December brought the InTRO team time and space to finalize some early projects and to get prepared for winter quarter, with a revamped website and new ticketing system. Over the next few months we will continue to inventory UO services and instructional technology needs, and conduct comparator research to set this information in context.

One big highlight of the month: a customized, usable RT queue! You can now e-mail your referral requests directly to intro@ithelp.uoregon.edu, and we’ll be better able to track the different types of requests coming our way.

Our web site is continuing to evolve, with a few changes that rolled out in December, and more to come in January. Another big highlight of the month: our web site now has a service request form! This form provides faculty with yet another way to get in touch; thanks to the web site team at Academic Extension for this change (and the other changes that are coming soon).

Finally, we saw real progress in our comparator research project. We used the deadest week of the year (between Christmas and New Year’s) to start sifting through the different models that our peer institutions are using to deliver extension services, digital education, and pedagogical innovation.

Throughout all of this we continued to establish InTRO as a force for good, both within Academic Extension (where we now actively contribute to the distance education group, the LMS migration task force, and the campus liaison team) and for the campus as a whole. We are particularly excited to take part in the emerging campus-wide community of ed tech practitioners, an effort spearheaded by staff at TEP and in A&AA.