The Web-based Information Science Education Consortium (WISE) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2009 WISE Excellence in Online Education Awards. WISE is pleased to recognize seven highly regarded instructors for their outstanding dedication to best practices in online education demonstrated through instructional style in one or more WISE courses in 2009.  

 

 

Carisse Berryhill - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign*
Linda Braun – Simmons College*
Barbara Kwasnik – Syracuse University*

Tomas Lipinski - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee *

Ruth Palmquist - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Anthony Rotolo - Syracuse University

John Wagstaff - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
* Denotes repeat recipient

 

 

Each year, WISE students are invited to nominate WISE host instructors who excel in the online classroom. Themes in the 2009 nominations include engagement and responsiveness, ability to create community in the online environment, and effective use of course technology to enhance learning. A unique aspect of the award is that the recipients are nominated by students who are not matriculated at the instructors' home institutions.

 

WISE was co-founded by Syracuse University Associate Provost Bruce Kingma, and Linda Smith, Associate Dean at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science.  Commenting on the annual award, Smith notes that “faculty recognized with this award teach a variety of specialized courses, from Music Librarianship and Theological Librarianship to Legal Issues for Library and Information Managers.  This demonstrates that excellence in online teaching is possible across the curriculum in library and information science.”  "I love this award and the opportunity for students from one institution to praise a faculty member from another program. This reinforces the positive effects of our members working together,” says Kingma.  “The WISE consortium stimulates collaboration between our students, our faculty, our programs, and our universities."

 

This 2009 WISE Excellence in Online Education Awards will be presented during the WISE Online Pedagogy Workshop at the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Conference. This year’s free workshop, Keys to Successful Online Collaboration will take place on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 9:00 am at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers. All are encouraged to attend. The workshop will include a presentation of best practices contributed by award recipients, as well as rotating stations of mini-sessions and breakout discussion groups that address pedagogical issues related to the use of collaborative learning activities in online courses.

 

The WISE Consortium is a collaborative distance education model that increases the quality, access, and diversity of online education opportunities in Library and Information Science.  WISE was developed to establish standards and metrics for online library and information science (LIS) education, to provide a collaborative marketplace for online LIS courses, and to provide support for online pedagogy. WISE Pedagogy offers training and development opportunities for LIS faculty and doctoral students, and is available to WISE members and others in the LIS community who are interested in advancing their online instruction skills.

 

Since 2004, WISE has offered over 465 courses to over 725 students across our 14 member programs.  A goal central to the mission of WISE is to recognize and encourage the sharing of best practices in online education. The Excellence in Online Education Awards gives the consortium the opportunity to honor outstanding faculty while working toward achieving that goal.

 

Visit the WISE and WISE Pedagogy websites for more information.