CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The Awards and Recognition Committee of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) invites nominations for its 2014 awards for outstanding contributions to the field of online education. The 2014 awards will be presented during the 20th Annual Online Learning Consortium International Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday, October 30, 2014. The award categories are:

• Excellence in Online Teaching
• John R. Bourne Outstanding Achievement Award in Online Education
• Bruce N. Chaloux Award for Early Career Excellence
• A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award
• Outstanding Online Program
• Excellence in Faculty Development for Online Teaching
• Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Education
• Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education

PROCEDURAL INFORMATION

1. SUBMISSION AND DUE DATE
The deadline for submitting nominations for the 2014 OLC Awards was July 15, 2014 – this deadline has passed and we no longer will be accepting any nominations for the 2014 OLC Awards.

NOMINATION FORMS (Must be logged in to access these forms).
Note: You do not have to complete the whole form right away. After you have submitted a partial nomination, you will be able to edit/complete it at a later time. You will see a block in the left side bar with a link to your nomination.

Note: Please review the submission form before preparing a nomination and note the word limit restrictions for the submission materials required. Also, please note that incomplete submissions will not be considered.

2. GENERAL INFORMATION
All nominations must include the following information: (1) award category; (2) complete contact information for organization or individual nominated (e.g., name, title, organization, address, phone, e-mail); and (3) contact name and information for individual submitting the nomination. Self-nominations for the individual awards are not permitted. Each institution may only nominate one individual for the award for Excellence in Online Teaching. Similarly, each institution may only nominate a single online program for the Outstanding Online Program Award.

3. ELIGIBILITY
Nominees for the individual teaching award must be employed by an OLC member institution or be individual members of the OLC; nominees for the individual achievement award must be individual members of the OLC. Program and institutional awards are also limited to OLC member institutions and organizations. Although previous recipients of OLC awards are eligible to be nominated again, it will be exceptional and unusual for an individual or institution to receive an award again in the same category.

4. DESCRIPTION OF AWARDS, REQUIRED MATERIALS, AND AWARDS CRITERIA

Excellence in Online Teaching

The purpose of this award is to recognize an outstanding individual who has creatively utilized appropriate Internet-based technologies to teach online and/or blended courses in higher education. The recipient must have designed and taught one or more online or blended courses with an imaginative approach, well-designed course materials and instructional strategies, and a demonstrated rapport with the course participants. The recipient must also document effectiveness in achieving desired learning outcomes in the online and/or blended course(s). This award consists of a commemorative plaque and a check for $2000.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• A general description of the online and/or blended course(s) taught;
• Descriptions of the online teaching approaches utilized;
• Up to three examples of well-designed course materials that embody effective teaching strategies;
• Evidence of effectiveness in achieving desired learning outcomes in the online course(s) and demonstrated rapport with learners and other course participants; and
• Three to five letters of support, including letters from at least one student, one faculty colleague, and one administrator.

Award Criteria:

• Imaginative Approach: The nominee has implemented a creative approach to one or more emerging instructional challenges.
• Quality of Course Materials and Instructional Strategies: The nominee has created well-designed course materials and utilized appropriate instructional strategies.
• Learner Satisfaction: The nominee has demonstrated rapport with learners as well as other course participants.
• Effective Learning Outcomes: The nominee has demonstrated effectiveness in achieving desired learning outcomes in the online course(s).
• Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the qualifications of the nominee as an outstanding online teacher.

John R. Bourne Outstanding Achievement Award in Online Education
The purpose of this award is to recognize an individual who has demonstrated extraordinary achievements to the field of online education. The recipient of this award should be known for scholarly research and writing, leadership activities, service, and/or contributions to advancing the field of online education. This award consists of a commemorative plaque and a check for $2000.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• The nominee’s vita;
• A detailed description of his or her individual achievements related to online education and how they fulfill the award criteria; and
• Three or more letters of support, including letters from at least one faculty colleague and one administrator.
• Award Criteria:

Scholarly Research and Writing
The nominee has published work that has increased knowledge, and/or contributed to improving practice for the scholarly and/or practitioner communities within the field of online education.

Leadership Activities: The nominee has led or participated in activities that demonstrate leadership in the field at the institutional, local, regional, national, and/or international level.
Service: The nominee has performed a significant number and variety of activities that demonstrate service to the field and its constituent community.
Contributions to Advancing the Field: The nominee has made additional contributions that have substantively contributed to the overall advancement of online education.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the nominee’s achievements in the field of online education.
Bruce N. Chaloux Award for Early Career Excellence in Online Education
The purpose of this award is to recognize individuals who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments in the field of online education at an early stage in their careers. This award is presented annually to individuals forty years of age and younger who have made significant contributions to online education. Recipients should be known for leadership activities, service to the profession, scholarly publications, and/or contributions to advancing the field of online education. This award consists of a commemorative plaque and a check for $2000.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• The nominee’s vita;
• A detailed description of his or her individual achievements related to online education and how they fulfill the award criteria; and
• Three or more letters of support, including letters from at least one faculty member and one administrator.
• Award Criteria:

Leadership Activities: The nominee has demonstrated leadership in the field of online education at the institutional, local, regional, national, and/or international level.
Service: The nominee has performed a significant number and variety of activities that demonstrate service to the field of online education and its constituent community.
Contributions to Advancing the Field: The nominee’s work has contributed significantly to the overall advancement of online education.
Scholarly Research and Writing: The nominee has published work that has increased knowledge, and/or contributed to improving practice for the scholarly and/or practitioner communities within the field of online education.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the nominee’s achievements in the field of online education.

Note: Nominees must not be older than 40 years of age at the time of the award presentation.

Outstanding Online Program
The purpose of this award is to recognize an outstanding online certificate, degree, or continuing education program offered by an OLC member institution. The ideal recipient of this award would be a degree, certificate, or continuing education program that has a proven record of excellence, as demonstrated by its success in providing expanded access, learning effectiveness, and high levels of student and faculty satisfaction, in a cost-effective manner. This award consists of a commemorative plaque.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• A detailed description of the online degree, certificate, or continuing education program that summarizes the program and provides evidence of how the program meets the award criteria (see below);
• A URL and necessary passwords to access the program’s website and sample courses (if passwords cannot be supplied due to security or privacy concerns, links to websites with screenshots demonstrating key features of these courses will be acceptable);
• Three or more letters of support, including letters from at least one student, one faculty member, and one administrator.

Award Criteria:

Access: The program has improved access to education by expanding opportunities and/or reducing barriers.
Learning Effectiveness: The program demonstrates effectiveness in producing learning outcomes which are consistent with learner needs and representative of the distinctive quality of the institution.
Cost Effectiveness: The program is provided in a manner that is cost-effective for the institution and provides educational value for learners and other stakeholders.
Student Satisfaction: Learners who complete the program or substantial portion of it express satisfaction with their learning experience, including course rigor and fairness, instructor and peer interaction, and provision of support services.
Faculty Satisfaction: Faculty who teach in the program find the online teaching experience to be personally rewarding and professionally beneficial.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the quality of the online program in the OLC Pillar areas.

Excellence in Faculty Development for Online Teaching
The purpose of this award is to recognize an institution that has developed and delivered an outstanding, comprehensive program for faculty professional development in online teaching. The ideal recipient of this award would be an on-going institution-wide program that has had a positive impact on a significant number of faculty having a range of experience with online course development and delivery, leading to these faculty teaching large numbers of high-quality online courses, while maintaining a high degree of faculty satisfaction. This award consists of a commemorative plaque.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• A detailed description of the comprehensive faculty development program that summarizes the on-going program structure and provides evidence of how the program meets the award criteria (see below);
• A URL and necessary passwords to access the program’s website and sample courses, if any (if passwords cannot be supplied due to security or privacy concerns, links to a website with screenshots of exemplary activities will be acceptable);
• Faculty satisfaction survey results or other measure(s) showing a high degree of faculty satisfaction; and
• Three or more letters of support, including letters from at least one faculty member and one administrator.

Award Criteria:

Effectiveness: The program has led to faculty developing and teaching large numbers of high-quality online courses.
Scope of Impact: The program has been implemented institution-wide or within a significantly large segment of the institution.
Faculty Satisfaction: The program activities have maintained a high level of faculty satisfaction.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the quality and effectiveness of the on-going faculty development program.

Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Education
The purpose of this award is to recognize an institution that has designed and implemented an outstanding and comprehensive online learning curriculum. The institution’s online programs must be of demonstrably high quality. The ideal recipient would be an institution offering multiple regional or national online learning programs in diverse disciplines, including degree, certificate, and continuing education programs. The scope and scale of the online learning programs offered should be consistent with the scope and scale of the institution itself. This award consists of a commemorative plaque.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• A detailed description of the program that indicates its degree of comprehensiveness and provides evidence of how the program meets the award criteria (see below).
• The URL of the website for the institution’s online programs.
• Three or more letters of support, including letters from at least one student, one faculty member, and one administrator.

Award Criteria:
Scale and Scope of Offerings: The institution offers multiple online learning programs available on a regional or national scale in a proportion consistent with the institution’s scope and scale.
Diversity of Offerings: The institution offers a variety of programs in diverse disciplines that are representative of the institution’s total offerings.
Appropriateness of Offerings: The institution offers online learning programs at a variety of levels (degree, certificate, continuing education) that meet demonstrable needs.
Quality of Offerings: The institution demonstrates how its online learning offerings improve learning, access, faculty and student satisfaction in a cost-effective, affordable manner.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the quality, scale, and breadth of the institution’s online program.

A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award in Online Education
The A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award in Online Education was established by the Online Learning Consortium in 2009 to honor outstanding individuals who exemplify the leadership and ideals of A. Frank Mayadas, founding president of the Online Learning Consortium (formerly known as the Sloan Consortium). This award may be presented annually to an individual whose leadership in the online education community has been transformative. Leadership may be demonstrated in any of several ways, including mobilizing online programs of quality, scale, and breadth at the institutional, system, or state level, implementing innovations that improve online learning methodologies, integrating online learning into the mainstream of higher education, or using online learning strategies to improve access to higher education. This award consists of a commemorative plaque. In addition, the OLC will make a contribution in the amount of $2,000 to a scholarship fund of the recipient’s choice. Award recipients will also be invited to present a talk at the OLC Annual Conference on a subject of their choice, reflecting their area of professional expertise and interest.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• An overall summary of the nominee’s leadership activities in higher education, highlighting how the nominee’s work has had a significant positive impact on online learning within the higher education community
• A detailed description of the how the nominee has demonstrated sustained leadership that has been transformative, either within his/her educational institution or within the broader online education community
• A proposed award citation, and up to five letters of support, including letters from at least one faculty member and one administrator.

Award Criteria:

Leadership in Online Education: The nominee’s leadership activities have had a significant positive impact on online learning within the higher education community.
Transformative Leadership: The nominee’s leadership has been “transformative”, either within his/her educational institution or within the broader online education community, and has clearly make his or her institution, system, or state into a demonstrably better organization?
Unique Leadership Qualities: The nominee’s leadership qualities makes this individual stand out from other leaders in important areas, such as visionary outlook, integrity and honesty, communication skills, assembling a good team and then motivating them, and sustaining this leadership over time.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the qualifications of the nominee as an outstanding leader.

Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education

The Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education will be presented by the Online Learning Consortium to an institution that has demonstrated its commitment to assessing and improving the quality of its online education programs through quantitative application of the OLC Quality Pillars. The award will be based upon the innovative nature of the quantitative metrics being used to assess quality, as well as the demonstration of continuous quality improvement based upon these metrics. Institutions may apply for the Gomory Award based upon a single degree program, a cluster of such programs within a department or a school, or the online degree offerings for the entire institution. However, each institution will be limited to a single application. This award consists of a commemorative plaque and a check for $5000. The monetary award is to be used by the recipient institution to fund “Online Learning Consortium Gomory Scholarships” to students enrolled in its online programs.

The nomination should include the following supporting documentation:

• An overall summary of the institution’s online program, with an emphasis on quantitative metrics used to measure program quality
• A detailed description of the how the institution is using quantitative data in each of the five pillar areas to assess and to improve the quality of its online teaching and learning programs
• A proposed award citation, and up to five letters of support, including letters from at least one faculty member and one administrator.

Award Criteria:
Commitment to Continuous Quality Improvement: The institution has demonstrated its commitment to assessing and improving the quality of its online education programs through quantitative application of the OLC Quality Pillars.
Pillar Metrics: The institution has quantitative metrics in each of the five OLC Pillar areas that it uses to measure program quality; the nomination has described the innovative nature of these quantitative metrics.
Use of Quantitative Data to Improve Quality: The institution has used (and is using) quantitative data in each of the five OLC Pillar areas to assess and to improve the quality of its online learning and learning programs; the nomination provides detailed information of how quantitative data has been used and (and is being used) to improve the online program.
Supporting Letters: The supporting letters address the institution’s commitment to quality online education and a quantitative process of continuous quality improvement.

For additional information, please contact:

Prof. Burks Oakley II
Chair, OLC Awards Selection Committee
E-mail: burks.oakley@onlinelearning-c.org