Technology staff helps educate UI educators

Classroom culture has changed. Students visit with professors about assignments via online chat. They take quizzes and check grades, do research, and even take entire courses—all on the Internet.

It’s up to instructors to make that technology enhance learning. But they can’t do it alone. That’s where Academic Technologies steps in.

Academic Technologies (AT), a department within Information Technology Services, supports the use of technology in teaching, learning, and research on campus.

Instructors and researchers working with technology in research or instruction are encouraged to use AT services. And those who want to use technology in these ways but don’t know where to begin, can go to AT for help in getting started. In many cases, AT services are offered free of charge.

Steve Thunder-McGuire, associate professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education, uses AT to help him create digital video projects. He says his work at the University could not be accomplished at the level that it has without AT assistance.

“Scholarship in the arts and humanities has changed incredibly over the past decade. Any research institution that’s going to remain vital needs to help make the transition to accomplish multimedia production and other technical advancements,” says Thunder-McGuire, who also has a faculty appointment in art and art history in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“Academic Technologies is a resource that is an absolutely basic tool to the University. I know we’ve attracted new faculty simply because of this resource.”

Educating the educators

The 25 AT staff members—and anywhere from five to a dozen graduate students at any one time—do training and consulting involving new hardware and software, digital media (such as audio and video for use on the web), preparing information for the web, and developing web-based applications.

They also provide assistance with the use of technology in research, from high-performance computing and system administration to research consulting and bioinformatics.

In some cases, AT will guide professors and their support staff who are developing their own web sites for classroom use. Other times, AT will take on the projects themselves, developing web sites and materials, and even writing new software programs to meet specific needs.

“We’re a little-known secret on campus. We’ve only been around since 1998,” says Molly Langstaff, director of AT. “Not all faculty and staff know we’re here to help them. We hope the word spreads and interest continues to grow.”

Lisa Troyer, associate professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has a close working relationship with AT.

“I’m always looking for ways to use technology to enhance my students’ learning. Also, I like to stay ahead of the curve and know the latest about new technology,” Troyer says. “Academic Technologies is the ideal resource.”

As a result of a partnership between AT and the provost’s office in an effort to promote innovations in instructional computing, Troyer is working on an undergraduate course in social psychology that allows students to work with virtual reality environments.

“UI Computing 101”

Troyer also is teaching an online, one-credit-hour course this semester called Online@Iowa, which offers tutorials to new students about how to use the University’s many computing resources and how to be a courteous, lawful user.

The course has been restructured and expanded this year by AT, and more than 2,000 students are enrolled. Troyer says she is most impressed by the way those in AT work with instructors to help get the most out of technology use on campus.

“These people aren’t just computer programmers, they’re experts in instructional design. They understand strategies that work and don’t work for using technology in teaching,” Troyer says. “They listen to what you want to do, think about it carefully, then give you specific, thoughtful ideas about what to do. I can’t tell you how impressed I’ve been with the process.”

Bob Boynton also appreciates the help he received from AT when he needed to purchase a server and software to help organize and store files for students to use in their class work and research.

Boynton, professor of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and creator of the first version of the Online@Iowa course, has used AT resources and expertise to develop classes on multimedia politics, governing feudal England, and global communication.

“I couldn’t teach the way I do if we didn’t have computers and assistance in using them,” he says. “The AT staff has always been very helpful to me.

“I come in with these crazy ideas, and they help me make my ideas real.”

High-tech course management

One of AT’s most critical roles is to help the University with its course management systems—Blackboard and WebCT—which are software tools that faculty use to post course content, calendars, syllabi, quizzes, and student grades, and to hold chat sessions with students.

Increasingly, instructors are using course management systems to post grades, Langstaff says, since they are no longer allowed to publicly, physically post them. Online, each student can only see his or her own grades.

In an attempt to streamline the system and make it as effective as possible, the University will begin the move to one course management system campuswide in 2005.

In the next few weeks, faculty, staff, and students from around campus will be evaluating the usability of three different systems. A campuswide committee, with input from an advisory group comprised of representatives from each college and key administrative unit, will make a recommendation to the provost by early October.

Full implementation will take more than a year; Langstaff acknowledges that the process is a long one.

“Converting from our existing resources to the new will take time. But we will make a number of additional resources available to help with the transition,” she says. “It’s a big change for the University, but well worth it in the long run.”

by Amy Schoon