As school started up last week at Northern Kentucky University, the Center for Innovation and Technology in Education, began following suit with other large universities, and is now offering a pilot program that allows professors to rent iPad and Android tablets for in-class use.
Sarah Mann, director of CITE, said the pilot program started with the purchase of the tablets.

“We purchased an iPad cart that contains 30 second generation iPads and two carts of 20 Android tablets. These will be for faculty to check these out for in-class use only.”
As of now, Mann said a few requests have been submitted by professors, but the tablets haven’t been used yet.

The creation of the pilot program was based off other universities with similar programs that give or sell iPads and laptops.
“Lots of schools are giving students iPads or laptops or the option to buy a laptop or iPad from the university. We are just exploring those options,” Mann said.
According to an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, schools including Oklahoma State University and Duke University are offering iPads in select programs. Whereas George Fox University offers iPads or Mac laptops to fall freshman.
NKU has two classes that offer similar guidelines.

“There are two classes, a finance class and INF 128, that give students iPads to use for the semester, but that money was in another department not IT,” Mann said.
Sharyn Cerda, a second-year English major, loves her iPad, but is hesitant about the in-class use.

“It could be distracting to other students, because there are a lot of applications on the iPad. It would take a certain amount of discipline for a student to use it in class,” Cerda said.

Although students can’t sign the tablets out, there is no waiver to sign if the tablets are damaged in class.

“Since the iPads aren’t being taken out of class, we are hoping to minimize (accidents), but they are covered under Apple Care,” Mann said.
Mann said the decision to move forward with the program would be decided by the end of the spring semester.

According to CITE’s website, the pilot program supports the main reason CITE was created.

“CITE supports NKU faculty in the design, development, implementation and delivery of high-quality instruction through innovative learning resources.”