50 16 fully online courses, and counting When asked about the name of the new Division for Teaching and Learning, Vice Rector Prof. Arie Reich concedes that it won’t win points for creativity. “For a while, we considered something with the words ‘innovation’ or ‘digital,’ but at the endof theday, those things aren’t thegoal. They’re just the means,” he explains. “The purpose of the division is to enhance the act of teaching, so that students can reach their full academic potential.” This student-centered approach to learning, or meeting all students where they are, has been the driving force behind all of Bar-Ilan’s educational initiatives in recent years—often quite literally: Among the initiatives the Vice Rector’s Office has pioneered are the Center for Online Learning, whichmanages the University’s digital learning platform, and the Teaching Enhancement Center, which provides workshops and oneon-one consulting for lecturers interested in improving their teaching styles. The center also produces a series of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for making Bar-Ilan content available to the world and works on enriching hundreds of existing courses with advanced digital learning tools. Now, with the establishment of the newdivision, Reich plans to bring all these initiatives together under one roof. And as befits their emphasis on educational technology, it makes sense that the roof in question belongs to the newAlexander Grass Computer Science Building. “Initially, the division will operate in two main domains: ‘edtech’ and learning-data analytics,’” explains Reich. By analyzing data on student outcomes, for example, the division will aim to pinpoint cohorts likely to struggle; it can then recommend early interventions. Data can also provide insight into students’ The Division of Teaching and Learning
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