2002-2003 Innovation of the Year Winners

Every year the League honors outstanding innovations that have been recognized by member institutions as Innovation of the Year. These innovations represent capstone achievements and the continuing renewal of the spirit of innovation and experimentations upon which the League was founded. Congratulations to this year's distinguished group of innovators.

Central Piedmont Community College has announced that Faye Harvin has won this year's Innovation of the Year Award for her work on eProject Express. This program helps stimulate a workplace environment in the classroom. This technology medium allows Faye to post daily lesson plans, send messages to students, append syllabus and test review sheets, and assign a variety of tasks. Students can retrieve class information via a personal computer and their assignments can be graded electronically.

Valerie S. Brown - Project Director; Dorothy J. Blackmon - Project Co-Coordinator; Judith Barker - Project Co-Coordinator have been recognized by Cuyahoga Community College as this year's recipients of the Innovation of the Year Award for the creation of the "Having Their Say: An Audiocassette Scrapbook of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren." This project creatively combines applied undergraduate research, service learning, community outreach, and university partnership. "Having Their Say." augments Cuyahoga's course Sociology 2100 - Aging and Society. Thus, students are provided with a service learning component in which they explore the social phenomenon with grandparents and children in their care.

Eastfield College as part of the Dallas County Community College District has been selected as the district-wide winner of this year's Innovation of the Year Award. Eastfield College is being recognized for their work on the Teacher Center. The Center is a combination of several programs integrating theory and application of services. It utilizes the college's Child Development programs and reinforces Eastfield's efforts to help with teacher training in the community. The innovative center has propelled itself with energetic staff that has generated 1.68 million dollars in grants for scholarships and student support services.

Delta College has awarded Bobbi Allen and Jenny Williams the Innovation of the Year Award. They were chosen for their initiative and creative design of class ED 399. These two women have gone beyond the letter of their jobs at Delta College to initiate what Delta now calls their assessment movement. ED 399 has helped promote the growth of this movement. This course, offered to faculty and staff, offers a new look at assessment. One graduate of the course expressed it, ".convinced me to revamp my assignments and feedback to enhance student learning as well as my own."

The Foothill-De Anza Community College District has honored Nancy Gill as their winner for the Innovation of the Year Award. Nancy has received this award as a recognition for the work she has done in researching and writing a book titled, "The Subject Is You: Writing Transfer Essays." The intent of her book is to help students develop their own individualized transfer application essays. In her book, Nancy addresses topics such as writer's block, injecting life into the essay, and how to strengthen the writing. Faculty, staff, counselors, and students who use Nancy's book describe it as timesaving, effective, inexpensive, and an innovative tool for improving the overall quality of transfer essays.

In recognition for her outstanding work on the Services for Students with Disabilities Policies and Procedures Manual, Maureen Carnegie has been selected by Humber College to receive this year's Innovation of the Year Award. The Policies and Procedures manual is Humber's first comprehensive explanation of disabilities, disability matters, services, and responsibilities. It improves students' educational experiences at Humber College by describing and clarifying all aspects of responding to disability from pre-enrollment to graduation. This manual is accessible through the web, and may be replicated without reservation, by other post-secondary schools. This manual was developed as a result of Maureen Carnegie's leadership and a significant effort of all members of the Services for Students with Disabilities team.

Louanne Wolfgram's Biotechnology Program is recognized by Johnson County Community College as this year's winner of the Innovation of the Year Award. This program provides students in the metropolitan area an opportunity to receive the appropriate training that prepares them for joining the work force and a career in biotechnology. Luanne has also worked with an advisory committee to establish the one-year certificate and Associate of Science degree program. Finally, she has worked with the University of Kansas Edwards Campus and the KU Department of Biological Sciences to establish the Associate of Science degree program for students who may wish to transfer to a four-year college or university and work toward a four-year degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Kirkwood Community College awarded the Innovation of the Year Award to The Kirkwood Honors Program. This program is one of the premier honors programs at a community college in the nation. The Honors Program is educationally sound and meets real faculty and students' needs. The project is grounded in clear goals that promote faculty and student learning. The program was nationally recognized last year with the Paragon Award and is a nationally acclaimed model for other community colleges to emulate.

Lane Community College has chosen the Energy Management Program this year for the Innovation of the Year Award. This project has become a model of industry-supported education. It began with a Bonneville Power Administrative grant and through the efforts of Roger Ebbage and his team has continued to be supported through other outside funding. To generate this funding, Mr. Ebbage created the financially successful Northwest Energy Education Institute, which provides energy education to industry locally, regionally, and internationally. Team members included: Roger Ebbage, Coco Sutton, Ginny Young and Kyle Hammon.

Rio Salado College’s Online Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Preparation Program In an effort to enhance the quality and convenience of teacher education, Rio Salado College's Online Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Preparation Program, is being honored by Maricopa Community College District with this year's Innovation of the Year Award. The innovative Online Post Baccalaureate Teacher Education program is a community collaboration that increases student access to high-quality teacher preparation courses for elementary, secondary, and special education, through flexible, convenient, anytime, anywhere e-learning. In its inaugural year, the program enrolled 1,500 students, earned a national award, and set a new standard for 21^st century teacher training.

Miami-Dade Community College District recognized the Kendall Campus Title V-Creating a Culture of Success in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Program for this year's Innovation of the Year Award. This program was developed to increase students' successful completion and continuation in math, science, and engineering courses, and to increase the numbers of students graduating with these majors. Various strategies and resources are used with this program: reduced class size, multimedia carts, an academic resource center, field trips, and faculty 'discipline coordinators.' Due to the success of this initiative student success has increased by as much as 29% and withdrawal rates have dropped by between 13-34%. The team includes: Alan Berkey, Loretta Adoghe, Charlotte Bercelli, Miriam Del Campo, and Georgina Hart.

Innovation of the Year Award winners Robert Bertram, Charlotte Downing, and Ernest Mellas have been recognized by Monroe Community College (MCC) for their exceptional effort in the creation of The Curriculum Forms Database. The Paperless Curriculum Environment is a major initiative that has transformed the curricular change process from a paper-laden process to an electronic process. The new Paperless Curriculum Environment facilitates the College's ability to respond to the evolving needs of our students, employers, community, faculty and transfer institutions to the benefit of the entire College and community and, most importantly, to student success.

Joann Wright, David Taylor, Randy Southard, Paula Adduci, Trish Keporos, Nancy Curé, Janice Hill-Matula, and Wally Fronczek have been chosen by Moraine Valley Community College as the recipients for this year's Innovation of the Year Award. They receive this award for their development of The First Year Experience Program. This program is a comprehensive, integrated program designed to help students make a successful transition to the college environment and to help them develop the beliefs and behaviors necessary for college success.

Leslie Shimazaki, Roma Weaver, and Pat Mosteller are honored by San Diego Community College District as the recipients of this year's Innovation of the Year Award. They receive this award for their work on Learning Across Generations: Intergenerational Education in San Diego. Providing adults with literacy instruction and parenting skills enables them to participate as active proponents of education in the school and at home. This collaborative goal is being recognized through the implementation of two intergenerational programs: Project Child and family tutoring. The innovation of these projects is demonstrated by using adult training and education to enhance the development and learning of children in the community.

The Online Degree Audit has been selected by Santa Fe Community College for this year's Innovation of the Year Award. Students' online degree audit allows them to change their major, view degree requirements, view upper division admission requirements by major within the Florida State University system, view their transcript evaluation (for transfer students), and express register from their degree audit. Furthermore, it allows students to click on the courses they need in their degree audit and the system will configure up to 20 different possible schedules (based on course and section availability) within seconds. The team for this project included: Lynn Sullivan, Herschel Johnson, Paulette Wright, Betty Lou Drost, Eric Ziecheck, Mary Thames, Ann Mott, Lisa Auerbach, Virginie Crisalle, James Dierecks, and Marianne Preisler.

Faculty from 11 two-year colleges throughout the Puget Sound region participated in a Seattle Community Colleges symposium, “Exploring the Educational uses of eBooks.” The symposium was selected as Innovation of the Year. Speakers, panelists and participants examined the benefits, costs, and opportunities in implementing technologies for mobile learning, including eBooks, PDAs, Tablet PCs and wireless technology. Featured speaker was Tilly Jensen of Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, who had earlier presented her model of a mobile learning environment at the League’s Technology Conference of the League for Innovation. The program was led by Thomas Malone, working with Carin Weiss, Ron Hamberg and Jean Kent.

Teresa Prosser, Roxann Delaet, and Susan L'Heureux at Sinclair Community College have received special recognition as the recipients of this year's Innovation of the Year Award. They are given this honor for their work on the Allied Health Read/Write Connection. This is a module/course enhancement designed to enable students to improve and apply basic reading and writing skills while learning the course content of ALH 103: Introduction to Health Care Delivery. Three learning modules assist ALH 103 students in improving their text marking, note taking, reading comprehension, writing fluency, and test taking ability during the study time it takes to master the content of their course.

St. Louis Community College honored the faculty and staff of the Dental Hygiene Program of St. Louis Community College - Forest Park with this year's Innovation of the Year Award. This program is the first distance dental hygiene program in the state of Missouri. Through ITV instructional content delivery and an on-site dental clinic in Rolla, eight students were able to participate in an accredited dental hygiene program from a distance. The program has demonstrated that distance education in a highly technical and hands-on field is not only possible but can be successful. This was a true team effort by all department members and with full cooperation of the student body.