Nov. 6, 2001

Technology Program Launched for Faculty

Workshops Help Professors Integrate Technology in Classroom

By Sara Ortega

Professors searching for innovative instructional alternatives have recently found a new campus department ready to guide them toward cutting-edge classroom improvement. The Center for Instructional Design and Development (CIDD) now caters exclusively to professors and assistants, offering instructional consultations, workshops, grants, and print and Web-based resources. A merger of two previous departments (the Instructional Technology Lab and the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching), this new division has become a unit of the Center for Academic Technologies.

As students generally demonstrate advanced technological proficiency, GW now offers its professors the opportunity to gain new expertise. CIDD does not intend to replace traditional teaching methods, but rather to supplement them. William Koffenberger, CIDD director, admits, “Students and subjects need to be approached differently, so we’d like to see a resource center support faculty to different degrees in their desire to enhance classroom
instruction.”

Department workshops range from beginner to advanced levels. Highlighted clinics include “Dreamweaver Course Builder,” which teaches interactive instructional Web page design, various Prometheus navigation courses,
multimedia application support, as well as courses in constructing online virtual classes.

Although still evolving from its infant stage, the Center for Instructional Design and Development aims to maximize its resources in order to emphasize collaborative relationships between the University, the classroom, and the outside world.

“We’re focusing on achieving internal objectives because technology is a motivator for faculty to produce change,” Koffenberger states. Once professors are more comfortable in mingling technology into
the classroom, they can request CIDD grants to expand research
proposals and facilitate the redesign of courses.

CIDD pledges a new era of promise for GW. The right structures need to be in place, however, before anyone can take the first steps because “it’s a circular process,” Koffenberger says. “We need to identify our problems, refine instructional design, implement new strategies, and evaluate classroom success.”

For further information, visit www.cidd.gwu.edu.

 

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu