WCET, the cooperative advancing the effective use of technology in higher education, announces the recipients of the first annual WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award. "WCET members are on the cutting edge in using educational technologies for instruction both on- and off-campus," said Sally Johnstone, WCET's Executive Director. "We started this new award to recognize outstanding efforts in implementing technology in higher education. Others can learn valuable lessons from these four projects."
The recipients of the 2004 WCET WOW Award are:
The recipients of the 2004 WCET WOW award will further describe their programs in online sessions with other WCET members during October. They also will receive their awards at WCET's Annual Conference to be held in San Antonio, Texas on November 11-14.
WCET (formerly the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications) is a membership-supported organization open to providers and users of educational telecommunications. Since its founding by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in 1989, WCET's members have included the most innovative thinkers in the use of educational technologies, either on-or-off campus, that can be found anywhere. WCET members come from the higher education community, nonprofit organizations, schools, and corporations. They represent 46 U.S. states and six countries.
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For more information
Colorado Community Colleges Online
Contact person:
Lisa Cheney-Steen
303-809-9867
lisa.cheney-steen@cccs.edu
www.ccconline.org
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Paul Wasko
651-649-5956
paul.wasko@so.mnscu.edu
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities:
www.mnscu.edu
Minnesota Online:
www.minnesotaonline.org
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Claire Lorch
UNC-Chapel Hill
919-962-4011
clorch@email.unc.edu
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
www.unc.edu
“¡
A su salud! Spanish for Health Professionals”:
www.yalebooks.com/salud/
University of North Dakota
Lynette Krenelka
701-777-4884
lynette.krenelka@mail.und.nodak.edu
University of North Dakota:
www.und.edu
Distance Engineering Undergraduate Degree Program:
www.conted.und.edu/dist_engr/
WCET
Sally Johnstone
Executive Director, WCET
303-541-0232
www.wcet.info
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Longer descriptions of the 2004 WCET WOW award recipients
Colorado Community Colleges Online
The WOW award winning E-learning Quality Assurance Manual second edition reflects
CCCOnline’s efforts to make certain that quality assurance (QA) in distance
education continually improves. The manual covers the process by which courses,
programs and faculty training are developed and constantly evaluated. The manual
includes CCCOnline’s comprehensive procedures from course design to student/faculty
and student/student interaction as well as necessary student support services.
Course quality at CCCOnline begins in development where a team that includes instructional designers, faculty, and program chairs incorporate current instructional design theory – with an emphasis on scholarship and student outcomes – as well as input from past student surveys. Once a CCCOnline course is developed, the emphasis shifts to include professional development workshops for faculty and a focus on interaction between faculty and students and among the students themselves.
Finally, critical student support services are targeted to assist students determine if they can succeed in an online environment; maintain student enrollment and startup processes; provide technical assistance; conduct surveys for those students choosing not to complete a course; and provide student evaluations of faculty and courses at the semester’s end.
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
“
If content is king for on-line learning then student services is the heir to
the throne!”
Minnesota Online (www.minnesotaonline.org), an effort of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ (MnSCU – www.mnscu.edu), established itself as a champion for promoting and developing tools to assist campuses with deployment of web-based student services. This interest in student services has lead to a partnership with the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET). Recently, this partnership has produced a student service “audit tool”. The tool not only assists schools in identifying possible improvement areas within their web-based student services environment but also helps to identify possible strategies or functions for improvement within a particular service area. The audit was piloted in summer 2003 and was viewed as a success throughout the MnSCU system. For 2004, MnSCU and the WCET have further refined the tool with additional service categories. There are now twenty student services categories covered by the audit including:
2003 Audit Areas 2004 Audit Areas
Financial aid Student activities
Schedule of classes Assessment and testing
Course/program catalog Placement services
Student records Personal counseling
Student accounts Technical support
Registration Bookstore
Admissions Library
Communication to students Tutoring
Career counseling Disability services
Academic advising International student services
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“¡
A su salud! (To your health!) Spanish for Health Professionals” is an
intermediate level e-learning course (delivered on DVD-ROM) developed at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to help students and working health
care professionals improve their Spanish oral proficiency
¡A su salud! combines interactive multimedia courseware with broadcast quality video components, including a compelling dramatic telenovela story, dramatic exercise segments, interviews with native speakers, interactive glossary, optional subtitling, tracking and testing capabilities. An extensive workbook and complete web component round out this powerful instructional tool
Learners can follow a linear path through the material, or access Salud!'s content in any order permitting a personalized approach. Salud! integrates language lessons with health care and cultural concerns. Perhaps the program’s most important contribution is development of self -monitoring skills and motivation for life-long learning. Thorough evaluations demonstrate Salud!’s effectiveness at improving a learner’s ability to communicate in Spanish.
At UNC-Chapel Hill Salud! is offered as an elective in the health science schools and the School of Social Work, as a continuing education course, and as a stand-alone credit course nationwide. The program is also being used within and outside North Carolina in health science schools and community colleges. PBS will soon pilot Salud! with selected affiliated campuses. The publisher, Yale University Press (yalebooks.com/salud), will publish Salud! this fall.
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota (UND) delivers its undergraduate engineering
degree programs through the Distance Engineering Degree Program. Four bachelors
of science degrees are offered including -- chemical engineering, civil engineering,
electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. The Distance Engineering
Degree Program is a part time program designed for adult learners working full
time or for those individuals who are not able to attend traditional on-campus
courses. Benefits to off-campus engineering students include: opportunity to
learn while the individual continues to earn, easy access to quality engineering
degree programs, flexibility to view lectures/course materials at the most
convenient times and places, and a faculty committed to students and distance
education.
Courses are currently offered online. In addition, laboratory requirements
are fulfilled during condensed sessions in the summer. The mission of the Distance
Engineering Degree Program is "to deliver exemplary ABET accredited undergraduate
engineering degree programs that respond to the unique needs of adult learners
and provide opportunities for individuals who are not able to participate in
traditional, on-campus educational experiences." Many company employees
participate in the Distance Engineering Degree Program including those from
3M, Intel, Hutchinson Technology, Inc., Lucent Technologies, Whirlpool Corporation,
Agilent Technologies, Polaris Industries and many more. For more information,
please call toll free 877-450-1842 or (701) 777-4884 or visit the web site
at www.conted.und.edu/dist_engr.