About ATIS?
Academic Technology & Instructional Services (ATIS), formerly the Department of Distance Education, provides expanded access to educational opportunities through eLearning modalities (online, compressed video-interactive television, etc.) for Western Michigan University students. ATIS also serves the general academic population through coordination of campus wise technology and initiative projects.
ATIS partners with WMU academic units to offer educational opportunities via alternative delivery methods. The academic units are responsible for identifying potential faculty members, evaluating faculty credentials, and ensuring consistency of content with on-campus courses. Courses are offered through Academic Technology & Instructional Services via three primary delivery methods, although some courses are offered via "hybrid" solutions. Along with acting as a first line of support for students and faculty of eLearning courses, ATIS provides various services such as instructional design assistance to faculty, technical support for students, on-campus testing, coordination of test proctoring arrangements.
ATIS has an instructional design team to assist faculty members with preparing course materials and teaching strategies for the chosen delivery modality. The instructional design team anticipates providing a workshop series in the near future to introduce faculty members to issues involved in teaching via these technologies, as well as to assist with converting on-campus courses to distance delivery methods.
Web-based, Online Courses
The ATIS instructional design team works with faculty members to convert on-campus face-to-face course content into alternative delivery methods, to provide comparable learning experiences for students in web-based courses offered through Academic Technology & Instructional Services. Text-based materials housed in Blackboard Vista are enhanced via various other mediums such as images, video, CD, DVDS, electronic library reserves, and most any other resources that instructors may deem appropriate to delivery a quality educational experience. The instructional design team offers faculty development workshops to provide online faculty with exposure to various tools and online teaching strategies, as well as to create a community of online faculty to encourage information and sharing of experiences and lessons learned. Additionally, the instructional design team acts as a first line of support for faculty and students, in courses offered via ATIS, for technical or other online related issues. Student demand for web-based educational opportunities continues to drive growth in web-based course offerings from almost every area of study.
Compressed Video Interactive Television (CVIT)
Each campus houses, or has access to, a CVIT classroom. These rooms allow real-time teleconferencing for video conferencing needs and are equipped with high quality cameras, displays, and audio. Through these multiple sites that are simultaneously connected, we can reduce the need to travel on-site to hold courses, meetings, training sessions, etc.
Tape Delayed
ATIS has facilities for recording lectures in a class room setting, allowing for course lectures to be delivered to students for viewing at a time that is convenient to them, in the comfort of their own homes. Linear and non-linear (computer based) editing capabilities allow the ATIS instructional design team to modify the taped material per instructors' requests. While only one program currently employs this strategy intensively, with a focus on CD and DVD creation and duplication capabilities, as well as streaming video potentials, ATIS is anticipating a great demand and usage this strategy to deliver content.
Please contact ATIS regarding departmental or individual faculty member ideas regarding extending educational opportunities to potential off-campus student. We will be happy to work with you in providing additional courses and programs external to the WMU main campus.
