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Background
Established by the Provost in 1996, Virginia Tech’s Center
for Innovation in Learning aims to support the development of online,
technologically integrated courses and provide related infrastructure,
technical support and assessment of results in targeted curricular areas.
Its mission is to achieve the learning outcomes that describe independent,
critically thinking and technologically literate learners across content
areas. The center complements the Faculty
Development Institute which has offered broad-based programs since
1993 to encourage faculty development using technology. As a result of
these and other efforts, such as grant opportunities in the Center
for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and in the Institute
for Distance and Distributed Learning, many Virginia Tech faculty
have made great strides in creating new, effective approaches to teaching
using instructional technology.
Award
In recognition of the outstanding contributions to learning that faculty
and teams of faculty and staff are making as they develop courseware using
technology, the center has established an annual award. This recognition,
entitled The XCaliber Award (shorthand for exceptional, high caliber
work), will at once celebrate and illustrate innovative approaches to
teaching using technology. The XCaliber carries with it a cash
award and a commemorative plaque that mirrors a university scroll where
each year’s honoree’s name(s) will be engraved and displayed
permanently. Honorees will also be asked to demonstrate their award-winning
work at appropriate occasions.
Nominations
To accomplish this, the center invites nominations of faculty or teams
of faculty and staff who have made outstanding contributions in courseware
development in the last two years. Nominees’ works should illustrate
the following student-oriented outcomes which might have occurred on campus,
in extended campus settings, in credit and non-credit courses:
- active learning
- interactive communication
- more self-directed, self-paced learning
- computer literacy integrated with content
- electronic access to course material and supplemental resources
- electronic access to course information, announcements, news
Nominees may find the following characteristics of good courseware to
be a useful guide, but not the only guide, to presenting work for the
award competition. We offer these as a general suggestion of good practice
and not as the sole criteria for evaluation:
- easy accessibility
- Is the material in a location that students can easily reach? Is the
student familiar with the software used to retrieve material? Is there
a valid URL?
- simplicity
- Is the material presented in a clear-cut format?
- consistency
- Does the design give a good understanding of the structure of the
information space and communicate this structure to the user? Do all
materials, like web pages, adhere to this structure?
- intuitiveness
- Does the design give a strong sense of structure and place? Are the
navigational cues such as site maps or search features available to
the user?
- adaptability
- Is the design adaptable to many students' needs and learning styles?
- interactivity
- Does the design allow the user to interact with the materials? With
each other?
- use of visual images
- Is there a visual imagery component to the courseware? Are graphical
and pictorial representations included?
- tested and debugged
- Has the courseware been tested for flaws or nuances that need to be
worked out? Is there an opportunity for student feedback of suggestions,
problems, or concerns?
- documentation
- Are sources and materials cited? Are there references shown where
students can find further information?
- updated
- Is the material maintained, revised, and updated? Is out-of-date material
removed promptly? Is new material added promptly?
- completed
- Is the material available when and where it is supposed to be? Is
the design complete?
- assessed
- What is the impact on student learning?
Format
Nominations should include the following information:
- Title Page
- Name of faculty or names of faculty, student and/or staff team
- Name of course/courseware
- Development date(s)
- When and where course or learning module was/is offered (Blacksburg,
Northern Virginia or other extended campus sites in the Commonwealth,
Southern Regional Electronic Campus, Virginia's Commonwealth Electronic
Campus, U.S. A., other countries)
- Number of students served
- Names of off-campus collaborators or other teaching resources/experts
used to develop and teach course or module
- One paragraph abstract of course/module described in nomination
- Narrative
- What instructional challenge did this courseware set out to meet?
- Why was a particular approach used?
- What was accomplished?
- What were the assessment results?
- Self-Assessment
- Where the good characteristics of courseware listed above obtain,
please describe briefly, and in a section separate from the narrative,
the ways in which your project meets the objectives.
- Materials
- URL
- Supporting materials in various media, as appropriate
Faculty or teams of faculty and staff should prepare information for submission
which should be covered by nomination letters from the appropriate department
head or curriculum committee or program committee. Nomination submissions
should be no longer than 5 pages in length.
Timeline
Nominations Due: January 15, 2008
Selections Complete: February 8, 2008
Award Events: Fall 2008
Send 11 copies of complete nomination information by 5 p.m. January 15th to:
Anne H. Moore
Center for Innovation in Learning
3210 Torgersen Hall (0292)
Ph: 231-2309; ahmoore@vt.edu
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