July 12, 2017 — CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) has won a New Media Consortium (NMC) Center of Excellence Award.
CSUCI was one of two universities that were awarded the honor out of 14 finalists from around the world. The award recognizes NMC member institutions with an exceptional record of integrating technology with learning or creative expression.
“The New Media Consortium’s Center of Excellence Award is the highest honor bestowed by the NMC,” said NMC Executive Director Eden Dahlstrom. “We are highly selective when we bestow this award and we don’t give out the CoE award every year. CSUCI’s untethered faculty development stood out as an exemplar of an innovative approach to building faculty digital literacy.”
“CSU Channel Islands may be new, and our team may be small, but the work we are doing to support faculty creating new ways to teach and learn has an impact far beyond the boundaries of our campus,” said Michael Berman, Ph.D., Vice President of Information Technology Services at CSUCI. “We are honored and thrilled that NMC has recognized this impact by naming us a Center of Excellence.”
CSUCI Executive Director of Teaching & Learning Innovation Jill Leafstedt, Ph.D., said the University has taken an “untethered” approach when working with faculty members to integrate more technology into the classroom and to build digital literacy across the campus.
“Untethered” means faculty members can access new information about digital classroom innovations at any time, at their convenience, rather than going to a conventional workshop.
Also, the digital techniques developed by CSUCI’s Teaching & Learning Innovation are “scalable,” which has led to multiple campuses in the US and world-wide adopting and adapting CSUCI’s innovations.
Digital teaching techniques are also humanized to assure that students develop deep human connections with their instructors and with each other, a factor that’s well-established to improve student success.
“We’ve been working really hard to move CSUCI forward,” Leafstedt said. “To be recognized internationally for our work is really powerful.’
CSUCI’s Teaching & Learning Innovation team was presented with the award at the 24th Annual NMC Summer Conference in Boston, MA in June. The conference drew representatives from institutions of higher education, libraries, museums and schools.