With the second week of remote learning in the books due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Online Learning and Teaching Technology (COLTT) and Information Technology (IT) departments have taken several measures to help students and professors succeed in finishing the semester.
COLTT Director Francisco Garcia said more than 800 faculty members joined their training for the use of technology.
“A lot of the faculty were already trained in the use of technology because some of them teach online,” Garcia said. “So, those faculty were ready for the remote-distance delivery, but other faculty, who didn’t have any experience at all, they did come to training.”
He said the last training took place two weeks ago but COLTT is still providing support to faculty who contact them.
“Some of the professors were somehow afraid of the technology ’cause they didn’t use it in the past, or were not familiar with it,” Garcia said. “But once we start training them, explaining to them the benefits of, and seeing technology as a tool, that’s when the faculty [accept] technology, so it was more [of], I guess, making the first step into it.”
He said there are still faculty who don’t have the resources at home to teach remotely, so IT is providing laptops and there are classrooms available to professors so they can record their lectures for students.
Asked what COLTT is doing now that classes are being conducted remotely, Garcia replied, “We actually have our office phone in our computers at home, so we are answering our office phone through the computer. We divided the tickets [among] our staff. We’re answering questions from faculty and from students, so we have more work now and we’re aware of that but, so far, we are able to handle it.”
He said one of the concerns is for students to also be ready for the change from face-to-face to remote learning.
“I mean, we also support students through [this] process and we’re still supporting students,” Garcia said.
Robert Allen, Executive Information Technology director for Academic Services, said students can go to campus to use the Wi-Fi and for those students who need a laptop, IT is asking students to speak to their respective college to request them.
“We’re looking at whatever opportunities we can to help the students be successful,” Allen said.
He said with the current COVID-19 restrictions, it’s a struggle to help people who need equipment.
“Again, we have equipment that we’re loaning out and, you know, trying to maintain the social distancing and also any kind of interaction within any kind of proximity, certainly more difficult, but for us, primarily, just helping people,” Allen said.
He said the questions mostly asked by students are how to connect to Zoom meetings and Blackboard.
“It’s different type of questions that we would normally get,” Allen said. “It’s a lot more questions around connecting.”
Biology Lecturer Jorge Canchola said his experience has been going smoothly. He said some of the feedback the department has received from students is that having live lectures affects their connectivity with the internet.
“So, we just decided to move everything to asynchronous, a process where students can go in at their own time,” Canchola said. “We have to consider also being flexible with students who have work schedules.”
He said one of the challenges is getting content uploaded for students on time.
“So, basically, the biggest struggle is keeping up with online content so that we’re in line with the course schedule,” Canchola said.
Asked his opinion on the pass/no pass option for students, he replied, “Well, I think that’s fair. This is something the student will have to decide and the registrar’s office will be sending out information after the grades are submitted so that students can make that choice if it’s going to be working out for them in the future.”
Canchola said it is hard to think of benefits of teaching remotely when he knows a lot of students are not happy with the change.
“So benefits could be, for my students, that they can take care of their family, they can take care of themselves via home and still get all the information that they need to learn,” he said.
Students or faculty who have questions about technology or have issues, may contact COLTT by visiting utrgv.edu/coltthelp, or Information Technology at support.utrgv.edu.
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