The Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program: IET Mediaworks

The Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program provides UC Davis faculty an opportunity to mentor and to learn from other faculty interested in instructional technology. Participants will learn about tools such as Macromedia Breeze and Almagest, and about the UC Davis Learning Environment powered by Sakai, the new suite of web-based course management tools that will improve upon and eventually replace the current (MyUCDavis) tools faculty use to instruct and communicate with their students. The mentoring program's success will depend upon participants sharing their discoveries and expertise with fellow faculty and with the program manager, and upon their building formal and informal networks with faculty who seek effective and innovative ways to meet their teaching goals.

Managed by Andy Jones, a longtime user of instructional technology at UC Davis, the Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program will guide faculty through the technical and pedagogical opportunities offered by the many tools within the new course management tools, including the new lesson builder, the digital drop box, the integrated calendar, the wiki, and the improved assessment tools, among many others. The Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program will also serve as a conduit of information and ideas about teaching and instructional technology among UC Davis faculty, The Teaching Resources Center, and Mediaworks, the Instructional Technology and Digital Media Center at UC Davis.

Beginning in 2006, faculty mentors have tested the new course management tools with the assistance of the Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program manager, the Faculty Training Coordinator, and student ET Partners. Together they will discover the early challenges and continuing opportunities offered by the expanding array of course management tools that will soon be available to all UC Davis Faculty.

Incentives to Participating Faculty

• One-on-one tutorials and consultations with the Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program manager and with the TRC/ Mediaworks Faculty Training Coordinator
• Instructional and technological support from a student ET Partner from the ET Partners program
• UC Davis Learning Environment technical support from Mediaworks managers and programmers
• New friendships and working partnerships with faculty from other disciplines
• Opportunities to improve instruction with innovative use of new technologies and effective teaching methods

Responsibilities of Participating Faculty

• Attending relevant demonstrations (preferably with a colleague!)
• Meeting with new program participants to discuss trends and discoveries in teaching with technology
• Acting as a conduit of information about teaching for fellow faculty
• Meeting with Mediaworks representatives to ask and answer questions about new applications and procedures
• Helping to arrange departmental demonstrations and identify other potential users

Faculty interested in becoming mentors should contact Andy Jones, Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program Manager, at aojones@ucdavis.edu , 752-4080, or 752-3408.