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Instructional Support for Faculty and Teaching Assistants
An integral feature of the teaching theaters is the support
staff
who are dedicated to keeping the facility current and responding
to the creative requirements of its users. There are many levels
of support involved in the successful use of the teaching
theaters. The most important level of support is the
instructional support given to the faculty and teaching
assistants.
The key to the success of using the teaching theaters is in the
support provided to the faculty and their teaching assistants
(TAs) who use it. The support staff works closely with the
faculty who are going to teach in the teaching theaters right
after they have been selected. This support continues throughout
the semester and beyond.
Requests for using the teaching theaters for the full semester
are solicited at least one semester in advance. Proposals are
submitted to the Office of Information
Technology and are reviewed by
the Teaching
Theaters Steering Committee. (The Steering Committee is
composed of faculty from the various colleges and other offices on campus.)
Acceptance is based on how the faculty plan to utilize the
facilities available in the room. Once the courses have been
selected by the Steering Committee, the faculty are contacted so
that their original classroom space can be relinquished.
Pre-semester Support
A general instructor orientation meeting is scheduled as soon as
possible after the selection process is complete. All selected
faculty are asked to attend. This allows for sharing of
experiences between the experienced users and the first-time
users. The procedures on using the room are covered as well as
an orientation on the use of the computers and the presentation
equipment. Other areas covered are the software and other
resources available for use as teaching tools. An instructor's
manual and a sample student's manual are given to each faculty
member for reference.
Throughout the months before the semester they are to teach, the
faculty are given the opportunity to meet individually with the
Coordinator to discuss their requirements. During these
one-on-one meetings, the instructor relays to the Coordinator
what they envision doing during the semester. Different scenarios
are described to give the Coordinator a feeling of what type of
functionality will be needed. The Coordinator will then research
what is required to provide these desired functionalities.
Solutions sometimes just require "tweaking" existing software and
sometimes it is a combination of using the presentation equipment
and the computers. We have found that just having a networked
environment that allows for sharing of files provides most of the
capability needed. If specialized software is required, the
staff will determine if it is a tool that will be of benefit to
the other faculty. If it is, arrangements are made to purchase
the software. If not, then arrangements are made with the
requesting professor's department to obtain enough copies.
The computer background of the faculty who use the room varies
from novice to expert. Special meetings can be arranged with the
Coordinator for additional training on the computers and the
operating system. (We are currently running Windows 95 as the
default but can revert to 3.11.)
Before the semester begins, a TA orientation session is held to
familiarize the TAs with the equipment. The TA is required to
understand the use of the equipment and the network in order to
help the students with the content material of the course. This
will also allow the TA to help the professor during lectures or
to give a lecture in the absence of the professor.
Semester Support
During the first week of classes, the Coordinator of Teaching
Technologies of the Computer Science Center is usually present at
all the classes. As part of the introductions of the course, a
few minutes is given to the Coordinator to describe the room and
its purpose to the students. Some procedural information is also
given out. If the faculty member wishes, the student network ids
along with a student manual are also given out on the first day
of class. If this is done, the Coordinator and student assistant
walk the students through the logging in and logging out process.
Day-to-day support is provided by the student assistants. There
is a teaching theater student assistant assigned to each class
period; who is available for any type of help during the class.
The student assistant will also handle requests from the faculty
member before the beginning of the class if it is something that
can be done in a few minutes.
Concepts often don't become "clear" until the faculty start using
the teaching theaters with "live" students. As new things are
tried, new ideas are created. The teaching theater staff members
does their best to accommodate the new requests as they come.
These types of requests may take more than a "few minutes" to
"solve" so the faculty are required to submit them at least one
week in advance. This allows the staff to develop the solution
and test it thoroughly.
During the semester, several meetings are held with all the
faculty who are using the teaching theaters. The main purpose is
to get feedback. This also allows the faculty to share their
experiences with each other. They can describe what techniques
worked and what didn't work.
Also during the semester, the Coordinator keeps in close contact
with all the faculty through electronic mail. Status on any
equipment failures or new software is sent out electronically to
all faculty and TAs using the teaching theater. Students
enrolled in a class in a teaching theater can also send
electronic mail to the teaching theater staff.
A weekly "instructor prep" session is available to the faculty
throughout the semester. This is a 2 hour time slot reserved
especially for the faculty and their TAs to come to the teaching
theaters and work on materials. Faculty are not required to make
appointments to come during the "instructor prep" session unless
they would like to meet with the Coordinator at that time. The
student assistants are available at that time to help the
faculty.
Post-semester Support
At the end of the semester, the faculty are brought back together
once again to give feedback from the semester. Suggestions and
comments are collected and used by the teaching theaters staff in
improving the use of the room. These faculty are also asked to
attend a Steering Committee meeting to discuss their experiences
with them.
Conclusion
Support will always be an integral part of the teaching theaters
and should be an integral part of any high-tech teaching
environment. Faculty should be able to come to a high-tech
teaching environment and only worry about teaching the material
for the day, not how to fix a "locked" computer - that's the job
of the support staff.
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