CIL tests officially terminated
The discontinuance of the Computer Information Literacy exams passed through the final stages of approval, and students will officially not need to take the exams beginning next semester.
In December, the Education Policy committee and Faculty Senate voted to remove the requirement, finalizing a decision long sought by many faculty members and ASUSU officers.
Students graduating this semester are still required to pass the CIL examinations.
The CIL tests were originally designed to teach students basic computer skills as well as providing information about the ethics of computer use, but many of those skills are currently being taught elsewhere, said professor Charles Huenemann of the General Education subcommittee.
Heunemann said he also preferred the idea of teaching students computer skills as needed, rather than all at once. “They might have to learn everything for the test in order to pass it, but then as soon as they pass the test then they don’t use that information again and they forget it.”
In their meeting last November, the General Education subcommittee said that they would like to keep the CIL computer lab (located in the Eccles Science and Learning Center) open as a remedial resource for students wanting to learn the skills now taught by the CIL program. Currently, the $30 CIL fee funds the lab, and if it is to continue, the CIL fee would need to be replaced by a new student fee, said CIL director Alex Potter.
Potter said he disagrees with the idea of teaching students computer skills as needed, and that the removal of the CIL requirement might now put more strain on faculty members.
“They’ll have to deal with students not knowing how to do a footnote, and how to do all these fundamental skills that are taught in CIL,” he said.
The changes in CIL requirement likely won’t cause any drastic changes, but students won’t benefit as much as they might have, Potter said.
USU sophomore Gabrielle George said she took two of the CIL exams as part of her USU Connections class, but that she doubts she benefited much.
“I don’t even remember what the test was on,” George said. “It would be hard for me to go and … spend my time there trying to learn how to use Excel and all that, when really I could just go through Google, and they have easy stuff I could look up, too.”
If there were a student fee involved, George said she might use the lab to get the most from her money.
Potter said he hopes students graduating this semester won’t mistakenly believe the CIL requirement doesn’t apply to them and complete the exams as soon as possible.
“The sooner the better, because I don’t want to have 300 students coming to me in April, trying to finish the thing,” he said.
The University will likely continue to offer the CIL tests, and individual departments may choose to keep CIL tests as a requirement to graduate from their program, Huenemann said. Passing the tests may also continue to be a prerequisite for certain courses. The decision also may bring changes to courses like OSS 1400, which rely heavily on CIL material.
The online software used to administer CIL exams, iNetTest, was developed by programmers working for the CIL program. iNetTest is also used to administer exams for other courses at USU. Potter said that if the new student fee is approved, support for iNetTest will likely continue to be provided through the remediation lab. Even without the new fee, the software would likely be supported through other means.
The requirement elimination may also cause problems for students transferring to universities that have CIL requirements, Petter said. Some other universities in Utah have programs similar to CIL, and the University of Utah is currently developing one.
“We’re getting rid of ours while they’re getting one, which is strange to me,” Potter said.
– steve.kent@aggiemail.usu.edu