H-LTLA Academy – Voting 2021

Part I. Personal Information and Demographic Data

Applicant Full Name

Yutong Liu

Applicant Title

Instructional Technologist

Institution or System

California State University, San Bernardino

Address for Official Correspondence

5500 University Parkway

Track of interest

English track

Languages

English

Have teach an online course in the past three years

Yes

Have taken an online course in the past three years

Yes

Have you been in charge of an instructional technology initiative

Yes

Have you been in charge of a distance education initiative

Yes

Years of experience in Higher Education

0-5 years

Part II. Education

Highest Earned Degree

Master of Art

College/University

California State University, San Bernardino

Field/Major

Instructional Technology

Next Highest Earned Degree

Bachelor of Art

College/University

Xi’an International Studies University

Field/Major

English (E-Commerce)

Other Degrees Earned

College/University

Field/Major

English (E-Commerce)

Part III. Experience

Present Responsibilities

Currently, Yutong is mainly focused on extended reality course design and assessments. She owns talents and rich experiences for 360-degree virtual courses & exhibitions and WebVR & augmented app/course design. As an experienced and enthusiastic professional with more than 13 years of excellent experience developing and delivering dynamic media communication content and facilitating highly successful training programs, Yutong Liu is confident that she would significantly contribute to the success as an Instructional Technologist in higher education settings. 

Academic and Professional Distinctions and Honors

2004 Best Social News Rewards of Shaanxi TV Station as City Express TV News Channel Journalist;
2008 BMW Mission 3 Event owned Top PR event Reward of China;
2017-2019 2s scholarships as an international student;
2020 CSUSB Jack Brown Dean’s Teaching Innovation Grant.

Civil and Community Activities

Yutong Liu was an active volunteer in the local community and local public schools in Beijing. During 2011-2016, she volunteers as an English storyteller in TianShiMingYuan Preschool which is a local community preschool. She used to teach preschool teachers English for 2 years. Once Yutong moved to California, she worked as a volunteer translator for Rancho Cucamonga Public school district to help Chinese new immigrants to better adapt new school life.

Professional Goals

Yutong Liu has an ambitious life goal to build a corss-county virtual reality platform to support global citizens enjoy their life-long learning to adapt to fast-developing technologies. For the human being’ learning, subjects should not be separated with barriers and limits, the real-life problems should be visualized by eye-viewed dimensions. Knowledge learning should not be challenged with memories and skin colors, I believe there are commons between creatures to learn and share in different perspectives.

Please explain what you expect to gain by participating in the H-LTLA

I love my campus and the community in which now I am living. However, my experiences and knowledge are quite limited. I believe H-LTLA will support me to get more resources and help me involve me dive in the local community services. Especially to better offer my service to my university, I need to improve my management and continue to gain a deeper understanding of the Hispanic community from their perspective.

Part IV. Professional References

Professional Reference #1

Samuel Sudhakar, Ph.D.
Vice President for Information Technology Services and CIO
California State University, San Bernardino
5500 University Parkway
San Bernardino, CA 92407-2393
909/537-5995 (direct line)
http://its.csusb.edu/

Professional Reference #2

James Trotter
Assistant Director
Academic Technologies & Innovation
Information Technology Services
California State University, San Bernardino
5500 University Parkway
San Bernardino, CA 92407-2393
Main Line: 909/537-7439
Direct Line: 909/537-5063

Professional Reference #3

Upload a letter from a president, chancellor, or cabinet-level administrator stating the nominee’s qualifications for the program, leadership strengths, and development opportunities.

https://hets.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/145/HETS-Letter-of-Support-YL.pdf

Part V. Initiative and Mentor

Upload a letter describing a project that you will consider implementing at your campus or organization on any of the areas of the Program with the name of your Mentor. Your Mentor can be different from your references and should be a staff with experience in the area selected. The Mentor information will be submitted with the signature to confirm the availability to guide the implementation of your campus initiative.

https://hets.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/145/HETS-Letter-of-Project-Statement_YutongLiu.pdf

Part VI. Statement of Purpose

1. From your perspective, what are the top three issues facing higher education today? Why?

First, enrollment declines and high tuition costs are negatively impacting higher education. Enrollment decline is a concern for higher education even before the COVID-19. Inside Higher Ed and Gallup reported, only 34 percent of the institutions met their enrollment targets for the fall 2017 term, declining from 37 percent in 2016 and 42 percent in 2015. Tuition cost is a contributing cause of the decline. Speaking as an international student, expensive tuition, room and board and travel will never be an economical choice. Competition from inexpensive certificates for programming or technical skills is a threat too, they allow people to move their career forward at a lower cost.


The second issue is the failure to address the need for immersive courses. XR courses engage students, track students learning outcomes, and improve teaching satisfaction. I saw this for myself in a course I helped develop in spring 2021. This special education teacher training course utilized XR techniques. Students were excited and satisfied with the new tool and immersive learning tools. I also used XR tools to create a virtual gallery so students could display their MFA projects virtually. I support more people, from a greater area saw their work.


The third challenge for higher education is the “skill gap”. For example; we are building extended reality courses and simulations by using gaming engines, 3d scanners, and Motion Capture systems. All of which are newly released hardware, software, APIs, and SDKs. My lab students and I prefer to follow manufacturers’ official YouTube channels to learn the updated features. I have not found University Courses that can match my job skills needs, although I looked for a Ph.D. program for over a year. I am using this as an opportunity to build extended reality-training certificate programs to fit the needs of my students and myself.

2. What are your own institution’s priorities and challenges with regard to leveraging instructional technology and distance education for the benefit of the entire organization?

Working in my department of Academic Technologies and Innovation brings me unexpected hopes and opportunities. My supervisor, James Trotter, brings me a totally new world to explore and experiment. We are making every effort to transfer traditional 2D instruction to 3D immersive instruction. Using and manipulating 3D space for both social commutation and academy studies is an inevitable trend for the future. My Lab has a huge plan to move forward in 3D immersive learning. We are beginning our first step with the simulation/digital twin project. This project calls for the use of highly accurate laser scanners and cameras to precisely capture the CSUSB campus digitally. I will be leading the xREAL Lab in the scanning of the campus with the laser scanner. Once the campus grounds are scanned, we will scan each building on campus. Finally, we will construct a 3D model of the whole campus. I will need to partner with faculty from Design Geology, Physics, Math, and Computer Science & Engineering departments to make the model function properly. We intend the model to be used to predict and act on all manner of campus issues, such as natural disasters, (the San Andreas fault runs across our campus) security issues like active shooter training, event planning, and virtual campus tours for students and potential employees. To realize this project, we will face numerous challenges all while managing a large team of faculty, staff, and students with disparate pieces of knowledge. Our institute is a federally recognized HSI with a great number of first-generation college students. This massive effort to virtualize the entire campus will be used to leverage large numbers of faculty, staff, and students forward in a cutting-edge area of technology.

3. If have the influence to instill change at your Institution, was one thing you could change, what would that be; and what is the unique aspect of your institution you would like to keep?

There are many things I wish I could contribute to our campus academic learning data collection, unsurprisingly most of them revolve around virtualization. Currently, we are working on a nursing simulation (using virtual patients) to help students to work with lung disease patients to learn the daily care knowledge before leaving the hospital. This is a great start, but I would like to add many more learning modules for these nursing students. This simulation uses natural language recognition enabling the student to “talk” with the patient and have a realistic nurse-patient conversation. I have participated in research of motion capture equipment and begun planning projects with both Kinesiology and Theatre utilizing the captured data. By using those new technologies, our department and lab will offer more training and internship opportunities to our students and prepare them to be employable in many of these emerging fields.

Evaluation

Please provide your input for the following candidate application, using a scale from 1 to 3 (based on the rubric and metrics provided for each area):

Applicant name (for your reference): *

Title (for your reference): *

Track of interest (for your reference): *

Part I. Personal Information and Demographic Data

Part I. Personal Information and Demographic Data: Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1 – (Poor: Have not taught or taken an online course, or have not been in charge of instructional technology or a distance education initiative, and have less than 5 years of experience in Higher Ed.); 2- (Good: Have taught or taken at least two online courses, or have been in charge of instructional technology or a distance education initiative, and have between 6 and 10 years of experience in Higher Ed.); 3- (Excellent: Have taught or taken two or more online courses, have been in charge of instructional technology or a distance education initiative, and have between 11 and 20 or more years of experience in Higher Ed.) *

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Part II. Education

Part II. Education: Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1- (Poor: Bachelor’s degree or less than a bachelor’s degree in any academic Field); 2- (Good: Bachelor’s degree in Education with a major related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed., or a master’s degree in Education); 3- (Excellent: Master or courses towards a doctor degree, or a doctor’s degrees in Education related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed.) *

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Part III. Experience:

Present Responsibilities, distinctions, and activities: 1- (Poor: Not present responsibilities related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed., and doesn't have distinctions or activities related to the fields); 2- (Good: Present responsibilities related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed., and mentioned distinctions or activities related to the fields); 3- (Excellent: Present responsibilities related to management or supervision of Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. initiatives, and mentioned the distinctions or activities related to the fields). *

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Professional Goals: Professional Goals: 1 – (Poor: Goals described are not related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. Initiatives); 2 – (Good: Goals described are related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. Initiatives); 3 – (Excellent: Goals described are innovative and related to the management or supervision of Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. Initiatives). *

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Please explain what you expect to gain by participating in the H-LTLA: Please explain what you expect to gain by participating in the H-LTLA: 1 – (Poor: Candidate’s expectations are not aligned with the H-LTLA curriculum and competencies); 2 – (Good: Candidate’s expectations are in some way aligned with the H-LTLA curriculum and competencies); 3 – (Excellent: Candidate’s expectations are significantly aligned with the H-LTLA curriculum and competencies) *

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Part IV. Professional References

Part IV. Professional References: Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1 – (Poor: Provided are one or two references and are not related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. Faculty or Administrators, and the nomination letter is pending); 2 – (Good: Provided two references and are related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. Faculty or Administrators, and included the nomination letter or provided the evidence that is in process); 3 – (Excellent: Provided more than two references and are related to Learning Technologies or Distance Ed. Administrators, and included the nomination letter) *

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Part V. Initiative and Mentor

Part V. Initiative and Mentor: Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1 – (Poor: The candidate’s initiative is unclear or not aligned with the H-LTLA curriculum and competencies, and the mentor does not seem to have experience in the proposed initiative area.); 2 – (Good: The candidate’s initiative is clear and somehow aligned with the H-LTLA curriculum and competencies, and the mentor seems to have some experience in the proposed initiative area.); 3 – (Excellent: The candidate’s initiative is clear and very aligned with the H-LTLA curriculum and competencies, and the mentor seems to have a lot of experience in the proposed initiative area) *

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Part VI. Statement of Purpose:

1. From your perspective, what are the top three issues facing higher education today? Why? Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1 – (Poor: The issues and explanations are not clear or pertinent to the education reality today); 2 – (Good: The issues and explanations are somehow clear or pertinent to the education reality today); 3 – (Excellent: The issues and explanations are very clear and pertinent to the education reality today) *

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2. What are your own institution’s priorities and challenges with regard to leveraging instructional technology and distance education for the benefit of the entire organization? Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1 – (Poor: The priorities and challenges described are not directly related to leveraging instructional technology and distance education); 2 – (Good: The priorities and challenges described are somehow related to leveraging instructional technology and distance education); 3 – (Excellent: The priorities and challenges described are directly related to leveraging instructional technology and distance education.) *

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3. If have the influence to instill change at your Institution, was one thing you could change, what would that be; and what is the unique aspect of your institution you would like to keep? Please provide your input using a scale from 1 to 3 with the following metrics: 1 – (Poor: Only mention one aspect, and is not directly related to a thing that he/she could change or keep at his/her Institution); 2 – (Good: Mention one or two aspects, and are somehow related to a thing that he/she could change or keep at his/her Institution); 3 – (Excellent: Mention both aspects and are related to a thing that he/she could change and keep at his/her Institution.) *

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Name of the Evaluation Board Member *

Evaluation Board Member Comments about the Applicant: Please write your recommendations or additional feedback

Please select the best category that applies to this candidate based on the following criteria

Please select the best category that applies to this candidate based on the following criteria: 1-Beginner: Obtained mostly 1 point in Personal Information and Demographic Data; Education; Present Responsibilities distinctions, and activities; and Initiative and Mentor; but the rest of the categories could score 1, 2 or 3); 2- Intermediate: Obtained mostly 2 points in Personal Information and Demographic Data; Education; Present Responsibilities distinctions, and activities; and Initiative and Mentor; but the rest of the categories could score 1, 2 or 3); 3- Advanced: Obtained mostly 3 points in Personal Information and Demographic Data; Education; Present Responsibilities distinctions, and activities; and Initiative and Mentor; but the rest of the categories could score 1, 2 or 3) *

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