimal solution to our computing issues.
A delay in the decision in the long-term support for the modem pool means that we need to make an aggressive study of alternatives, taking into account as many of the factors involved as possible. (For example, a number of people from a variety of disciplines have pointed out that based upon what incoming students have told them, they will experience a decline in enrollment if the modem pool is eliminated.) The study group should consist of ITS staff, other campus staff (such as people from Admissions), students, and faculty. While this study is underway, efforts to provide more education to our computer user population should be stepped up.
Incentives need to be explored to move more users to non-campus modem pool access. Some possibilities include:
Since the campus modem pool use is already saturated part of the time, it may be necessary to make some changes to the present modem pool access policies. The maximum connect time could be reduced during peak usage times, the times during which the maximum connect time are monitored could be expanded and tiered, and off-campus Internet access could be restricted during peak usage times.
A number of users have asked that the campus modem pool be upgraded to faster modems. These users need to realize that most people will not benefit from this, due to the relatively poor telephone lines available in the area. Because of this most users cannot even now achieve the maximum transfer rates available from the present campus modems.
It has been stated that many other higher education institutions have eliminated modem pool service. A survey conducted February 1999 of 80 higher education institutions in the United States and Canada showed that more than 60% still provide free modem pool access. Less than 25% of these institutions provide modem access for a fee. The remainder had a mix of other options from no service to service only provided for faculty and staff.
The results are as follows:
Question 1: Please check each with an "X" each service provided by the Information Technology Services (ITS) that you use. Responses by percentage of respondents checking they used the service, and organized highest to lowest:
100% Internet access for pleasure/information 94% Internet access for class 74% Modem access to NDSU 68% High quality printing 42% Multimedia development 38% Clusters for teaching 35% Minicomputer applications 33% Training 32% High performance computing 23% Hardware checkout 24% Solving software problems 16%
Question 2. Please rank the ITS services you checked in question #1 (1 = most often used service, etc.).
The following analysis differs from the previous question, in that the numbers reflect the ranking divided by the number of responses, so that we can understand how the average user of the service ranks the service (eliminates nonresponders affecting the results). The lowest number is the highest ranking , where ** is used to denote highest ranking items
Clusters for teaching 4.9 Email 1.7 ** Internet access for class 2.4 ** Internet access for pleasure/information 3.3 Hardware checkout 7.7 High performance computing 6.6 High quality printing 6.7 Minicomputer applications
(on abacus, badlands plains, or prairie)4.0 Multimedia development 5.6 PC/Mac service (via Help Desk) 6.5 Remote (modem) access to NDSU 2.2 ** Software purchase
(via Software License Program)6.7 Solving software problems 4.6 Training 5.6
Question 3. Suppose ITS was spending $100 of your dollars on the ITS services you checked in Question # 1. How would you want ITS to spend your $100? Show the number of dollars you think should be spent in the spaces provided. This will help you tell us the relative importance of each service (the answer is computed as a simple sum divided by the number of respondents) with ** denoting highest ranking items
Clusters for teaching 19 ** Email 11 ** Internet access for class 12 ** Internet access for pleasure/information 4 Hardware checkout 1 High performance computing 3 High quality printing 5 Minicomputer applications on UNIX servers 3 Multimedia development 7 PC/Mac service (via Help Desk) 4 Remote (modem) access to NDSU 24 ** Solving software problems 2 Training 4
Question 4. On average, how frequently do you connect to NDSU from offcampus?
More than once per day 26% Once per day 16% 26 times per week 22% Once a week 3% Several times a month 1% Once a month 19% Never 15%
Question 5. How do you remotely link to NDSU?
Modem via Internet Service Provider
( AOL, Red River Net, etc.)13% Modem via NDSU 68% U.S. West ADSL
(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)2% Other 0% N/A 17%
Question 6. From which server do you receive your email?
badlands.nodak.edu 26% ndsu.nodak.edu (mulberry) 6% ndsuext.nodak.edu 3% plains.nodak.edu 29% prairie.nodak.edu 36%
Question 7. Do you own your own
computer?
Yes 93%
Question 8. Do you have access to a computer you do not own (other than on campus)?
Yes 56%
Question 9. What would you do if you could not receive your email or access the university computer system through the dial-in service? Answers are given as a simple percentage.
Pay for an ISP (Internet Service Provider),
such as AOL or RedRiver Net43% Obtain a high speed ADSL 13% Go without 22% Come to the clusters on campus 23% Use a friend's/relative's computer 0%
Question 10. If you said you would pay (or already pay) for an ISP or ADSL line in 8, how much would you be willing to pay (or already pay)? (Some examples: AT&T, $14.95/month; Red River Net, $17.95/month; Compuserve, $24.95/month)
Less than $15 49%
$15-$20 19%
$20-$25 16%
More than $25 6%
Question 11. If NDSU offered an upgraded (56K) dial-up service for a fee, would you be willing to pay
Less than an ISP for the service 54%
The same as an ISP for the service 32%
More than an ISP for the service 8%
Question 12. Are you a
faculty 61
staff 4
NDSU student 97
Question 13. How long do you stay connected once you dial in?
Under 10 minutes 32% At least 10 minutes but less than 30 minutes 11% At least 30 minutes but less than 60 minutes 16% At least one hour but less than 2 hours 14% At least two hours 15%
Question 14. Is your call to the NDSU modem pool
Non-toll 69%
Toll 3%
on campus 6%
I connect directly from my dorm room 8%
I use a high speed connection and
don't connect to the modem pool2%
Conclusions: From the point of view of the Campus Computer Access committee, the university is not yet ready to give up the modem pool as a remote access system. In addition, users tend to heavily favor investment in the modem pool and in an email system.
Migration to an ISP in the future is possible. However, this study does not seek to answer what may be an important question: the effect on recruiting new students. As the current boomlet in students fades away, North Dakota State University will be forced either to compete outside of the state for students or to downsize. Lacking a remote access capability on campus may impair the ability of the University to attract students on the margin.