faculty ipad initiative• mobile traffic to utexas.edu now makes up 10% of total traffic and is...

Preliminary Report

August 2012 Emily Ba l l C icch in i, Spec ia l P ro jects Manager , The College of L ibera l Ar ts J im Kerkhoff , Ass i stant Dean for Techno logy, The Co llege of F ine Arts THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUST IN

Faculty iPad Initiative

August, 2012 Faculty iPad Initiative 2

INTRODUCTION Increases in faculty requests for iPads sparked the technology staff of the Colleges of Liberal Arts (CoLA) and The College of Fine Arts (CoFA) to explore how mobile tablets might be adopted by—and/or disrupt—our technology operations. As such, in April 2012, the IT departments of CoLA and CoFA began a pilot program to systematically distribute iPads to faculty and collect data about their use. While the University of Texas is not the first to undertake programs related to iPad adoption,1 we believe that our initiative is distinct in that very few Tier I Research Universities have a formal system of mobile tablet support in place. In many other adoptions, particularly K-12 and smaller colleges, the efforts target students, not faculty, which is financially prohibitive for our large student body. And yet, we are moving forward in small steps. This white paper serves as both a status report and a planning document for further implementation of this initiative, using the interdisciplinary research theory of Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 2003)2 as a guide. INNOVATIVE QUALITIES OF MOBILE TABLET DEVICES This project is a proactive response to the notion that tablet computing is not just an extension of mobile smart phones, but represents a significantly new technology in its own right. 3 New technologies change the social and cultural realities of our faculty, staff, and students. By exposing faculty to this new technology now, we aim to speed up and improve the experience of adoption across our entire social system. Tablets are innovative in ways that are hard to describe to someone who has not experienced them. In the words of the New Media

1 http://community.pepperdine.edu/it/tools/ipad/research/similarstudies.htm 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations 3 http://nmc.org/pdf/2012-horizon-report-HE.pdf, p 14


Consortium (NMC)’s 2012 Horizon Report, a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI):

Tablet computing presents new opportunities to enhance learning experiences in ways simply not possible with other devices. High-resolution screens allow users of tablets, such as the iPad, to easily share content with each other and pore over images and videos on the screen. As people tend to use tablets to supplement and not replace smartphones, they are viewed as less disruptive tools (no phone ringing and no incoming text messages), which makes them ideal tools for learning opportunities. Because tablets are able to tap into all the advantages that mobile apps bring to smaller devices, but in a larger format, higher education institutions are seeing them not just as an affordable solution for one-to-one learning, but also as a feature-rich tool for field and lab work, often times replacing far more expensive and cumbersome devices and equipment.

According to a recent study from comScore, the iPad now accounts for 97% of all tablet-based web traffic in the U.S. and 46.8% of all mobile web traffic.4 While initial consideration included Android (Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom) and Windows-based mobile tablets, the iPad 3 was selected for dissemination. At this point in time, iPads remain the dominant market share in tablet computing, and have more developed technical infrastructure and an ecosystem of over 200,000 apps to enhance functionality. In addition, both colleges are optimized to operate, network and support Apple products. Some of the additional elements that make the iPad a unique tool for campus computing include:

• LIGHT PHYSICAL WEIGHT (1.5 LBS) • RICH MEDIA INTEGRATION FOR IMAGES, AUDIO, AND VIDEO

4 http://nmc.org/pdf/2012-horizon-report-HE.pdf, p 7


• ENHANCED EBOOK READER (IBOOKS) WITH EMBEDDED

MULTIMEDIA VIEWING CAPACITY • VETTED AND REVIEWED APP STORE HELPS REDUCE SECURITY RISKS • OPTIMIZED FOR REMOTE SHARING AND CLOUD COMPUTING • DATA AND COMMUNICATION BECOMES MORE PORTABLE • STORES DATA WITHIN APPS, NOT IN SEPARATE HARD DRIVE FILES • HIGHLY DEPENDENT UPON EXTERNAL SERVICES FOR FULL

FUNCTIONALITY (WIFI, G3, GPS, APPLE ID AND OTHER

AUTHENTICATION SYSTEMS) These elements provide both benefits and challenges to the faculty user and the college technical teams who support them, some of which will be discussed in initial findings later on. EVIDENCE OF EXISTING USE ON CAMPUS Clearly, mobile devices are already being adopted all across campus. A few interesting points from mobile metrics this month provided by University Communications:

• On average, there are 100K visits per month to the UT iPhone App and 300K mobile devices visiting utexas.edu

• Mobile traffic to utexas.edu now makes up 10% of total traffic

and is growing at 75% year over year

• Device use is fairly spread out with 75% coming from iOS/Apple devices and 22% coming from Android

A similar report for the spring, 2012 semester from ITS Network and Telecommunications also mentions that over 30% of the network traffic is from iOS devices (iPad and iPhone excluding Apple Desktops, which run MAC OSX, a substantially different platform from the mobile devices).


While we don't have exact numbers available, we are aware of many faculty members who have already purchased their own iPads and are actively using them on campus. This has major implications for network traffic and connectivity to infrastructural resources such as classroom consoles and electrical outlets. We are currently investigating how we can best support the use of these mobile tablet tools on campus, and encourage students, staff, and faculty to participate in online and face-to-face user communities to share ongoing learning experiences with their iPad.


GOALS AND SCOPE OF THE PROJECT In early May 2012, staff members from CoFA and CoLA met to define the scope and goals of the project. These goals were two-pronged; the first set academic, and the second operational.

ACADEMIC GOALS:

1. To explore iPads for faculty use for teaching, research, and

productivity 2. To encourage the robust and effective use of media in the

classroom 3. To increase student engagement, thereby improving

learning outcomes

OPERATIONAL GOALS: 1. Determine support costs:

a. Time b. People c. Device d. Apps e. Classroom support impact (positive/negative)

2. Determine institutional incentives and impediments for

iPad and tablet use A rough accounting benchmark indicates that the cost per faculty member, including iPad 3 32GB Wi-Fi, a selection of starter applications, and support cost time, averages $1,305 per faculty member to start. Each cohort of 24 faculty members in the initiative costs a total of approximately $31,320, which is being split equally between CoLA and CoFA. We aim to work through several cohorts throughout this initiative.


APPLICATION OF DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY This project fits the model of a traditional diffusion of innovation, initiated by a relatively central authority with an admitted degree of innovation bias. We would not be doing this if we did not think that the iPad was likely to be useful to faculty in their work. However, it is a completely voluntary and optional decision on the part of faculty to participate. It is also possible that a faculty member may choose to reject the innovation at any time during or after the adoption process, with no penalty. In addition, there is no control group for this diffusion; any faculty member is free to go out and purchase an iPad at any given point in time. The diffusion of iPads on campus might become a self-selecting yet collectively adopted decision that is made totally independent of central authority. In which case, the innovation is likely to proceed even more rapidly than we anticipate. We do anticipate that the diffusion of iPads across campus, from both student and faculty users, is likely to follow the “s” curve model proposed by Everett Rogers. This logistical curve has been shown to be present in a number of technological diffusions and helps show the trend of adoption over time, until full market saturation is reached. According to Rogers, the innovation is likely to be adopted if an individual sees the relative advantage of the device; if it is compatible with his current behaviors; if it is relatively simple to use; if there is trialability (if the adopter can test it out and experiment with it); and if there are opportunities to observe others using it. We think the iPad will fulfill these characteristics for many faculty users. The following chart, together with nearly 40 years of research in this field, indicates that by the time that Early Majority has adopted an innovation a “critical mass” is reached. At this point, the change agency who is initiating the innovation needs not exert much effort


to continue the trajectory; the innovation becomes self-sustaining, mostly through the power of social networks.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diffusionofideas.PNG Using this goal, the target goal of this project is to enable at least 34% of our faculty to adopt the iPad, or a total of 272 faculty members over the next 12 months.

FINE ARTS TOTAL FACULTY: APPROX. 200 X 34 % = 68 FACULTY LIBERAL ARTS TOTAL FACULTY: APPROX. 600 X 34% = 204 FACULTY

We invite other colleges to join with us in reaching this goal for their own faculty, to better facilitate campus-wide change. METHODS The project has adopted a flexible, lightweight plan for implementation:


1) Make the iPad and selected apps available to faculty in groups of 24 at a time

2) Provide in person, hands-on, one-on-one, just-in-time, online documentation, and workshop/seminar support

3) Ask for narrative reporting via a group blog 4) Use surveys and informal interviews to gather feedback on

the seminars 5) Ask previous participants to present to new participants

(peer-to-peer)

SELECTION PROCESS

Initial college technology budgets allowed for a cohort of 24 faculty testers. An email with a link to a Google form was delivered to all CoFA and CoLA faculty, requesting participants to apply for the program on a first come, first served basis. As an indication of faculty interest, 79 people applied within two days of the first announcement. The first 12 from each college were notified of the opportunity to participate in the May seminar, with others being held on a waitlist. They were required to attend at least 2/3-rds of the workshop to participate. In the application, faculty provided information about why they wanted an iPad. This was not used for selection purposes but to help design support efforts. It showed that previous exposure to iPads was quite wide, from none at all, to those who were owners of older models. That presented a challenge to provide appropriate training for everyone, and we are continuing to develop our seminar as we go. An additional cohort has been selected for a late August workshop, with additional solicitations to entire faculty to be sent out when the waitlist is exhausted. In the language of diffusion theory, we are expecting pilot faculty to become our “opinion leaders.” We recognize that not all individuals exert an equal amount of influence over other


individuals; and some faculty may be more likely to respond to word of mouth from other faculty rather than from technologists. However, we generally expect technology staff to serve as “change agents” by promoting potential benefits. TIMELINE 2012-2013

May Cohort Seminar 1 June - July Follow up Cohort 1 August Cohort Seminar 2 September Follow up Cohort 2 October - May Repeat up to 5 more times in staggered

schedule (break, evening, weekends), leveraging more online training, until desired goal of 34% of faculty is reached.

June Evaluate and analyze data from contributed blog posts, surveys, web metrics, and personal interviews with participating staff, students, and faculty.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES After a period of 1 year, we will reflect upon all available data to determine best practices, and what works and doesn’t work for faculty using iPads. In terms of challenges, the staff has already identified:

• Group management of applications; • Identification and authentication issues; • Classroom console and projection connection; • Bandwidth limitation; • G3 data plan restriction limits mobility; • University approved cloud storage issues.

In terms of benefits for faculty, there are several promising areas:

• Media presentation in classrooms; • Textual and image-based archival research;


• Image-based field research; • Independent textbook publication.

One early milestone in particular comes to mind. A Fine Arts faculty member from the first cohort, Tom Burritt, used his iPad and desktop to create an iBook textbook using iBook Author, which he published via iTunes U for free. It had 47 downloads and was ranked the #2 free textbook within one week of publication. A full account of his experience is available online at: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/faculty-ipad-initiative/2012/07/24/ibooks-author-and-the-evolution-of-adaptive-technology/ There are profound opportunities for multimedia educational material development over mobile devices. It’s important to make the distinction between the iBook format, which can include text, audio, video, dynamic images, and interactive code in one integrated interface, and digital text ebooks (Kindle or Nook-like devices or simple digital formats via the web or pdf). The Open University of Israel did an institutional wide implementation of interactive textbooks with their student body, who had previously had access to these materials through print and e-readers. For the “Kindle-like” devices, only 38% of the students reported their experiences as “excellent,” and 31% felt that these devices were “unbeneficial” in comparison to a physical printed textbook. However, for the iBooks, a whopping 91% reported the interactive textbooks as “excellent,” with the rest saying they were “good.” Although some students still at times referred to print copies, no students said interactive textbooks were “unbeneficial.”5 Fully interactive books, or iBooks, hold much promise for the textbooks of the future.

5 http://prezi.com/dyzswxiqw_9x/digital-ebooks-will-ebooks-replace-printed-textbooks-open-university-of-israel/


CONCLUSION In diffusion research, there is the concept of re-invention; that often an innovation is used in ways not intended by the original change agency. An iPad is a game-changing innovation because it has so many possible uses. We are encouraging the use of the device for teaching, research, and productivity. If we find little evidence for research, it will have implications for institutional support. Likewise if we find ample evidence for use in teaching: it might impact recommendations for increased student engagement. We expect there may be many unexpected applications possible, even beyond the imagination of Steve Jobs. We expect to deliver a full synthesis and analysis of the data being collected during this project in a report by July of 2013. We realize that with any innovation, there are both positive and negative consequences. Since we believe that the innovation of the iPad—and tablet computing in general—has already reached a critical mass across the general public, our goal is to help our faculty keep pace with the external environment, without completely disrupting existing academic practice. Being respectful of the work of scholars and teachers, we want to minimize negative impacts for them at a personal and professional level, as well as for the institution on the public level. We will strive to do this by being attentive to their communications, applauding their innovations, nurturing their interests, and offering technical assistance when needed and appropriate. In the meanwhile, we invite interested parties to visit and participate in the Faculty iPad Initiative group blog at: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/faculty-ipad-initiative


In addition to posts authored by faculty and staff, the website features a daily newsfeed of articles related to iPads in higher education, as well as videos taken from the faculty seminars on how to use an iPad in a variety of ways. As in some diffusion studies, we may find in the coming months that there are several waves of adoption, as opposed to one smooth “s” curve. Or, there may be a ‘trough of disillusionment’ that bottoms out before we see a more stable rate of adoption appear, somewhat less than 100% of the faculty. Even a 60% rate of adoption indicates major changes in the college computing environment. We will seek not to drive the wave of the new technology of mobile tablets, but to ride it together with the faculty and, by extension, students, finding the best ways and means of using iPads and similar tablet devices on campus. TECHNOLOGY TEAM: The College of Fine Arts: Jim Kerkhoff, Assistant Dean for Technology Bradley K Johnston, Help Desk Specialist Kevin B Newcomb, Audio-Visual Educational Specialist II The College of Liberal Arts: Emily Cicchini, Special Projects Manager Bradley Van Schouwen, Information Technology Manager Michael Lo Piccolo, Desktop Support Specialist Jeff Frelack, Desktop Support Specialist Nate K McVaugh, Desktop Support Specialist Special Thanks to Emma Whelan and Suloni Robertson for design support through the Student Technology Assistants program.

faculty ipad initiative• mobile traffic to utexas.edu now makes up 10% of total traffic and is...

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