Low-income and Native American students at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma will have access to new technologies and enhanced opportunities thanks to a five-year, $1.7 million grant.

The Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions program provides grants and related assistance to institutions to improve and expand their capacity to serve Native Americans and low-income individuals.

“The NASNTI project was funded to specifically improve and expand USAO’s capacity to serve our low-income and Native American students,” said Jill Burgess, director for NASNTI Title III Grant.

More than 46 percent of USAO’s student body is high-need. “USAO faculty will have current instructional technology available to enhance their teaching, and USAO students benefit by having these technologies available,” Burgess said.

Instructional technologies include closed captioning, flipped classrooms and lecture capture.

Lecture capture allows faculty to record what happens in their classrooms and make it available digitally. It also allows students to create a plan that accommodates their individual learning styles. “This technology is specifically designed to address the major obstacles preventing high-need students from succeeding in college,” Burgess said.

With the ability to play and replay a lecture, high-need students will be better able to understand the information given in the lecture by allowing them to slow down or repeat difficult, unfamiliar or fast-moving content that they would otherwise have missed. “In the same way, lecture capture also makes learning more accessible for students with disabilities and international students,” Burgess said.

Implementation of instructional technologies will begin in classrooms in Austin Hall and then expand to other classrooms on campus.