Oh What a Night

All five staff members of the Distance and Distributed Education Center took a short break from supporting elearning faculty and students and attended the UWG Centennial Gala. The DDEC is currently planning an Apollo Faculty Luncheon with a centennial theme to be held in the Spring.

New Apollo Award Criteria

Each spring at one of those fun monthly Apollo Club lunches, the DDEC recognizes faculty who have excelled in distance teaching, training and mentoring over the past year with an Apollo Award. Apollo Award recipients not only get a yummy lunch, accolades, and something swell for their vita, but also a very cool Apollo head trophy for their office. This year the criteria has changed just a little. To get the award, instructors must:

• teach at least 2 distance courses over the year (Summer 2006-Spring 2007) and at least one of the courses should be reviewed and receive 5-star status
• assist in leading at least one Distance Learning workshop . . . . by the way, presenting the seven-minute sizzle at an Apollo lunch does count for this one
• ask questions or make responses in the new Apollo Club listserv for faculty (designed to promote mentoring and sharing of experiences among UWG online faculty)

Is Your Online Course Worth 5 Stars?

Quality is a big word in online learning. How do we know that our courses are good enough? How can we prove it to our accreditors? Using research-based principles of good practice and perusing existing rubrics for quality online courses, Melanie Clay developed a 5-star course recognition program and worksheet for exemplary online courses. Using a scoring system paired with standards, the worksheet will work as a tool to enable faculty to easily improve their courses as well as gain recognition for meeting the 5-Star Standards. To be deemed 5-Star, an online course must be reviewed by the instructor, a peer, and a DDEC staff member. All 5-Star courses and developing instructors will be listed on the UWG website, and teaching a 5-Star course is one new criteria for the annual Apollo Awards.