For another consecutive year, Columbia Southern University has been named as one of the winners of Blackboard, Inc.’s 2022 Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Awards for excellent course design. Winning two of the 43 awards that were given to an international collection of higher education institutions, these are the university’s seventh and eighth Blackboard awards.
One award honors the work of CSU professor Jim Marion, Ph.D., and instructional designer Cheryl Kula, PMP, for their work creating the Project Stakeholders course. The second award goes to instructional designer Elizabeth MacWhinnie, professor John Willey, Ph.D., and Renee Reynolds, Ph.D., for their work on an English Composition II course.
The courses are judged on excellence in the following four areas:
Assessment: the evaluation of student work toward the achievement of learning outcomes and the quality and type of student assessments.
- Course Design: the elements of instructional design, such as its structure, learning objectives, and instructional strategies.
- Interaction and Collaboration: the level of engagement offered by the course and the level of student interaction and collaboration.
- Learner Support: the resources made available to students, which may be accessible within or external to the course environment.
据MacWhinnie表示，还获得了黑板催化剂奖，英语作曲II是一项综合学习资源课程，通过互动课程，视频，实践和示例来教学学生学习学术写作的核心技能。
“The assignment structure really stands out in this course as students write one paper throughout the course, learn one element of writing at a time, and receive thorough feedback from faculty throughout the writing process,” she explained.
Kula, a two-time ECP award winner who worked with Marion, enjoyed working on the Project Stakeholders business course. “We were very focused on putting together a course that will keep students engaged and give them some real-world practice as project managers.”
For nearly two decades, the Exemplary Course Program has honored instructors and course designers whose courses demonstrate best practices. The Exemplary Course Program Awards were expanded when Blackboard, Inc., merged with Anthology in 2021.
