Support from the federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) is enabling the University of Tennessee Office of Information Technology to continue upgrades to the campus wireless network, with an emphasis on boosting signal strength in various outdoor spaces. Eighteen sites on the UTIA campus, stretching from Morgan Hall to the UT Gardens, Knoxville, are being upgraded through the initiative and are targeted to be complete before fall semester.

Enhanced access in these spaces will allow students to join an online class from their car or a quiet area and also quickly shift between remote and face-to-face learning. HEERF is intended to assist colleges and universities in overcoming challenges to learning posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, support from HEERF includes a new hybrid flexible (hyflex) instructional lab for the College of Veterinary Medicine, which combines face-to-face, synchronous online, and asynchronous online education to provide students with a range of learning modes. The new UTCVM Avian, Exotic and Zoological Medicine instructional lab will expand access to surgery and instruction, overcome physical space limitations, and allow distance access to view procedures and make recordings. Plans are being developed to complete this work in the next year.

The Office of Information Technology is the central IT organization for the UT Knoxville campus and provides critical services to the Knoxville area, including the Institute of Agriculture, where its work is conducted in collaboration with the UTIA Office of Information Technology Services. OIT provides IT solutions such as wired and wireless networking, telephone and audiovisual services, classroom technology, email, application development, instructional design, and more.