Mission

ETRAC was founded in the fall of 2001 to provide an informed understanding of how information technology can support the mission and goals of the university, thereby enabling a more intelligent process for its integration into higher education. ETRAC is based at Rice Univesity's Fondren Library, which reflects the library's central role in the evolution of the university and leverages its expertise in locating, organizing, and and disseminating information.

Goals

• Serve as a resource for the campus leadership, faculty interested in evaluating the impact of technology on their teaching, and information technology and library staff working to improve their services.
• Identify, categorize, and assess emerging educational technologies.
• Actively collaborate with local, national, and international organizations to promote the effective use of technology in education.
• Develop a comprehensive, objective understanding of the university's digital environment so that change can be a more managed process.
• Collect data and develop economic models so that investments in IT are made in the most cost-effective manner.
• Study how research methodologies are changing in various disciplines, and look into ways that technology can be used to enhance academic productivity.
• Investigate how technology is being used for teaching and learning, and collaborate with other groups to develop strategies, workshops, and programs for enhancing the educational uses of IT.
• Help facilitate communications between academic support units such as the library and IT and the rest of the university.

Activities & Potential Projects

• Developing LESTER (Learning Sciences and Technology Repository), which will serve as a clearinghouse for information about cutting-edge research in learning sciences and technology.
• Synthesize and disseminate current research into educational technologies and their impact on the university.
• Collaborate with campus organizations to develop, administer, and evaluate regular surveys of faculty, students, and staff regarding their use of technology.
• Conduct focused case studies to create a more detailed picture of technology's role in the changing university. These case studies might examine how technology is being used for research and/or teaching in a particular discipline, or track how a sample group of students employ technology as they make their way through Rice.
• Develop and disseminate a toolkit of assessment tools and measures for evaluating the university's digital environment.
• Coordinate collaborative pilot projects based on areas of identified need, such as: technology apprenticeships in which advanced undergraduate and graduate students provide technical support to research and teaching projects; programs in which faculty, information technologists, and librarians work together to develop dynamic guides to information resources and applications appropriate to a particular discipline; and workshops on strategies for using new technologies creatively and effectively.

Contact Information

For more information, please contact Lisa Spiro, ETRAC Coordinator, at lspiro@rice.edu or (713) 348-2594.