UTS Faculty Workshop

When semester is over, UTS closes down. Right? No, wrong! Two weeks after commencement on Monday, June 13 faculty and staff came together in the Oak Room, at the UTS 4W 43rd Street  campus in New York City, for a faculty education day.

The morning session, facilitated by Dr. Kathy Winings, started at 10:00 am with a webinar from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS): The State of the Industry (2015)

A 45- minute overview of enrollment, students, faculty, and finances at 273 institutions that are members of ATS. (UTS is an affiliate member).

UTS faculty were asked to reflect upon and discuss the state of UTS in regard to these areas of theological education.

Read: The State of the Industry (2015) – Transcript

After lunch, the afternoon was dedicated to the use of technology. There were two sessions 1) Adobe Connect and 2) Populi.

Dr. Winings talked about the technical and pedagogical aspects of using Adobe Connect.

Adobe Connect is UTS’s platform for online learning, an online virtual classroom. It is used by UTS professors to hold synchronous (real time) meetings and classes, and the ability to create asynchronous (time-shifted) through the recording of classes and making them available for student viewing at a later date. 

The second session in the afternoon on Populi was led by UTS registrar Mrs. Ute Delaney.

Mrs. Delaney introduced several features of Populi which faculty and staff might not be using. Populi is a web-based program for academic information used by small colleges. UTS faculty, administration and staff use the program for academics, admissions, billing, reporting, scheduling, and communications.