Termination of the Student Notebook Computer Daily Loan Scheme
The Student Notebook Computer Daily Loan Scheme (DLS) has been established by the Computing Services Centre for more than ten years (previously known as the Mobile Computer Service) to give students the convenience and flexibility to make use of the wireless network (Wifi) to access the campus IT services and the Internet when the Wifi was newly set up and notebooks were expensive, facilitating their e-learning and encouraging online academic activities.
Amongst the local universities in Hong Kong, CityU is the only institution providing a centralized notebook computers daily loan service to students. The DLS service was well-received and a catalyst for e-learning in the past; however, in recent years, almost all students have owned one or more mobile devices, enjoying personalized environments for their studies. Inevitably, the DLS service has lost its popularity and become more for casual or occasional use, and hence, its continuation can no longer be justified. Observing this greatly diminished demand, the university has decided to terminate the scheme and encourage students to bring their own notebook computers for campus use.
In fact, the DLS service has changed its primary role from an initiative for promoting e-learning to a service of supplementary nature for the support of students’ emergency and casual uses. The figure below depicts the annual loan statistics of the DLS.
In fact, the DLS service has changed its primary role from an initiative for promoting e-learning to a service of supplementary nature for the support of students’ emergency and casual uses. The figure below depicts the annual loan statistics of the DLS.
As can be seen, usage of the DLS declined significantly from its peak in 2006-07 to 2013-14 by more than 20%, and gradually, from 2013-14 to 2014-15 alone by more than 50% in each semester.
Through the years we have witnessed the contribution of the DLS service to teaching and learning. However, advanced and affordable mobile devices have made this once valuable service redundant. After termination, most of the retired DLS notebook computers will be distributed to departments in need for redeployment in academic and administrative support. Also, resources used for supporting the DLS service will be redistributed to improve other IT services for students.