Technology Advancement Center Initiatives

Archive of Past Projects

(2007-2009)

Academic Outreach Work from Home Pilot with Library Science
Automated Online Process for Proctoring Office in the College of Business
ECU System-wide DE Quality ThinkLink
Digital Nomadic Kit Box
JAM Research with IBM
Mobile Nurse's Course on a Chip
Nomadic Moodle Course on a Chip with College of Business
NC Department of Public Instruction Online Assessment Training System
West Research Campus Wireless Cloud
Virtual PC Testing Module
Course on a Chip Review by Service Members in Iraq
Development of Environmental Health Professional's Course on a Chip
R&D Sakai CMS Capture using Portable Offline Browser
GOAL (Graduate Online Advising Liaison) -- College of Business
SOAR (Student Online Advising Review, 4-year) -- College of Business
SOAR (Student Online Advising Review, Community College) -- College of Business
MAP (My Advisory Plan) -- College of Health and Human Performance
TSYS (Prospective Student Assessment for MS degree program with 6 concentrations) -- College of Technology and Computer Science)
BSIT AAS Degree Transfer Program Online Advisor (College of Technology and Computer Science)
ECU Pirate Trac R&D Technology Solution
Amazon Kindle Collaborative R&D Project
Academic Outreach Think-In

(2003 to 2007)

ECU COURSE ON A CHIP®

Course on a Chip® is a system that will provide a variety of software options that meet the needs and learning styles of students in different end-use environments. The goal of COAC is to develop a toolkit of software that can be used to make instructional content available for access by mobile learners with or without a connection to the Internet. The COAC workgroup consists of faculty and staff from the TAC and from other units in the Office of Academic Outreach.

OFFLINE BROWSER

This is a research initiative to identify Offline Browsing software to be used to capture an entire web site for viewing course content in the field without an Internet connection. This is an important component of the Course on a Chip® project.

AUTO FTP

Automatic File Transfer Protocol (Auto FTP) is a convenient tool for transferring content between a server and a local computer and vice versa. Auto FTP can minimize interaction with redundant file transfers by enabling a “queue” that automatically conducts the redundant file transfers on a recurrent basis. The goal of this research is to identify the best commercially available Auto FTP program to be used in distance education courses. This is a component of the Course on a Chip® project.

AESTIVA LIVE HELP

Two Pilot projects were completed using the Aestiva Live Help customer service chat tool to interview distance education students in classes in Environmental Health and Business, Career and Technical Education. The tool is now being scaled to the University with projects in two areas: (1) by staff members for BANNER training, and (2) by the College of Education on the Wachovia Partnership East Project. Implementation will be live for the Spring semester.

ECU TEXT²PHONE

A Pilot Project was conducted by the Technology Advancement Center, working with the Division of Campus Living, the Office of Academic Outreach, and alliance partner e2Campus from Leesburg, Virginia (May 26-June 20, 2006). The goal of the Pilot was to install and evaluate the effectiveness of the e2Campus web-based notification system transmitting time-sensitive urgent campus information to cell phones of campus and distance education students who elected to receive this service. Two major groups of students participated in the Pilot: Resident Hall Advisors (RA’s) and Distance Education students (DE’s) enrolled in two classes in Business, Career, and Technology Education. Because of the success of this pilot, the project is staged for implementation to students in East Carolina University residence halls in the Spring of 2007.

ECU ASSIST

This personal alert and location pilot was designed and implemented in the Fall of 2005 by the Technology Advancement Center. The pilot was conducted with 35 students, staff, and faculty carrying personal transmitters. Alerts were made from the Campus Mall to receivers placed in campus buildings, and on to Campus Police. The project ran from March 6^th to April 14^th. This was the first project in the nation to evaluate the effectiveness of the Bosch Security Escort System on a fiber optic network. Special modifications were made to the system to make this function on the network.

JOYNER SECURITY SHIELD

This personal alert and location safety pilot was conducted in the basement of the Library to evaluate the use of technology for sending campus safety alerts inside of buildings. Staff participants in the study carried personal transmitters used to send alerts to Joyner Library Security Staff. The project ran from January 31^st to March 7^th, 2006.

DISTANCE EDUCATION TOOL RESEARCH

The Technology Advancement Center has completed research and testing which facilitated implementation of many tools for distance education students. Some of these involved: Wiki's, Enterprise Instant Messenger, PC-Based Webcam research, Web-based Message Board, and Web-based Chat Tool.

ECU WIRELESS HANDSET MOBILE USER SURVEY

A survey of on-campus and distance education students was conducted to learn about their current patterns of usage of wireless handsets. Data from 4,000 respondents was analyzed and presented in the final report completed 2-1-06.

PHASE II e911 WIRELESS HANDSET RESEARCH

Testing of wireless handsets and services from six telecommunication providers (Alltel, Cingular , Sprint, Suncom, U. S. Cellular, and Nextel) from campus to the Pitt County Public Service Answering Point was made by the Technology Advancement Center. 12-08-05.

ECU MOBILE PHONE RESEARCH PROJECT

A project was completed with U.S. Cellular handsets with Residence Hall Advisors in 15 ECU Residence Halls to determine effectiveness of coverage of wireless handsets inside and outside of ECU buildings. 10-1-06.

WAREHOUSE ALERT

A research pilot to evaluate the performance of the CISCOR (Convergent Integrated Systems Corporation) wireless personal alert and location system was conducted with the Division of Facilities Management Warehouse staff. Staff carried wireless transmitters which sent alerts with location information from the perimeter and parking lots surrounding the Warehouse to receivers on the roof of the Warehouse and rooftop of Greene Residence Hall. The wireless signal was then relayed to the ECU Police Department and Telecommunication Operators, which dispatched ECU Police Officers to the scene. 12-08-05

CELLULAR TOWERS LOCATION PROJECT

This project ties to the e911 Research along with the Residence Hall Mobile Phone Project. Research is being conducted to identify the location of the various cellular towers in the Greenville area. Coverage along with tower location is very important when it comes to triangulating location information from multiple cell towers. 9-1-06

NOMADIC MESH PROJECT

A research plot was conducted to evaluate the Effectiveness of a High-Speed Nomadic Wireless MESH Network to conduct virtual site visits and transmit video and audio back to campus classrooms and laboratories. This project was completed in the Spring of 2005.

PERSONAL ALERT DEVICE FOR CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SAFETY

Phase I of the ECU Personal Alert Device (PAD) project was completed in the Fall semester of 2004. The purpose of Phase I was to identify and test personal alert devices and systems that could be used by students, staff and faculty to send duress signals or alerts to campus police. The goals of the project were expanded to identify and test technology that could be used by mobile users, beyond the confines of the campus. Criteria for selection of systems to be evaluate were that that must: (1) be able to provide alerts to police from independent mobile users, (2) provide accurate location information on the user, (3) be capable of working inside and outside of buildings,and (4) provide information supplied by the user to the monitoring station. A conference was conducted by the Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing (now Technology Advancement Center) on November 18th to discuss this research and showcase various technological systems. More than 100 participants from universities and organizations throughout North Carolina attended. See articles and video in Press Releases.

ACADEMIC OUTREACH DATABASE PROJECT

Research Associates in the Technology Advancement Center designed the front end interface that the faculty and students with courses on the Blackboard CMS will use to choose a tutorial. The interface will pull the content from Parature and insert it into a word document (Microsoft) according to the user's editing and storing preferences.

MEDICAL SCHOOL MOBILE HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE

The W. E. Laupus Health Sciences Library is serving as the sponsor for a conference called Technology to Go -- Mobile Healthcare @ ECU. The Technology Advancement Center, Information Technology & Computing Services, Eastern Area Health Education Center, and the Department for Disability Support Services were collaborators on this conference. The conference will be held in the ECU Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, NC on April 6, 2005. Vendors demonstrating emerging and current technology will include: Bluesocket, Firetide, Airo Wireless, CDW-G, PalmOne, Cingular, Prepid,Digital Persona, Skyscape, MD Consult, Epocrates, and others.

ACADEMIC OUTREACH WEB-BASED HELP DESK

The Technology Advancement Center has completed research to identify web-based chat tools that might be used with distance learning students and faculty. 53 customer service chat tools were studied. The tools that best met the design criteria were tested and reviewed by a jury of experts consisting of faculty, staff, and technologists from the division of Academic Affairs/Academic Outreach. Two systems were purchased: Answer Chat (http://www.answerchat.com) and Aestiva(http://www.aestiva.com). Several pilot tests were conducted during the Spring and summer semesters of 2004 using these tools. A project called, ECU Listens Online was planned for implementation in the late Spring or Fall. The goal of this project was to survey distance learning students to obtain information on what approaches and interactive tools were most effective in their DE classes. The TAC team became Institutional Research Board (IRB) certified to conduct this research. The design team recommended changes in approach due to concerns about confidentiality of information. The TAC is now developing a plan to implement Aestiva with a new project and approach.

ECU LISTENS ONLINE (ECU LOL)

Answer Chat and Aestiva Web-based ChatTool (WBCT) were evaluated to test the effectiveness of WBCT's with classes in Health and Education.

WEARABLE COMPUTER MOSQUITO ID AND TRACKING SYSTEM

A project with the U.S. Army, Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, and the ECU Department of Health Education, Environmental Health Program Area to design and evaluate the performance of a mobile computing solution for real-time identification of mosquitoes from the field, contributing information that is important for combating the spread of Malaria worldwide. See New York Times article on the project in News Releases.

CWMC/AIRGATE PCS TEACHING FELLOWS PROJECT

This was a project that evaluated the use of convergence devices (3G Smart phone and handheld computer) with the Freshman class of ECU Teaching Fellows, and five other application environments.

ASK (ASSESSING STUDENT KNOWLEDGE)

A Wireless Audience Response System for Campus or Online Learners was developed by the Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing in collaboration with the ECU Brody School of Medicine (BSOM), Information Technology Computing Services. Pilot testing completed with medical residents Spring 03. The system is used today by the BSOM.

PROJECT BEAM

Bringing Education and Achievement to Migrants for Somerset Community College, Somerset Kentucky. Implementation of OWLS (Online Wireless Learning Solutions) philosophy for delivering content to service centers in six rural Appalachian counties.

WEB 4M PLANNING GRANT

Sponsored by the University of North Carolina System, Office of the President. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the performance of Web4M collaborative groupware for teaching and organizational effectiveness. The CWMC trained faculty in Nursing and Business on the use of this system. The ECU College of Business is using it today for classes in Finance.

OSCAR OWL BOT

A project using artificial intelligence was completed to provide an online help desk for OWLS sponsors nationwide.

SMART COURSES

Application of artificial intelligence to provide course content on CD's in Nursing, Computer Literacy, and for Certification training by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

WIRELESS INSTALLATIONS

The Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing designed and installed the first large-scale wireless local area network in Greenville, NC for the Greenville Hilton.

WIRELESS SOLUTIONS WORKSHOP 2003

Offered by the Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing for local business, industry, and education.

BIOMETRIC SECURITY PROJECT

A project to identify and evaluate biometric security systems for use in Brody School of Medicine Computer Laboratories and the Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing. This project was completed in collaboration with Information Technology Computing Services (BSOM) and the Health Science Library.