2022-2023 Annual Impact Report
UAF CTL, now part of the UAF Center for Teaching and Learning, partners with UAF academic departments and programs to offer quality education with flexible options, enabling a dispersed, diverse population of students to achieve their education goals through excellent content connected to contemporary skills and literacies.
Message from Executive Director
It’s my distinct pleasure to introduce our Annual Impact Report presented in a fresh format that reflects the genuine spirit of CTL more authentically than ever before. This year, we’ve transformed our approach. We’re focusing on more than just data; we’re sharing inspiring stories from an extraordinary team whose passion, commitment, and tenacity are the true secret to our shared successes. Through the far-reaching impact of over 50 online programs and 600 diverse courses, and the extended global influence of our AlaskaX portfolio, CTL has provided transformational educational opportunities spanning Alaskan communities to international shores. The creativity and dedication of our team have not only broadened our impact but also enhanced UAF’s educational experience, weaving a narrative of success, innovation, and community. I invite you into this journey with us—discover, celebrate, and look ahead to a future where our collaborative spirit, inclusivity, and commitment to excellence continually fuel UAF’s mission.
170 Communities in Alaska
49 States
4 U.S Territories
23 Countries Around the World
Highlights
We regularly implement new programs and approaches that specifically help to address issues that our university community needs. This video highlights the progress we have made over the past year, and illustrates our commitment to improve access to higher education for all Alaskans.
Values
We work to create an inclusive learning environment that welcomes differences in technology, culture, place, ability and ways of knowing.
Community Approach
We are a human-centered support unit serving students, staff and faculty as individuals. We welcome instructors in every rank and position. Through a constant focus on both innovation and equity, our goal is to continue to work on improvement.
Teaching Development
The instructional design team plans and conducts more faculty development than any other unit at UAF.
(20+ hours of participation)
(at least 1 hour of participation)
LEAP
Learner Experience Advocacy Program
In LEAP, undergrad fellows are paired with faculty to give feedback on online courses. In 2022-23, 21 students were accepted and started the program, with 19 finishing and receiving scholarships. Twenty-two faculty members participated.
Month of Writing
Facilitated writing sessions every week, building community and accountability
SoTL @ UAF
Program that supports instructors in honoring their courses as the scholarship of teaching and learning
SoTL iTeach
Workshop to learn instructional practices that support student learning during a course revision
Transdiciplinary iTeach
Workshop to learn about and test pedagogical approaches that empower instructors and students to engage in transdisciplinary problem-solving
OER Innovation Quest
No/low cost course materials/OER training with incentives
Increasing Access to Higher Education
We engage in partnerships across the university to broaden education opportunities in Alaska by offering needs-based and merit-based scholarships. We offer programs designed to attract first-generation students.
Scholarships
CTL is committed to removing barriers to student educational access and success whenever possible, and one way we do this is by dedicating funding to student scholarships. In the last 6 years, CTL has awarded over $230,000 and supported more than 300 students through our scholarship programs. This year we expanded our programs to provide scholarships to a greater number of students and prioritized finding creative ways to reach a more diverse group of students. Online students often bring unique life and scheduling challenges and their situations may not translate well into traditional scholarship application metrics. This year our CTL Scholarship Committee changed our award criteria and application to make it more inclusive and accessible and our review process to be more equitable. Using multiple award periods means our award is available to students admitted after February 15 (the UAF scholarship deadline) and allows us to include Summer semester meaning we reach students who may have exhausted other funding during Fall and Spring. In 2022-23, we almost doubled our scholarship budget and provided over $78,000 in scholarships to 120 students. Here’s the breakdown:
- Spring and Summer CTL awards: $29,000, 58 students
- Learner Experience Advocacy Program (LEAP): $33,000, 19 students
- Degree Completion program: $8,000, 16 students
- Student art contest: $8,250, 27 students
Alaska Advantage
The Alaska Advantage program provides Alaska’s high-achieving high school students an in-state, high-quality and affordable option for dual enrollment. In the fall of 2022, the program partnered with the Anchorage School District to create the Anchorage Business Academy. This academy provides 25 high school students in the district with the opportunity to work toward occupational endorsements in business-related pathways such as administrative assistant, bookkeeping, or financial services representatives. These endorsements likely prepare students for employment directly after high school. The Alaska Advantage Program is a valuable resource for high-achieving high school students in Alaska, enabling them to earn college credits and potentially gain a competitive advantage in their future educational and career pursuits.
Lowering Economic Barriers
We advocate for open access to education and encourage the use of open education resources to help provide affordable course materials.
AlaskaX
Through AlaskaX, our partnership with the edX global learning platform, UAF has extended its reach to over 70,000 learners from 210 countries and territories, elevating the visibility of research, enhancing outreach, and driving interest to UAF.
No or Low-Cost Courses
A no or low-cost (NoLo) course is one that may utilize open education resources (OER) and freely available resources in order to reduce textbook and material costs for students to under $40 per course. This amount only pertains to required course textbooks, workbooks, online homework platforms or other publisher-provided tools and materials.
Student Feedback
“I love the option to use free online textbooks. These are great study tools. Forced purchase of a textbook that will not be needed to understand course material is not a realistic expectation of students. I have been impressed by UAF since transferring here with the option to download free ebooks in some of my courses.”
-Anonymous
We regularly work with students in an advising, course design, and testing capacity. In this work, we value an inclusive, welcoming student experience. We strive to accommodate each student in a way that decreases barriers to achieving success within university guidelines and actively seek opportunities to better respond to student needs.
Exam Services
As a national test center, CTL Exam Services administers paper-and-pencil and computer-based exams for UAF students, prospective students, and the community at large. We serve students with class-exam related needs and professionals seeking credentials.
| Total | Exam Type |
|---|---|
| 4,264 | student exams |
| 2,361 | in-person exams |
| 1,677 | remote proctored UAF exam requests |
| 82 | credit by examination |
| 53 | FE exams for graduating engineers |
| 579 | community exams for future nurses, CPAs, electricians, firefighters, real estate agents, contractors and more |
Spotlights
Our team’s creativity and dedication shines through every day. Here are just a few things we’re proud of from this year.
Permafrost Tunnel
CTL has been contributing to the education outreach portion of the Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG), led by Woodwell Climate Institute and with collaborators from over fourteen institutions including UAF. The NSF-funded project goal is an online interface that enables researchers to share knowledge and big data supported and expanded through machine learning across disciplines for near-real time permafrost monitoring of the pan-arctic landscape. Through additional NSF funding, a partnership with teachers from two Alaska districts is enabling the creation of a range of standards-based lesson packages that can be used in climate change and permafrost units in middle and high school science curricula. Lesson plans will be posted on the PDG education site and will be openly licensed. Instructional design staff also collaborated with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center to create a virtual immersive tour of the CRREL Permafrost Tunnel near Fairbanks, as part of the PDG outreach project. The PDG received the Google Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation award in 2023.
Airtable Pilot
In 2022, the Associate Director of Teaching and Learning at CTL in collaboration with campus groups and the UAF PIT Crew, piloted Airtable to assess its effectiveness in reducing data silos and promoting data-informed decision-making. Staff at CTL already used Airtable as a “collaborative data playground” and were excited to help the campus community discover this adaptive, responsive tool. The goal was to simplify faculty and staff access to critical and timely institutional data, connect disparate data sources, to create the ability to share data and to be able to track processes. Leveraging Airtable’s capabilities as a relational database and the ability to create automated Banner feeds, non-expert users could easily access and analyze data without coding skills. Airtable is now utilized across campus for diverse purposes, including resource sharing with students, facilities inventory management, community-based project connections, GER outcomes evaluation, and course catalog management. While Airtable may not be a one-size-fits-all solution, its versatility and ongoing integration efforts offer exciting opportunities for users seeking to uncover insights and connections across UAF’s campus data landscape.
Website Redesign
CTL launched a new website that is responsive, utilizes the latest design trends, and prioritizes accessibility above everything else. A well-organized website ensures that prospective students can easily access crucial information, such as program offerings, admission requirements, and student support services. As the virtual front door of CTL, a visually appealing and user-friendly website can immediately capture students’ attention and convey a sense of professionalism and credibility.
Media Team
The highly skilled CTL Media team plays a pivotal role in supporting video production for UAF and AlaskaX courses. This exceptionally creative team goes beyond the ordinary, helping faculty craft videos that authentically capture the essence of their subject matter. The impact of their work is evident in the diverse array of projects they’ve recently worked on, ranging from producing promotional videos for courses like Engineering in Alaska (ES 100) to bringing animations to life in the new Resilient and Renewable Grid course as on the edX platform (AlaskaX). In an effort to further support for those interested in honing their video editing skills, CTL now grants access to WeVideo, a cloud-based video editor, for all UAF staff, students, and faculty. This reflects our commitment to fostering collaboration and providing a seamless editing experience for shared media. UAF CTL collaboratively manages a fully equipped production studio in Rasmuson 375a, along with two DIY learning glass studios in Irving I Room 303 and Bunnell 143C.
Staff
UAF CTL is a tight-knit group of people who are educators, readers, artists, gamers, bakers, writers, knitters, builders, adventurers, runners...we're adding to this list every day! Meet a few of them by clicking on their picture.
Brant Schalk
Janene McMahan
Mika McCrary
