Computer laboratories:: Preparing for the challenges of the 21st century

This paper focuses on campus facilities, namely computer labs in higher learning institutions. The main objective is to determine computer labs requirements to support Information Technology/ Information Systems (IT/IS) curriculum and their research activities. It is necessary to examine the curriculum in order to design computer labs, which are robust and responsive enough to meet the changing needs in education. An investigation based on IT/IS curriculum at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) was conducted. The exercise involved dividing the curriculum into five major categories: programming, multimedia, networking, application, and others (project, seminar, research). These categories were used as a basis for participants in the investigation to propose suitable computer labs to support the curriculum. The findings suggested two major categories of labs: dedicated teaching and dedicated research. For each category, several types of labs were proposed. Another type which is flexible lab, was also suggested to facilitate independent learning. All these program-driven labs posse two inter-related characteristics which are flexible and have multiple-usage. It is envisaged that the proposed labs are able to support the current trend in the IT/IS curriculum and to accommodate any changes in the future.