Welsh Educators Visit CVM for Technology Tour
A team from Swansea University visited Texas A&M this week to learn more about our approach to learning, teaching and, in particular, the use of educational technology.
The team from United Kingdom (Wales) visited the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM) Veterinary & Biomedical Education Complex (VBEC) to meet with Dr. Jay Ramdoss, an assistant professor in the CVM’s Department of Veterinary Physiology & Pharmacology.
During a tour of the CVM’s classrooms, Ramadoss shared his teaching technologies. He said the visitors were amazed at all we do in our college using our teaching strategies and that they were especially impressed with the VBEC facility.
The Swansea University visitors included:
- Professor Martin Stringer, pro-vice-chancellor
- Dr. Paul Holland, dean of educational technology
- Sean Cahill, strategic change manager, PSPU
- Emily Rees, student union education officer
Some of the objectives for their visit included:
- Finding ways to contribute to the vision for their digital learning estate, which is currently being developed through the Swansea University Digital Strategy;
- Comparing approaches taken by U.S. partners to U.K. institutions;
- Learning how Texas A&M applies and benefits from technology-enhanced learning as a holistic service to support their already large and rapidly growing student populations, both in the region and globally;
- Building a network of relationships with key people at Texas A&M to inform future plans and developments, with a view to sustaining and continuing to develop these networks in the future;
- Looking for opportunities to ensure that staff and student planning, effort, contact time, and administration is used to best effect to enhance the student learning experience by adopting a “digital-first” mind set;
- And proposing strategies to reduce pressure on physical teaching space, while improving student learning and satisfaction by adopting more targeted and enriched blended, but pedagogically sound approaches, etc.
In relation to technology-enhanced learning (TEL) specifically, the group talked to Ramadoss about how Texas A&M reviews the benefits and challenges associated with implementing specific modern technology and pedagogies, as a means of prioritization and planning proposals including, but not limited to: lecture recording, webinar and virtual classrooms, VR/AR developments, and student analytics.
