The research methods were divided into four tasks which focused on student opinions on the “Windows vs. Apple” debate, and how universities could close the gap on those needs in an affordable manner. The survey which can be found in the Appendix along with sources which studied the changes made at Bemidji and Wilkes were used as the primary sources, while sources comparing the two platforms and the opinions of students across the country were used as the secondary sources.
Task 1: Understand which platform students prefer between Apple and Windows and how large the disparity is.
Determining the students’ preferences was imperative in order to establish any further case for reviewing the current computing situation. This was done by completing
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The most important criteria were the cost and durability of the purchased devices. According to Apple’s website it was determined that the maximum price of all iMac computers (without customization) was ~$1800 and thus the price would be kept under that figure if possible (Apple). The price of an external optical drive was determined to be about $20-$40 (Amazon). Establishing the number of iMac’s needed and the durability of the optical drive were the last two important criteria. A separate desirable criteria was the possibility of having the project complete before the start of the fall 2015 semester.
Task 4: Select possible iMac computers based on the criteria based above, and remove existing Windows computers to accommodate space.
Once all of the data was gathered it was necessary to select a group of computers from which one would be chosen to serve our needs. These decisions were based not only on the criteria, but also from research done on the existing universities which made the changes proposed. The Windows computers to be removed from the SCC would be tested for various factors and the lowest ranking computers