program description

The Engage program seeks to transform teaching and learning through the use of technology. The program is sponsored by Transforming Teaching Through Technology (T⁴), a part of the Madison Initiative.  It is administered by the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) Academic Technology (AT) group.

History of T⁴ and Engage
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an institution of highly respected faculty, instructional staff, and students. One of the nation’s premiere research institutions, it is also deeply committed to teaching and learning. This commitment is evidenced by the numerous initiatives that seek to improve teaching and learning on the UW-Madison campus.  One of the largest of these is the Madison Initiative, a highly leveraged public-private partnership designed to strengthen UW-Madison as it provides students an outstanding education and helps Wisconsin expand its competitiveness in the global economy.

Transforming Teaching Through Technology (T⁴) began as a pilot program in 1999 with $1 million in private funding, and received ongoing funding through the Madison Initiative in 2001. The main focus of the T⁴ segment of the Madison Initiative was to improve academics by enhancing teaching and learning with technology. Thus, T⁴ was started as a means of leveraging the transformative potential of new and emerging information technologies in the areas of learning and teaching. It seeks to provide a technological and organizational infrastructure that encourages and supports the development and broad deployment of new and effective learning technologies – the ultimate goal being to foster transformative change in the way learning and teaching occur on and off campus.

The initiative approaches transformative change in several phases. The first phase of the initiative, fiscal years 1999 through 2003, focused on developing the staff and technology infrastructures necessary to support significant and transformative changes. It also involved visioning and exploring best practices in achieving change given the local environmental conditions in operation at UW-Madison. Madison Initiative funds continue the program into its second phase, called Engage.