Photos courtesy of Grace Bucholz
Gone are the days when a paper, pencil, chalkboard and overhead projectors dominated the classroom. In this day and age, especially when viewed from a professional development standpoint, digital technology is becoming more and more of a necessity to be successful.
Whether it be smartphones, laptops or tablets, all these devices, in their own way, enhance not only our productivity in life but also improves communication on all fronts.
“Our goal is to provide a world class experience to our students and eLearning and those tools help us do that,” Cory Tressler, director of learning programs and digital flagship at The Ohio State University, says. “It’s an expectation of a lot of our students coming from high schools or other places that have already created that environment.”
Digital First
The university knew that its students were already showing up to campus with the latest and greatest technology. Digital First tackles how to implement and give opportunity to capitalize on technological advancements both in and out of the classroom.
“Digital First was focused on content and how students were using eLearning tools,” Tressler says. “It was how we could work with faculty to get digital resources that are cheap or basically free to our students.”
Since the beginning of the initiative, Digital First has saved OSU students over $3 million. Digital textbooks and other learning materials are becoming more readily available for students at little to no charge.
Digital First was OSU’s first digital learning initiative and made education and access to materials much more accessible. Classroom resources such as syllabi are now available anytime via OSU’s learning management system, Carmen, in which all course materials for every class can be found.
“Through maturing, one big thing that happened was the start of the affordable learning exchange, the affordability initiative around course materials,” Tressler says. “That could be books but it could be any learning resource that traditionally students had to pay for out of pocket.”
Ohio State students arrive at Digital Flagship iPad pickup after checking in for their first day of orientation. Each day approximately 250 students will receive devices.
The Next Step
OSU is no stranger in using technology to enhance the environment for students. Whether it has been through the implementation of Carmen, the organizational partnership with Microsoft Office, or giving students unlimited cloud storage through Box, the amount of resources readily available to students is staggering.
“If you have heard President (Michael) Drake talk recently, there have been a few common themes, those being access, affordability and excellence,” Tressler says. “Access is a huge thing; we have six campuses with 55,000 plus undergrad students, so we are now focused on having equal access to both software and now hardware.”
Each iPad Pro given is the best Apple has to offer, with more than 256 gigabytes of local storage.
“Every year we will look at the landscape of what is available and use feedback from our students to determine which is best for them,” Tressler says.
“We didn’t set the bar low, (the iPad Pro) is a pretty powerful tool and it was the device we felt was best for higher education,” Tressler says. “It was the next natural step for everything we are doing with providing the best learning and teaching experience as possible.”
This year, more than 11,500 incoming students, both traditional and non-traditional, received the technology. The program is based off of the cohort of high school graduation. Students who graduated in 2018 and are entering OSU for their first year are eligible.
“We will get to the point where every undergraduate student has an iPad and that is where a lot of the magic will begin to happen,” Tressler says.
Student iPads feature the new Discover app, created to help students navigate campus resources and get involved. The app also contains their orientation schedule and helpful reminders for whole they're on campus.
Work/Life Balance and Technology Struggles
Students are welcome to use these iPad Pros for whatever they may please. While the ultimate goal is to ensure they are using them in the classroom to improve their overall experience, at the end of the day, the students are the sole owners of these devices.
Did you know: Apple’s latest iOS update, iOS 12 will have technology built in that will show just how much time you are spending on your device and each application? This is to help curb technology addiction.
Technology can often prove to be a distraction, both in professional or personal settings.
“We know that students are going to go to careers where they are connected through mobile devices to their jobs,” Tressler says. “You are going to need to set these boundaries and know it’s OK to turn off and disconnect, and if you don’t you are setting yourself for potential burnout.”
Everyone Can Code and Beyond
As a final setup step all students capture a lock-screen selfie. This is an easy way to identity their devices during the day, but also a fun way to make new friends.
The iPad rollouts are only the beginning for OSU’s latest endeavors in the Digital Flagship. The university began face-to-face coding workshops last spring and is working on scaling that up more with Apple and the computer science program.
“Apple has created some amazing resources through an initiative they have called Everyone Can Code using their language called Swift,” Tressler says. “What we are working on right now is how do we combine all these things and making them more Ohio State-centric.”
The coding curriculum will begin as challenges and activities as a way to learn the coding language. It is the hope to mature this into noncredit-baring, skills-based certification.
A mobile lab will be developed to provide one-on-one consultation to students looking to gain insight into app development. This will allow the university to work with all of their campuses, as well as the rest of Ohio, while a physical location waits to be developed on main campus.
At the end of the day, the success of these digital evolutions at OSU are fueled by students and their willingness to learn and adapt.
“The first day students are on campus we want them to hear that message, that we want their feedback,” Tressler says. “It’s about you, it’s about your experience and this is how we can make it better.”
Rocco Falleti is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at rfalleti@cityscenecolumbus.com.
