The UWI Vice-Chancellor’s Report to University Council

OPEN CAMPUS REPORT

Academic Programming and Delivery (APAD) Division

The Global Campus Rebranding/Renaming Committee (RRC) was formed to manage the exercise at the Campus level and to engage with the University Director, Marketing and Communications. Three meetings of the RRC were held between March and May 2023 and a clear path to guide the process was outlined. It was decided that the exercise would be carried out in three phases as follows: pre-sensitisation and renaming of Campus assets, the official launch of the Global Campus, and awareness building of the new entity post-launch. As work continues in the rebranding exercise, the focus will remain on advancing learning, creating knowledge and fostering innovation for the positive transformation of the Caribbean and the wider world.

The Enterprise Resource Planning Unit conducted Banner module specific refresher training for end users as requested or where required. They also completed the transformation of CSDR Department’s manual processes for short courses to operate in the Banner system, and captured the current scholarship process, identifying gaps and design process improvement changes. Office of Finance The Office of Finance engaged departments of the Campus in developing and implementing measures to improve economies of scale for the Campus. These include arrangements for procurement, shared services, more efficient use of resources across the Campus, and merging of processes thus reducing duplication and overlaps and furthering cost containment.

In pursuit of achieving greater efficiency in operational processes and improving service delivery, APAD began an AI Integration Pilot Project using current staff resources and the AI assistant in place of Course Instructors and Course Coordinators for 30 courses. As a result of the AI integration, APAD was able to: assess the responsiveness of students to the AI assistant; evaluate feedback on students regarding their social presence, instructor presence, and cognitive presence in courses; compare grades with instructor-led and AI assisted courses; evaluate the reports of analytics generated during the semester; document lessons learned from all stakeholders; and evaluate the viability of using an AI assistant in undersubscribed courses.

Academic Programming and Delivery (APAD) Division

Paymaster

The role and function of the Virtual Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (vCETL) support the CAMP strategic objective in several ways, such as establishing and maintaining an online Community of Practice hub for facilitators; establishing an online newsletter for teaching staff to keep them updated on latest events, developments, issues, and trends in teaching, learning and assessment; conducting a virtual teaching and learning retreat week; establishing a commendation system for faculty and adjuncts who go beyond the call of duty and who demonstrate excellence in teaching; and facilitating the hosting of a Virtual Awards Ceremony for Excellence in University Teaching. The Online Programming and Delivery Department (OPPD) also contributed to the CAMP initiative by conducting Moodle Books workshop training (follow-up session) with the Production Assistants and Curriculum Development Specialists in APAD.

The Open Campus engaged Paymaster in April 2021 to partner with the institution to provide collection services for the students located in Jamaica. The need arose due to the cessation of walk-in customer/student services by the National Commercial Bank in Jamaica. As a result, the Campus had to provide an alternative option to the online payment services. A pilot project was implemented between August and November 2021 which was successful. Payments have been received from January 2022 to present as part of the ongoing relationship and students’ accounts have been updated successfully with the help of our Information Technology Team. The contract for service was signed by the Open Campus in July 2022 and the Paymaster payment option officially became available for the academic year beginning Semester I 2022/2023 in the first instance.

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