Academic support vs. information support

Abstract

TRADITIONAL USER SUPPORT at institutions of higher education has revolved around the idea that the staff of the computer center should provide resources and consultation primarily for applications considered more traditional in nature: registration, financial aid, data processing/computer science applications such as languages (COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, JCL, etc.), Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), and research projects which might utilize a statistical package like SAS or SPSS. This has most certainly been true at four-year institutions and to only a lesser degree at community colleges.However, as the number and types of user groups within the institution have become more diverse, the computer center has shifted its support away from more traditional classroom applications toward becoming an information service consultant for the institutional workforce. This has been done to acknowledge the fact that the computer center's user groups have become more diverse and many times more dependent on its support functions.This paper will discuss some of the major issues which have accompanied this shift from academic instructional support to information services support as it has been addressed by one major community college. Most notably, it will discuss: the steps taken to implement a comprehensive management information system; Planning mechanisms required to implement the necessary training support for new applications, including education programs, presentational and supplemental materials, along with media and hardware support; and the use of feedback mechanisms to aid the definition and development of training programs required by this transition from traditional academic consulting to information management user services.