Surf is up for Merton College students thanks to NetOp School

Merton College’s Library Learning Centre wanted an effective way of stopping students abusing the limited resources of its computer centre. Installing NetOp School software has solved the problem by allowing staff to monitor student’s screens from one central desk.

Merton College, based in Morden, Surrey, is a Further Education college with 2,500 full time students aged from 15 years upwards and from many different social and ethnic backgrounds. The College offers a wide range of courses including: A Levels, GNVQs, NVQs, plus many vocational and evening courses. Although the majority of students are aged between 16-19 years, Merton has a substantial number of mature learners – last year its oldest student was 84! Merton is proud of its mix of students and the success they achieve,and many go on to Higher Education or into a rewarding job.

Merton’s Library Learning Centre is a fully equipped learning resource where students can drop in and use the facilities. They have access to a wide range of learning material including reference books, journals and newspapers, pamphlets and cuttings as well as computers, printers, TVs and scanners. Students are able to use the computers for writing and researching essays, accessing the Internet and public directories and reviewing a range of CD ROMS.

The need
In the summer of 2000, the Library Learning Centre upgraded its resources and increased the amount of computers available to students to 33. Budgetary restrictions prevented the centre from buying more, which meant there were still not enough computers for the amount of students in the college. To overcome this situation, the centre restricted users to carrying out work only. This meant no private emailing or surfing during the day until after 5pm. However, this policy was unpopular with students who wanted to use the facility as an Internet Centre.

MertonCollege’s Library Resources Manager, Brenda Keyte, explains, “My staff faced a great deal of hostility from those students found abusing the system and frequent arguments would occur between the two. A great deal of time was also being wasted by my staff walking round monitoring student’s activities on the PC. I felt there had to be a better way of handling the situation and putting us in control.”

The solution
As Library Resources Manager, Brenda Keyte looked for a solution that could help Merton College tackle the problem of inappropriate use of its PC resources. Brenda heard about the benefits of NetOp School from a colleague who had previous experience of using the network based learning solution. She was impressed with the demonstration and placed an order for NetOp School to help staff monitor the PC usage in its two library areas.

NetOpSchoolis an advanced remote monitoring and learning management solution and the college uses the solution to monitor students’ PC behaviour in the Library Learning Centre as well as the Sixth Form Centre, located in a separate building.

NetOp allows the library staff to view the screens of all the students using the computers as thumbnail images. As soon as any student starts to abuse the system, library staff can click on that particular screen and enlarge it so they can see what the student is doing. If the student is surfing or playing computer games or sending out personal emails, staff can send the student a message saying ‘please come out of that website or stop hotmailing.’ Alternatively, and most commonly, staff have the ability to take control of the students PC and explain that they are not allowed to carry out personal work until 5pm. If they are persistent, staff simply make a note of who they are and shut their machine down from their own desktop.

The benefits
“The students have reacted very well to the new NetOp system and we are really pleased we have bought it because there was an immediate effect. The word soon spread around the college and even the most persistent offenders, after a while, realised that it was pointless to keep trying to surf or send hotmail so they would either get on with their work or just not come into the centre at all. It’s given the students the discipline to focus on their work which is a real benefit,” explains Brenda Keyte.

Furthermore, the feedback from the students has been very positive and they are pleased with the new NetOp system. “There was a general impression that the students who wanted to work couldn’t use the computers because others were just playing games all the time. Now my staff can point out that this is not the case because everyone’s screen is being monitored.”

The NetOp system has enabled Merton College to make better use of its resources. In fact, this is one of its strategic aims outlined in its prospectus. The college wants as many people as possible to have access to computers for on-line research purposes, typing up assignments etc. It is not a good use of resources to have people wasting their time.

The Library Learning Centre staff now has a much better relationship with students since they do not need to walk around the centre peering over student’s shoulders, causing arguments when they spot anything illegal. “The beauty of the system is that staff can view multiple computers all on one screen and just glance at them every 10 minutes or so while they are completing other work,” explains Brenda Keyte. “The system is so easy to use and we can spot a hotmail screen from 100 yards away! Also, if any of the screens look too decorative it usually means it is a website so we can enlarge that particular screen and take a closer look. Once we’ve had a look and decided if any action needs taking we can then minimise the screen and carrying on working without the student ever knowing what has happened and without it affecting their work. If there is a lot of text on the screen it usually means the student is working away quite normally which is the ideal situation for us,” she adds.

The future
Due to the popularity of the NetOp system amongst the Library Learning Centre staff, it has also been adopted by the College’s computer unit to monitor student behaviour on the unit’s own PCs.

The College’s teaching staff is also interested in the system as an interactive teaching tool, allowing one teacher to demonstrate to, monitor and control a number of PCs from one location and to remotely tutor staff or students without having to leave their desks. NetOp’s advanced functionality means that, in future, staff could deliver interactive teaching over networked PCs, distribute and collect files electronically and remotely monitor students’ progress.