TU/e notebook program - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

Sub question 2. What comprises the notebook program at the TU/e?
The notebook program of Eindhoven University of Technology is the implementation of a
strategic choice of the university to provide all persons that are studying or working on the
university grounds, and if necessary outside the campus boundaries, with integral IT facilities.
This meant that every student and employee had to be provided with IT facilities wherever
and whenever they needed them. To reach that objective a project team was installed, who
came with a solution that made use of notebooks. In short: students have the opportunity to
make use of the notebook program when they (for the first time) enroll in a TU/e education
program. The notebook program consists of IT facilities like email, data storage, and an
electronic learning environment. Part of the program is of course the notebook itself, with a
complete set of accessories and services. This package is offered to the students at low costs,
with a contribution from the university, so that as many students as possible can make use of
the program. As a result of this way of offering IT facilities, 95% of the universities first-year
students make use of the program. An extended description of the notebook program is
presented in section 1.4
Sub question 3. What are the objectives that were intended with the notebook
program?
The objectives of the notebook program are described in section 1.4.2 and summarized in a
table in section 3.2 where the evaluation on the alignment between notebook program and the
objectives is being performed.
Extracted from the description and the table the objectives are:
• Integrated IT facilities for all students and employees in a feasible way;
• Embedding IT in the education program;
• Acquire competitive advantage compared to other universities in the Netherlands.
Sub question 4. Which method is the most suitable for the evaluation of the notebook
program?
The result of the literature research on the various IT evaluation methods was the choice of
New Information Economics (NIE) as the method to evaluate the notebook program of
Eindhoven University of Technology. NIE is a method in the category Multi-Criteria
approaches.
This method is chosen because it emphasizes the importance of alignment of IT with the
strategic intentions of the organization.
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