3.8.1  

The institution provides facilities, services, and learning/information resources that are appropriate to support its teaching, research, and service mission.

RATIONALE FOR COMPLIANCE JUDGMENT

The Learning Resources Center (LRC) provides appropriate facilities, services, and resources to support the mission of Nashville State Technical Community College (NSCC). The offices of the LRC are open at times that support day, evening, and weekend students:

• The Kisber Library:

7:45 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Monday - Thursday

7:45 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Friday

9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday  [1]

• The Learning Center:

7:45 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Monday - Thursday

7:45 a.m.- 4:30 p.m Friday

9 a.m. – noon Saturday

(Note: During the summer term, the Learning Center closes at 6 p.m. and is not open on Saturdays.) [2]

• The Testing Center:

8 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Monday – Thursday

8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Friday

9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday [3]

The Kisber Library provides many services for students and faculty. One goal is to provide students with a quiet place to study and conduct research. There are fourteen computers that are always available for student use. Also, there is one classroom with eighteen computers for library orientations and faculty/staff inservices; the room is open for general student use at remaining times. Three viewing rooms allow students to watch films or listen to tapes on campus. There are also eight study rooms where small groups of students can study together.

Faculty can bring their classes to the Kisber Library for research orientations, or librarians will visit individual classes for short, targeted orientations on specific research projects.  A librarian is available to provide individual help to any student who has research questions. At the Cookeville site, librarians from Tennessee Technological University will conduct research orientations upon request. At the Humphrey's County site, one of the Kisber Library staff members visits each semester to conduct orientations. There is an online orientation as well as research guides on the website [4].  Students may also ask research questions through the Ask-the-Librarian link on the Kisber Library homepage.

The Kisber Library adequately provides student and faculty access to research materials whether they are on-or off-campus. The Kisber Library contains approximately 50,000 books in its stacks as well as over 1000 reference books and 4800 audio-visual materials. The Kisber Library currently subscribes to 300 magazines and journals. Furthermore, there is a solid collection of materials in electronic format, available at all times:

• Five general journal databases covering the social sciences, sciences, and humanities as well as the technical fields,

• Databases in specific subject areas, such as business, literature, health sciences, music, art, and Spanish [5],

• Four collections (totaling more than 38,000 books) of NetLibrary ebooks as well as a subscription to the online technical book collection, Safari [6], and

• Reference materials, including English and foreign language dictionaries, thesauruses, quotation books, atlases, and a comprehensive series of subject dictionaries [7].

Furthermore, the Kisber Library provides interlibrary loan services for students and faculty. The Kisber Library will send any requested books to the other sites by mail or courier. As a member of the Nashville Area Library Alliance (NALA), students may request books from neighboring libraries in the midstate area, which are then brought to the campus by courier [8]. NSCC students who are enrolled in Regents Online Degree Program [RODP] have access to the RODP Virtual Library [9]. NSCC students may check out a card allowing entrance to Vanderbilt University to conduct research in any one of the University’s main subject libraries. NSCC students may visit any of the other 28 Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) libraries to conduct research and have some check-out privileges.

The Learning Center has tutors (professional and student) available all hours that it is open, especially in the areas of math and writing. Other areas, such as the sciences, accounting, and computer programming, are also available. The Learning Center provides several workshops during the academic year in grammar, punctuation, and research skills. In spring 2006, a student survey found that more than 80% felt that the tutors helped them be successful in their courses. 63% reported that the grammar workshops helped with their grammar and writing problems. However, 34% felt that the Learning Center did not have enough computers. 33% felt that there was not adequate quiet space in the Learning Center in which to work [10]. While space is at a premium on campus, there is a plan to expand the Learning Center,  once the offices designated for the new building leave the Kisber Building in 2008.

NSCC subscribes to Smarthinking, an online tutorial service that provides real-time tutoring in composition, all levels of math, foreign languages, accounting, business, and sciences. Students are also able to submit rough drafts of their essays for feedback [11].  In a fall 2005 survey administered by Smarthinking to NSCC users of the service, 79% reported that they had submitted an essay for consultation.  58% of those students agreed that the Essay Center improved their writing, while 59% felt that the Essay Center helped them earn a better grade.

The Testing Center provides a secure, quiet environment for students to take the following types of tests:

• COMPASS Placement Test

• Residual ACT

• Nursing Entrance Test

• CLEP

• California Critical Thinking Skills Test

• Department exit exams

• Individual make-up exams for classes

• Tests for video and web courses

• Regents Online Degree Program tests

• Independent study examinations for students at other colleges

In fall 2006, the Testing Center administered 5329 tests, the majority for web courses. This can cause a space problem during midterm and final exams since there are only 26 student computers in the Testing  Center. However, the Testing Center is one of the offices that will move to the new building, and more computer space has been allocated for testing there. The campuses at Cookeville and Humphrey's County, as well as the Southeast Center, also provide proctored testing.

The Instructional Services Office provides assistance to faculty who desire to add technology to their classes in order to improve student learning. The Center runs a semester-long course on WebCT for instructors interested in developing or teaching a web course. There are also individual sessions on online testing, maintaining the grade book, adding presentations to online courses, and other relevant topics. The Instructional Services Office will work individually with faculty members who want to add specific learning objects to their classes [12]. Linda Lyle, the coordinator of Instructional Services, is currently leading the campus's conversion to a new course management system. She is a two-time winner of the Innovations Award from the TBR in recognition of her outstanding contributions in the areas of distance education and online learning.

In order to ensure that the LRC is providing the type of services that the campus needs, the individual offices conduct periodic surveys of both faculty and students. Furthermore, there is an advisory committee composed of faculty and staff to provide advice and suggestions.