Education Focus: IT Tralee is blazing a trail for a new information management system that eventually will link all 13 institutes of technology, writes Pádraig Collins
The future of education, where we were faithfully promised that computers and the internet would revolutionise the way we learned, is that little bit closer, if a new system being piloted by the Tralee Institute of Technology, works to its full potential.
Tralee IT is the first institute in the State to "go live" with a new information system which they hope will radically change how information on courses, student enrolments, examination results and other college information is managed.
The system is also designed to change the way people learn. Students will be able to access course materials and lectures from their home computer using the college website.
Deirdre Lillis is project manager of the Collaborative Higher Education Information Management (CHEIM) system which was designed specially for the institutes of technology in Ireland.
"This is cutting-edge technology and is on a par with the best available in the world. I'm very pleased that the institute here in Kerry is leading the way in what will be a staggered roll-out for all the institutes of technology in the country," she says.
Phase one of the project is already in operation, with student records, admissions and exams already available through CHEIM. Phase two, which will make lecture notes, live chats, a bulletin board and discussion groups available on-line, is due to be rolled out by the autumn.
"The overall project involves all the 13 institutes of technology," said Lillis. The pilots for the scheme are Tralee IT and Galway-Mayo IT, with the ITs in Letterkenny, Tallaght, Waterford and Sligo now also getting started on their own versions of the system.
Lillis, along with other colleagues, saw how the system worked abroad prior to deciding that it was the right one for the Irish ITs.
"A lot of the initial research was done in the US and Canada.
"The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and the Connecticut Community Colleges are similar size colleges that use the system," she said.
This particular type of management information system has proven very popular in America and is being used in more colleges and universities in the US than any other system.
Most computer systems have some sort of teething problems, and with Tralee IT being used as something of a guinea pig, you would imagine that there had to be some major mishaps along the way. But that is not the case in this instance. "It has gone very well so far," says Lillis.
"Some things aren't working, but so far so good. The staff are very interested. Once you've got a bit of co-operation it makes it easier. About half our staff are using the network to get notes out to students anyway, so this is just a different way of doing it," she says.
While the new system is being used by students, some are getting more use out of it than others. "Our biggest challenge is to get it used in the mainstream courses. The information technology courses take to it like ducks to water, but we need to get engineering and other courses to use it," said Lillis.
The situation is likely to improve with Tralee IT's active encouragement of computer studies. "Every course has some IT aspect to it - a minimum of two hours per week. I would estimate that 95 per cent of students are logging on at least once a day anyway," says Lillis.
Managing information and making more information available to students and learners of all ages in the coming years is very important to the institute.
"A major part of it will be the improved customer service that we can offer to the public," acting director Michael Carmody says.
"The Institute here in Tralee has been putting a lot more focus on access in recent times and this system will take that much further. The delivery of courses will be more learner-centred, and students working from their home computer will be able to access course materials, lecture notes and have password controlled links to a range of relevant information," he says.
With this in mind, the college website (www.ittralee.ie) will become a major source of information for all students and prospective students.
Students and their parents will be able to access information on various courses, and exam results will be available over the web.
AS WELL as linking students and lecturers, the new system, when fully functioning, will link lecturers in different institutes of technology around the State, which should in time lead to team teaching and interdisciplinary studies in a way that wasn't possible before.
The head of the school of science and computing at Tralee IT, Séamus O'Shea, sees the new system as being of benefit to the wider community: "Education is about sharing knowledge and information. This is a major and radical change in how information is managed and integrated within the college to make more information and learning opportunities more easily available to people in this region."
