A Community College Response to a Campus-Wide Need for Computer Literacy.

Like most two-year colleges, Chipola Junior College has had to respond quickly to the impact of the microcomputer revolution. A demanding clientele of students and community members, a faculty and staff unprepared for microcomputer technology, and limited equipment resources dictated the rules of change. After it was determined that computer literacy efforts would emphasize a practical understanding of computers and applications software, a series of one credit-hour courses was developed on the use of the microcomputer as a personal or professional tool for school, home, or work. Most of the time in class was devoted to hands-on activities in a microcomputer laboratory. The first course developed, "Microcomputer Literacy: An Introduction," was designed for individuals with no previous computer experience. Additional courses were developed in word processing, spread sheeting, programming, and using integrated software packages. The one-hour computer literacy course was also chosen as the basis for a systematic training program for the vast majority of the faculty who were not computer literate. Participating faculty received a stipend for taking the basic computer literacy course and an additional independent study course focusing on discipline-based competence. The final phase of Chipola's computer literacy training efforts was a structured inservice course for career service personnel. Evaluations conducted for each of the program components revealed that the emphasis on short applications courses worked well for the college and its constituencies. (LAL)