UT4Me Fall 2007 What's New

Front Page | What's New

New MTT Program
This semester, UT Brownsville launched a new program for educators. The Master Technology Teacher (MTT) program is designed to provide students with an opportunity to further their studies while becoming technology mentors at the campus and district level. If the MTT student wishes to pursue a master’s degree, the four required MTT courses fit directly into the online Master of Education in Educational Technology degree.

UTTC Plans New Supplemental Instruction (SI) Program
In September, faculty and staff from UT Austin, UT Arlington, UT El Paso, UT Pan American, UT San Antonio and UT Tyler joined UTTC staff to discuss an exciting new project: an online Supplemental Instruction program in Algebra. Dr. Glen Jacobs, executive director at the International Center for Supplemental Instruction, also attended the meeting and endorsed the project.

SI programs are designed to supplement some of the more challenging general education core courses. Key to these programs is the inclusion of peer facilitators who conduct non-mandatory review sessions and workshops. SI programs have been successful on campuses around the world. The UT TeleCampus will not be developing a program that will replace face-to-face SI programs on our campuses. Instead, UTTC plans to create a program (with the help of campus faculty and staff) that will be an alternative to those already in place, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Organize your Research with RefWorks
The UT TeleCampus has added a new service to support faculty and academic students in their research and writing. RefWorks is a citation management software that allows users to organize research, format references according to various citation styles, and output references automatically.

RefWorks offers these functions:

• Create a personal database online - Store an unlimited number of records which can be accessed online.
• Import references automatically from multiple databases - Search results from a variety of databases can be automatically exported into RefWorks with the click of a button.
• Organize and manage references - Sort and file references quickly and easily using folders and other tools.
• Share references - Using the Internet, collaborate with members of a users institution or globally with other researchers, faculty members, or students.
• Format bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds - Save hours of typing time and decrease the number of errors made when creating tedious bibliographies. Easily make changes and reformat in seconds.
• Export and import references between accounts tailored to various audiences/courses.

How can faculty and students access RefWorks? UTTC faculty members can access RefWorks anytime by logging in to the UTTC Blackboard system and looking for the RefWorks link in the News and Goods section of the faculty portal. RefWorks does not limit the number of accounts faculty can set up.

UTTC academic students can configure one account to meet their needs by logging to the UTTC Blackboard system. The RefWorks link can be found in the Learning Resources section of the student portal.

Want more details? See http://www.refworks.com/content/path_benefit/faqs.asp then contact Terry Barksdale.

Fall Semester Start-Up Connect-ED Pilot
UTTC piloted Connect-ED during the start of the Fall semester. Connect-ED enables school administrators to record, schedule, send, and track personalized voice messages to students. UTTC used the service to call 1,000 enrolled students on their first day of class to remind them to login to their course and get started.

A follow-up survey was conducted with 168 students responding. Student input about this new communications tool was overwhelmingly positive.

IOL 2008 Call for Proposals
UT TeleCampus will host the fourth annual Innovations in Online Learning conference in 2008 to celebrate and spotlight innovations developed by faculty, staff and students of The University of Texas System. The event will be held in Austin, May 21 - 23, 2008 at the Radisson Hotel on Town Lake. Early-bird registration is now open.

The call for proposals ends January 31, 2008. Organizers are especially interested in unique approaches to the challenges involved with this delivery method, cutting-edge technologies, interesting research, examples of learning communities, and best practices for encouraging interactivity. Only proposals submitted by UT System faculty, staff, and students will be considered.

Re:Mark Discontinued
The Re:Mark paper mark-up tool is being discontinued by the company. While it is currently available within the UTTC Blackboard installation, we encourage faculty NOT to use it, as we do not know how long it will be available.

New Financial Aid and Veteran’s Affairs Reporting and Tracking Features Added to the TIS
Campus financial aid and veteran’s affairs officers can now generate status reports on their students enrolled on other campuses. They may also use the reports to see the enrollment history for each student in each course.

Additionally, aid officers are notified by email when students who indicated on their student profiles that they receive a form of aid are enrolled in courses. And, financial aid and veteran’s affairs staff receive a nightly email indicating any status changes to enrollments for any student who receives aid. For information on these new reporting and notification features, contact Student and Faculty Services at mailto:telecampus@utsystem.edu.

UTTC Website Redesign
The UT TeleCampus began a website redesign project this year that will result in the launch of a revised site in December 2007. The new site will employ a bolder design, and the restructuring of some information subsections to increase ease of access for site users. The site will also contain a searchable catalog of courses allowing students to search via an open search field, or by sorting by course, semester offered, course title or campus.

A cross-departmental team is building the site in a newly-acquired Sitecore content management system.

Future Programs
Two new online programs are scheduled to launch in fall 2008. Both are offered by UT El Paso.

A Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program will offer baccalaureate prepared registered nurses the opportunity to earn a MSN degree as Nurse Clinician Educator. Graduates will be able to function as expert clinicians and nurse educators in a variety of settings.

An online Master of Education - Instructional Specialist program will provide advanced professional education knowledge and skills for application in school and non-school settings. Students pursuing the Master of Education - Instructional Specialist may choose to concentrate course work in the areas of bilingual education or early childhood education.

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