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Academic Experience    A college campus is a learning community that is devoted to the creation, dissemination, and codification of information and knowledge. Teaching, learning, and accessing information are all critical functions that are potentially enhanced by digital technologies. It is important to understand how technology is used in classes generally, and especially in your areas of interest or major, and the extent to which faculty use these technologies in interactions with students. What percentage of campus courses use electronic information to enhance the course (for example, syllabi, reading lists, discussion groups, demonstrations)? Over 60% of courses offered at Wesleyan use computer technology in a significant fashion. In any given class, faculty may use Web pages, bulletin boards for discussion outside the classroom, online reserves, class mailing lists, and high-tech projection and hands-on projects in the classroom. For more information about the kind of electronic resources available in Wesleyan's classrooms, visit our classroom improvement project home page at http://www.wesleyan.edu/classrooms. You can also view a sampling of course Web pages at http://www.wesleyan.edu/cow/. Are technology resources available, used effectively to enhance the learning experience, and designed to prepare graduates in your major for successful technology use in their careers? The Wesleyan faculty uses a wide array of instructional technology choices available to further their particular pedagogical goals. A listing of these technologies can be found at http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/acs/ . In any given course of study, a student will use technology in a significant number of ways: exchanging email with fellow students and faculty members; engaging in online discussions via a bulletin board; reading and posting course Web pages; using analytical software packages in science and social science courses; creating electronic art projects; reading journals and accessing databases via the library. A complete list of the instructional software applications and hardware available in the public computing labs can be found at http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/labs/ . While Wesleyan does not focus on vocational or professional training, the technology skills that students acquire while doing academic work in a liberal arts curriculum certainly prepares them for the demands of the twenty-first century workplace. What library resources are available online (catalog, databases, special collections)? The library home page http://www.wesleyan.edu/library provides information about library resources and services to our users which includes access to the shared library holdings of the three CTW consortium libraries: Wesleyan University, Trinity College, and Connecticut College. Through our Journal Locator, http://www.wesleyan.edu:9092/libr/php/journallocator/jlocate.php3, our students also have access to the professional journal literature of every field represented in the Wesleyan curriculum. We have assembled an impressive number of both general and discipline specific indexes and databases, http://www.wesleyan.edu:9092/libr/php/iadtbl.php3?list=full provide quick and efficient links to the world's most significant scholarship. An increasing number of these databases are full-text, providing the underlying articles that may either be read on the computer, downloaded to disk, or printed for future use. Fully searchable online reference tools available include such standard works as the Oxford English Dictionary, the Information Please Almanac, and a wide variety of statistical data. What electronic reference materials are licensed and how accessible are they from outside the library (for example, in the residence halls or off-campus)? Most of the electronic reference materials at the library are licensed from outside database vendors. A full list of these Indexes and Databases is available at http://www.wesleyan.edu:9092/libr/php/iadtbl.php3?list=full. These resources are available for faculty, staff and student use 24 hours a day on campus in the library, classrooms, computing labs and dormitories. Off campus access is available through a simple login procedure to a proxy server.  How does the campus help students develop computer skills? Wesleyan University offers many ways for students to develop their skills in computer use: Formal instruction in using specific software programs or research databases is offered jointly by the Library and Information Technology Services through the Information Training Program http://www.wesleyan.edu/litt. Individual assistance and tutoring is offered by request from the Library Reference Department at http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/softhelp.htm. Reference librarians offer Personal Research Sessions to give either general instruction in computer literacy, or tutorials geared to the student's individual research project. A self-guided online tutorial entitled The Road to Research - Research Skills Tutorial at http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/tutlist.htm was designed by the librarians specifically for students interested in learning research methodology at their own pace. Web-based subject guides by academic disciplines are maintained by librarians to direct students to lists of useful subject specific research sources available in Wesleyan's libraries and on the Internet. They are intended to provide a starting point for research in each subject, sufficient for basic research needs. Courses that require significant computer use provide training and support for the required computer applications.  Students who require individual hardware or software assistance can get individual help from the ITS Help Desk http://helpdesk.wesleyan.edu. We offer web-based self-paced instruction using Element K that provides an extensive library of self-paced and instructor led software tutorials.  Does the campus allow students to receive credit for courses taken electronically from other sources? No. Does the campus have a specific computer/IT competency requirement for all undergraduates? Formal technology requirements do not exist. However, our goal is to ensure all students achieve a basic level of computer competency. To this end, we are creating a program to assess incoming students' technology skills and to provide training to those who lack basic skills. Are course reserves and other materials available online/via the Web site? Yes. Olin Library has launched an aggressive program scanning  materials and placing them on the Web. To see an index of items, go to http://eres.olin.wesleyan.edu What percentage of faculty has a networked computer available to them? All faculty have a networked computer. What percentage of faculty use e-mail regularly? Close to 100% of the faculty regularly use email.   Academic Experience | Administrative Experience | Social Experience Requirements, Services & Costs