POLICY STATEMENT:

 Recent changes in information technologies provide exciting opportunities to enhance the learning opportunities of UCLA students and to improve instruction by UCLA faculty.  The College of Letters and Science supports the development, implementation and use of these new instructional resources for the benefit of our educational programs.  The primary goal is to enhance the learning experience at all levels.

 The faculty, as the developers of curricula, creators of course content, deliverers of instruction, and evaluators of student performance, have the ultimate responsibility for decisions on the mechanisms for delivering instruction and communicating with students.

 The College administration has the responsibility of providing an environment that fosters creative and effective use of new instructional technologies by the faculty.

 The instructional computing support staff has the tripartite responsibility of assisting faculty in the production and presentation of instructional material using new information technologies, training students to access and utilize online instructional materials, and supporting the infrastructure critical to the success of these endeavors.
 

VISION STATEMENT:

 Change is constant in education.  Just as the subjects taught and the life experiences of students change, so do teaching methods.  New instructional technologies offer dramatic new means to enhance instruction.  Although the role of new instructional technologies in teaching will vary across disciplines and between faculty, the potential to enrich the educational experience for students is indisputable.  The only goal is the constant evolution of teaching to educate our students using the best possible methods.

From the faculty perspective, new technology alone will not translate to better instruction.  Rather, it will only provide a new set of tools to assist in the teaching process.  However, to reap the potential benefits of this revolution, the creation, development and evaluation of new instructional technology will require time and effort on the part of faculty.  Time not only to learn new technologies, but to redesign courses from top to bottom in order to use the new technologies in a pedagogically effective manner.  To encourage and promote this process, the administration must adopt new policies, procedures and incentives to support faculty teaching.  Therefore, a menu of options is presented herein which can be used by the administration to achieve these goals.
 

ACTION ITEMS:

A) Issues Requiring Financial Resources

1) Create a mechanism and funding for the placement and regular renewal of computers for faculty and instructors.
Placement and renewal of faculty computers is a very high priority item.  Faculty need computers at their fingertips in order to create instructional content and presentations.  The most efficient utilization of resources would be a granting program which rewards faculty commitment to using new instructional technology.

2) Create a faculty release program to provide faculty with the time necessary to rethink their courses in order to exploit new instructional technologies and teaching methodologies, and to create new instructional materials.
Faculty need time to create, explore and implement new instructional methods.  In some cases, this may even mean completely redesigning a course in order to achieve a pedagogically effective use of new instructional technologies.  Preference for granting release time could be given for projects benefiting multiple classes and/or faculty.

3) Provide adequate funding for the placement and renewal of computers and other presentation equipment for faculty use in classrooms.
Some new instructional tools are worthless without the ability to use them in the classroom.  While many, but not all, classrooms have network connections and some have computer projection systems, there is also a critical need for computers to utilize these resources.  Neither Departments, for departmental classrooms, nor the Office of Instructional Development, for general assignment classrooms, have sufficient financial resources to meet the needs of the campus for these computers and projection systems

4) Encourage and support the Office of Instructional Development in its leading role of supporting development of innovative instructional projects by faculty and bringing new instructional technologies to the UCLA campus.
The UCLA Office of Instructional Development plays a critical role in supporting development of innovative instructional projects across campus.  However, their financial resources are far less  than the actual demand from faculty.  Additional support for this office should be considered.  OID can and should play a leading role in being a hub for training of faculty and technology consultants, distributing new instructional technologies to the campus, and bringing new instructional technologies to the campus.

5) Augment the Instructional Enhancement Initiative funds supporting assistants who can provide low- and high-end programming and multimedia support for faculty.
Faculty may have knowledge and creative inspiration for instructional content, but need technical support for programming and multimedia production.  It is unrealistic to expect large numbers of faculty to independently learn all the technical tools required for utilizing the new instructional technologies in their courses.  If there is to be a significant enhancement in instruction in the College employing new instructional tools, then it will require a greater investment in human resources.
 

B) Issues Involving Policy Issues

6) Create an Instructional Technology Award to recognize faculty who have developed or used new instructional technologies that resulted in significant impact on the teaching of undergraduate students at UCLA.
Outstanding teaching is already recognized on the UCLA campus, but innovation in new instructional technologies which can impact large numbers of students is not.

7) Ensure recognition of creative and innovative educational efforts in the promotion and tenure process.
An evaluation of teaching already plays a role in the promotion and tenure process.  However, creation and utilization of new instructional methods is not specifically recognized.  If faculty are expected to learn and use new instructional tools, then their efforts must be rewarded.
 

C) Issues Involving Logistics and Administrative Support

8) Establish mechanisms for disseminating information on new instructional technologies to faculty across campus.
An issue of major importance is communicating about new instructional methods across campus.  There could be several formats such as: a College newsletter focusing on new teaching tools; the OID "Teaching with Technology" initiative which posts teaching methods, tools and demonstrations on the web;  symposia on teaching technologies;  more technology consultants to work directly with faculty;  people to give presentations at departmental meetings, etc.

9) Create a process for informing new faculty about the instructional resources available at UCLA.
With so much going on at UCLA and the great expectations on new faculty, some special mechanisms for introducing new faculty to the new instructional technologies and methodologies is required.  This would be in addition to ongoing strategies for assisting current faculty.

10) Assist faculty in transferring instructional technologies and content between UC campuses
Just as communication across campus is vital, so is communication between the UC campuses.

11) Provide faculty with clear information on the intellectual property rights relating to creation and development of instructional materials employing new instructional technologies.
Both faculty and the university could benefit from a better understanding of the intellectual property rights relating to instructional tools and content.

12) Establish a mechanism for supporting faculty on copyright issues including copyright acquisition, copyright permissions, and management of copyrighted documents.
As a complement to the issue of copyrighting the work of UCLA faculty, the faculty need assistance dealing with material copyrighted elsewhere.

13) Assist collaborations with the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies evaluating the effectiveness of new instructional methods.
While many new and exciting instructional tools are being created, the effectiveness has yet to be documented.  UCLA has unique resources which could be brought to bear on this problem.

14) Improve the mechanisms for obtaining site licenses and distributing software to faculty and departments.
Computers are worthless without software.  Mechanisms for obtaining software for instructional use should be improved for cost and transferability benefits.
 

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

While this report focuses on ladder faculty, there must be consideration of the Lecturers and Teaching Assistants who play a significant role in the education of UCLAís undergraduate students.

This report also assumes that the campus information technology infrastructure (connected classrooms and offices, broadband campus network, remote access, etc.) will provide the best possible network systems considering the unique needs of faculty, teaching assistants, and students.

Student support is another critical issue requiring further development.  Some of the key points include: student training, student access to computer labs, computer literacy requirements and means of implementation, and student computer ownership.  These issues must be addressed quickly as the faculty are being encouraged to embrace new technologies.  Already, some faculty expectations on student computer literacy are beyond typically levels of student knowledge.
 
 

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