Online Program Planning & Course Development
Housed in Academic Affairs, External Education (ExEd) provides support for online programs and courses at UIC. ExEd assists with the development of online programs, including budgeting, instructional design for both online and blended courses, marketing and enrollment management support.
ExEd has an in-house Instructional Designer and Master Online Teacher as well as a Technologist who can assist faculty members with course redesign for both online and blended courses. Using a team approach, ExEd partners with UIC's Instructional Technology Lab (ITL) to identify the best solutions for developing new online courses. ExEd and ITL also team up to help convert existing classroom courses into online courses.
The following resources and tools are available to any college or department seeking support in online course development:
Hands-On Workshops / Meetings for Faculty
ExEd has developed a series of workshops to prepare and support faculty in designing and teaching online courses. Topics focus on online teaching strategies, learning technologies and course redesign. Practical pedagogy, what works and what does not, is highlighted. The workshops also focus on how to accomplish course goals and objectives effectively using a combination of online learning activities, materials and assessments.
e-Teaching Symposium
UIC's e-Teaching Symposium was designed to provide resources to those working in virtual learning environments. The purpose of the symposium is to support UIC faculty, adjunct instructors and teaching assistants who are designing and teaching technology-enhanced, blended and online courses. It is also intended to serve as a resource for those interested in the instructional and pedagogical considerations important to online learning.
Online Instructional Tool for Adjuncts
An instructional tool, AIM (Adjunct Instructor Modules), for adjunct instructors and graduate assistants teaching online is available. AIM provides an overview of online learning and teaching, familiarizes users with the virtual teaching environment and introduces the key elements of an online course.
Blackboard Orientation Tool for Students
This resource provides an overview of how to navigate within a Blackboard (Bb) course site. This resource also introduces technological skills and system requirements and gives prospective online learners an opportunity to experience the virtual classroom prior to taking an online course.
For access to and/or more information about any of the above tools, please contact:
External Education
E-mail: online@uic.edu
Phone: (312) 355-0423
Additional campus support is available by contacting the following UIC units:
The Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is composed of faculty members who have been recognized for their demonstrated teaching excellence, and provides a mechanism by which faculty, staff and administrators can work collaboratively toward the improvement of instruction and the advancement of learning in UIC's culturally pluralistic community.
The Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) strives to enrich the learning experience at UIC by supporting the teaching efforts of faculty and teaching assistants through its various services, including Instructional Design Support, Teaching Assessment Services and College Teaching Preparation Program for TAs.
Technical Support for Faculty
External Education (ExEd) — ExEd's in-house Technologist provides one-on-one or group support to the online instructor in-house, on-site or via phone, depending on the technology support needed.
To schedule an appointment, contact:
Karin Riggs, Research Programmer/Technologist, External Education
E-mail: kriggs@uic.edu
Phone: (312) 355-0423
The Instructional Technology Lab (ITL) is housed within UIC’s Academic Computing and Communications Center (ACCC) and provides free consulting, training and access to special hardware (e.g. recording equipment) and software for UIC faculty.
UIC Fee-Based Support Units
The Center for the Advancement of Distance Education (CADE) is part of the UIC School of Public Health. CADE collaborates on projects on and off-campus to develop online solutions to a variety of educational and business applications. This includes Web-based programming and database connectivity (e.g., active server pages, online surveys, etc.), live broadcasts of events, graphic design, animation and more. CADE will assist UIC faculty/staff in developing proposals and budgets that include these types of activities.
Engineering Media Services is housed within the College of Engineering, and can help with a range of media solutions for course development, Web site development and video services. The range of services offered by Engineering Media Services includes video production, animated computer applications, Web casting, videoconferencing, satellite downlinks and computer graphic design.
Blended Learning Annotative Bibliography
Faculty and staff are encouraged to use the following resource when considering the development of a blended learning course or program, or simply to learn more about blended learning. A compilation of articles, books and other works relating to blended learning are included.
Blended Learning Review of Research: An Annotative Bibliography
(File Type: PDF | File Size: 131 KB)