With finals week around the corner, many students may have difficulties finding a computer on Alden's second floor Learning Commons. Other labs around campus that are practically unheard of can offer solutions.
One floor below the Learning Commons is the Academic Advancement Center's Computer Learning Lab. The lab houses 18 Macintosh computers and four PCs and is free to faculty and students. At all times, there are trained lab assistants on hand.
The computers in the lab are equipped with programs including iMovie, Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, and some can import video images from DVD and VHS.
Unfortunately, this lab goes unnoticed by many students, said D. Lee Beard, manager of the Computer Learning Lab.
Every year a new group of freshmen don't hear about (the lab). A lot of people miss this resource
Beard said of what he calls the best lab on campus.
Student use of the Academic Advancement Center's lab grew until the Learning Commons opened last quarter. During Fall Quarter 2003, 1,227 students used the lab while during Spring Quarter 2004, attendance reached 4,133 students. When the Learning Commons opened Fall Quarter 2004, the Computer Learning Lab lost nearly 1,000 students.
Though the lab is not open on weekends, Beard said the possibility of expanding hours in the future depends on the number of students taking advantage of the lab.
If more people find out and we get more of a demand we'll have a justification for making the expenditure Beard said.
OU sophomore Lauren Toth said there are not enough computers available at the Learning Commons, especially at night.
If she knew about different lab options, Toth said she would take advantage of them.
Other free labs on campus, including the Computer Services Center, Boyd and Brown computer labs, are useful as finals week approaches.
The CSC computer lab is located on the ground floor of the building across from Bentley Hall and houses 86 new computers that have large, flat-panel monitors. There is a scanner station for student use and computers are located at desks and individual or group work stations. Programs available include Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and writing programs.
Boyd and Brown provide 20 and 22 computers, respectively. The computers offer similar software as the ones in the CSC and a scanner station.
Depending on preference, there are individual and group work spaces that accommodate comfortable seating and large desks.
An OU ID is required for access to all of these labs.
Joan Wigal, assistant director Computer Services at OU, said since the Learning Commons has opened, more space is available at the different labs.
We really want to make students aware of other labs on campus
especially for the times it gets busy
Wigal said. We want to make sure that students know of the other options.
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Matt Burns and Meryl Smith
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Freshman Brad Guthrie, a finance major from Westlake, works on a project for his UC 106 class in the Academic Advancement Center computer lab on the first floor of Alden Library yesterday afternoon. The AAC allows students to use Apple computers to burn D
