It's the Teaching and Learning, Stupid

For those of you who don’t (or who are too young to) remember the Clinton 1992 campaign phrase, this title is a play on ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid,’ which meant that the economy was THE issue, and all talk of other priorities and associated jockeying was noise. In the university, we have a similar situation. Our UC Flex system has received a lot of appropriate attention as it was engineered and implemented, but that is not the business. Our research enterprise is one of the finest in the country (with funding in the top 25 public universities), but researchers are usually ahead of the curve, know what they need and will break old molds to get it; we pride ourselves on delivering what they need. Usually it is funded.
 
Cutting edge support for teaching and learning is harder. It is a more diverse environment with many more constituents – the 36,000 students and 4,000 teaching faculty – and constraints, of funding, support, and respected but dated traditional models. Consistent with Cincinnati humility, we don’t often recognize what a leader UC is in the new teaching and learning space.

We have over 1,400 distance learning courses, placing us second in the state in that new space. In some colleges, nearly half of all students are at a distance.

UC is a national leader in providing Blackboard course management services which power traditional, hybrid and distance courses. Many of the services are leading edge:

• text alerts to changing course information;
• the course preview tool for registration;
• class photos;
• an advertising pilot (which proved it was not feasible, but it was an interesting initiative); and,
• this spring, an e-portfolio pilot.

The use of Blackboard at UC far exceeds national benchmarks:  over 70% of the faculty use it, and over 88% of the students have at least one course on it. Use of its capabilities keeps increasing, as do the depth and richness of online course content.

UC’s inventory of electronic classrooms is large, well equipped – and growing. The partnership between UCit and the Provost’s Office’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning has been close and effective, with over 1,100 faculty having taken short courses or online modules. The Faculty Technology Resources Center provides continuous support in a variety of technologies beyond Blackboard to podcasting, video streaming, and (honestly) any other technology a faculty member wants to see and try.
 
But we listen and partner with the students who are the learners (not to say that the teaching isn’t the most intense learning experience we can enjoy). For several years now we have worked with student government leaders to bring services such as polling on Blackboard, the course review tool, UC Mobile, and others – including the new UCit@Langsam, a 24/7 information commons with over 100 workstations available in a variety of work formats. That partnership continues this winter, as we consider outsourcing e-mail and associated services for students.
 
This issue of UCit now focuses on teaching and learning, support for it, and institutional initiatives and plans. Maybe it’s a bit celebratory – but that’s okay. The education industry talks of transformation. Technology not only facilitates but is essential to that transformation. We, collectively, are making that happen here at UC.

We welcome your comments.

 | next article |

Return to the Winter 2008 index.