Innovations in Online Learning Awards Presented at Annual Conference

The Innovations in Online Learning (IOL) Awards have been established to recognize individuals within The University of Texas System who have achieved excellence in the field. The first awards were presented at an evening dinner as part of the Innovations in Online Learning conference in Austin on Thursday, May 21, 2009. Six awards were presented in five categories in an event emceed by Dr. Darcy Hardy, Executive Director of the UT TeleCampus and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the UT System.

The Outstanding Online Learner Award is presented to an online student enrolled in one or more online courses in the past year. Recipients will have made significant contributions to their online classroom. The 2009 award was presented to Shalla Copeland, a graduate nursing student from the University of Texas at El Paso.

The Service/Support Award recognizes an individual or team from the support side of online learning. From course development staff to registrars, financial aid staff to advisors, the recipient must have demonstrated a commitment to providing quality service to faculty and/or students. This award is presented to a staff member or team involved with online learning who have demonstrated innovative service or support to the field. There were two recipients of the 2009 Service/Support Award, both members of the Instructional Support Services department at UT El Paso. The recipients are Sunay Palsole, the director of the department and Scott Campbell, an instructional designer.

The Project/Course Award recognizes a project, course, learning object, multimedia document that has demonstrated original use of technology and/or design. The 2009 Project/Course Award was presented to P. Eugene Jones, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas for his continuing medical education course in dermatology.

The Faculty Award is presented to a UT System faculty member or teaching assistant who has made innovative contributions to the field of teaching in online education. Recipients will have utilized inventive techniques in presenting learning materials and/or teaching their online course. The 2009 award was presented to Taeil Yi, an associate professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

The Outstanding Visionary in Online Education Award is presented to an exemplary member of the online learning community. Designed to honor visionaries within the UT System, the recipient will have made significant contributions in areas of leadership, research and publications, in addition to successful administration of online education, all with an eye to the future. The 2009 Outstanding Visionary award was presented to Carolyn Awalt, an assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education at UT El Paso for her significant contributions to the field of online education.

Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations to the 2009 awards and congratulations to all of the recipients.
















(not pictured: Outstanding Online Learner Shalla Copeland and Service/Support recipient Scott Campbell)