U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

Teaching Times TTimes Banner Teaching Times

Volume XI, Number 2

Teaching Awards Issue
November 2005
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CIDDE Celebrates 10 Years of Service Photo: Diane Davis

By Diane Davis, CIDDE Director

In 1995, I was working with staff from four previously distinct University offices to understand and implement the provost’s charge to the newly formed Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education (CIDDE).

Provost Maher was very clear about CIDDE’s central mission as one of providing faculty with support for instruction. CIDDE was to work with faculty as requested to facilitate the design and development of new courses and programs, as well as the revision and updating of existing ones. It was to provide opportunities for faculty development, including training in new and emerging instructional technologies. And CIDDE was expected to support the delivery of instruction, both in the classroom and through distance education. Instructional development, faculty development, and instructional support became three of CIDDE’s major functions. The fourth and final major function, University support, reflects the need to serve the broader University, in addition to its direct instructional mission, when CIDDE’s specialized technical or professional abilities are required.

Since its inception, CIDDE has made substantial progress in addressing its mission. Most significantly, we have assisted in the design, re-design, and delivery of hundreds of University courses and in the creation of innovative instructional materials. We’ve encouraged and supported the active learning initiatives of our faculty, thereby facilitating excellence in teaching throughout the University. We’ve helped Pitt faculty to learn more about emerging instructional technologies and how to use them to meet their instructional goals. And we’ve helped to strengthen Pitt’s instructional delivery infrastructure for both traditional and distance education.

CIDDE is successful in achieving its mission only to the degree that we effectively support the instructional goals and priorities of the faculty of the University. I encourage you to contact me if you have suggestions for improving that support.

Since its inception, CIDDE has made substantial progress in addressing its mission. Most significantly, we have assisted in the design, re-design, and delivery of hundreds of University courses and in the creation of innovative instructional materials. We’ve encouraged and supported the active learning initiatives of our faculty, thereby facilitating excellence in teaching throughout the University. We’ve helped Pitt faculty to learn more about emerging instructional technologies and how to use them to meet their instructional goals. And we’ve helped to strengthen Pitt’s instructional delivery infrastructure for both traditional and distance education.

CIDDE is successful in achieving its mission only to the degree that we effectively support the instructional goals and priorities of the faculty of the University. I encourage you to contact me if you have suggestions for improving that support.

One way to reflect on the changes that have occurred is to review some programs and services that we’ve developed or significantly changed since 1995:

New Faculty Orientation now focuses on centralized support services available to faculty, including support for teaching.

Teaching Excellence Fair highlights faculty teaching innovations and new instructional trends and technologies.

Summer Instructional Development Institute provides faculty with more intensive learning and course development opportunities.

New courses, academic programs, and instructional materials have been developed in schools and departments across the University.

CourseWeb (Pitt’s implementation of the Blackboard course management system) offers faculty a structure and tools for online instructional materials and activities.

Computer Assisted Testing System (CATS), a system for secure, supervised computer-based testing originally developed for distance education, has been upgraded and now is available to faculty teaching on-campus courses.

Faculty Instructional Development Lab provides a facility for faculty to access specialized instructional technologies and staff to assist in their use.

CIDDE Liaisons have strengthened communication with schools and departments, enabling CIDDE to be more responsive to faculty needs and interests.

The Teaching Times faculty newsletter has increased communication about the principles and practices of teaching and learning at Pitt.

OPUS, a software package developed at CIDDE, has been deployed to facilitate online faculty requests for instructional media support and to better manage media resources.

Classroom Web Pages, hosted on the CIDDE Web site, give faculty online information about classrooms at Pitt, including pictures of the rooms and descriptions of installed technologies.

Nationality Room Web Pages provide a narrated, visually rich “virtual tour” of these landmark facilities.

The Faculty Development Web Pages include a wide range of information and resources related to teaching and learning.

The Teaching Assistant Experience is now a totally revised handbook that provides comprehensive guidelines for beginning teachers.

The Teaching Practicum, a course on teaching for graduate student instructors, has been redesigned to better address the goals of the academic units and the teaching assistants.

New instructional technologies allow faculty to enrich their courses by, for example, capturing their presentations in media-rich streaming formats (Tegrity and Mediasite), analyzing student work for plagiarism (turnitin.com), and actively engaging students using classroom response systems (eInstruction).

Interactive Television Facilities, such as those in Lawrence, Mervis, and Alumni Halls, along with training and support services, enable the academic units at Pitt to make effective use of instructional videoconferencing.

Digital Photography Services have replaced traditional color and black and white film services.

Janus panels in classrooms serve as electronic blackboards to give faculty unlimited writing space, enabling them to write while facing their students, and allowing them to save the written material for subsequent posting on the Web.

Large format printing enables faculty to have conference posters designed and printed locally.

CIDDE’s Online Survey Application enables CIDDE staff to conduct complex Web-based surveys to collect faculty feedback and measure opinion.

The Learning Technology Consortium, an organization of nine universities initiated by the provost, enables CIDDE to collaborate more closely with other universities that are making effective use of instructional technologies.

 

A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education
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Editor: Carol DeArment, Graphic Design & Illustration: Alec Sarkas
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