UCCS faculty will have a new resource this fall to help with online classes, hybrid classes, and face-to-face teaching.<\/p>\n
The Faculty Resource Center is part of a revamped Teaching and Learning Center that will support faculty in their efforts to design and implement online courses or embrace other new classroom technologies ranging from Blackboard to digital media.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is a positive, supportive, encouraging process to help online course designers,\u201d David Anderson, associate professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said. \u201cWe hope to do that in a variety of ways, including one-on-one assistance as well as webinars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson will serve as the FRC\u2019s faculty director and will report to David Moon, interim provost. Anderson told campus deans that additional help for faculty adapting to new technologies was an idea that originated with a campus online task force. But online courses would not be the only focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Faculty Resource Center is a resource for teaching and learning,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe will support the entire gamut of course delivery \u2013 face-to-face in the classroom, hybrid, or online.\u201d<\/p>\n
The need to expand UCCS online offerings, and to differentiate them from thousands of other courses now offered online, served as impetus for change.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnline course delivery is growing, and growing quickly,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cBut I believe the only way we can be successful is to offer high-quality programs in this format. High-quality course delivery is a guiding principle behind everything that we will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
To assist in the quest for high-quality online programs, the FRC will support a Quality Matters Program developed by MarylandOnline, a consortium of 20 colleges and universities. The faculty-centered, peer review process is designed to certify the quality of online and hybrid courses to students. Two courses, one in the College of Business and another in the Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, participated in the QM program this summer as pilots. More are planned for the fall.\u00a0 Anderson and Moon told deans they are hopeful that faculty who participated in the pilot program will spread the word about the program and the assistance they received from the FRC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing mandatory about participation in the FRC or the Quality Matters program,\u201d Moon said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about improving the learning of students using the tools that we have available to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teaching and Learning Center staff members will continue with the FRC. Kathy Andrus will serve as multimedia specialist, and Sharon Stevens will continue as an online teaching specialist. The FRC will add two new positions, an instructional designer and an instructional technologist, to assist faculty in designing and implementing courses, and to support the QM program. Student staff members will help faculty to use Blackboard and multimedia equipment.<\/p>\n
For more about the Faculty Resource Center, visit http:\/\/www.uccs.edu\/tlc\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"