Academic Technologies Strategic Plan

The College of St. Scholastica
Academic Technologies Strategic Plan

for Faculty/Staff Review Comment

INTRODUCTION

Charge and Scope

The goal of the Academic Technology Strategic Plan is to enhance the teaching/learning process for all St. Scholastica learners and ensure the College will be competitive and continue to successfully meet the needs of our students. This project intentionally supports the efforts of the College's strategic initiatives in that it:

• Priority II. Utilizes existing technology to help people to think creatively and adapt to the needs of our learners more effectively
• Priority III. Seeks to address the needs of traditional and non-traditional learners by providing an outstanding digital learning environment that delivers the highest quality academic programs and student services.
• Priority IV. Provides for a competitive technology infrastructure ensuring faculty, staff and students have the tools they need to be successful.
• Priority V. Promotes the use of technology to increase productivity and provide outstanding customer service leading to increased financial resources.

 

The Academic Technology Strategic Plan takes into account:

• The needs of distant and diverse students through the use of outstanding, web-based online programs.
• The expectations of traditional students through the identification, selection and application of a variety of academic technologies integrated into the curriculum.
• The need to improve retention by using technology to meet the learning needs of a variety of learning styles.

 

Learning Models

 

St. Scholastica's Academic Technologies Strategic Plan is organized around four learning models currently in use at CSS:

 

1. Face to face traditional (F2F) - This learning model requires technologies that support synchronous activities during the class session, with auxiliary resources as needed to provide resources in support of the teaching and learning process. Responses from surveys that were issued to three stakeholder groups (Academic Administrators, Faculty, and Students) indicate that technologies that are preferred by one group are not closely aligned with those that are used and enjoyed by the other. Therefore, a logical mandate of this academic technology plan would be to accelerate efforts to identify, communicate, evaluate, and possibly experiment with technologies that will be most effective in the teaching and learning environment.

 

2. Face to face accelerated (F2FA) - This program type challenges instructors and students with a condensed, 8-week delivery of the same breadth and depth of material as that which is covered in the traditional 16-week semester and classroom. Instructors of this accelerated format of instruction are making the transition to a one-day per week format, which - without the use of interim strategies such as the use of academic technologies - would involve the need for an instructor to maintain a high level of productivity while covering the equivalent of two-weeks worth of course material in a single 4-hour night

 

3. Hybrid (H) - Hybrid or blended courses involve some online instruction combined with fewer face to face sessions. Programs that are currently providing Hybrid instructional formats include Graduate Studies as well as courses in the Health Sciences, Behavioral Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences. Due to its reliance on multiple modalities of instructional delivery, this format requires diverse skills on the part of both designer/instructor and student.

 

4. Online (O) - Using the Blackboard/WebCT Learning System software, several CSS courses and programs are taught fully online. The programs that are implementing fully online courses most thoroughly are Health Sciences and Graduate Studies. Traditional undergraduates as well as students enrolled in graduate and professional programs have had the option of participating in specific online courses at CSS. Instructors who teach online courses are required to create engaging content and develop means to encourage interactivity and collaboration with and among students. Time management relating to the development and teaching of certain online courses - especially those involving a strong emphasis on student discussions - is often a challenge. Quality teaching tools are also needed to prevent the course from having too high an emphasis on text-based courses.

 

STRATEGIC PLAN

 

Vision: Create an optimal digital learning environment at The College of St. Scholastica that:

1. Removes barriers between learning objectives and learning resources (access to information)
2. Individualizes the learning experience to address a variety of learning styles (text, simulations, visual, interactive, social) and student populations.
3. Integrates and imbeds formative and summative assessment inside the digital learning environment. Continually assess the effectiveness of the learning experience, discover individual learning needs, have resources to meet those needs.

Strategic Initiatives

 

CSS Strategic Plan Priority II. Utilize existing technology to help people to think creatively and adapt to the needs of our learners more effectively.

 

Learning model (F2F, F2FA, H, O)	Goals
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Continue to promote the best-practice use of Blackboard/WebCT Learning System to enhance learning. Work to ensure uniformity and quality in the various functionality of bulletin boards, assignments, calendars, and grades.
F2FA	Continue to leverage existing learning tools and technologies to provide a supplemental online presence in 100% of face-to-face accelerated courses.
O	Provide guidance and best practices that will assist faculty to leverage face-to-face opportunities that lend a real-world and interpersonal component to the fully online course environment.
F2F. F2FA, H	Expand the use of Interactive Technologies such as the College's student response system (eInstruction/classroom clickers) and Smartboards, to encourage student participation and just-in-time assessment in the classroom.
F2F, F2FA, H	Continue the installation of standard technologies in all classrooms including remote campuses to include a user-friendly control system (Crestron).

CSS Strategic Plan Priority III. Seeks to address the needs of traditional and non-traditional learners by providing an outstanding digital learning environment that delivers the highest quality academic programs and student services.

 

Learning model (F2F, F2FA, H, O)	Goals
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Continue to advance efforts toward a Web Portal Solution for individualized access to information, communication, organization, and administrative services.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Provide server and bandwidth resources to support faculty innovation in the area of multimedia learning technologies.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Support the Spring '07 transition to the Blackboard/WebCT Learning System.
F2FA, H, O	Explore meeting software, videoconferencing, and other academic technology solutions that will enhance our ability to create and provide an outstanding digital learning environment.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Seek out subject-specific teaching and learning tools and components that will enliven and enhance the online learning environment. (ATHENS, RSS Feeds, simulation software).
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Develop a referral and support mechanism to ensure students have the technology expertise needed to succeed in the classroom.

 

CSS Strategic Plan Priority IV. Provides for a competitive technology infrastructure ensuring faculty, staff and students have the tools they need to be successful.

Learning model (F2F, F2FA, H, O)	Goals
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Support the acquisition and/or development of high quality learning objects, audio, video, and other academic technology resources. v Access to royalty free digital images. v Reusable Learning Objects (RLO's). v SCORM-based (e.g., trackable) learning objects v Comprehensive digital index of citations, abstracts and full-text for electronic periodicals, books, multi-media, and web sites that is searchable in a variety of ways. (quality) v Tools to archive video/audio (student newspaper, music library, PBS Ojibwe language and culture DVD's) v Digital document delivery system: Repository of digitized faculty and student produced knowledge (MA projects)
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Utilize survey and polling tools (QuestionPro) to provide faculty and administrators with data on the effectiveness of the evolving teaching and learning format.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Evaluate promising new technologies and applications on an ongoing basis.
O	Monitor new developments in the area of fully-online instruction in higher education.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Pilot an E-portfolio solution for student outcomes storage and tracking
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Create an IT staffing model that supports technical and pedagogical support of faculty on a proactive and as-needed basis (add support of academic technologies to Microcomputer Support Specialist positions).

CSS Strategic Plan Priority V. Promotes the use of technology to increase productivity and provide outstanding customer service leading to increased financial resources.

 

Learning model (F2F, F2FA, H, O)	Goals
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Encourage academic administration and faculty use of existing technologies, including assessment tools, to identify needs and solve problems
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Identify ways that academic technologies can contribute to an increasingly cost effective program design.
F2FA	Discontinue the ADEP Laptop Program, implement an ADEP student technology expectation, and enhance ADEP campus technologies.

 

Delivery-method Environmental Indicators. Emphasize both face to face and online learning technologies. Increase administration, faculty, and student comfort with all manner of learning technologies, regardless of delivery method or venue.

 

Learning model (F2F, F2FA, H, O)	Goals
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Provide training that will allow administrators, teachers and learners to develop and thrive in a successful learning environment.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Coordinate educational opportunities that showcase best practice use of technology to enhance the teaching/learning environment (i.e.. TECHO faculty showcases, WebCT Spring Tour, Academic Technology Institute)
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Provide classroom technologies that facilitate and support unique learning models. A current initiative is the use of tablet PC's and special features for more interactive presentations, the posting of instructor notes and drawings, and the exploration of other pen-based capabilities.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Explore and promote means of communication that will keep teachers and learners connected and further the teaching process (i.e. Blogs, Wikis, or other collaborative tools).

Student/Faculty-driven Indicators (feedback from survey, observation, committee input). Provide technologies and services that meet unique needs of administration, faculty, and students in a traditional, undergraduate environment.

 

Learning model (F2F, F2FA, H, O)	Goals
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Accelerate efforts to identify, communicate, evaluate, and possibly experiment with technologies that will be most effective in each learning model.
F2F, F2FA	Strive to meet on-campus needs for lab and student collaboration space.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Provide students with online tools that allow them to monitor their status in all CSS courses (e.g., WebCT Gradebook integration with BANNER).
F2FA, H, O	Offer Web-based and self paced training opportunities Schedule more evening sessions when providing professional development opportunities.
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Continue use of discipline-specific technologies to promote student learning (i.e. SIMM-Man, ATHENS, GTL Laptops)
F2F, F2FA, H, O	Explore and promote the use of games and simulations to meet the needs of diverse learners.

Assessment

 

Working with appropriate faculty and staff and in collaboration with the Institutional Researcher, the Information Technologies Department will develop assessment tools that measure specific technology's impact on the learner environment. Specified technologies as well as overall perceptions will be measured on an annual basis as part of the Academic Technology Coordinators goals and the Information Technologies Department strategic planning process.

Appendix

 

A - History and Background

B - Student Academic Technology Survey Results

C - Faculty Academic Technology Survey Results

D - Administrator Academic Technology Survey Results

E - Glossary