2021 NSU Fact Book

2021 FACT BOOK 17 increasingly common as many colleges and universities have moved to the online venue. Nova Southeastern University has more than 40 years of experience in the development, delivery, and evaluation of distance education programs that have been used as models by other schools. Distance education students attend classes at times and places that are convenient to the learner—reflecting the mission of NSU. The variety of distance education experiences, coupled with the use of appropriate instructional technologies, provide a successful learning environment. TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE The university maintains an extensive information technology network for teaching and learning, research, and administrative computing. Comprehen- sive fiber-optic and wireless networks provide high- speed Internet access to all campus sites. The NSU wireless network provides students with mobile and wireless network connectivity. The wireless network covers the university’s campuses throughout Florida and Puerto Rico. NSU is an equity member of the Florida LambdaRail (FLR), a not-for-profit, limited liability corporation composed of public and private, not-for-profit Florida universities. The FLR operates a statewide, high- performance, fiber-optic network infrastructure that utilizes next-generation network technologies, protocols, and services. The FLR provides NSU with high-speed commercial Internet services and connectivity to advanced regional and national networks, such as the National LambdaRail (NLR) and the Abilene Internet2 backbone. The FLR has significantly enhanced university research and distance-education capabilities and allows NSU faculty and staff members, researchers, and students to collaborate with colleagues around the world on leading-edge research projects and social science areas. Students and faculty and staff members have access to university computing resources including desktop and laptop computers and document printers and copiers. Numerous computer labs are conveniently located throughout the university’s facilities for student use. Administrative computing resources consist of multiple servers and numerous other application-specific Linux and Microsoft Systems. The university’s administrative operations are supported by the Ellucian Banner Application. Additional administrative systems include imaging systems; campus card systems; facilities systems; procurement systems; time/effort; and medical, dental, optometry, and mental health clinic systems. Multiple Oracle servers support academic applica- tions and World Wide Web-based tools. Microsoft Exchange email systems support all faculty and staff email services, while Microsoft Office 365 provides email services to NSU students. Synchronous and asynchronous web tools are used for the delivery of distance education. Electronic classrooms and microcomputer labs provide hands-on technology support for students and faculty members. Multimedia technology training labs support technology-training opportunities for faculty and staff. Internet Protocol (IP)-based videoconferencing is provided for distance education. IP conferencing is based both on a videoconferencing bridge located on campus and on cloud-based conference services. Campus sites can be linked to form a global classroom. Students can connect from their own devices to cloud services to form virtual classrooms. There are videoconferencing rooms located at NSU’s regional campuses and other sites throughout Florida. Also, videoconferencing rooms are located in Puerto Rico. Desktop and mobile device videoconferencing units are located at clinical and internship sites and in the homes of students enrolled in the speech-language pathology and audiology doctoral programs. To further augment the libraries’ print materials and online databases, the Office of Educational Technologies and Media Services has an extensive collection of other media. A digital media production studio houses tools for the creation of instructional, informational, and marketing media.