We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020-2021 Campus Technology Impact Awards:
Category: Teaching and Learning
Clemson University
Project: VR Mondi
Project lead: Kyle David Anderson, senior director of global engagement
Tech lineup: Blender, Mozilla Hubs, Sketchfab, SketchUp, Trello, WhatsApp, Zoom
VR Mondi is a suite of immersive and interactive 3D environments representing international locations of educational significance, within which instructors and students acquire discipline-specific knowledge and meet with global peers to increase intercultural competencies. Created and managed by international student teams from research and conception to implementation, VR Mondi brings an engaging pedagogical tool to faculty across the university and expands students' access to global learning.
Columbus State Community College
Project: Composition Reading Bank
Project lead: Nick Lakostik, associate professor of English
Tech lineup: EBSCO, LexisNexis, Microsoft, Springshare
The Composition Reading Bank is a digital OER replacing the traditional anthology for composition courses, saving Columbus State students over $200,000 each semester. Among the features that set it apart from other resources: Text, video and audio content is fully accessible to students with disabilities; copyright is meticulously respected; web resources with monthly viewing limits are avoided; and thorough summaries, info bubbles and tags enhance usability. Creation and ongoing maintenance of the CRB has been informed by department trainings, user surveys, focus groups and testing.
Indiana University
Project: Keep Teaching
Project lead: Anastasia (Stacy) Morrone, associate vice president, Learning Technologies
Tech lineup: Citrix, Instructure, Kaltura, Unizin, Zoom
Keep Teaching is an extensive collection of resources and best practices for shifting from face-to-face to online instruction during prolonged campus or building closures, offering both technological and pedagogical support. The materials are openly available to institutions all over the world, through Creative Commons licensing allowing others to reuse with proper attribution. A companion website for students, Keep Learning, offers key tips and resources for learning from home.
Category: Student Systems and Services
Syracuse University
Project: Orange SUccess Initiative
Project lead: Hopeton Smalling, functional business analyst
Tech lineup: Blackboard, Hobsons, Microsoft, Oracle
Orange SUccess is a data-informed process for student advising/case management, intervention selection and community support to improve the student experience. More than a technology rollout, the initiative has created a culture of change and accountability, balancing people, process, technology and politics at a diverse institution.
Category: Administration
Olivet Nazarene University
Project: Your Way
Project lead: Kathleen Lueckeman, chief strategy officer
Tech lineup: FormAssembly, Google, Grammarly, Microsoft, Qualified, Salesforce, Tableau, Valence
Olivet increased equity and access and bent the cost curve using technology to offer tuition-free general education courses for adult students and provide a low-risk pathway to a college degree. The self-paced courses offer always-on content accessible on any device, unlimited re-takes on homework and tests, gamification to keep students motivated, and self-service support resources. On the administrative side, Olivet revamped advertising, marketing, recruitment, admissions and onboarding, flattening siloes, removing administrative barriers and lowering costs both for the university and for students.
Category: IT Infrastructure and Systems
University of North Texas
Project: UNT Insights Program
Project lead: Jason Simon, associate vice president for data, analytics and institutional research
Tech lineup: Pinnacle Solutions, SAS
In the face of tremendous upheaval for higher education, UNT built an enterprise-wide analytics initiative from the ground up — on a strong foundation of data governance and culture change. As a result, the institution has gone from "data rich, insight poor" to integrating data modeling, data training, data visualization and predictive analytics for data-informed decision-making — and has seen a significant boost in enrollment and graduation rates.
Texas State University
Project: Digital Scholarly Research Ecosystem
Project lead: Ray Uzwyshyn, director, Library Collections and Digital Services
Tech lineup: Dataverse, DSpace, Omeka, Open Journal Systems, ORCID, Vireo
Using entirely open source software, Texas State created a groundbreaking online scholarly research ecosystem to empower faculty and graduate student research, raise research profiles in search engines and enable global collaboration and sharing. Researchers' work has been made more visible and findable, elevating faculty, graduate students and institution alike.
Category: Education Futurists
Indiana University
Project: Idea Garden - Growing Your Ideas Organically
Project lead: Julie Johnston, director of learning spaces
Tech lineup: Corsair, Crestron, Dell, Google, HTC VIVE, Klipsch, LulzBot, Mersive, Microsoft, Oculus, Planar, Samsung, Skytech Gaming
The Idea Garden is a vibrant "thinker space" that offers all students an opportunity to engage in collaborative, cross-disciplinary experiences by providing them with hands-on interaction with cutting-edge technology. The space pairs biophilic design and a serene atmosphere with a plethora of technologies for creativity and exploration, along with individualized student support and resources. Its goal: to inspire students to learn beyond the curriculum, acquire skills based on their interests and passions, and foster the spirit of lifelong learning.
University of Michigan
Project: ECoach
Project lead: Tim McKay, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Physics, Astronomy, Education, and associate dean for Undergraduate Education
Tech lineup: Developed in-house
ECoach is a personalized coaching tool for students in large courses where one-on-one communication between instructors and students is otherwise impossible. Students receive feedback from the tool on how to succeed in a course, based on data from university systems as well as student survey input and informed by behavioral science techniques. And an underlying research framework provides immense opportunities for studying how students learn, use course resources, and the impact of interventions on learning behaviors.
Harvard University
Project: Harvard Innovation Labs Virtual Ecosystem
Project lead: Ian Boyd, associate director, technology & strategy
Tech lineup: ClickUp, Gatheround, Mailchimp, Microsoft, Slack, SoWork, Vimeo, WordPress, YouTube, Zoom
The Harvard Innovation Labs created a virtual innovation ecosystem, accessed by thousands of members of the Harvard community, that nurtures ideation and venture creation. Born out of the emergency pivot to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the virtual ecosystem has become a permanent part of the Innovation Labs' efforts to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, using technology to build community, communication and collaboration among students, advisers and alumni as well as potential customers, investors and employees. Through the virtual ecosystem, venture teams have developed a range of products and services — often focused on the pandemic and/or social justice — that are impacting millions of people around the world.
