Faculty Development Through Special Initiatives at the University of San Diego

Getting faculty involved and excited about adopting emerging technology in their teaching is an ongoing challenge for the Academic Technology Services (ATS) department at the University Of San Diego (USD). In order to build a stronger following and establish a larger core of faculty partnerships, ATS has designed and deployed a successful series of special initiatives, projects aimed at engaging full-time faculty in the exploration of emerging and mobile technologies. Initiatives are strategically constructed to ensure that faculties achieve desired goals, and our skilled staff are working along side them every step of the way, which reduces faculty anxiety and ensures successful outcomes. Three initiatives are currently operational: the iPad Classroom Project (in its 8th semester) which puts iPads in the hands of all students in the classroom for the duration of a full semester, the Student Technology Assistant Program (in its 9th year) which pairs a faculty member who has a vision with a technologically skilled student employee for an entire semester to develop and bring to fruition a technology-based project that will benefit future classes, and the Summer Innovation Institute (three summer cohorts completed), a two-week long intensive faculty development program focused on achieving pedagogically sound teaching outcomes via the implementation of Blackboard, multimedia, iPads, and numerous other technologies. Learn more about these faculty development strategies and how USD's ATS unit is growing their community of faculty partners through creative, engaging initiatives.