Online Education
Inter American University of Puerto Rico recognizes that technology and information systems are essential in the transformation of experiences that promote learning. Likewise, they are strategic components of the institutional infrastructure for supporting academic development and facilitating management. In harmony with Vision statement, Inter American University is moving toward the transformation of the teaching and learning processes by developing new educational emphases through the incorporation of technology. Students will assume more responsibility for their learning, the faculty will become facilitating agents and the curriculum will be made more flexible with multiple modalities.
In this way, the Institution increases the extent of its academic offering, maximizes its resources, reaches beyond the limits of the traditional classroom and promotes and provides new alternatives for continuous learning.
Objectives of Online Education
- To utilize technology as an instrument to increase and strengthen the University Mission in its global context.
- To develop new approaches so that students may assume greater responsibility for their learning and faculty may become better facilitating agents of the learning process.
- To share and maximize academic offerings and institutional resources beyond the limits of the campuses.
- To promote equal opportunity for information access beyond the limits of time and space.
- To increase the student population to which Inter American University offers academic programs.
- To facilitate the establishment of collaborative agreements and consortia with other educational institutions in an outside Puerto Rico with the purpose of strengthening and sharing academic offerings.
- To strengthen and enrich developmental programs and professional update.
- To meet the particular needs of students with disabilities.
- To meet the multiple needs of a heterogeneous student population.
- To meet the particular needs of the adult population.
- To extend institutional services beyond geographic frontiers.
Technologies and Media Used in Online Education
Online Education uses diverse technologies for the transmission of video, voice and data; thus, making possible a teaching and learning process beyond the limits of time and space. There are a variety of courses using these technologies as the basis for the learning experience, for example, interactive video conference courses, televised courses, radio courses, video courses, online courses, courses recorded on CD-ROM, desktop conferencing and courses in Internet. All courses differ in the means used to achieve teaching objectives: the teaching process for promoting the development of concepts and skills, the degree of interaction between faculty-student and student-student, the assessment and certification of learning.