Before 2023 concludes, we need to share our gratitude for the 1000’s of CSUN workers — lots of them working behind the scenes — who assist us obtain our targets on campus. You could also be acquainted with their work, however now it’s time to fulfill only a few of them.

Megan Duncan, Instructional and Media Technologist, Academic Technology

Canvas, Lecture Capture, Turnitin, Zoom…. Educational know-how use has exploded. So how do CSUN college members sustain?

There is a useful resource on campus devoted to serving to professors just do that. It’s the Faculty Technology Center, which is part of Academic Technology, the place Megan Duncan works as an educational and media technologist. She’s a part of a crew made up {of professional} workers members and college students who educate the lecturers to handle these new, technical instruments.

“We help with the facilitation and administration of Canvas, which is our primary learning management system,” Duncan defined. “But we also spend time putting together workshops for faculty to introduce new or new-to-them technologies.”

Duncan began her time at CSUN in 2021, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and jumped proper in instructing Zoom to college members who’d by no means used it earlier than. Academic Technology workers members within the Faculty Technology Center spent some 35,000 hours coaching professors on the video assembly platform.

Duncan famous that offering a secure area for individuals to be taught and experiment with know-how is on the coronary heart of her instruction. She’s captivated with serving to college members be taught to boost their classroom displays.

“[I can] offer best practices and introduce some new solutions, like ‘hey, I’ve always wanted my students to be able to submit a video project, but I don’t know how to coordinate that,’ Duncan said. “We have options in place that can simplify that process. Come and talk to us. Academic technology is so much more exciting than it sounds.”

In addition to offering know-how instruction, Duncan additionally has the vital job of serving to produce CSUN’s multi-day graduation ceremonies, each behind the digital camera amidst the graduates and within the broadcast sales space. Duncan stated she had the same job whereas learning technical theatre at Western Washington University.

“My involvement with commencement is a thrilling feature because I think of it as the big finale of anybody’s college pathway,” Duncan stated. “I get to be there for everybody’s joy of walking that stage.”

In addition to these roles, the Seattle-native can also be, as soon as once more, a pupil. Earlier this yr, Duncan was accepted to the educational technology grasp’s program within the Michael D. Eisner College of Education. Her main function of instructing and supporting know-how impressed her to pursue a complicated diploma.

“I don’t have a background in technology, aside from being a technically savvy individual,” Duncan defined. “So, the fee waiver program that CSUN provides actually got me thinking about how I could better fulfill the other duties and responsibilities for this role as well,” she stated.

At this time of yr, Duncan famous that she’s grateful for the CSUN group and the keenness she finds amongst colleagues for the work that they do. She stated she notably enjoys the range she finds on campus.

“This institution is so exciting for me,” she stated. “There are folks of all different paths of life, of all different ethnicities, genders, identifications, orientations, backgrounds, nationalities… And it’s just inspiring to see everybody working together.”

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