College
of Saint Mary has a legacy of academic excellence stretching back more than 80
years, but our use of technology is anything but a thing of the past. We strive to provide our students with an
exciting and engaging educational experience through the use of new and
innovative technologies.
The
Institutional Technology Department provides technical services such as the
maintenance of the campus data network, telephone system, computer systems,
computer labs, and servers at College of Saint Mary. We also offer centralized support, training,
and consulting concerning both academic and administrative technology needs to
the campus community.
As of the
Fall 2008 semester, we have begun using ANGEL Online Learning for all of our
online classes. ANGEL allows our
instructors to take a creative and student-focused approach to their
instruction through the use of threaded discussions, online rubrics, and
electronic grading, and ANGEL promotes the concept of being "green" by having
students submit their work via digital drop boxes.
Another technology
that we recently introduced to our students is the Tegrity
Lecture Capture System. The Tegrity software allows instructors to record their
lectures and have them available for playback by their students. Through the use of a webcam, the instructor's
video and audio is captured by the software, as well as the information being
presented on the computer. Students are
able to login to the Tegrity system online and review
lectures at their own convenience. We
are proud to say that we are the first University in Nebraska to use Tegrity!
Along
with these technologies, we have our MyCSM portal that allows for campus-wide
communication from faculty and staff to our students, and we also have our Self
Service application which is used for things such as registration and
advising. In addition, we have the
ability to conduct webcasts with Skype, which allows our distance education
students the ability to still be a part of community.
Although
we are growing in terms of the technology that we have to offer our students,
we are a University that focuses on an individual, small-class, personalized
approach to learning. We have adopted a
single-sign-on process so students only need to remember one username and
password to utilize these technologies. The
great thing about all of them is that they are accessible from home!