Our Lady of the Lake University

OLLU Connecting Minority Communities Pilot project activities include: (1) Upgrade technology and provide internet access to facilitate student participation in education instruction and learning; (2) Train faculty on incorporating technologies into instruction; (3) Provide virtual machines to students in remote courses to facilitate access to University software; (4) Provide training in the use of curriculum design and pedagogical tools for online and remote courses across disciplines; (5) Implement University-wide proctoring services to provide remote proctoring and integrity safeguards for online testing and assessment that will allow the institution to uphold academic standards in remote courses; and (6) Establish a new Remote Services Librarian position to expand educational instruction and remote learning opportunities by building the digital capacity of OLLU’s three campuses.

As a result of upgrading classroom equipment and providing internet access to students, OLLU will experience a decreased number of technical issues and an increase and improvement in instruction and student learning experience. Training of faculty will increase their ability to seamlessly integrate technology into courses and increase self-efficacy with technology usage. Providing students with virtual machines will result in improvement of remote student performance and increased access and in the level of student participation through the utilization of software. Proctoring services across the University will result in integrity safeguards for online testing and assessment that will allow the institution to uphold academic standards in remote/online courses. Lastly, the remote service librarian position will result in an improvement in synchronous and asynchronous library and information literacy instruction. The position will also promote training using library technology and close digital equity gaps for OLLU students by providing remote support services.

This project will benefit Our Lady of the Lake University, its students, and the neighboring community located in San Antonio, Texas by improving the campus-community relationship and increasing the university’s capacity to deliver quality instruction. By expanding educational instruction and remote learning opportunities, OLLU will bridge significant gaps in equity and access to digital instruction, which will then allow students to complete their degrees, gain employment in high-value, high-demand occupations. and ultimately boost economic development within their communities. For underserved students, this enhanced ability to connect and engage will help increase retention and course success rates, ultimately producing graduates who can competitively seek careers with upward mobility, moving them away from dependence on low-wage and low-skill employment.

The recipient does not intend to subaward funds.