Missions/Goals

The Faculty Instructional Development Lab (FIDL) is a facility dedicated to supporting the instructional development needs of Pitt faculty.  The facility provides faculty with the opportunity to investigate and apply instructional theory, learning theory, information technology, and multi-media technologies to instructional development projects. 

The facility is staffed by a small core team of CIDDE instructional technologists, supplemented by members of CIDDE's Instructional Design, Instructional Computing, Electronic Graphics and Design, Photography and Electronic Imaging, and Video Production units.  It is arranged into a small training facility and a series of six small meeting/work areas, each containing specialized computer and audio/video hardware and software. 

The FIDL is intended to address the following goals:

• Develop active learning courseware in collaborative teams involving faculty, instructional designers, instructional technologists, graphic artists, photographers, and video producers.

• Create a centralized multimedia lab facility to provide faculty with training, access, and assistance in using specialized instructional technologies, including authoring languages for computer- and web-based applications, as well as graphic, photographic, video, audio, and group work technologies.

• Train faculty in designing and developing active learning experiences and in understanding and utilizing the supporting technologies. 

• Expand the University’s faculty development program to provide comprehensive support for the transition to an active learning environment.  This includes the design and development of a variety of instructional activities that will serve to teach the principles and practice of active learning, and serve as illustrative exemplars of active learning courseware.

• Implement an Advanced Instructional Technology Group to evaluate and introduce new and emerging technologies for direct application to instruction.  The Advanced Instructional Technology Group will address the need for applied research in the application of technologies to active learning, and serve a technology transfer function to the academic and support units.