Instructional Technology Support
ITS supports traditional classroom, distance education, and hybrid courses with a set of tools designed to exploit the power of the Internet and collaborative tools to engage learners and improve the quality of education. From its main offices in the Korman Center on the University City campus, ITS runs seven public-access computing labs and a BYOL (bring your own laptop) lab.
Tools add little value without training, so ITS also runs the Faculty Development Center to make these new technologies more approachable to faculty and more appropriate for students. A help desk provides general assistance to students, faculty and staff. Web self-help rounds out the service offerings by giving answers 24x7.
The department's focus is primarily on the support of "Teaching" side (including faculty and student support services) of the "Teaching and Learning" paradigm. Dr. Michael E. Scheuermann, Associate Vice President (AVP), leads the Instructional Technology Support group, which emphasizes Drexel's key mission of technology-focused education.
Responsibilities of the AVP focus on the maintenance of close contact with the academic community, serving as the "computing and technology" representative on various University and faculty committees, initiating and supporting collaborative teaching and learning initiatives among faculty, departments, and colleges as well as the library. Other duties include serving as Drexel's representative to external bodies especially in relation to academic computing (e.g., Educause) and other external constituencies which the institution has (or should have) "instructional computing centered" relationships (e.g., the Philadelphia School District, international programs, satellite campuses, etc.).
The AVP's responsibilities also include initiating and sustaining programs with external agencies such as use of computing facilities by outside agencies, the provision of commercial training, technical support contracts as well as the aggressive pursuit of grants from foundations and government agencies.
Activities of the ITS Group Include:
Academic Web Development
The goal of this group is to maximize the penetration of technology in all aspects of the academic program. The primary function of this group is to provide assistance to academic departments in their efforts to enhance the contribution of technology to their curricula. This group provides faculty with the assistance necessary to exploit web based technology to enrich and enhance the academic program. Assistance is also provided for the development and effective design of web based curricular and distance learning programs. Consultants work one-on-one with individual faculty members and with departments on technology integration projects. This group is responsible for the sponsorship of programs (e.g., seminars, workshops, and external speakers) that further these aims.
Client Services
The purpose of this group is to provide centrally based, end-user computing support for all individual members of the University community, students, faculty and administrative staff including development and implementation of a Help Desk Triage strategy. This group provides on-line, on- site and drop-in service. Members of this group also provide workshops and seminars each term and maintain appropriate web and paper based tip sheets and user-support publications. This group also is responsible for supporting administrative end users implementing Banner and other systems and ancillary software.
Desktop Support
This group is responsible for putting processes and procedures in place to create a University-wide, cross functional, academic computing support community, creation and facilitation of Special Interest Groups, development of families of supported hardware and software products, and creation and advocacy of complementary departmental IT delivery strategies. This group provides in-depth technical programming necessary to maximize end user (primarily "desktop") applications use. This group is responsible for the technical support of home page development as well as programming in such applications as Excel, FileMaker, Access, Brio Query (for ad hoc reports) and other developmental applications. Members of this group generally spend most of their work week in the field.
Administrative User Support:
This group is responsible for scheduling all centrally supported "computing/multimedia" laboratories and classrooms and for the hardware and software used in them.
Video Conferencing/Webcasting
This group supports the University's various methods of video conferencing through enabled classrooms in the Korman Center. We also offer multipoint sessions through our bridging service.
If you need assistance in capturing and webcasting lectures, special events, and other rich media experiences, we can help by providing staff and technology to support events, or by providing training so that members of the Drexel community can manage their own webcasting projects.
Online Learning Team
The OLT provides training and support for faculty and staff in a number of different web and web related technologies. One of the primary responsibilities for this group is to facilitate and encourage the use of Bb Vista, the course management system run by IRT, for academic and training purposes. To this end the group staffs the Instructional Technology Center and maintains a Bb Vista helpdesk, manages the implementation of the software, and runs monthly workshops specifically on the use of Bb Vista. In addition, consultants work one-on-one with individual faculty members and with departments on technology integration projects. This group is also responsible for the sponsorship of programs (e.g., seminars, workshops, and external speakers) and supporting additional technologies that further these aims.
