Technology Across The Curriculum - Unique Characteristics of The Program

Unique Characteristics of The Program

The summary of the TAC Program by the Educause Award committee gives a good sense of what makes the program particularly effective. Two key words in that summary are "systematic" and "programmatic." The TAC Program is "systematic" in part because of the 10 overarching IT Goals. Those goals set up an ambitious range of skills for students to develop over their four years at GMU. When faculty members submit TAC proposals, the faculty members indicate the goals that those proposals are intended to satisfy. By means of the IT Grids and a project database, the TAC program tracks how many courses satisfy each of the 10 goals. The program also sets its own priorities for each funding cycle, choosing to concentrate on different goals over time based on the goals that need the most attention or that are most appropriate for that funding year. The overarching strategy is to integrate as many of those 10 skills into the curriculum over time as possible, so that by the time a student graduates from the university, s/he will have not only a broad-based liberal arts education, but also a good grounding in the technology skills needed for future success.

Another key element of TAC's "programmatic" nature is the emphasis on impact. The program has attempted over the years to gauge the impact it has had on the undergraduate curriculum and to keep track of the number of departments, courses, faculty, and students who are in some way affected by the program itself. The faculty members and departments are those who have been involved in TAC projects, and the students have taken courses that incorporate assignments advancing student technology skills as a result of TAC funding. The impact of a project can also influence whether the project receives funding, since one of the goals of the program is to be as comprehensive as possible. When a course that is a university requirement incorporates a new technology assignment (or assignments) as part of the TAC program, then almost every student at the university will complete that assignment, and those students will gain the technology skills inherent to the assignment. For example, History 100 (Western Civilization) is a required course at GMU, and all students who cannot place out of the course need to take it. The Western Civilization Webography project teaches students how to evaluate Internet sources based on their Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, Coverage, Quality, etc. Students work collaboratively to review Web-based resources relevant to the course (and that might be useful for a later writing assignment in the course), and the students enter their review into a searchable database. Students are learning crucial skills in Information literacy, and they are also learning how information is stored in a database to make it useful for later searching and retrieval. The TAC program can then feel confident that the vast majority of students at the university have received training in those crucial skills. Similarly, if Communication 104 (Presenting with Technology) is a university or college requirement, then most students will receive training in several of the IT Skills: Electronic Collaboration, Electronic Documents, Technology-Enhanced Presentations, Electronic Research and Evaluation, and Representation Technologies. If the 100-level and 200-level chemistry courses teach students essential spreadsheet skills, then all non-science majors and science majors who take those courses will have gained those skills. The more the TAC program can influence large and required courses, and the more other departments and courses become involved in the program, the more effective TAC becomes in achieving its goal of ensuring that all students receive training in the 10 crucial IT skills that provide the foundation and structure for the program.