Faculty Development Programs and Consultation Services
Consultation Services
The Digital Media Center offers consultation services to advance the thoughtful application of academic technologies at the University of Minnesota. Consultation services are freely available to faculty, staff, and students, as well as departments, colleges, units, and teams tasked to advance the work of the University. DMC consultants work with individuals and organizational units to identify and plan for opportunities and challenges created by academic technologies in order to meet research, teaching, and engagement goals.
The Digital Media Center is open Monday—Friday from 9:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m. Consultants are available by appointment. Contact dmc@umn.edu to arrange a consultation.
Consultants provide expertise in a number of areas.
(Re)designing curriculum and course activities:
- designing engaging, media-rich learning environments that are informed by relevant scholarship;
- promoting efficiencies and best practices in large classes or in classes that involve multiple sections;
- redesigning for blended or online learning.
Evaluating the effectiveness of curricular redesign or classroom innovation:
- collaborating with University of Minnesota faculty to evaluate course-level innovations involving digital technology;
- partnering with academic units to evaluate department- and college-level technology initiatives;
- partnering to produce scholarship that documents methods, data, and analysis placed in the context of current literature.
Strategic planning involving academic technologies to achieve departmental, collegiate, and university goals and initiatives:
- helping departments and colleges plan for blended or online learning;
- partnering to provide ongoing faculty or staff professional development opportunities involving academic technology;
- facilitating technology-enabled communication and collaboration across institutions in support of teaching or research;
- serving on committees, panels, or task forces that advance academic technology initiatives.
Meeting professional development needs:
- designing and delivering custom workshops or seminars;
- engaging workshop participants in skill building activities or discussions about media literacy and best practices.
Complying with copyright, privacy, and fair use:
- explaining fair use basics;
- contextualizing copyright, privacy, and fair use issues with regard to different educational technologies and learning situations;
- identifying university guidelines and resources that pertain to copyright, privacy, and fair use.
Evaluating usability of website or software prototype:
- explaining usability and accessibility basics;
- identifying university resources and guidelines that pertain to usability and accessibility;
- conducting usability and accessibility evaluations.
Pursuing funding for technology enhanced projects:
- working with grant applicants to identify academic technology needs;
- co-writing grants with colleagues and faculty on teaching, learning, technology grants.
Levels of Service
Services fall into three tiers, determined by the scope, time commitment, and resources needed to achieve outcomes. (These tiers of engagement are fluid as a short meeting intended to address a specific question might lead to repeated contact as new questions or challenges arise.)
Tier 1
Consultants meet with clients to brainstorm, offer strategies and solutions, demonstrate a technology, or identify available resources. The consultation might take many forms--a 10 minute phone call, an exchange of emails, or a two hour meeting. This might involve follow-up communication or meetings as needed.
Tier 2
Consultants provide a series of consultations or are involved in planning an activity in order to meet specific outcomes. Examples of tier 2 support include planning and delivering a workshop or professional development opportunity, supporting faculty in course redesign and evaluation through a series of consultations, providing an annotated bibliography or summary of research on a topic, or consulting with a department or college task force as it makes plans to move a program online.
Tier 3
Tier 3 represents an ongoing partnership or commitment, possibly a multi-year commitment in order to meet a strategically significant initiative. Depending on the nature of the work, tier 3 support may involve robust evaluation and scholarly output. Examples of our “partner projects” include participation on committees (for example, the Academic Technology Advisory Committee and the CLA InfoTech Fees Committee); program planning and support (the Bush Foundation ITTS Initiative and the CLA Course Transformation Program); research partnerships (Active Learning Classroom research); as well as inter-institutional partnerships (including the Committee on Institutional Cooperation Learning Technology Group and EDUCAUSE). The Digital Media Center values long-term partnerships and fosters them by working with partners to develop a clear understanding of goals and outcomes, operational procedures, and metrics for success.
DMC Programs
We invite instructors and support staff to explore the intersection of technology and education through our broadly programmatic approach. We offer a range of programs designed to fit different participants' needs, from that of faculty and professional and academic (P&A) instructors who are new to integrating technology into their teaching practices or are looking to become leaders in this area, to those who are looking beyond their own courses and revising an entire program for hybrid or online delivery, to staff members and teaching assistants (TAs) who help with educational technology projects. Participants are involved in learning communities with peers and our consultants and are provided with opportunities to develop and refine over time individual projects that are informed by the latest relevant scholarship.
