By Hope Sandusky/ editor-in-chief
TCC will spend over $2.9 million on software updates for this current school year.
During its Sept. 24 meeting, the board of trustees approved several renewals regarding software used by students, faculty and staff.
“These programs are what help service our classes, both online and face-to-face, and benefit students and faculty and staff,” said Tim Marshall, vice chancellor of institutional intelligence and technology.
One of the programs, Smarthinking, which is a 24/7 online tutoring service for students, is budgeted for $150,000, an increase because its use nearly doubled in one year.
“Not every student has access to the campus facilities, or some take online courses. This allows them to have access to help anytime, anywhere. We have had 6,200 sessions up from 3,800,” Marshall said. “It’s still not a lot of contacts. You would think with more and more students online this would increase. We did have a meeting with staff the other day to figure out ways to market this better to students.”
The biggest purchase of software, but what we are getting is rather cheap. Seven hundred thousand dollars still isn’t cheap, but it is relatively inexpensive than what we would have to pay if we were a regular nonprofit.”
During the meeting, TR Campus’ library was also officially renamed the Tahita M. Fulkerson Library after a resolution from the board of trustees was enacted.
“This is beautiful,” Fulkerson said. “It is an extraordinary compliment to our students of TCC and to the mission of TCC and to the work that all of us do to be certain that students grow with us and leave us happier and better than when they came.”
