One of the challenges with a team named “Faculty Services” is that the name doesn’t adequately describe what the team actually does. Obviously, there are many teams within LITS that provide services for faculty, and the services that our team provides are used by staff and students as well. To that end, I’m happy to report that the “Faculty Services” moniker is no more and we are now Teaching & Learning Technologies.
My hope is that the new name will be more specific and descriptive about the services we provide and will better tell our customers what we do and where our expertise lies. Within the team will be four different groups, each with a clearer set of directives:
- Learning Management will continue to support faculty in the use of Blackboard and to administer that system, as well as assessing and supporting the Canvas pilot (more on that to come in the near future).
- Instructional Technology is focused on support in a variety of disciplines, including instructional technology and design, electronic publishing and Web/social media.
- Academic Production will focus on video production, primarily for deployment on the Coursera platform, but also building best practices for academic video content on campus.
- Software Distribution focuses on the management of electronic software distribution.
The intent of the new name and organizational will not only improve the way we communicate our service offerings to our customers, but will also prepare us to offer greater innovation and support in the future. The change will take effect in Service Now in early next week, and all services currently in the Faculty Services queue will be in the Teaching & Learning Technologies queue. The change will percolate through other systems in the coming weeks.
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