PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — They’ve already started planning where to place the new teleconferencing equipment. And if all goes as planned, an additional seven rooms at University of Maine at Presque Isle and one in Houlton will be equipped to include students from remote locations in live classrooms by the fall semester.
“This is very timely. I would have never guessed how timely it is,” University of Maine at Presque Isle President Ray Rice said. “More and more of our students are looking to distance education but synchronous live distance education … This allows our reach to move beyond the travel area of New Brunswick and reach far more students with technology like this. They will be able to participate as though they were actually here.”
A USDA Rural Development Distance Learning and Telemedicine program grant awarded to the collaborative application of the University of Maine System universities, the Maine Center, Maine Law and Northern Light Health is making these distance learning opportunities possible for UMPI, one of several sites selected to receive a portion of the $1 million grant.
Out of 42 sites listed in the grant, UMPI received $216,000 for eight sites.
“We got over a fifth of the funding,” Rice said.
Seven sites at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and one in Houlton will receive $216,000 in USDA funding to expand live distance learning opportunities for students. Forty-two sites in the state were selected. (Courtesy of University of Maine at Presque Isle)
These live, interactive offerings expand the number of students the university can reach and make it possible for students living anywhere to take courses in science, medicine and business as though they were actually in the classroom.
“We see this as an opportunity to expand this remote synchronous coursework for our students who are in the seat or far away,” Debbie Roark, director of advancement, said.
As Roark explained, the new web conferencing equipment opens possibilities with their University of Maine at Fort Kent Nursing collaborative and the medical lab technology program with University of Maine at Augusta will receive a significant benefit from this, she said.
“Every semester the course work is either coming from UMPI or Augusta, so we have students on both ends of that feed all year long,” Roark said. “Also our motor movement lab, which is a lab we use for physical education and health and for athletic training, will receive an upgrade. We are partnering with the University of Maine at Farmington and we will be beaming some courses from them to us and us to them.”
Not to mention UMPI’s business program.
“With one of our business programs, every one of its courses will be delivered in person, but also at the same time delivered live through distance technology,” Rice added.
With this new technology UMPI will also be able to import and export courses from around the state or anywhere, including graduate-level courses.
As Rice explained, the pandemic really moved distance learning to the forefront. And as students got more comfortable with Zoom classes over the past year, some now prefer learning from home.
“The students are really asking for a much more different type of modality with much more frequency. So we will be able to reach students anywhere, which is a bit different from your standard online class,” he said.
“It’s really important for small regional campuses like UMPI to be vibrant here geographically located where we are because we are so important to the economy, to the health care industries, to the business sector, to education,” Rice continued, adding that the majority of the teachers in the area school districts graduated from UMPI.
“So we need to maintain that and the research opportunities we have that are associated with programs important to our industries such as ag science. But, to continue to provide this in Aroostook County, we have to incorporate students from well afar from Aroostook County,” he said.
Also receiving USDA funding is the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, which will use its $924,630 award to expand access for students at 21 schools in Aroostook County for STEM teaching and learning, including early college courses offered by the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
“Rural regions of our state need access to impactful graduate and professional education to attract new, good paying jobs and grow existing industries in a more competitive, interconnected world,” Rice said. “Both of these grants are really going to help people in The County and in particular our students and our institution.”
