The case studies are part of HP and DyKnow's national marketing programs featured on each company's web site.

HP Workstations have met the needs of incoming freshmen. After reviewing and testing several notebook personal computers, Rose-Hulman chose the HP nw8440 Mobile Workstation to present for freshmen in 2006. Equipped with the Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core Duo 64-bit processing technology, the HP Workstation is a popular platform with professional engineers, and a natural fit for undergraduate engineering students. The HP Mobile Data Protection System 3D reduces the amount of transmissible shock and vibration inside the PC, and its dual-core processor, combined with a large 2-megabyte L2 cache and desktop-caliber graphics, helps provide long-term performance.

David Mutchler, professor of computer science and software engineering, says Rose-Hulman faculty learned early on how powerful notebook PCs can transform the classroom environment. For instance, in teaching calculus, an instructor needs to show students how to work with derivatives. The problem is that many students get bogged down in the mathematical mechanics of drawing a symbolic derivative curve. Using an HP PC, students can easily generate a graphic of the function.

"Letting the PC handle that part of the problem means the role aspect of calculus goes away and students can instead devote their energies to setting up and solving the problem," states Mutchler in the HP case study. "When we saw this effect, we were dedicated to making PCs a vital component in the classroom. We find that they truly improve the learning environment."

Using Technology: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Physics and Optical Engineering Professor Sudipa Kirtley helps a student use the latest HP tablet personal computer technology to analyze data from a laboratory experiment.

Other Rose-Hulman representatives providing testimonials in HP’s case study include Louis Turcotte, vice president of instructional, administrative and information technology; mechanical engineering student Chris Quick; and Julia Williams, an English professor and executive director of the Office of Institutional Research, Planning and Assessment.

In 2003 and 2004, Rose-Hulman received Mobile Technology Solutions in Learning Environments grants from HP to purchase HP/Compaq Tablet PCs. More recently, the institute has been honored with grants from HP’s Teaching with Technology. There are currently three pen-based computing classrooms (tablet PCs and slate devices), and classes that use pen-based computing are scheduled in these rooms.

"The HP Tablet PC is easy to work with and can multitask at the level we need," assessed Quick. "There are a lot of different functions that we can work with. We often pull data or information from one application to another when we're working on a complex problem. The Table PC handles it with no problems. It makes our lives easier and relieves some of the pressure to get information written down and put into play."

With HP technology, Rose-Hulman was charged with finding software that would make capabilities of the tablet meaningful and useful to students. In 2004, Rose-Hulman began using DyKnow Vision with tablet PCs. DyKnow Vision software fosters interaction through collaborative note taking, student response tools, content replay, and anywhere, anytime access. Professors use DyKnow Vision to instantly transmit content to student computers for annotation.

The DyKnow case study examines how the software has been used to enhance courses taught in chemistry, computer science and software engineering, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and physics. Rose-Hulman professors cited in the study were Archana Chidanandan, Rebecca DeVasher, Patrick Ferro, David Fisher, Sudipa Kirtley, Larry Merkle and Mario Simoni.

In a mechanical systems class, most students need more than 50 minutes to absorb the material. Fisher wanted his students to have high quality electronic notes to study with later. Using DyKnow, his students now have an electronic record of lectures and are also experiencing a more interactive classroom. Fisher utilizes the polling feature, as well as panel submission, to showcase student work. He finds that when students can submit problems anonymously they are more likely to participate, rather than suffer the embarrassment of incorrectly solving a problem on the board. Fisher also utilizes the audio features to capture recordings of his lectures along with the notebook and posts them to his website for later viewing.

DyKnow and the Tablet PC have given DeVasher better tools for addressing the unique needs of each student. One DyKnow feature, participant status, allows students the ability to indicate their level of understanding on a topic. Coupled with polling and panel (work) submissions, DeVasher can reach out to the students who are struggling with a particular concept and reward students who are grasping the material.

Case Studies