Mission and History of the LTC

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) is the campus center that assists faculty, teaching academic staff, and teaching assistants in their efforts to use instructional technology to enhance teaching and learning. LTC staff is comprised of experienced instructors who understand the classroom and online teaching environments and who use technologies in their own courses. We offer consultations, workshops, and individual support designed to help instructors become independent users and developers of e-learning resources that improve teaching and learning.

We offer assistance in online teaching methodologies for:

Web-Enhanced Teaching: Instructors can effectively augment traditional classroom instruction by offering online materials, such as course syllabi, discussion forums, texts, quizzes and drills, Web resources, etc.

Hybrid Teaching: Instructors can redesign their traditional classes to move substantial course content and student learning activities online, allowing them to reduce the number of in-person class meetings. The LTC staff has in-depth experience with the Hybrid teaching model.

Totally Online Teaching: Instructors can design totally online, or distance education, courses. The LTC staff has expertise that can help instructors in the design and delivery of totally online courses.

In addition to pedagogical consultation, the LTC offers instructional software workshops, Web and other e-learning resources, specialized equipment in a comfortable lab setting, and, most importantly, "just in time" support delivered through email, telephone calls, workshops, and in-person assistance.

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) was established in January 1997, as part of the Center for Professional and Instructional Development (CIPD), reporting to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The founding LTC director was Robert (Bob) Kaleta, who was instructed by the then Provost Kenneth Watters to establish an instructional technology support center for mainstream faculty. The purpose and emphases of the LTC have remained constant since its origin: support mainstream faculty to improve their teaching through the effective use of instructional technology that is consistent with good pedagogical practices.

In order to ensure that the LTC retained its focus upon pedagogy, rather than technology, Director Bob Kaleta made several critical decisions:

The LTC staff are experienced university-level instructors, who continued to teach in their disciplines;

The LTC reports directly to Academic Affairs, as do the university's academic departments, but maintains an active liaison with the university's computing and communications technology organization through a secondary reporting line to the campus CIO; and,

The LTC is housed in a central campus location convenient to faculty, i.e., the Library.

Since its inception the LTC has assisted over 80% of the University of Wisconsin faculty through its many workshops, grant projects, and personalized consulting. The LTC staff has been especially active in University of Wisconsin System initiatives, and the LTC is recognized internationally as a leader in hybrid, or blended, courses (see the Hybrid Course Project website at http://hybrid.uwm.edu).