EDUCATION AND COMPUTING

AT MIT

A 10th Birthday Snapshot

of Athena and her Kin

Gregory A. Jackson

Director of Academic Computing

MIT Information Systems

Fall 1993

CONTENTS

(c) 1993 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

# EDUCATION AND COMPUTING AT MIT

A 10th Birthday Snapshot of Athena and her Kin

G.A. Jackson

Director of Academic Computing, MIT Information Systems

Ten years ago MIT, Digital Equipment Corporation, and IBM Corporation became partners in Project Athena.[1] Project Athena, as the partners saw it, had two overarching goals:

- to design and to implement a large-scale distributed computing environment, and
- to use that environment for the improvement of undergraduate education.

This report seeks to describe the range of academic-computing resources MIT devotes to education following the first decade of Athena, including both central and departmental activities. Yet this goal is impossible, for two reasons.

First, educational computing comes from widely diverse sources at MIT. It is delivered in widely dispersed venues. It is clear from earlier analysts and surveyors that the best one can do is suggest the range of MIT educational computing, inevitably underestimating its scope in the process.

Second, and more fundamental, MIT's commitment to integrating research, practice, and education undercuts efforts to draw boundaries between, for example, research and educational computing. I'm reminded of the perhaps apocryphal but analogous debate, while I was teaching at Stanford in the 1970s, about cardiac surgery at the University's hospital: was it clinical service to paying customers, research on new methods to restore cardiac damage, or education for the medical students observing from the galleries above?

## SOME HISTORY

Computing long had been a part of MIT undergraduate education before Project Athena, of course. The goals for undergraduate computer use started out modestly: even MIT students outside computer majors were expected to acquire a modicum of programming skill, and to understand how to use computer programs to perform complex calculations in engineering and science. When I was an MIT undergraduate in the late 1960s, for example, my peers and I used MULTICS or Information Processing Services mainframes to write FORTRAN programs. The Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) received an appropriation of "dollars" that could be spent on mainframe computing, and reallocated them to students who wanted computer time.

As the 1960s ended, many departments began to acquire their own computers, and to make excess capacity on them available to students. By the time Project Athena got underway, in 1983, computing for MIT education had become bimodal on the organizational scale: there was substantial central activity and substantial departmental activity but, with the IBM Personal Computer only two years old and the Macintosh a newborn, virtually no individual computer ownership.[2]

From the outset Project Athena replicated the bimodality of educational computing at MIT. Centrally, it employed a development and operations staff, ran servers, and maintained public clusters eventually housing about 400 workstations. Departmentally, it supported faculty courseware-development projects and provided workstations for departmental clusters.

Some departments organized most of their educational computing around Athena. Some departments used both Athena and other educational-computing facilities. Some departments chose not to use computers educationally. Meanwhile, individual computer ownership was increasing dramatically, but largely disconnected from central and departmental academic computing.

Following a year-long study and detailed recommendations from an Institute-wide faculty committee in 1989-90,[3] Project Athena's experimental distributed-computing system has become the Athena Computing Environment. Its facilities and staff have evolved into a service organization within Information Systems committed to education and innovation.

## ATHENA & ACADEMIC COMPUTING TODAY

Except for a research and development on visual computing, most of the academic computing Athena spawned is provided today by IS by three departments working closely together.[4]

- Academic Computing Services (ACS, which I direct) provides general oversight and coordination for Athena and other services and facilities, supports faculty who use computers educationally, works closely with academic departments on educational-computing plans, selects and deploys commercial software tools and applications, communicates with numerous visitors and other universities interested in MIT academic computing, and develops and manages electronic classrooms.
- Computing Support Services (CSS, Dan Weir) provides consulting, training, documentation, accounts, and other user support. Its MIT Computer Connection (the computer store and service facility in the Student Center) participates actively in equipment renewal and service.
- Distributed Computing and Network Services (DCNS, Cecilia d'Oliveira) operates MITnet (on which Athena depends), develops software for Athena and other networked computers, and manages Athena's servers and public clusters.
- In the summer of 1991, Project Athena's Visual Computing Group became the core of the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, a research and development group directed by Professor Steven Lerman and operated primarily with outside funds.

In its final years, Project Athena employed about 80 EFT and had resources equivalent to about $12-million annually. After the merger with Information Systems and the move to MIT general-funds budgets, these numbers dropped to about 50 EFT and $4-million. The FY93 approval of a continuing renewal plan for Athena equipment has brought spending on Athena and other central academic computing to the equivalent of about $6-million annually.

Academic Computing Services currently receives its appropriation from core academic budget funds, and then redistributes part of this to Computing Support Services and Distributed Computing and Network Services.

MIT's peers[5] with separate academic computing facilities spend just under 2% of their educational and general budgets on central academic computing.[6] MIT spends only 1.6% of its instructional budget on Athena and other central academic computing:[7] about as much, it has become fashionable to point out (if not entirely correctly), as the Institute spends on its Department of Chemistry.[8]

Athena continues to deploy about

- 400 public workstations across a score of public clusters, Electronic Classrooms (including one equipped with Macintoshes), the MIT Libraries, and lecture halls;
- 400 workstations in departmental clusters and faculty offices;
- 200 Athena workstations in staff offices; and
- 100 behind-the-scenes servers (many of which also serve networked personal computers and non-Athena workstations).

Over 7,000 different individuals use Athena and other authenticated network services on the typical weekday, or about half of the 13,000 individuals who have made arrangements to do so.[9]

As I suggested above, this report almost certainly understates MIT's educational use of academic computing. The report is organized as follows:

- an overview of the central organizations and resources involved in computing for education at MIT,
- outlines of school-by-school and department-by-department educational-computing resources and activity, and
- some thoughts for the future of academic computing at MIT.

Interspersed among the different sections of the report are some stories illustrating the different ways technology comes to improve education at MIT (some of which also appeared in the first MIT Faculty Newsletter for this fall).

# OWL

Because of my training as a statistician, I was scheduled to teach the data and methodology segment of an IS Quality Awareness Workshop one afternoon. It occurred to me that I should talk about the Hawthorne Effect, whereby experimentation per se causes positive outcomes. I remembered some specifics: experimenters increased light levels and productivity increased, they decreased them and productivity increased again, and so on, all because workers were being interviewed after each change.

But I couldn't recall where the eponymous Hawthorne factory was. I logged in at an Athena workstation, and invoked ONLINE WITH LIBRARIES (OWL). I asked, "What was the Hawthorne Effect named for?" The program informed that no one was available to answer my question right then, that I should check back later.

About an hour later I logged in at another workstation and my answer was waiting: the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric company, outside Chicago. The reference librarian who answered my question went further, though. She provided some more detail, gave me citations to the original studies[10] and to several confirming and disconfirming reanalyses of the data, and told about a Hawthorne aficionado elsewhere in the Libraries.

OWL complements more traditional online library services, such as online catalogs and periodical indexes (which I also use extensively). We in Information Systems worked closely with the staff of the MIT Libraries to design and build software for OWL. Reference librarians in the MIT Libraries use the software to communicate with patrons. The service just won the MIT Library Council Special Achievement Award for exemplary library service.

OWL grows out of two other Athena services: ON LINE CONSULTING (OLC), which connects users with consultants for help with Athena or other computing activities, and ON LINE TEACHING ASSISTANT (OLTA), which connects students with teaching assistants in subjects that use it. In each case queries are classified by topic or subject, and the system manages a query queue for the consultants, teaching assistants, or faculty members who will respond. The system keeps logs, places queries at the top of the queue when they go unanswered, and provides for archives of stock answers that students or other users may peruse.

The OLXX services (as we call the set of three) were recognized as one of 101 success stories in higher-education academic computing nationally by EDUCOM last year,[11] one of perhaps a score of national and international awards MIT has received in this area. The OLXX services currently are available on Athena, and will be available for networked Macintoshes in early 1994. A Windows version is scheduled for release in Fall 1994.

# MIT-WIDE ACTIVITIES

This section outlines central academic-computing activities, especially those provided by Information Systems and by the MIT Libraries.

## INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The three academic-computing organizations within Information Systems (ACS, CSS, and DCNS) provide five layers of service:

- a network,
- a commons of basic network services,
- the Athena Computing Environment,
- public computing facilities, and
- support for users including consulting, training, and documentation.

Outside of Academic Computing budgets, Information Systems also provides

- telecommunications,
- microcomputer and network consulting,
- computer sales and service,
- help with software license terms,
- administrative and research computing support,
- computer facilities management,

and numerous other services important to education at MIT.

### Network

MITnet reaches virtually all academic buildings on campus.[12] By January 1994 it will reach all undergraduate dormitories, fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups as well. Network users (except students) pay modest flat-rate installation and monthly fees.

### Commons

Computers connected to MITnet have access to numerous services, many of which originated on Athena:

- electronic mail (mh, TECHMAIL),
- online discussion groups and bulletin boards (DISCUSS, USENET),
- instant messaging (Zephyr),
- access to library catalogs and other databases (BARTON, FIRST SEARCH, WILLOW),
- campus-wide information (TECHINFO),
- network navigation tools (GOPHER, WWW, ARCHIE, ftp, telnet),

and so on. In many cases Distributed Computing and Network Services has developed easy-to-use client software for Macintoshes and DOS/Windows personal computers, giving users Athena-like access to network services. In addition, of course, DCNS continues to develop and maintain network services and other software for Athena.

### Athena

The Athena Computing Environment provides faculty, students, and staff UNIX workstations with free access to

- highly developed versions of the Commons network services outlined above,
- courseware developed specifically for MIT subjects,
- commercial software to perform numerous tasks,
- other kinds of software,
- a common file system, so that users have the same services, files, and working environment at any Athena workstation,
- central login authentication, and
- a flexible, powerful, multitasking system with a graphical user interface that makes the whole easy to use.

Athena provides all this to about 1,000 client workstations and numerous dialup users. It does this with very few operations staff.

### Facilities

Public facilities for academic computing include

- 16 public Athena clusters with about 360 workstations open every day around the clock,
- a Macintosh cluster that doubles as a classroom (2-032),
- two additional electronic classrooms with workstations for each student (1-115 and 14-0637),
- two lecture halls equipped with instructor workstations and video projectors (6-120 and 3-190), and
- a Visitors Center equipped with diverse workstations and video projection (E40-302).

In addition, IS shares some costs with departments to provide a score of departmental Athena clusters with more than 175 Athena workstations students may use. Many departmental Athena clusters also include other computers. In addition, several departments operate non-Athena computer facilities for their students.

### Support

A computing environment of this scope and complexity requires substantial support for users. IS provides this in diverse ways:

- introductory and training sessions,
- documentation and how-to materials, and
- help desks designed especially for microcomputer users, Athena users, network users, and faculty.

The help desks work closely together, since user queries often cross departmental lines. The help desks handle walk-in, telephone, and online queries.

Use of Athena and related facilities has grown steadily over the years, as Figure 1 illustrates. This growth has continued even though facilities have expanded only marginally, and appropriations for academic computing in 1993-94 are only about half of what they were in 1989-90.

Central academic-computing resources, like other academic resources at MIT, are insufficient to satisfy all demands for them. We consider four overlapping principles when allocating resources among competing demands.

- Breadth. We try to help educate many students, especially undergraduates, rather than only a few students,
- Focus. We try to emphasize the center rather than the periphery of MIT students' educational experiences.
- Innovation. We try to support creative and innovative educational uses of technology.
- Equity. We try to reduce rather than exacerbate historical inequities in access to academic computing among departments.

The Academic Computing Council (ACC), a faculty committee appointed by the Provost and currently chaired by Professor Steven Lerman (who once was Director of Project Athena), interacts with Academic Computing Services, other IS departments involved in academic computing, and selected educational-computing research centers on general questions of policy and practice. During 1992-93, ACC comprised

- 4 faculty members from the School of Humanities and Social Science,
- 3 faculty members from the School of Engineering,
- 2 faculty members from the School of Science,
- 1 faculty member from the School of Architecture and Planning
- 1 faculty member from the School of Management,
- 3 senior staff from Information Systems,
- 1 senior staff member from the MIT Libraries, and
- 2 students.

## MIT LIBRARIES

### Visit the MIT Libraries.

The MIT Libraries provide numerous network services to faculty and students with computers. These include

- an online catalog, BARTON;
- numerous bibliographic and scholarly databases accessible within specific libraries from CD-ROM or remotely;
- a few similar databases available on the MIT network, such as MEDLINE and a set of databases available through FIRST SEARCH;
- some experimental mechanisms for retrieving and displaying full texts and images from selected documents;
- special scripts for accessing other college and university libraries from Athena workstations (and assistance for people who want to do the same from networked personal computers); and
- the innovative and integrative OWL system for reaching reference librarians.

The MIT Libraries and Information Systems collaborate closely on the design, implementation, and operation of these diverse services. In particular, they are collaborating closely to replace the aging GEAC library computer with a sophisticated, pioneering new library system of clients and servers that will exploit MIT's extensive network and widely distributed computing environment.

Arrangements for access to online databases probably will change as the new library system supplants the old. To begin exploring options, the MIT Libraries, Information Systems, and Professor Jerome Saltzer in the Laboratory for Computer Science have been collaborating on various experiments grouped under the rubric Distributed Library Initiative (DLI). These include

- an Athena-based program for searching the widely-used MEDLINE database,
- a pilot project to make the full text of LCS technical reports available online, and
- a collaboration with the Elsevier publishing conglomerate to make images of selected journals available online.

### Facilities & Staff

In addition to the aging and soon-to-be-replaced GEAC, the Libraries provides personal computers for CD-Barton and CD-ROM database searching, and for many of its staff. In addition, the Barker and Hayden libraries house full public Athena clusters. Over the past year the Libraries and Information Systems have collaborated to place an Athena workstation at each reference desk in the system, and another public Athena workstation in the reference area in many cases.

The MIT Libraries Systems Office is directed by Tom Owens under the general supervision of Greg Anderson, and employs an additional 5 EFT.

## OTHER MIT-WIDE ACADEMIC COMPUTING

MIT education not only involves central academic computing support and departmental activity, but also computing resources from several other organizations.

The MIT Supercomputer Facility (MITSF) operates a Cray X-MP supercomputer primarily for research use. With support from Cray, MITSF makes substantial supercomputer time available for faculty and students to use instructionally. In collaboration with Information Systems, MITSF has developed the TRANSPARENT COMPUTING MODEL (TCM), a mechanism whereby Athena users can run programs on the Cray using Athena-based files and retrieve results without mastering the intricacies of file transfer and remote logins.

The Undergraduate Academic Affairs Office, which oversees the logistics of General Institute Requirements and performs numerous other academic support activities, uses computers to provide many of its educational services. For example,

- the Writing Requirement and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) both use tailored databases on personal computers to track student progress,
- both of these programs rely heavily on Athena and electronic mail to communicate with students,
- UROP posts openings in TECHINFO,
- the Residence/Orientation Week Clearinghouse uses Athena software to keep track of freshmen,
- the Math Diagnostic uses a database program to distribute timely results to freshman advisors during R/O (this fall, with a new version developed with IS's Administrative Systems Development organization),
- and Information Systems recently worked with the Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs to make on-line voting for the Undergraduate Association possible.

The Registrar does most of its business with students and faculty on paper. However, Information Systems worked closely with the Registrar over the past two years to create the STUDENT INFORMATION SERVICE (SIS). SIS permits students to see their academic records on Athena, and to request changes in their addresses and other demographic information. We expect greatly expanded use of Athena and MITnet when the Registrar's new computer system becomes operational, currently projected for the fall of 1994.

Finally, several research laboratories and centers provide computer facilities or activities that serve MIT education directly or indirectly. Chief among these are the major computer research organizations on campus, such as the Laboratory for Computer Science, the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and the Media Laboratory. Several other research groups provide additional educational support, such as the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives in the Provost's Office, the Laboratory for Advanced Technology in the Humanities in the School of Humanities and Social Science, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems in the School of Engineering, the Center for Space Research in the School of Science, and the Computer Resource Laboratory in the School of Architecture and Planning.

# SCHOOL OVERVIEW

This section sketches some School-to-School differences in academic computing, which are not easy to discern in the following section's department-by-department outlines. It also surveys educational computing in the General Institute Requirements, and in selected other cross-cutting educational domains.

## SCHOOL SUMMARY (QUANTITATIVE)

Some simple summary statistics describing Schools and Departments provide a useful backdrop for discussion. Table 1 gives a few departmental attributes, and a few measures of academic-computing activity.

Whether subjects use computing is, of course, a basic measure. Figures 2 and 3 provide some rough, conservative, comparative data on this point.

Figure 2 shows the number of subjects in each Department that formally use Athena computers (the solid shading) or other computers (dotted shading). Figure 2 also shows what percentage the subjects using computing are of the total subjects offered by each Department. EECS has the largest number of subjects using computers, evenly divided between Athena and other departmental facilities. Media Arts & Sciences uses computers in the largest fraction of its subjects. MIT-wide, about 11% of all subjects use computers.

Figure 3 aggregates the same data by School, and organizes them as fractions of total subjects, total subjects using Athena, and total subjects using computers. Engineering accounts for over half of all subjects using computers, and an even larger fraction of all subjects using Athena, even though it accounts for only about 35% of all subjects at MIT. Conversely, Sloan's 5% or so of all MIT subjects account for 10% of all subjects using computers, but virtually no part of subjects using Athena.

The data in Table 1 and the Figures come from the MIT Planning Office, from Academic Computing Services records, from individual departments, and (in the case of subjects using non-Athena computers) from an approximate tabulation based on subject descriptions in the MIT Bulletin 1993-94.

Figures 2 and 3 are conservative because faculty need no permission or special arrangements to use Athena or other computing educationally, and subjects which use computing without asking assistance are not counted. In addition to Athena use, which is tabulated from Academic Computing Services records, Figures 2 and 3 contain estimates of non-Athena educational-computing use.

## SCHOOL SUMMARY (QUALITATIVE)

In the aggregate, the School of Engineering uses educational computing more widely than any other School. In part this stems from the importance of computers as objects of study in the School, especially in Computer Science but also in other departments. But it also reflects the School's early belief that computers could drive innovation and reform in undergraduate education. Except for EECS, which operates a large autonomous facility, a great deal of computing for education in Engineering involves Athena workstations and services.

The Schools next most active in educational computing are the School of Architecture and Planning and the Sloan School of Management. These Schools have developed much of their educational-computing practices and infrastructure somewhat autonomously. These schools have used Athena and collaborated with central organizations where convenient, but have proceeded independently for the most part. Both Schools are at crossroads, as Sloan considers how to replace and renew its aging mainframe-based facilities and as Architecture and Planning considers the dramatic incorporation of computer tools into design and planning practice.

The School of Humanities and Social Science comes next. Several of its departments use computers aggressively in education, although others do not. As was the case for Engineering, this partly reflects the School's subject matter. However, it also reflects some early antipathy to computing within the School. More controversially, many faculty within the School believe that it received less educational-computing support during Project Athena's early years than other Schools, and that this inhibited educational computing within the School. Whether or not this belief is valid, it has clearly influenced the course of educational computing in the School.

The School of Science uses computers extensively in research, and its faculty generally are comfortable and skilled with technology. Nevertheless, subjects within the School rarely use computers educationally. One explanation for this is the School's emphasis on theoretical instruction, an emphasis to which early educational-computing tools were ill suited. Another explanation is the same belief about Project Athena that inhibited educational computing within the School of Humanities and Social Science. In any case, as the School and educational computing have evolved there has been much more educational-computing activity within the School of Science recently than in the past.

Each of these School characterizations is a caricature, of course, exaggerating features and underplaying internal diversity. The remainder of this paper provides underlying detail, sketching educational computing department by department.

## ACADEMIC COMPUTING IN MIT'S CORE CURRICULUM

MIT's General Institute Requirements (GIR) begin with several specific subjects that all students must take in

- Mathematics (variations on 18.01 Calculus I and 18.02 Calculus II),
- Physics (variations on 8.01 Physics I and 8.02 Physics II),
- Chemistry (5.11 Principles of Chemical Science or 3.091 Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry), and
- Biology (variations on 7.01 Introductory Biology).

Among these,

- 3.091 Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry uses Athena courseware and communications heavily,
- 8.01 Physics I and 8.02 Physics II sometimes use MIT's cable-TV system to distribute lectures,
- 7.012 Introductory Biology uses genetic-modeling software and communications services on Athena,
- the instructors for 5.11 Principles of Chemical Science are working to make handouts available on Athena and to use other network services, and
- the versions of 8.01 Physics I and 8.02 Physics II taught in some alternative freshman programs use departmental and Athena computers for instruction.

The General Institute Requirements also include

- Required Electives in Science and Technology (REST, previously called Sci- D) and
- required distribution and concentration subjects in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS).

Many popular subjects satisfying these requirements use computers educationally. For example, almost a fifth of the 48 subjects students currently may take to satisfy REST use Athena or other computers instructionally, and several HASS subjects do so as well.

Demand for HASS subjects often exceeds the available seats, requiring a lottery to provide fair access. This lottery has taken place separately in each subject during the first week of classes, providing a ragged start for instruction. Beginning in 1994 the HASS lottery will go online, with students stating preferences electronically, a computer program maximizing first-choice assignments, and results announced by electronic mail as each term begins. Development of the new network-based HASS system is a collaborative venture among the Dean for Undergraduate Education, the Dean of Humanities and Social Science, and several groups within Information Systems, with support from various Information Systems budgets.

The final pieces of the GIR are a laboratory requirement and competency requirements in Physical Education and Writing. Since much modern laboratory work involves computers, so do many Laboratory Requirement subjects. Students who do not satisfy the Writing Requirement by examination often enroll in Writing subjects. Many of these use Athena facilities, especially the NETWORKED EDUCATIONAL ONLINE SYSTEM (described below in the section on Writing and Humanistic Studies).

## ELSEWHERE ON THE ACADEMIC LANDSCAPE

### Special Programs

MIT operates three programs which restructure the freshman year for their participants in various ways.

- Experimental Studies Group (ESG), the oldest of the three, operates a small computer cluster including a few Athena workstations, some personal computers, and an array of special equipment and software. ESG has become very interested in the problems blind students face at MIT, and has been preparing to test its thinking when an appropriate candidate enters the program.
- Concourse uses Athena and other computers for some instruction, especially in Physics.
- Integrated Studies Program (ISP) is closely linked to ECSEL, in the School of Engineering, and uses many of the computer materials developed there.

In addition, the Office of Minority Education operates a tutoring facility for any MIT student who might benefit. The tutoring program's attractive facility in Building 12 includes two Athena workstations, a workstation for 6.001, and a few personal computers.

### Health Sciences & Technology

A few subjects in this joint program between MIT and Harvard use courseware or analytic tools on Athena. For example,

- HST.090 Cardiological Pathology uses software that simulates cardiac functions plus MATLAB, LISP, and OLTA, and
- HST.583 Advanced Methods of Image Analysis for Medical Applications uses MATLAB and image-processing software called KHOROS.

HST students also use HODGKIN-HUXLEY, described below under EECS.

HST graduate students spend a great deal of their time doing clinical rotations and taking classes at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. At one time Project Athena operated two Athena workstations remotely at HMS. The Department has asked us to re-institute this service, and its technical feasibility and cost are currently under study.

Beyond workstations at HMS, HST operates a small cluster of Athena workstations and a separate facility where students may do coursework on several Macintoshes in building E25.

### Outreach

The Council on Primary and Secondary Education (CPSE) promotes and coordinates a wide range of activities whereby MIT works with teachers, students, and school systems to improve K-12 education. In several instances we have worked with CPSE to provide Athena accounts and Internet access for specific groups of teachers and students. We also have helped CPSE to design more ambitious ways to use the Internet for educational improvement, for example by linking groups of students and teachers to experts and mentors in government, industry, and higher education. Unfortunately, CPSE has yet to secure funding for these Internet initiatives.

In addition, Information Systems provides Athena access directly to summer programs for high-school students at MIT, such as the Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) and the Research Science Institute (RSI).

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