Students. The students served by the COT Department are changing. In the past, the majority were interested only in job skills; now the shift is toward more degree-bound students. The number of distance education students is increasing, leading to the conclusion that either more students are located outside of Elko, or Elko students are not available for traditional classes.

According to a departmental student survey in Spring 2002, 169 students are working toward a degree, of which, 64 reported working toward a COT AAS degree and 21 toward a certificate. The highest number, 33, are working toward an Office Technology emphasis area. The next largest group, 17, are working toward the Network Specialist emphasis area. Thirty reported working toward a BA in Elementary Education, fulfilling a requirement in the program for prospective teachers and providing a new teaching challenge for the COT Department.

The number and type of students graduating with a degree in computers has changed over the last 20 years. In 1980, ten students graduated in data processing, and three graduated in word processing between 1988-1991. The department no longer offers those degrees. Fourteen have graduated between 1998 and 1991 in Computer Office Technology. Office Administration is the only area remaining relatively constant, averaging about 1.5 graduates per year from 1979 to 1988, but it averaged 4.5 students between 1993 and 2001.

Network Technology has only been in place during the last two years. Although only two graduated in 2001, most students in this emphasis area are working toward certification rather than degrees. During Spring 2002, seven students (of whom four are full-time) are working toward a degree in Office Technology. Two students are working toward an Office Administration degree. The Network Specialist emphasis area prepares students to complete exams for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification.

Distance education and branch campuses. Branch campuses and outlying centers offer computer classes that are coordinated with the department. Syllabi are made available to all part-time instructors to ensure the same course content in all sections of a class. Elko COT faculty have delivered computer classes to students in Wells, Battle Mountain, Eureka, and Ely when the need has arisen.

While a few computer classes have been offered through Interactive Video (IAV), the inability to have computers in the classroom has limited its use. Some of the upper-level classes for the Bachelor of Applied Science degree emphasis area are being planned for IAV. Thirteen different computer classes are currently offered online on an alternating schedule. The department confers with branch campuses and the director for satellite centers to determine which classes should be offered online and which semesters.

Resources. The COT Department currently uses eight instructional computer labs on the Elko campus and one each in Battle Mountain, Ely, Winnemucca, and an additional open lab on the Elko campus. Open lab hours are maintained at all of the outlying facilities. These labs range in size from 15 workstations to 28 workstations with most of them having 24 workstations plus an instructor’s machine. Due to the recent construction and equipping of the High Tech Center on the Elko campus, the department has, for the first time, adequate up-to-date facilities for all of the computer classes in Elko. However, due to the rapid rate of change in both hardware and software in the computer field, maintaining adequately equipped facilities has been and probably will be a long term problem for the COT Department. To cover software changes, the COT Department has set lab fees at a level that has been adequate to purchase both upgrades and new software as needed.

Significant Changes
• In the past ten years, the Computer Information Systems (CIS) and the Office Administration (OA) Departments have been incorporated into the new Computer Office Technology (COT) Department. The separate degrees in CIS and OA were incorporated into the COT degree with emphasis areas in CADD/GIS, Information Specialist, Network Specialist and Office
Technology. Certificates have been added in CADD/GIS, Network Specialist and Office Technology emphasis areas. New courses have been added in the COT area, along with Computer and Information Technology (CIT), CADD/Drafting (CADD), Graphic Communications (GRC) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
• Just as GBC is evolving into a combination community college and baccalaureate degree granting college, so has this department evolved with several upper-division classes that support the BAS program in Management Technology.
• The department participated in the revamping of the College’s general education requirements
by adding three computer courses that address technology: COT 202, COT 210, and GRC 119.
• In order to implement the Network Specialist emphasis at branch campuses, an Elko faculty member has traveled to teach (each semester) 12 credits in that emphasis. One year was spent traveling to Winnemucca. After the one year, a local, certified instructor took over the classes. A second year was spent in Ely for the same reason.
• Working with other departments, the COT Department has articulation agreements with the local high schools to increase the number of local students attending GBC who can, upon high school graduation, enroll in more advanced COT classes if desired.

Analysis
The departmental changes cited above illustrate the major ways that the department has kept pace with changing time. Through training, certification, and self-study, the COT faculty continues to stay current with new technologies used by the public sector.

Data for change. Using an advisory board and surveys, the COT Department continually monitors the needs of the students and adjusts programs to prepare students to excel in the workforce. For example, the department’s advisory board meetings in April, 2001, and January, 2002, helped the department determine (1) a BAS emphasis area, (2) versions of software to teach, (3) the decision to teach web-based database management, and (4) when to teach certain classes. In another example, scheduling of CIT/COT classes to be delivered online, through IAV, or at remote sites is determined by assessing community and student needs. These needs are assessed by administering surveys in service area communities and to current students, and through discussions with community members and the CIT/COT advisory board members.

Adequacy of evaluation policy and practices. Department faculty use the course evaluations done each semester to fine-tune their classes and approaches to subjects. The faculty feels that the formal source of regular student evaluations along with comments and suggestions made during advisory board meetings and department meetings adequately serve our evaluation needs.

Response to an agency. In answer to the Department of Employment’s request, GBC’s Continuing Education Department, in collaboration with the department’s instructors and others, designed the Employment Skills Preparation series. The intent was to provide quick job skills to enable people to return to the job force as soon as possible. In addition to taking classes, students were required to look for employment. An additional objective was to provide training for the unemployed after the semester classes had begun.

The classes are late-starting and range from 9 to 12 weeks for the series and, even though compressed, meet the time requirement of 15 hours of instruction for one credit. Some classes have continued through the January session. The program has been offered every semester for five years.

After the program’s initiation, GBC allowed entry to other students: single mothers, those coming from Vocational Rehabilitation, and anyone needing late-starting classes. The series is sequenced and has no prerequisites. The core of the program is a combined three-credit keyboarding class—beginning, intermediate, and keyboarding review (one credit). Students take Introduction to Windows, Word Essentials, and Spreadsheets. Also part of the series are two credits of bookkeeping, and one credit each of human relations, office procedures, writing on the job, and elementary arithmetic.

The program’s attendance has exceeded all expectations. It has brought many students, and a number continued to take other classes at GBC. At least one later received her Associate of Applied Science in Computer Office Technology; she still continues to take classes.

STRENGTHS
• Willingness to begin new programs and adjust curriculum and offerings.
• Faculty up-to-date in computer technology relating to their specialty.
• Excellent equipment and facilities.

CHALLENGES
• Maintaining adequate hardware in the computer labs, especially in times of economic difficulty.
• Continuing challenges for faculty to keep up-to-date in emerging computer-related technologies.
• Maintaining adequate equipment and facilities at the off-campus centers.

RECOMMENDATIONS/ACTION ITEMS
• Investigate the feasibility of new programs in multimedia, Internet, and graphics.
• Determine the feasibility of additional upper-division computer courses for students wishing to pursue Great Basin College’s BAS Management in Technology degree with more of a computer technology emphasis.
• Eliminate the CADD/GIS certificate from the next catalog due to increased employer demands requiring more than a certificate.
• Add a new Web Specialist emphasis area and a Graphical Communications emphasis area to the next catalog.
• Market the Information Specialist (AAS) emphasis area as a starting point for this BAS degree.