FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2004
Boulder, Colorado
-- PRESS RELEASE --
WCET Announces Awards for Outstanding Work in Using Technology for Education
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:
• Colorado Community Colleges Online for its “Online E-learning Quality Assurance” Manual. To assure that the quality of distance education continually improves, the manual is a set of comprehensive processes and procedures by which courses, programs, and faculty training are developed and evaluated.
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities for Minnesota Online's eStudent Services. In partnership with WCET, they created a student service “audit tool” that assists institutions in identifying web-based student services that could be improved. It also provides strategies for improving those services.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for its course “¡A su salud! Spanish for Health Professionals”. Translated as “to your health!”, “¡A su salud!” tackles the growing need for working health care professionals to improve their Spanish language skills. The multimedia format includes video segments, a dramatic telenovela storyline format, interviews with native speakers, and other interactive tools.
• University of North Dakota for its Distance Engineering Undergraduate Degree Program. UND's program is the only distance engineering degree program to offer online bachelor of science degrees in Chemical, Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering to be accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
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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Longer descriptions of the 2004 WCET WOW award recipients
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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.
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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 |
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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 will be offered as a stand-alone credit course nationwide next fall. The program is also being used within and outside North Carolina in health science schools and community colleges. The publisher, Yale University Press ( yalebooks.com/salud ), will publish Salud! this fall.
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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.
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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
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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© 2008 WCET— the Cooperative advancing the effective use of technology in higher education.