Academic Computing and the Hood Experience
Among the College’s highest priorities is helping students prepare to function productively in a knowledge-based society. With this goal in mind, the College has advanced the role of technology from being one of purely administrative to one of core importance, both academically and administratively. Every student has access to a Microsoft Office 365 Cloud account, including a suite of productivity applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. High-speed internet service is available to every student as well as 1 TB of file storage without a technology fee. Secure Wi-Fi is available throughout campus and supports BYOD and gaming under the College’s AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). Visitor Wi-Fi is also available for guests while on campus.
All technology services are accessible from classrooms and residence halls and from off campus via the Internet. Students can use personal devices in the residence halls to access the Internet, send email, print documents, and consult course materials. The College uses the Blackboard Learning Management System to publish instructor course content and make academic resources available to students using the Internet and the Beneficial-Hodson Library and Learning Commons academic databases. Access to all streaming services are supported on the campus network as well as support for popular gaming devices and services.
The College embraces the concept of technology-enhanced “Living Learning Centers” by locating a small computer lab in each residence hall. These centers include both Windows and Apple technology as well as a high-speed, networked printer. The College features 32 computer labs located throughout campus. In total, all labs provide more than 500 desktop and laptop computers along with a sophisticated software suite of applications. Nine of the computer labs are open to students, while the remaining computer labs focus on specific academic disciplines. Every computer lab has a laser printer and other technical resources needed to support academic printing needs. Discipline-specific labs include biology, molecular modeling, general and organic chemistry, mathematics, geographic information system (GIS), nursing simulators, coastal studies, Linux computing, cybersecurity, bioinformatics, communication arts, sociology, and video editing. All of these special labs have sophisticated, domain-specific software that enhance the learning process and extend students’ analytical resources. To extend the reach of academic computing labs, the College implemented a Virtual Computer Lab (VCL) to complement existing on-campus labs. The Hood VCL allows students to access specialized software suites from any location, on a 24/7 basis.