Regents tour OSU's innovative ITLE facilities

Friday, September 15, 2006

Oklahoma State University/A&M Board of Regent members toured OSU’s Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence on Friday. Regents had a chance to get a closer look at the classrooms of the future for higher education.

Laptops, internet communications and visual media are replacing rows of desks for students and a lectern for the instructor, changing the definition of a classroom. Uniting the high-tech tools of today’s classrooms and the potential for peer teaching and learning, ITLE is allowing students and faculty to experience the potential future of higher education.

ITLE classrooms feature round tables and Bluetooth wireless technology, allowing students to engage in group activities without time restrictions. Instructors using the classrooms are simultaneously trying out new teaching methods.

“It’s all based on the idea that instead of pouring the information into a student’s head, we, as facilitators, guide them to it,” said Alan Cheville, associate professor of electrical engineering. “This allows students to seek their own knowledge, and research indicates this makes retention more effective.”

Plans for the classrooms began in the late ‘90s with a grant from the National Science Foundation. ITLE has been working since to provide technologically facilitated instruction and professional development opportunities for faculty, such as workshops for technology implementation. The institute also serves as a place for collaborative learning research.

As part of the institute’s advancement, a VBrick system was installed this summer at OSU branch sites to allow multimedia to be stored on web-based databases, permitting faculty and students internet access to course-related multimedia.

“This was an important step in moving OSU into the next phase of becoming a high-tech learning environment,” said OSU Provost and Senior Vice President Marlene Strathe. “Web-based databases are much faster and more efficient than traditional uploading systems.”

ITLE is housed in the OSU Telecommunications building. The renovation of Murray Hall and construction of the new classroom building at Hall of Fame Avenue and Monroe Street are planned to add additional modern classrooms on campus.