Undergraduate & Masters Education Recovery Tactical Team

Charge

As UTSA looks to the future, a rich instruction delivery mix is envisioned, where the full pedagogical modality range from completely face-to-face to completely online is embraced. We aspire to be recognized for instructional excellence and leadership on the state and national level, especially in reinforcing our HSI identity and our unparalleled role in preparing a broad, inclusive mix of learners for the 21st-century workforce in Texas through a UTSA learning environment driven by innovation and personalized, engaged, future-focused learning experiences. Our collective experience with remote instruction during the spring term and our decision to remain in that mode for the summer term has accelerated UTSA’s progress towards that future and created an intensified sense of momentum and enthusiasm amongst our students and faculty. 

This Tactical Team for Undergraduate and Masters Education (UME) will embrace our institutional momentum and enthusiasm to build recommendations for Fall 2020 as a stepping stone toward our three-year horizon and beyond. The highest priority recommendations will focus on pedagogical and technical approaches from the full modality range for instruction delivery for courses that range in size from a few tens to approximately 2000. Recommendations will cover courses with highly experiential components (e.g. science labs, creative arts instruction, studios, engineering practicums, in-situ educator and clinician training, etc.). By necessity, these recommendations will be shaped by the realities of public health operations necessitated by the current pandemic following the recommendations and guidelines of the recently formed UTSA Public Health Task. Discussion and recommendations will also be presented about how to personalize the student learning experience to solidify students’ identities as Roadrunners with a strong affinity for UTSA during this pandemic. All delivered recommendations should be provided as first stops in a roadmap to Fall 2023 and beyond.

»  View the Tactical Team Report

UTSA’S Tactical Team for Undergraduate and Masters Education Recovery completed its final report on July 7, 2020. The Tactical Team was co-led by David R. Silva, Dean, College of Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Melissa Vito, Vice Provost for Academic Innovation. The team included working groups focused on lower-division courses, experiential courses, upper-division and masters courses, infrastructure, student success, technology, student groups, and faculty and staff groups.

The report included practical recommendations to ensure the highest quality experience for students and faculty in an environment overshadowed by an evolving public health pandemic. The team recommended that UTSA set the expectation that all courses would be developed to accommodate online learning and that support be increased for both students and faculty to accommodate unprecedented need levels.

 By fulfilling its primary objective of delivering a set of recommendations, this Task Force enabled UTSA to deliver mission-critical operations while prioritizing the health, safety, and wellbeing of students, faculty, and staff.

Destination One: Model for Student Success

Destination Two: Great Public Research University