As of next fall, students will no longer have to take the required computer course, ITM 200 as a physical class, but instead, will have to complete the coursework in their freshman orientation class.
ITM 200 is a one-credit introductory to computers class that consists of a lab and lecture portions. The course teaches students the basics of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel and is a required class to take in order to complete the baccalaureate degree.
Gateways is a two-semester class that freshmen take their first year of college at UT. The class teaches basic knowledge about how to succeed in college and transition well.
“Anyone who is graduating under the current 2012-2013 catalog or earlier still has the ITM 200 requirement,” said Dr. Catherine Chastain-Elliott, associate dean of baccalaureate experience. “Freshmen starting this fall will be required to take and pass the ITM 200 content with an 85 percent or better through the Gateways program, via an online tutorial system.”
The online material is taught through an atomic learning unit, a software package that UT purchased because of other college’s success with the program. The software is free of charge to students, and it will contain the same content that was taught in the class. Students will receive a certificate of completion once they pass the software.
“It’s the same content,” Chastain-Elliott said, “Just delivered differently.”
After next semester, current students who have not taken the class will still have it as a requirement to graduate, but will have to complete it online, just like the freshmen will. Those students will then have to prove they have completed the course by showing their certificate and filling out a waiver for the former ITM course.
Mackenzie Rector, a freshman communication and sports management major who is currently taking ITM, said “I don’t think it’s fair that we have to pay for the class and [future students] don’t. I also don’t think that it’s fair that it will automatically be on their schedules as freshmen when previous [students] were responsible for fitting it in their schedules on their own.”
Rector also said that she would stick with the current ITM class because the Gateways class is only 50 minutes for once a week, and she doesn’t think they would be able to fit all the content of the ITM course in such a short amount of time.
Chastain-Elliott, along with several other professors, came up with the idea to do away with the ITM 200 class in August of last year. Chastain-Elliot described the current class as ‘being too cumbersome’ and felt like the format needed to be changed.
Students will no longer have to make room in their schedule for the lab and lecture part of the class. This gives students more freedom and time to pick another class that may be required for their major.
Since Marcy Courier, a professor that only teaches the ITM course, is retiring next semester, there will be no jobs lost due to cutting the class.