UNMC is developing next steps for the continued rollout of a plan to deliver health professions curricula in a digital format, working with Apple to explore becoming an “Apple Digital Campus.”
This follows last year’s training of 80 faculty and staff from across the campus by education specialists from Apple.
In September, UNMC will host technical and user content expert personnel from universities that already have implemented, or are in the process of becoming, Apple Digital campuses. Faculty, staff and administrators from each college will be invited to hear their presentations and meet with them to ask questions.
“The plan sets the stage for health professions education reform by enabling faculty to deliver courses that can use multimedia content including videos, interactive word documents, and other software to improve the learning experience for UNMC students,” said Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs, who is leading the initiative along with Kyle Meyer, Ph.D., dean of the College of Allied Health Professions.
“Faculty and staff have been trained in every unit on campus and will be available to serve as facilitators for others in their units seeking to learn,” he said.
Today, more than 50 curricular and content specific projects are being created across the UNMC campus for delivery on mobile devices. Several of these modules will be showcased to the campus at a digital curriculum expo scheduled for January 2017.
Meanwhile, an “Apple Digital Campus Development Group,” led by UNMC’s Faye Haggar and Marty Magee, will begin meeting in August. These meetings will bring together faculty and staff members who have received training but want to continue to develop their skills, or faculty who are interested in learning more on how they can develop skills for delivery of innovative content. Watch UNMC Today for more information on these meetings.
MacBooks and iPads are available in the E-Learning Laboratory in the McGoogan Library for signing out to faculty and staff who want to use them to create content, or familiarize themselves with the products before buying their own.
“It is important to note that delivery of curriculum on iPads does not mean that all faculty have to switch their computers to Apple products,” Dr. Davies said. “They can still have curricular content delivered to students on iPads even if they are using PCs or other computers to create the content.”
Feedback on the Digital Campus Initiative will be solicited from students and faculty through meetings and a survey that will be sent out this fall.
I can see how readers of this can get the impression that we are moving to an all Apple campus. Can something be written to clarify that this is not the case?