Faculty, Staff and Students,

Welcome back to campus! It's been quite a year and despite the budget challenges, we have survived, and have much to be grateful for this term. It's wonderful to see the campus bustling again with eager students and our dedicated faculty and staff! Many of you may have seen some of the press coverage of our newest collaboration involving our faculty members working with Udacity to pilot test three entry-level math and statistics courses.

Please join us at the Teaching and Technology Update and Provost's Forum, 1:30-3 p.m. Thurs, Jan. 31, in Engineering 189.

This past fall and early spring, SJSU catapulted into the national headlines with the pioneering efforts of our faculty in exploring the newest technologies in reaching and teaching students online through our pilot program with Harvard-MIT's edX "flipped" course in Electronics and Circuits and our collaboration with Udacity involving five SJSU faculty members teaching three online, entry-level courses.

• In case you haven't seen the edX video and information, here is the press conference video with professor and student comments as well as the news release.
• For the Udacity partnership, Governor Brown, CSU Chancellor Timothy White, Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun and President Qayoumi are featured in our campus press conference video.
• This partnership also made the cover of the business section of The New York Times.
• You can learn more by reading the Udacity news release and FAQ.

Please join us from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31 in Engineering 189 to see and hear more about both academic technology ventures, which will feature updates from the president, myself, faculty members and students. There also will be time for Q&A, so join us to hear more about and discuss these initiatives.

Looking forward to a great spring semester!

Kind regards,
Ellen Junn
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs