Five faculty members were honored by eLearning with a Wall of COOL (Celebrating Outstanding Online Learning) award for their outstanding online or hybrid courses. All recipients used eLearning resources, such as course design and development or multimedia learning objectives, and attended an eLearning workshop about integrating technology into learning.
Physics and astronomy Professor Suketu Bhavsar received a spot on the wall for his honors course ¿The Universe in Ten Weeks.¿ The hybrid class engaged students through an online discussion board.
¿I sometimes had up to 30 pages of discussions to read before class,¿ Bhavsar says. ¿This kept me informed of their thinking process and their questions. This led to my facilitating a richer discussion during the face-to-face portion of the class.¿
Barbara Bromley, who teaches a three-course certificate program in autism spectrum disorders, allowed students from across the country to enroll.
¿Student evaluations of the autism courses have been consistently positive,¿ says Bromley, a special education credential coordinator. ¿The students note that the assignments are relevant and useful to their jobs, both as general and special education teachers. Almost all students in the program are working teachers, so they appreciate the flexibility of the online courses.¿
Technology and operations management Professor Henry Co was awarded for his production management class that utilized multimedia elements. For example, virtual plant tours helped students better understand the technology described in the textbook. Students were also encouraged to collaborate with their fellow classmates on projects.
Collins College Professor Zhenxing Eddie Mao, who required students to create blogs in order to facilitate an online learning community. Chemical and materials engineering Professor Tanya Faltens¿ introduction course into electronic materials and properties used iClickers that allowed students to respond to questions during lectures. Faltens received immediate feedback on how well they were following the lecture.
To learn more about the Wall of COOL award recipients, visit www.cpp.edu/~elearning/cool/.