LSTA Mobile Edge Grant 2019

Library and Learning Technologies will partner with both the Office of Study Abroad and Center for Principled Problem Solving (CPPS) in the implementaiton of the grant.

A new expressed need of Study Abroad to enable immersive experience will be met using virtual reality (VR) technologies, specifically to enhance students’ studies away and abroad. Study Abroad sees this technology as having potential for augmenting and extending immersive away experiences for students, envisioning this technology being used to enhance pre- and post- reflections, as well as in-the-moment experiences.  Students will be able to anticipate the new environments they encounter, record happenings in the moment, and subsequently use their recorded experiences as they return and reflect upon and share them with others.

Of central importance to the success of the Guilford Edge experience is ensuring that all students will have access to and support for personalized engagement and development; and the College must be prepared to provide the required tools and technologies to enable all students to maximize their own unique experiences and explorations beyond the classroom.  The LSTA grant award will increase capacity for ensuring equity of access to students who do not personally own the mobile digital technologies required for fulfillment of academic course requirements increasingly including digital presentation development.

Regardless of their means, any student studying abroad or away, or simply doing research or projects off-campus, will be able to participate in required class activities and projects. They will be well supported whether they are documenting their travels on a class blog, rehearsing a presentation, doing public health interventions out in the community, taking their readings outside of the classroom to imagine staging for a play, surveying users for design research, collaborating with peers to create a podcast, or giving peers live feedback during in-class presentations. Hege Library and Learning Technologies anticipates that this capacity building LSTA grant project will be pivotal in advancing support of the College’s new Guilford Edge curriculum and QEP, will address the need for technological equity for our student body, will support the needs of new program development at a pivotal time, and will motivate our students to pursue new creative digital directions.

The Center for Principled Problem Solving (CPPS) will partner on The Mobile Edge to support the success of the project in addressing issues of equity of access and support for students in utilizing the technologies. CPPS has pledged to contribute funding for a paid student internship to support these efforts for the duration of the grant period.  The Director of CPPS also will contribute support for the development of an assessment strategy that is reflective of its mission and of the Guilford core value Equality. This support will help ensure meaningful assessment of the extent to which the grant initiative is meeting the needs of all students requiring mobile digital technologies for fulfillment of academic requirements, that it is reflective of the core value Excellence in promoting academic rigor, and that it is reflective of the two pillars of the Guilford Edge aligned with the PPS curriculum, programming, and mission: Learning Collaboratively, and Ethical Leadership.