Darcy Hardy
Executive Director, U T TeleCampus

About UTTC

The U T System decided several years ago that it was time for it to embark on a mission and that mission was to look at online learning as a way to reach more students across the state of Texas, from that the U T TeleCampus was born. Today, the TeleCampus serves over 10,000 enrollments annually and we have over two dozen online programs available to students.

Student Services

The TeleCampus prides itself in the number of services that we offer for students. These include 24 by 7 technical support, an online digital library, online tutoring both in real time and asynchronously, as well as a variety of other services that help faculty reach the students and teach them in a better way.

Quality Assurance

If you are considering taking courses through the TeleCampus, or enrolling in one of the programs offered through the TeleCampus, I think you will be happy to know that we have been recognized nationally for the high quality of services that we offer. Developing courses - we do that very well - and I think we do that better than anyone else in the country, but not everyone else in the country provides the services at the level we provide them. So, when you enroll in a course with us we’re going to surround you with the services that are going to make you successful in the online environment.

Diversity

When you enroll in a TeleCampus course you’re going to mix with a variety of students, many of them will be from Texas, but some of them will be from all parts of the world.

Our Strengths

I think the TeleCampus stands out from some of our competitors because we focus so much on high quality service and on high quality course development.

Dr. Patricia McGee
Instructor, U T San Antonio

Course Development Support

The U T TeleCampus was really exciting to me, because it gave me an opportunity to develop a course according to standards that I knew were rigorous and well-vetted. Plus, I got an incredible amount of support in designing and developing the course, and doing all the kind of problem solving things that often times we may not get when we teach an online course at our local campus.

Connecting with Students

I interact with my students in many different ways. But first of all, through the U T TeleCampus I require that each student schedule a phone conference with me, preferably before the semester begins. This way we can kind of connect on a personal level. I can solicit their concerns, or worries or interests in this phone conversation. It also breaks down a barrier, and gives them a personal identity to me. They often know each other, but they often have never seen or heard me before. Then, I try to use the tools that are afforded to us through our course management system that are appropriate for the instructional objective I have.

Diverse Classrooms

Well, my students are all graduate students, however, that’s probably where the similarity ends because they come from all over the country, and they come from different backgrounds. So I may have K through 12 school teachers, I may have people in higher education, I may have bankers, lawyers, I may have people who do training in non-academic areas… it’s a very diverse population and it poses an interesting challenge, but I also think the diversity of students contributes to the learning of everyone, and definitely my own learning.

One-to-One Learning

It’s really looking at teaching and learning in a very different way because it really becomes one-to- one instead of one-to-many as it occurs in a classroom. That I think is the biggest shift. I know my online students so much better than I do my face-to-face students. I talk to them more; I get to know them more, because we communicate more intensely and deeply in an online environment.

Any Time, Any Place

I teach my course from the road all the time, in an airport or any number of places, and it doesn’t make a difference to me – I carry my technology. I have a smart phone, I have a laptop, I have headphones, so there’s no reason that I’m ever away from teaching and learning, which is very liberating for me as a faculty member because I am not bound by time or space and I think this contributes to the success of my teaching, but also the success of my students.

Commitment to Excellence

This is just a wonderful experience, I mean in many ways having this experience has made me want to teach in other institutions to kind of disseminate what I have learned through this experience. And it’s only improved my own practice, and specifically with the U T TeleCampus. This is a unique organization that has a commitment to excellence.

Scott Floyd
U T Arlington, 2006 Graduate, Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with Literary Emphasis

Flexible Scheduling

I chose an online degree because, as an educator my day does not start… its not just an 8 to 3 schedule. It actually runs into the evening with grading papers. And, I have a 5-year-old at the house as well. I didn’t want to lose that time with him driving back and forth to a college that’s 45 minutes to an hour away each direction. So, an online degree offered me the opportunity to go home, be with my family, put my son to bed, and then go into the office and start working on my degree… and stay up until however long I needed to stay up.

Credentials

The biggest misconception about learning online is that it’s easy – it’s not easy - it’s by far the most difficult work that I’ve ever done. But I can walk away saying that I truly earned a master’s degree that I should be respected for having.

Making Goals

My greatest challenge with an online degree was probably – I was very self-motivated so that wasn’t a problem - it was just trying to balance the amount of time I was working on my degree, my job and my family. I just had to get my priorities straight. I was able to actually finish the degree half a year earlier.

Meaningful Resources

We actually had to find a way to use technology as a culminating activity of all the learning that we’ve done through the program. So I chose blogging as my topic, and I did a lot of research, and then created a site on teaching teachers how to integrate blogging. Since then, I’ve done presentations using that material.

Career Enhancement

I chose the curriculum instruction degree because I enjoy what I do in the classroom, but I want to be able to have a positive effect for more students, in a larger scale. I chose this degree to get me going in that direction. I can see because of the technology integration that I’ve picked up – from that, and my interest in that area, that my next level will probably be working with teachers on how to integrate technology… and working with information literacy to be able to benefit the kids, because they are going into a completely different world than what we grew up in.