Educational Technology Centre (ETC) for the College of Health Disciplines

Kathryn Hornby, Librarian, Woodward Library / Chair, Committee for Health and Human Services Information and Technology, Educational Support and Development, Office of the Coordinator of Health Sciences, College of Health Disciplines
Charlene Walsh, Educational Support and Development, College of Health Disciplines
Gordon Page, Director, Educational Support and Development, College of Health Disciplines
Nima Tabloei, President, Health Sciences Student Association

The Educational Technologies Initiative (ETI) proposes a teaching and learning centre. A qualified educational support leader acting as an educational consultant will head the centre. This leader will train and supervise senior students to work as peer teachers assisting other students and faculty in developing and/or refining skills necessary to be effective participating members of the new UBC learning and teaching environment.

In UBC Health Sciences programs, there is an increasing movement towards problem-based, project-specific, hands-on and experiential learning. Students are participating in more tutor-facilitated small-group sessions, group projects and facility or community-based experiences. Increasingly an emphasis has been placed on utilizing various forms of educational technologies to support these pedagogical approaches. While effective use of these educational technologies will increase the quality and quantity of student-student and student-faculty interactions, students and faculty often do not know how to access and/or utilize them. The use of these technologies in curricula, including web sites, online group discussions, and student presentations require students to have the technical skills to enable their subject learning. A student, Nicole Hallgren, wrote, "People have different cyberbackgrounds and yet are expected to be at a certain level to cope with the curriculum - often it is hard enough just learning the material without having to learn a whole new medium as well."

Charlene Walsh, Educational Technology Resource Manager, Educational Support and Development, College of Health Disciplines
Kathryn Hornby, Librarian, Woodward Library / Chair, Committee for Health and Human Services Information and Technology, College of Health Disciplines
Gordon Page, Director, Educational Support and Development, College of Health Disciplines
Candy Ho, President, Health Sciences Student Association

Objectives:

1. Provide and continue to expand just-in-time educational technology support for students and faculty in the Health Disciplines. Provide a well-equipped space with up-to-date software, and skilled staff members.
2. Continue to collaborate with other instructional support units at UBC to create, compile and distribute educational technology support materials, and promote collaboration, communication and sharing amongst departments, schools and faculties.

Rationale & Method:

The Educational Technology Centre (ETC) in the College of Health Disciplines is a support centre providing assistance to faculty and students in the development of technology-based educational resources. ETC specializes in serving the immediate needs of faculty and students during product completion. While focusing on building and enhancing technical skills, ETC provides one-on-one and drop-in support as well as web-based, searchable resource materials. This helps meet the just-in-time requirements as ETC plan and develop educational or instructional resources.

Throughout UBC, there is a continued need to provide localized or decentralized educational technology support to faculty and students. Increasingly, web sites, web-based course materials and other electronic presentations are being used to deliver or supplement courses. Students are often at the leading edge of technology, sometimes waiting for faculty to 'catch up"", and often expect or request distributed resources be available. Faculty may not, however, have equipment, software or expertise to initiate, complete or troubleshoot project development. Space, equipment and educational technology resources and expertise are currently available in the College of Health Disciplines to provide support for faculty and students developing electronic course or presentation materials. Continued development of support materials such as tip sheets and tutorials is required to meet the increasingly complex needs of ETC users. As UBC library e-­resources also continue to expand, both students and faculty require enhanced informatics skills. By working closely with Library staff to expanding the support services offered at ETC, students and faculty will have opportunities to enhance information literacy skills in conjunction with course development.

No single instructional support facility at UBC is able to provide a full set of comprehensive services. Communication and collaboration with other units for the development and delivery of resources or training opportunities is essential. Re-directing users to service providers such as TAG (Teaching and Academic Growth), IT Services the Media Group will ensure that ETC is not a final stop but a conduit in promoting professional results and project completion.