TU/e notebook program - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

The results as found for the first effect were surprising, with the provisioning of students with
notebooks against subsidiary costs, the university created a cost reduction instead of the
expected increase. If the alternative of placing desktop computers everywhere on the campus
was implemented the costs would be higher.
A few remarks are needed: the initial costs for the development of the program are not
included, and the costs for both desktop and notebook version are based on the prices and
rates at the moment. The second strategic intention that was evaluated was the effect the
notebook program had on the way the communication was done. This was no surprise; in the
early years of the notebook program communication by email was already high, especially
among students. In the survey that was performed for this evaluation, the use of email only
increased, not only among students but also between students and teachers. Next to that, the
survey indicated an increasing use of other electronic communication means like Instant
Messenger. It was obvious that the use of notebooks, and all the applications that were
developed to support the notebook program increased the use of IT facilities in the education
programs. And last but not least, the third strategic intention: competitive advantage. The
evaluation at the numbers of Eindhoven University of Technology was clear: during the first
two years of the notebook program the number of first-year student increased by 346 students
and that number did not decrease in the years following. To complete the evaluation of the
competitive advantage it was necessary to compare these figures with the figures from the
other technical universities. The benchmark that was performed showed that, in spite of the
existence of a kind of notebook project at the Delft University of Technology and Twente
University, they did not have a competitive advantage ascribable to that program. The
evaluation at TU/e, not only concerning the number of first-year students, but also regarding
the other effects shows that a notebook program is more than the providing of notebooks to
students. Besides the notebook, all the supportive processes, the underlying infrastructure, but
most of all the use of these facilities in the education programs is what has made it a success.
The results of the evaluation are shown in the figure below, in which the objectives are
presented, and the corresponding table with the recapitulated data. Because there are no
financial benefits assigned to the middle ring of the model, the communication between
student and teacher, that aspect is not mentioned in the table.
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