As the campus repopulates and classes begin, the demand for functional technology in the classroom climbs once again. The individuals responsible for maintaining functional technology across the campus classrooms are none other than the hard-working staff of Information, Communication & Information Technology (ICIT)

In particular, the individual in ICIT who is tasked with researching the next innovative technology on campus is Dr. Andrew Cole.

Dr. Cole’s current role is Learning Technology Specialist within ICIT, a title he has held for the past two years.

In his role as Learning Technology Specialist, Dr. Cole speaks to and educates faculty on how to use campus technology properly and uses feedback he receives to improve the technology. 

Additionally, Dr. Cole is in charge of working on pilot projects of new technology.

“These pilot projects consist of new technology that potentially could be included on campus in the near future,” described Dr. Cole about what pilot projects are.

One of Dr. Cole’s goals for this year is to implement the adaptive learning on the UW-W campus.

“One big thing right now is adaptive learning. This is an online platform that will either give you more content if you need additional help or it will bypass the content if you already understand it,” said Dr. Cole. “We are really interested to see if adaptive learning will increase future student success.”

Recently, Dr. Cole was selected as a panelist at the National Communication Association’s Annual Convention in Baltimore, Maryland on Nov. 14-17. Dr. Cole’s panel will be titled “Surviving the Future of Communication Instruction: New media and digital pedagogy.”

“The presentation will essentially talk about how to use technology and digital media in instructors’ standpoint. It will also talk about how to do faculty development when technology is always changing,” said Dr. Cole.

Prior to arriving at UW-W, Dr. Cole served as a professor at Waukesha County Community College teaching public speaking courses. Dr. Cole graduated from UW-W with a Bachelor’s degree in Speech in 2006. He then continued by obtaining a Masters and Doctorate in Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2011 and 2014.

With technology constantly evolving, Dr. Cole and the ICIT staff will continue to provide the campus’ instructors with new and innovative ways to teach while utilizing feedback to improve the future.

“Every day is different because the projects are always different that are being piloted. Early in the semester, a lot of the stuff is around training and troubleshooting the technologies that are being piloted,” he said. “As the semester goes on, it will be a little more focused on feedback from the instructors and hopefully the students too to see if the stuff is working.”