I visited the University of Portland Salzburg Center about a possible online learning project with study abroad students. The idea was to have our students who are studying abroad in Salzburg to take online courses from their professors on the University of Portland campus. This would allow our Engineering students to participate in more studies abroad experiences and not get out of sequence in their programs.
Using Instructional Design principles I asked more questions about the context of the learning and the audience. I was fortunate that we had an engineering professor visiting our Salzburg Center and gave me a report on the technology. Unfortunately, the report was not a good one. I learned that the on-site technology was old and the Internet connection rarely worked. I spoke with the CIO, VP of University Operations and Provost on this problem with the project. I got support to push forward with a technology upgrade and professional development for the faculty in Salzburg.
I worked with Technical Services engineers to determine a new network and wireless design and determined what technology would need to be upgraded. I presented the findings and, as the lead for the project, I gave the thumbs up to the Director of the Salzburg Center to continue with the upgrade. The VP of University Operations funded the project and in the Fall of 2014 we upgraded the wired network, wireless (wifi), and replaced the computers in the lab. These enhancements were met with cheers from the staff and students in Salzburg.
Salzburg Visit
I continued my work by visit the Salzburg Center in April of 2015. I did some quality control and tested both the wired and wireless network. I hosted professional development sessions on:
- PowerPoint
- Moodle (Learning Management System)
- Camtasia (Flipped media creation)
- MediaSpace (Video hosting, captioning, and sharing)
- FileUP – File Sharing
- Go.up.edu (single sign on environment)
Next steps
- 3 professors interested in doing more online learning.
- One professor had never taught online but wants to take his Human Geography course online or at least make it hybrid.
One of the struggles was that I didn’t speak German and all the technology was in German. I had to use Google Translate on my phone when I ran into issues. When not teaching I toured the community and learned more about how businesses run and the differences in communities and the educational system.
I hope to visit the Salzburg Center again and keep the relationship going. I can see professors in Salzburg contributing more to the main campus in Portland.
Media Assets
Video created on my iPhone 6 to demonstrate the use of mobile devices. Also a fun drive to view Salzburg from above.
Our students had a lesson on dancing and I created a video using iMovie on my iPhone 6.