What is the Tech Fee?

The Tech Fee, formally called the Instructional Technology Enhancement Initiative Course Materials Fee, supports instructional technology enhancements via Collaborate services.

Starting in Fall 2023 the UCSB Tech Fee is now 39.80 per quarter for all students at all colleges, including post graduate students.

The fee provides and supports modern technology for instruction and learning, and funds things like online tools and materials, computer-based instructional labs, classroom presentation and interaction tools, and student services.

Student Employment

To help support our Mission, Collaborate employs over 50 undergraduate and graduate students quarterly.

Student Employment Opportunities

Why is the fee necessary?

The enhancements and services Collaborate provides are a vital part of a modern university, and could not be achieved within existing budgets.

Careful planning goes in to allocating the money collected from the fee. We make every effort to minimize the amount of the fee  (which is less than half of the comparable fee at UCLA), and to make sure we focus on services that provide the most direct positive impact on students.

Oversight for Collaborate services is provided by the deans of the College of Letters and Science in partnership with a Collaborate Advisory Committee that meets regularly to provide student and faculty input.

What services and enhancements are provided by the fee?

Many resources on campus that students and faculty use every day are supported by the Tech Fee.

Canvas

In Fall of 2023 UCBC is moving from Gauchospace to Canvas as our learning management system. Canvas provides a rich set of features such as tools for faculty/student communication via email and discussion forums, shared files and links, online assignments, quizzes, grade books, and portals to other course-based services.

Academic Advising Applications

In support of the student learning experience, Collaborate funded the development of online services and tools in the Division of Undergraduate Education. These include:

Box

Box is a no cost, secure, cloud-based sharing and storage service. It's a campus-supported cloud-based storage solution with built-in tools to create and share files with anyone. It also features online storage for your UCSB files, future integration with GauchoSpace, and is both secure and FERPA compliant.

About Box

Student Support Center

The Collaborate Student Support Center (SSC) provides walk-up and online support for student use of instructional technologies. Services include:

  • walk-up support
  • support for scheduled and open access use of lab hardware
  • software support for uMail (student email system)
  • UCSBnetID login support (for UCSB Wireless Web access, GauchoSpace login, etc.)

Collaborate Student Support Center (SSC)

Wireless Access

The expansion of the UCSB wireless network allows enhanced student access to a wide variety of instructional services. Since its inception, Collaborate has solely or jointly funded wireless installations in over 100 campus locations.

For a complete list of wireless locations, see Network Operations Center (NOC) Wireless Access List.

Makerspace

Collaborate and the Library have teamed up to provide a new Makerspace located in the Library and opening in Winter quarter 2023. The UCSB Makerspace empowers creativity and innovation through a supportive experiential learning environment that encourages curiosity, playfulness, and risk-taking. We offer access to high-quality tools, in-depth instruction, and expert consultation to transform creative visions into reality. Within our dynamic community workspace, learners have the unique opportunity to engage in collaborative problem solving, lifelong learning, and professional growth.

Printspot

GauchoPrint is UCSB's answer to printing across campus to bring improved accessibility and ease of use.

By providing printing at centralized locations around campus - Collaborate's PrintSpots, SRB's first floor forum, and soon the Library - students have the ability to print their documents close to their destination on campus. Additionally, Collaborate's PrintSpots offer students the ability to use provided software to create or edit their work while receiving assistance from staff.

The introduction of GauchoPrint also allows students to print from their own devices for the first time. This allows students to effortlessly print while on the go and then pick up their papers conveniently within the next few hours.

College of Letter's and Science students continue to get their 200 pages per quarter allotment courtesy of the Collaborate tech fee. However, for the first time, GauchoPrint allows you to add additional credits to your account should run out of your quarterly allotment thanks to our integration with GauchoBucks.

GauchoPrint

Video Capture (Gauchocast)

GauchoCast is a service provided by Instructional Development, in partnership with Collaborate, for the recording, editing, and distribution of streaming audio and video content on the web, making lecture capture with multiple inputs (e.g. lecture audio, synchronized slides, camera) available from any computer with the recording software installed.

General Assignment Classrooms & Departmental Teaching Spaces

Collaborate installs and maintains presentation and interaction capability in all UCSB General Assignment Classrooms, including computers, wireless access, and interactive teaching technology.

Over the past five years, Collaborate has supported and funded the placement of instructional hardware and software in over 100 teaching spaces within the College of Letters & Science, including upgraded equipment and materials for a variety of specialized teaching needs.  

Instructional Labs

Collaborate supports computer-based teaching and learning with reservable lab spaces and open access labs.

Instructional labs can serve as primary teaching locations, configured either in a traditional classroom layout or arranged for group activities. They can be reserved for independent student activities, and are available for student access when they are not in use for a scheduled class.

Lab Information

Student Software Workshops

Collaborate offers two-hour drop-in software workshops open to all currently enrolled students. Workshops are offered every quarter to provide students with essential skills in many software packages available in the Collaborate labs.

Workshop topics include:

  • DreamWeaver
  • Excel, Word, Powerpoint
  • HTML, JavaScript
  • Illustrator. InDesign, Photoshop
  • and many more!

Digitization

Collaborate provides resources and support for the creation of instructional digital materials to be used both in classroom presentations and on GauchoSpace course sites. These materials include:

  • Online course readers
  • Scanned images, photos, drawings and graphic artwork
  • Film, video and sound materials
  • Captioning and transcription of materials for improved accessibility
  • Discipline-specific instructional materials