The Office of Learning Technology Development, with the cooperation of the Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC) and campus learning technology support professionals explore and investigate technology that can potentially benefit the teaching and learning goals of all UW System campuses. This page highlights some of the current initiatives and current projects underway. Please contact the Office of Learning Technology Development if you have questions or interest in getting involved.

Current Projects and Initiatives

Accessibility Grant

The Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC) has received project funding to strategically address universal design and accessibility for persons with disabilities in relation to learning technology.

More information on this grant opportunity

Past Projects & Initiatives

Two very valuable documents are in the process of being created by an LTDC working group. The goal is to create an LTDC Handbook, the roadmap and source of valuable information and resources for LTDC representatives. Along with the Handbook, the working group is developing a resource that will serve as the foundation of a mentoring program for new LTDC representatives and their back-ups.

Over the years LTDC representatives have learned their role both for their campus and on the LTD Council by following the lead of more senior members. This has not been such a bad thing, however there is so much more happening with teaching and learning with technology that the LTDC representatives will benefit tremendously from these two tools. The working group hopes to have the Handbook completed by Spring 2012 and the Mentoring Handbook soon thereafter.

The UW System is sponsoring a pilot of the Kaltura media management system. The goal of this pilot is to explore the relatively uncharted territory of a media management platform for teaching and learning. Kaltura offers a hosted solution for storage and management of video assets, a YouTube-like interface, access to usage statistics, and the potential to integrate with Desire2Learn, the UW System's LMS, for easy access and management of video content.

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UWS sponsored a pilot project for the D2L e-portfolio product which started in January 2009 and ended June 2011. The goal of this pilot was to explore the newly developed ePortfolio tool by Desire2Learn, the UWS centrally supported Learning Management System. The result of the pilot was system-wide adoption of the D2L ePortfolio. The direct integration of the D2L eP product with the LMS offers advantages in Portfolio building and easy access by faculty mentors and students.  This product offers additional advantage in familiar interface and availability to all students who are users of D2L.

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UWS sponsored a pilot project for the Elluminate Web Conferencing System (now called BlackBoard Collaborate) through Fall semester 2010. The goal of this pilot was to explore the capabilities of Elluminate System as a synchronous tool to complement the online learning needs at UW. The direct integration of Elluminate with D2L offers advantages in easy user management and access by faculty and students.

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UWS has formed a Quality Matters Consortium since November 2008. Quality Matters is nationally recognized entity initially managed by Maryland Online through a FIPSE grant to develop a process for online course design assessment. The QM program consists of a peer-review process closely based on a research-based set of standards forming the QM rubric. Currently 8 UW campuses are on the UWS QM consortium – this includes Eau Claire (College of Business), Colleges Online, Madison, Oshkosh, Whitewater, Green Bay, LaCrosse, and Superior. Participation is entirely voluntary. Members do enjoy the benefits of discounted yearly membership fee and training.

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UWS has leased land in the Second Life Virtual World – titled 'InWorld Wisconsin'. The goal of this project is promote the sharing of Virtual World expertise and to explore Virtual World pedagogy among UW campuses. The InWorld Island will provide a place for faculty a sandbox to develop and design teaching and learning activities in Second Life, especially if their home campus does not provide such an environment.