S1:E9 Larissa Hale & Zachary Boyd – Students’ perspective on campus tech resources

Tyler Jacobson  0:02  

Welcome to LabChats, a podcast from the team at LabStats. I’m Tyler Jacobson, your host for today’s episode. Each week we’ll sit down with technology leaders in higher education to get the latest buzz and insights while we discuss current events, trends, problems and solutions. Now let’s get into it. 

Tyler Jacobson  0:20  

With us today, we have Larissa Hale and Zachary Boyd students at Utah State University. Larrissa and Zack, why don’t you just take a minute or two and introduce yourselves and let us know what you’re studying.

Larissa Hale  0:34  

Okay, my name is Larissa Hale. This is my second year at Utah State and I am studying public relations with a minor in marketing. And I am taking many classes right now dealing with multimedia, and getting experienced with different computer software, and cameras and video and all that kind of stuff right now.

Zachary Boyd  0:58  

My name is Zachary Boyd. It’s also my second year at Utah State. I’m a history major. And I’m really excited to have this conversation today. Because due to COVID-19, I’m actually purely online right now. So I’ve noticed some difficulties with the school’s online utilization for students.

Tyler Jacobson  1:18  

Okay, to start off with when you guys started school, what equipment Did you personally come to school with as far as electronics?

Zachary Boyd  1:27  

So I personally have a mini iPad that I’ve never used. But I also have a MacBook Air that I use primarily for all of my school resources, unless I have something that takes a bigger file or a different program. And then I have to go to campus to use one of the desktops.

Larissa Hale  1:45  

I came to school with a laptop, and it has given me a lot of problems. So I’m currently using somebody else’s laptop for the remainder of this year while I seek to buy a new one. And I also use the computers on campus a lot for some of my other projects. 

Tyler Jacobson  2:04  

Okay, so what do you guys go to the school computers specifically, to use?

Larissa Hale  2:11  

So in my multimedia class, right now, we use a lot of audacity, Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere to do multiple projects. So I don’t have that software on my laptop because it’s really expensive, and it’s not provided for us. So I have to go on campus to use those programs because they provide it on the desktops and like the library and other computers on campus.

Zachary Boyd  2:41  

And I personally just go when I have a file that’s going to be too big for my computer, because on my MacBook, I don’t have a ton of space right now. So typically, if I have to do a big assignment, I’ll go to the desktop at the library.

Tyler Jacobson  2:55  

So, have you guys found that it’s pretty easy to find a computer on campus like, Zach, you’re talking about space? Are you taking an external drive? Larissa, it sounds like you need specific software packages. Would it be helpful to be able to remote into a school computer and be able to get that software? 

Larissa Hale  3:16  

[It would] be extremely helpful for me I know, there’s just it’d be like, a lot easier. Because right after I finished taking pictures from my class or taking video from my class, if I could just automatically get on my laptop from home and upload those pictures and different files on to Adobe Premiere , it would save me a lot of time instead of having to wait for a lab to be open or something for me to go all the way up to campus and use the desktops to do my project.

Zachary Boyd  3:48  

I also agree with Larissa, I think it would be one of the most beneficial investments that the university could go forward with for future students and current students at Utah State. And I think it would be extremely beneficial just because you don’t know necessarily which computer is going to have what programs on it. The computers in the business building could be completely different from the library in the Student Union Building, and you just have no clue you basically have to bounce around and just hope for a computer that has what you’re looking for. And that kind of became hard for myself when I was looking for PowerPoint at the business building. And for some reason it wasn’t on the computer there. So I had to walk across campus to the Student Union Building where I finally found one that had it.

Tyler Jacobson  4:31  

Is there a source that you can go to to find out what is available on campus?

Zachary Boyd  4:36  

Not that I’ve been able to find.

Larissa Hale  4:39  

My teacher is kind of like: “The desktops on campus will have Adobe Premiere,” but it’s just kind of hit or miss. You kind of have to just figure out which ones have it and which ones don’t.

Tyler Jacobson  4:51  

Okay, so it would be helpful to have either a website or a mobile app or something that you could surface what’s available?

Larissa Hale  5:00  

Definitely.

Zachary Boyd  5:01  

I would be completely on board with the app. I think that’d be a great idea. 

Tyler Jacobson  5:06  

Do you guys know if the school has a mobile app?

Larissa Hale  5:10  

We have three mobile apps. We have one for campus safety, one for athletics, and one for… 

Zachary Boyd  5:19  

Aggie Shuttle which is just the bus. 

Larissa Hale  5:21  

And then I guess if you include Canvas, but it would be really helpful if we could somehow get it all onto one app, like if we had an app that located different computers that were open and had certain programs that you were looking for. And then we also included the bus and the safety as well as like events happening on campus and ways to be able to like if I could just scan my phone to get into the marketplace like that would be so awesome to go eat and stuff like that, like, it just be really nice to have everything I need for school on one app, as well as like assignments and stuff.

Zachary Boyd  5:57  

Two things when I thought about it, that I think would be great with an app is buying tickets to athletic events would be so much easier if it could just be through an app. And you could see when exactly the home dates are in a way dates. And I think also Secondly, I wish there was a way to track tuition payments, not just through our Banner account, if it was on the app, it’d be so much easier to follow. And even if we could set up a credit or debit card with the university through the app, they could make automatic payments that send us like a push notification. That’d be extremely beneficial for myself.

Larissa Hale  6:27  

[Because] Banner is really hard to use. And it’s really confusing.

Zachary Boyd  6:30  

Agreed.

Tyler Jacobson  6:31  

Okay, so it sounds like you guys are well on your way to designing the perfect mobile app for students to use.

Larissa Hale  6:39  

[I don’t know if] we can design it, but we have plenty of ideas for it.

Tyler Jacobson  6:44  

So if that app existed, and it had all those things in it, would you use it? And how often would you use it?

Larissa Hale  6:50  

I think I would use it every day, I use the shuttle app by itself every day just to be able to see when the buses are coming and stuff. And so I mean, there, I would already be using it every single day and to look for computers and stuff. That would be really, really nice.

Zachary Boyd  7:05  

If the app existed, I would have had it for at least two years. Yeah, definitely I would use it.

Tyler Jacobson  7:11  

You had mentioned Canvas Larissa. What do you use Canvas for?

Larissa Hale  7:17  

Canvas pretty much runs my life right now…it shows me, like, it has the to do section where it tells me all the assignments I have upcoming for the next week and a half or so. So that keeps me really on track. Like if I am ever worried [about] like what I need to do I can just go there. And then it tells me like when all my grades come in and allows teachers to comment on the stuff I submit so I know where I can improve and stuff like that. And it’s really, really helpful. And I can message my teachers and get clarification on assignments and stuff.

Tyler Jacobson  7:54  

Is Canvas a primary source where you go to get what resources are available for each class?

Larissa Hale  8:00  

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. If I don’t know that, like if I don’t know where to go, then I can message my teacher on Canvas and ask and stuff like that. To return stuff and all that kind of stuff.

Tyler Jacobson  8:13  

Tell me just a little about a little bit about each of your learning styles. Does it help to have written like transcripts of classes? Are you more audio learners? Are you more visual? Where video are things like [that are useful]? What’s the best way for you to learn?

Larissa Hale  8:29  

I’m definitely a visual learner. I’m also taking stats right now. And I know that it’s been really, really helpful for me to have the Zoom recordings available to me so that I can go back and watch her do examples of problems and stuff like that. Because otherwise I would not be able to remember how to do certain things if I couldn’t watch her do example problems over and over again.

Tyler Jacobson  8:56  

So have the Zoom recordings always been available? Or was that a pandemic thing?

Larissa Hale  9:02  

I think they’ve been available for a while now I remember one of my friends that took stats last year before COVID and hers were always recorded and stuff. So I know for sure, I know math has had those recorded two people can go back and watch them. But I don’t know about if any other classes do that. Zach, do you know?

Zachary Boyd  9:23  

in the past, the only teacher that’s made me aware of this capability was just one history teacher here at Utah State. That’s all I’ve known of that was recorded. But after COVID-19 I’ve noticed every single class has the recordings and upload them almost every day on the canvas.

Tyler Jacobson  9:39  

So is that as far as you’re learning? Are you also a visual learner?

Zachary Boyd  9:44  

I would say mostly visual with a little bi