The Superheroes of the Semester

Catching up with the CTL and ITS

By UNC Asheville

November 18^th, 2020

With just over one week left in the fall 2020 semester, faculty and staff from UNC Asheville’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Information Technology Services (ITS) assembled via Zoom to talk “Academic Technology: Reflecting on Lessons, Envisioning the Future.” Call it a meeting of the minds, or more aptly a team of superheroes who have been working behind the scenes all semester.

“You all have been such incredible lights throughout this process,” said Lyndi Hewitt, director of the CTL and associate professor of sociology and anthropology. “I’ve witnessed superhuman compassion and innovation. We’ve gotten through this, and we’ve gotten through this together.”

Prior to the COVID pandemic, this team assembled in the basement of several buildings across campus, from the lower floor of the library where the CTL is housed to the labyrinth of hallways in Rhoades Robinson Hall, where you’ll find ITS staff offices. Now their headquarters might as well be online, and they can Zoom to you one way or another, offering advice and tips for any number of instructional technology issues.

ITS still offers in-person classroom support, too, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday with just a quick call to the ITS Help Desk: 828-251-6445 or helpdesk@unca.edu.

Who You Gonna Call?

After calling the Help Desk, which is completely student-run and may be able to answer your question immediately, you’ll likely be connected with one of these expert faculty or staff members. Of course, they were still busy answer questions to wrap up the semester, so we caught just a few words of wisdom from them, before they Zoomed away to save the day again.

Anne Ogg, instructional designer in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

Ogg works with faculty on the inner workings of Moodle and WordPress, as well as other commonly used instructional technologies. She is also the first to explore the next wave of opportunities, such as integrating virtual reality technologies.

Laurie Miles, instructional technology specialist in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

Miles is most associated with Moodle, as she manages and trains faculty in this essential instructional technology and she’s well versed on systems design and theory too.

“I love analyzing and identify the needs for instruction on campus, then finding the tools and strategies to fulfill those needs,” Miles said.

Lyndi Hewitt, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and associate professor of sociology and anthropology

Hewitt understands first-hand the challenges of teaching in multiple modalities this semester, but she cautions fellow faculty at trying to incorporate every bell and whistle if it’s not a good fit for their pedagogical approach.

“It’s important that we remember to align tech tools with our learning objectives and the goals for the course,” she said. “Not every learning goal is served equally well by the same tools or approaches.”

One sound recommendation she provides is for a piece of audio equipment that makes a differences in bridging learning modalities.

“I’ll sing the praises of the tabletop microphone. It enables students accessing the course remotely to hear those in the classroom. With remote students projected onto the screen in Zoom’s gallery view, along with a camera capturing the in-person students, we can have interactive discussions,” said Hewitt.

Ellen Holmes Pearson, professor of history

Pearson serves as a 2019-21 academic affairs faculty fellow in the UNC System, a role instrumental in the creation of a system-wide online workshop called “Designing Effective Online Courses.” Almost half of UNC Asheville faculty and staff participated in the workshop before or during the fall semester. The next course is offered Nov. 30.

Angel Kaur, assistant professor of neuroscience

An associate faculty fellow through the UNC System’s DLI initiative, Kaur was one of the nearly 100 faculty who signed up for the DEOC course mentioned above, and it’s provided the framework for her innovative approach online.

“It’s a strategic framework for planning your courses, so I understand what I want to accomplish in each time period, synchronous and asynchronous, and the result is that I haven’t had Zoom fatigue so far this year.”

In 2020, the lack of Zoom fatigue might be a super feat in itself.

Alex Mitchell, director of academic technology support

Mitchell covers anything that happens in a classroom after the space is booked, so he’s the one that will swoop in with a video camera or microphone system to support online learning, including that coveted conference mic (see above).

Matthew Warren, director of client technology support

Warren estimates that he’s had an opportunity to meet with the nearly 1,000 faculty and staff at UNC Asheville in-person during his 10 years at the University. His team manages the Help Desk, so he’s here to help and answer any questions.

Greg Dillingham, manager of distance learning services

Dillingham manages Zoom licensing for the University, a services that has seen a sizeable uptick this past year, and one that’s getting a big boost in 2021, when the system will receive an upgrade so all students, faculty and staff receive individual licenses. That’s 5,149 licenses!

And have no fear, as all currently assigned Zoom Meeting accounts remain active over the winter break to allow for spring 2021 semester planning and preparation.

His tip is a simple one: “Remember to log-out of Zoom, so it can update and reset. Most of the issues can be solved by logging out and logging back in.”