The increasing costs of licensing software and technology tools has necessitated that the set of learning tools offered and paid for through the Student Technology Fee and related budgets have had to be reevaluated. Reevaluation was informed through a review process of: 1) the complete set of software and technology tools 2) the context of most essential features, 3) the combined factors of overall campus use, costs, and redundancy of features 4) the availability of lower-cost alternatives. After review, the following tools were affected. University-wide licensing of these tools has already been or will be discontinued on the schedule noted below. As the services are decommissioned, alternative tools are being identified, and those currently using the listed tools will be contacted by university email and other methods to help transition to available options.
| End of Fall 2024 | The Proctor Lab in Student Center East, Room 315 will not be available after the end of Fall 2024. |
| End of Spring 2023 (May 7) | These tools will not be available after the end of the spring 2023 semester. Chalk & Wire: Student portfolio tool in use by one academic department. Create.gsu.edu (Domain of One’s Own): Web hosting platform. Harmonize: Discussion tool (pilot will end). Pressbooks: Open educational resource tool for publishing textbook content. Ally: Course file accessibility feedback and formatting tool. Faculty Equipment Checkout at CATLabs: Instructor-specific checkout (which was limited in use) of Windows laptops, iPads, document cameras, presentation remotes, web cameras, Wacom tablets, and Blu-ray player is discontinued. Lavalier mic checkout remains available. |
| January 2023 |
Grammarly is no longer available as of Jan. 17. |
Budgets will continue to be assessed and as any additional tools are affected in future, we will provide updated information.
FAQs
Inflation and other factors have meant that licensing and technology purchase costs have increased. The rising costs have meant that it is not possible to continue offering all previously licensed tools under the available budget. The overall toolset was reassessed looking at factors of usage, overall costs in relation to features offered, and whether similar capabilities were available in multiple tools. To transition from discontinued tools, alternatives are being identified. In some cases, not all features may be available in a single alternative tool, but instead identified across multiple tools that can be used as options for each feature or objective.
Determining the schedule for decommissioning tools took into consideration factors of license renewal dates and whether content needed to be preserved or moved to other tools in order to provide for transitions to alternatives.
No, not all tools being decommissioned have one identified alternative tool that provides exactly the same features as the previous service. In some cases, a few different tools may be identified to provide subsets of features that another tool provided. Because the complete set of tools must fit within the available funding allotted, not all features in identified alternatives will be in exact parity with a service that is being decommissioned, but the goal is provide as many essential services as possible across the toolset.
As the dates for decommissioning the tools near, CETLOE will send communications directly to users of the tools and provide updates in the CETLOE faculty newsletter to help instructors plan for the changes. At that time, instructors will be invited to request individual consultations with the CETLOE learning technology team as needed. If you have questions regarding these changes to the learning tools portfolio, please contact CETLOE at [email protected].