Page 33 - Campus Technology, October/November 2020

C-LEVEL VIEW
CT: Are you planning for an expansion of blended learning and other modes of digital instruction for some time in the future?
Bowen: Zoom is only one of the tools that we are using to expand our support of three distinct modalities for now and for the near future at ASU, including: online courses; immersive on-campus courses; and ASU Sync, which allows for students to engage in the same types of learning activities offered online and on campus in a live and synchronous form, using Zoom and other tools. To date, the initiative has activated more than 960 permanent or portable ASU Sync-enabled classrooms throughout our campuses.
Again, what our live, synchronous remote classes do so well is that they help us make sure students can continue to engage with their professors, ASU resources and the val- ues of an education they’ve come to expect at ASU.
And this is only going to improve over time. There are growing opportunities for greater degrees of personalization as well as for the development of new and different types of learning experiences, both on campus and in our surrounding learning communities. Such learning opportunities are live and interactive, and, at the same time
they are complemented by engaging digital experiences.
These initiatives are what we have concen- trated on over the past few months, with ASU Sync at the front and center of it all. It’s definitely one of the key enablers from a technology standpoint.
CT: Are there any tools or technologies you’re developing on campus that might eventually enable more personalization?
Bowen: We do have another key enabler we recently launched called the ASU Digital Backpack. Over the past few months, we’ve been working with partners across the university to design and develop the Digital Backpack as a workflow that supports the student’s learning experience. The Digital Backpack is loaded with 21st century technologies — including Zoom, Google Suite, Slack, Dropbox and our most recent addition, Adobe Creative Cloud — that our students can use throughout a range of learning scenarios from the very beginning of their college years to well beyond graduation.
One important characteristic of the Digital Backpack is that it can take advantage of new and different learning designs to amplify the connection that happens in the live interac- tions between faculty and students, among
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | Oct/Nov 2020