Presentation Title
Regional Collaboration through Technology: The Texas Language Consortium
Abstract
The Texas Language Consortium (TLC) is a generative program for course-sharing among five small, private, liberal arts universities in Central Texas (Concordia University Texas, Lubbock Christian University, Schreiner University, Texas Lutheran University, and Texas Wesleyan University). The partner universities of TLC offer modern-language courses to students of all campuses by integrating distance-learners into traditional face-to-face classes with innovative video-conferencing technologies. Thus, the “blending” brings about the synchronous blending of students to form a class: some participate face to face; others, virtually. The success of these classes requires layered collaboration among faculty, administrators, IT staff, and students across the partner institutions. This project showcases the advantages and limits of the collaborative process. The TLC is now in its third year and recently received a three-year grant from the Teagle Foundation. The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITILE) offers the Consortium support to make the project of course-sharing operational and sustainable. This panel will address the benefits and difficulties in coordinating resources across institutions; in particular, the fit and tension between the technological modes and the pedagogical aims --those of language instruction and education in the liberal arts. The proposed panel will be of interest to faculty who teach distance-learners and/or use technology in the classroom as well as to administrators who would like to implement course-sharing among institutions. The participants of this panel have suggestions for making optimal use of classroom technology and institutional resources. The lessons of the TLC project -- such as the assurance slated language courses are offered -- apply especially to stakeholders at small, private universities with independent language programs, but they can inspire anyone invested in smaller language programs to expand their offerings by collaborating with others in their region
Session
Session 2B: Regional Collaboration through Technology: The Texas Language Consortium
Location
Dalton 119
Start Date
5-20-2015 1:45 PM
End Date
5-20-2015 3:00 PM
Regional Collaboration through Technology: The Texas Language Consortium
Dalton 119
The Texas Language Consortium (TLC) is a generative program for course-sharing among five small, private, liberal arts universities in Central Texas (Concordia University Texas, Lubbock Christian University, Schreiner University, Texas Lutheran University, and Texas Wesleyan University). The partner universities of TLC offer modern-language courses to students of all campuses by integrating distance-learners into traditional face-to-face classes with innovative video-conferencing technologies. Thus, the “blending” brings about the synchronous blending of students to form a class: some participate face to face; others, virtually. The success of these classes requires layered collaboration among faculty, administrators, IT staff, and students across the partner institutions. This project showcases the advantages and limits of the collaborative process. The TLC is now in its third year and recently received a three-year grant from the Teagle Foundation. The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITILE) offers the Consortium support to make the project of course-sharing operational and sustainable. This panel will address the benefits and difficulties in coordinating resources across institutions; in particular, the fit and tension between the technological modes and the pedagogical aims --those of language instruction and education in the liberal arts. The proposed panel will be of interest to faculty who teach distance-learners and/or use technology in the classroom as well as to administrators who would like to implement course-sharing among institutions. The participants of this panel have suggestions for making optimal use of classroom technology and institutional resources. The lessons of the TLC project -- such as the assurance slated language courses are offered -- apply especially to stakeholders at small, private universities with independent language programs, but they can inspire anyone invested in smaller language programs to expand their offerings by collaborating with others in their region