Background

In May of 2000 Benedictine University was notified that our application for federal assistance under the Title III program was successful. The $1.75 million award supports the five-year project Strengthening Student Services and Academic Programs, which began on October 1, 2000. This is the first issue of a newsletter through which we plan to keep the University community informed of the progress of this project.

The Project Abstract describes the two project components:

Component 1: Web-based Student Services and Academic Advising will provide students with the option to access their individual student records, complete degree planning, academic advising and the full-array of student services through a web-based system.

Component 2: Professional Development and Academic Improvement will establish a Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning to enhance understanding of the learning styles and needs of current and future students and to use technology, especially the web, to meet those needs in pedagogically sound ways. Information competency requirements and liberal education core competency requirements will be developed and technology and innovative teaching methodologies used to enhance teaching and assessment of these competencies. Three programs will develop student web-based portfolios as graduation requirements to meet emerging professional needs and as models for other programs.

Grant Personnel

David Sonnenberger is the Project Director for Title III. Ethel Ragland serves as Component 1 Director, and Jon Lewis serves as Component 2 Director/Faculty mentor/Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Eileen Clark is the Professional Development Coordinator. Elizabeth Hill is the Project Secretary.

Component 1

Fall semester has been a time of climbing the technology learning curve by participating on a number of related committees (People Soft, Student Records, and Technology Governance) and attending People Soft training on student records administration. The Title III team also had the opportunity/challenge to present grant highlights first to the Executive Committee and then the full Board of Trustees.

We have formed a focus group with representation from across the university. Members include: Jane Crabtree, Wendie Connors, Linda Crafton, James Iaccino, Eileen Kolich, Al Martin, Sue Mikula, Jon Miller, David Striker, and Jon Swanson. We have had two productive sessions. The first focused on three questions:

• What do we need out of the system to properly advise our students?
• How do we go about setting competencies for people using the system and insure adequate training?
• How do we move from a manual to automated system of prerequisites/permissions?
  

The second session addressed what proficiencies faculty, staff, and students will need to operate the system.

In spring semester we plan to convene Department Chairs for a brainstorming session regarding rules and regulations needed to guide the advising system.

Component 2

The grant targets Common Core faculty as well as faculty from Communication Arts, Education, and Nutrition (the three programs that will be requiring web-based portfolios) to develop web-enhanced courses. The first of these faculty will begin work during the Spring 2001 semester. They are Martin Tracey, Jack Thornburg, Larnell Dunkley, Julie Dugger, Mike Marino, Linda Crafton, and Eileen Kolich. Over the 5 years of the grant, we will be able to provide release time to assist more than 50 faculty in developing technology-enhanced courses. Faculty funded in this project will become peer consultants for other faculty, in support of the grant objective to increase the percentage of faculty using collaborative learning techniques on the web to 60% by September 30, 2005.

The grant provides funds to hire Student Technology Assistants to work with faculty. We hired six students and are training them on WebCT, our online course development and delivery system. The students are: Annie Lee and Dagmar Oltmanns, international students in the MIS and MBA programs respectively, and Dan Smetters, Tom Swift, Krishna Ranjani and Bhumika Thakkar, undergraduate computer science students. We will hire additional Assistants next term, with emphasis on attracting students from a variety of disciplines, and with the expectation that Assistants will be able to continue working on the project at least through the 2001-2002 academic year.

Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

A key institutional goal, which will be addressed by the project over the next five years, is to "Design and deliver a professional development program for all faculty and staff through the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning". The Center, to be located in what is now the conference room behind BH 174, will be operational by January 2001. Four high-end PC's, a video camera, a digital camera, a scanner, a printer, and a projection unit have been ordered. A software suite for multimedia courseware development has been identified and ordered. The suite includes Dreamweaver, Flash, Cool Edit, and video editing software.

Speakers

Another key institutional goal, to "Transform teaching and learning at Benedictine University through the application of innovative methodologies and technology to better prepare graduates for living in the 21st century", will be furthered by a number of professional development activities. The first of these were presentations by David G. Brown, vice president and dean of Wake Forest's International Center for Computer Enhanced Learning (ICCEL). Professor Brown gave two presentations emphasizing the role computer technology can play in fostering a sense of community among students and between students and instructors. He also met with Title III faculty and articulated fundamental principles underlying the effective use of computers in the classroom and provided useful answers to course management questions.

What's next?

• On Friday, January 26, 2:30 - 4:00p.m. in the Library Auditorium, Jerry Kickul, Director of the Instructional Design Department, College of St. Francis, will address the faculty on copyright issues related to multimedia courseware development. On Friday, February 9, 2:30 - 4:00p.m. in the Krasa Presentation Room, Burks Oakley, Director of University of Illinois Online, will speak about on-line education, web-based courses, and web-based programs. We also plan to schedule a speaker to address best advising practices and related roles.

• The Core Committee and other Core faculty met during semester break to begin developing a list of specific core competencies associated with each of the Core Goals, including information technology competencies. The results of their work will be disseminated.

• Workshops facilitating the development of the University Strategic Plan for Technology are currently in progress. Once developed, the Strategic Plan will help us identify technology competency standards for students, faculty, and staff. Appropriate training will begin during the spring term.

• Eileen Clark and Jon Lewis will develop and offer workshops and accompanying web-based materials for the multimedia software suite, and for WebCT, during the spring term. Computer classrooms have been reserved for M 1:30 - 3:00p.m., T 10:00 - 11:30a.m., W 10:00 - 11:30a.m., and Th 1:00 - 2:30p.m. A detailed schedule will be distributed during the first week of the term. We encourage all faculty to attend.