The University of Texas at El Paso

1. The University of Texas at El Paso http://www.utep.edu

2. UTEP Service Area/Connection Map

4. The University of Texas at El Paso URL : http://www.tpdl.utep.edu

6. Underlying Themes and Major Concerns • Technology and demography as “drivers” for educational change and transformation • On campus vs. off campus settings for learning • Changing nature of knowledge base (from content to context) • Challenges of continuing education and lifelong learning we as a society are facing

7. “Information technology can be the excuse and the means to move closer to educational goals that we have been unable to achieve for decades – and to some new ones…” - Excerpt from “A New Vision Worth Working Toward -- Connected Education and Collaborative Change” February, 2000 version available at http://www.tltgroup.com

8. Harnessing Technological Change to Serve a Changing Student Demography http://www.tpdl.utep.edu/conference/ Nov 01 – Apr 02

9. Involving the Campus with Technology • Campus IT Steering Committee • Technology Decision-Makers Round Table • Academic Affairs IT Committee • Faculty Senate Technology Committee

10. Involving the Campus with Technology : External Groups • UT System Strategic Leadership Council • State Department of Information Resources • Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board • UT TeleCampus • AN-MSI • Educause/NSF Consortium

12. Technology • Asynchronous • Digital • Instantaneous • Interactive • Portable/Wireless • User friendly • Ubiquitous

13. Student Demography • Diversity with a Capital “D” • Technology savvy • Bottom-line oriented • Impatient and anxious • Multiply challenged

14. UTEP Facts http://ir.utep.edu/main/pubfrm/public.htm • Student Profile • 69% Hispanic, 15% Anglo, 2% African-American, 1% Asian, 0.3% Native American • 46% male, 54% female • Average age: undergraduate 24; graduate 34 • 82% from El Paso County • 9% Mexican nationals • 5% from 44 other states and 67 other countries • 81% are employed • 54% are 1st generation university students

15. Faculty • Discipline-based • Technology doubtful • Mainstream oriented • Academically minded • Culturally challenged • Time conscious

16. UTEP Facts • Faculty • 861 full-time and part-time faculty • More than 93% of university’s tenure-track faculty members hold doctorial degrees or the equivalent in their fields

17. Faculty Role Changes • Instructional work changes • Interdisciplinary oriented • Problem based teaching-learning approaches • Distributed learning platforms • Brokerage vs. knowledge imparter • Learning by doing vs. learning by telling • Culturally relevant vs. culturally neutral content • Faculty as learner and student as teacher • Pedagogical “savvy”

18. Advice to Others • Technology is not for wimps. • To be effective, technology requires: • Consistent, focused, integrated campus efforts • Developing a rhythm for change, as opposed to a routine for change • Moving form “stepping stones” and “islands of innovation” to Campus Profile • Defining technology as value added component and not just an “Add-on” • Four major information needs for planning • Characteristics of learners • Conditions for use • Characteristics of media and technology • Characteristics of content and messages being delivered

19. Evaluating the New Information Technologies • Media Characteristics • User/Audience Characteristics • Conditions or Environment for Use • Message or Instructional Content

20. Concentric Circles • Conditions for Use • Types of Media (Content) • Media Characteristics • User/Learner Characteristics

21. The Pedagogy of Electronic Instruction http://www.tpdl.utep.edu/pedagogy

22. Accommodating A Changing Student Demography • Assessing what works and what does not and developing digital repository of “best practices” exemplars to guide your production. • More widespread use of the IEEE’s Internet best practices standards for web page and site layout, development, maintenance, and updating. • More systematic efforts to work with digital media approaches that integrate the attributes of the technology with characteristics of the learners. • Recruitment and involvement of individuals from diverse backgrounds in your digital media production and web- based development staff.

23. Accommodating A Changing Student Demography(continued) • Moving beyond personal assistive technology options to the adoption of human-centered interfaces that adapt to the user. • Greater use of multiple language & signing options that the technology now affords web site developers. • On-going discussion and analysis across your production staff and faculty about those components that make for effective and executable accessibility for “challenged” population groups. • More appropriate integration of text, audio and video elements on web sites.

24. Accommodating A Changing Student Demography(continued) • More conscious decision-making about the web-based production processes, coupled with pre-testing of the value-added effects of using different fonts, under-lining, bolding, italics as well as colors and hues, animation and graphics (drawing on research base on print media layout protocols and effectiveness indicators). • Inviting structured reviews of web sites by outside resource groups, such as the TLT group, and using the feedback provided to guide updates and revisions.

25. http://www.tpdl.utep.edu/demography

27. Important Websites for Follow-up UTEPwww.utep.edu TPDL Officewww.tpdl.utep.edu Digital Media Centerwww.dmc.utep.edu Pedagogy Electronic Instruction www.tpdl.utep.edu/pedagogy Creative Kids www.creativekidsetc.org Manual Acosta www.utep.edu/acousta AN-MSI www.anmsi.org UT TeleCampus www.telecampus.utsystem.edu Harnessing Technological www.tpdl.utep.edu.conference Change