Projects and Perspectives
Current Projects
School of Social Work:
Providing online course work and certification opportunities for students have become priorities for the School of Social Work within the past two years. Because so many social work programs nationally are going to online formats, the LUC department realized they needed to provide quality online offerings in order to stay competitive and better serve their students. LTA staff have been working closely with faculty from the school in an effort to design and implement courses that meet these requirements. Through a series of workshops conducted by LTA staff, SSW faculty have created a strategy for laying out courses so there is consistency among offerings, explored synchronous and asynchronous discussion opportunities, and discussed methods for effective delivery of online course content. The initial cohort of faculty involved in the online effort continues to meet several times each semester for ongoing training. As new faculty come aboard the initiative, a second series of workshops is being added.
Institute of Pastoral Studies:
Many students enrolled in courses taught by the Institute of Pastoral Studies (IPS) faculty are employed full time and need flexibility in course scheduling. Online courses provide a perfect solution for these students. With this realization in mind, IPS began working with LTA staff to explore the possibilities of providing course content online. Our office has provided several ½ days of technology training for the unit and continues to help direct faculty to resources for online teaching and learning.
School of Education:
With pockets of expertise on a range of teaching and teaching with technology areas, the School of Education sought our assistance for providing some general organization of their diverse needs. We are providing workshops in conjunction with SOE staff to help faculty deal with the issues of transforming success traditional courses to blended and online formats.
School of Nursing:
The School of Nursing at Loyola has been doing online teaching for several years. They sought our help in establishing a certificate program for their faculty to ensure consistent quality among courses. Every faculty member who teaches online for the SON will pass a course that emphasizes the skills needed to teach successfully online. LTA staff will assist by providing some of the training for the certificate.
Academic Technologies Committee
LTA staff are working with representatives of the ATC and Loyola University Libraries to investigate digital copyright policy at the university. They will translate their findings onto a web site (and eventually a brochure) providing a straight-forward dialogue of the guidelines for course use of copyrighted materials. This information is currently available in a format that has proven difficult to interpret and apply.
Core Curriculum Committee:
Loyola’s recently restructured Core Curriculum is undergoing assessment in a 3 year cycle. LTA staff have assisted the Core Curriculum Committee establish a process and procedure for the assessment and has been instrumental in assisting with interpretation of the collected data.