DE Oracle @ UMUC

DE Oracle Wins Two of Three Awards for UMUC at Global Learning Conference

Susan Pollack

Instructional Support Specialist

Center for Support of Instruction

Published: July-August 2009

Category: » University-showcase » Awards

The DE Oracle @ UMUC was recently honored as a standout in its use and implementation of technology to support and enhance learning outcomes worldwide when it was awarded a Bronze Learning Impact Award by the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) at its annual conference and summit in Barcelona in May. The e-zine also won the Best in Category, Faculty Development Network award.

Kathleen Puckett Ford, Director of the Center for Support of Instruction (CSI), accepted the awards on behalf of the department. "I am delighted that IMS found great value in the services we provide for our worldwide faculty through the DE Oracle," she said. "Our staff has devoted much time and energy to developing this useful and accessible resource site and has been committed to serving faculty and academic administrator needs for many years."

The Learning Impact awards recognize technology projects that address key challenges in the global education and training sectors. All submissions to the award competition are evaluated on eight distinct impact criteria: access, affordability, quality, adoption, accountability, organizational learning, interoperability, and innovation.

This year's competition was described as "intense" by Nicholas Allen, Provost Emeritus and collegiate professor at UMUC. Allen is a member of IMS's Executive Strategic Council and served on a panel of judges that assessed the 38 finalist projects. He noted that entries came from public and private universities in addition to commercial and for-profit enterprises around the world.

A team of instructional support specialists from CSI prepared the nomination package, which detailed information about how the DE Oracle @ UMUC positively impacts UMUC in multiple ways and serves as a lifelong learning resource for its faculty. Additionally, CSI staff developed a short overview video to further demonstrate how a simple, cost-effective tool can successfully help a global audience connect with and learn from each other.

UMUC's Graduate School was also recognized at the conference for its Online Hands-On Labs in Information Assurance, which was honored as Best in Category, Online Laboratory. Jim Chen, collegiate professor and program director of information assurance, authored this work.

"UMUC did extremely well to walk away with three awards," Allen said. "Kathleen and Jim have made UMUC proud again through all their hard work and dedication. They make us special."

Congratulations to all!

• UMUC press release
• IMS press release