'CAFE-Oh-WOW' award winners generate "moos" of appreciation for their excellence
by Kathleen McCoy |
The Super Cow award, the Oscar of academia, honored both the CCEL team and the Registrar's team for doing excellent work at UAA. (Photo by Phil Hall/University of Alaska Anchorage)
The Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE), UAA's faculty development center, recently announced its COW (CAFE Oh Wow!) Faculty Development Awards for 2015.
The success of UAA's faculty development initiatives and programs is directly tied to the willingness of faculty and staff to share their time and expertise with their colleagues. Two national research studies on unusually effective universities have indicated that investment in faculty development is one of the top ways in which a university can increase its retention rates and student success.
Jennifer Stone, professor of English, was graced with the Computer Cow, another Oscar of academia, for her work mentoring fellow faculty on gamification techniques in the classroom. (Photo by Phil Hall/University of Alaska Anchorage)
COW Award recipients-who receive highly coveted bovine-themed figurines to appreciative "moos" from the audience-have made major contributions to faculty development initiatives across the UAA system. This year's recipients include:
- The Center for Community Engagement and Learning (CCEL)
- Lora Volden and the Office of the Registrar
- Jennifer Stone, associate professor of English
It's all in the details
CCEL's Judith Owens-Manley and Kara Joseph accept the "Super cow" award for working to secure "Engaged University" designation for UAA through from the Carnegie Foundation.
CCEL This center earned recognition ensuring UAA's Carnegie designation as an Engaged University, an honor earned by just 10 percent of colleges and universities nationwide. In addition, CCEL leads on conversations regarding the High Impact Practices (HIPs) of community engaged and service learning, experiences that are known to deepen student learning and success.
UAA Registrar Lora Volden, right, with Lindsey Chadwell of the Office of the Registrar. The office was honored for diligence working with faculty on FERPA and DegreeWorks.
Team Volden The registrar was recognized along with those in her office for extensive efforts to train faculty on dimensions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law that ensures privacy of student information and for advising and use of related programs such as DegreeWorks. Effective training with these kinds of systems helps students move efficiently through the system, ensuring a shorter path to graduation.
English professor Jennifer Stone takes home a 'COW' honor for her work with gamification in the classroom, and mentoring fellow faculty in this area.
Professor Stone Jennifer Stone, associate professor of English, was recognized for her leadership in the use of a range of technologies in the classroom, as well as gamification, the practice of introducing exciting, engaging, collaborative and even competitive dynamics in the classroom. Stone uses technology in the classroom to energize and enrich student learning, and serves as a mentor to other faculty working to incorporate additional technology in their teaching. She is on the cutting edge with incorporating gamification into her classroom, teaching students to work collaboratively to accomplish tasks that would not be possible alone.
Terry Nelson, CBPP, and Steve Ex, College of Education, won glory as super-involved staff and faculty.
High achievers In addition to the COW awards, CAFE recognized Professors Steve Ex (College of Education) and Terry Nelson (College of Business and Public Policy) for their high degree of participation in faculty development events across the academic year. While over 100 faculty members have participated in at least two or more faculty development events during the 2014-15 academic year, Ex and Nelson have participated in at least 13 each. They are truly dedicated to teaching excellence!
Written by Kathleen McCoy, UAA Office of University Advancement
"'CAFE-Oh-WOW' award winners generate "moos" of appreciation for their excellence" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
