College of Nursing Classroom Technology Upgraded for New Academic Year

Upgraded technology in 11 classrooms and three conference rooms is greeting new and returning students in Procter Hall, the home to the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Nursing. The Information Technology and Instructional Equipment (ITIE) fund covered $276,876 of the $323,730 in technology upgrades, while the remaining funds came from the College of Nursing general funds and the Ohio Board of Regents Area Health Education funds.

"ITIE funds come from student fees and can only be used for technology that students and faculty use, it can't be used for anything else," says Matt Rota, director of IT, and director, Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning for the College of Nursing. 

The initiative to upgrade the classroom and conference room technology in the College of Nursing began in February of this year. Rota went to Dean Greer Glazer because of some inconsistencies with existing technology. Rota says Glazer got feedback from students who told her that the technology in place was fantastic when it worked, but the performance varied from room to room.

"Dean Glazer asked us to solve the problem, so I pulled my Center for Academic Technology and Educational Resources (CATER) team together and we came up with a plan to standardize every classroom and conference room in the building," Rota says. "Every room is equipped with the exact same technology now. Every classroom has new monitors, has new conference monitors, has new equipment at the lectern, has touch panels that run the room. We really looked at the feedback from the students, faculty and alumni."

As with any major project, it took a team to get this completed. Rota met with three members of his CATER team, Steve McKinney, Eric Price and Seth Thompson once a week to discuss the project. Two workers from ICB, the vendor hired to do the installation, were on site throughout the entire project, which was completed about two weeks before the start of the fall semester. 

"I feel like this has put us at a level where we can say we are truly leading with technology," says Rota. "I feel like we can rely on it now where before I don't feel like we could. We've strengthened the infrastructure of the college in the learning experience because of our mission and vision."

The mission statement of the college is "Through creative leveraging of technology, the College of Nursing will lead the transformation of health in partnership informed by the people we serve."