2005–2006 Winners
Winner
The Gertrude Cox Winners this year are Professors Clyde Sorenson and Ronald Kuhr for their imaginative and entertaining uses of technology in Entomology 201, Insects and People. Obviously this team has been using websites for awhile. Their experience shows in numerous ways, including their polished graphics, the excellent organization of the course, the engaging and informative video/audio lessons, the many other film clips sprinkled through the site, and the wide variety of resources they draw on. Clyde and Ron have set the bar high for the rest of us, especially in the seamlessness with which they integrate the high-tech with the extremely low-tech pedagogical principles and practices. They truly provide a standard all instructors can emulate as they design and prepare their own web material.
Runner up
The 2nd Place Cox Award goes to Professor David Shew for his course website Introduction to Plant Pathology, PP 315. David has created an outstanding collection of materials for his course, materials that truly take advantage of many of the novel capabilities of the web. His well-organized site includes captivating photos, wellproduced videos, conceptual aids in the form of flashcards with pronunciation guides as well as definitions, and a variety of other engaging teaching materials. His site is a model that we can all look to for excellent instructional ideas.
Special merit
Deserving of our Special Merit Cox Award this year is the Oral Presentation Unit developed by Etta Barksdale of the English Department. This site was developed English 331, 332, and 333, professional writing courses with a heavy demand and now being taught through Distance Education. This Oral Presentation Unit provides instruction on the public speaking component of these courses. While it is inherently difficult to teach presentation skills over the web, this Unit makes excellent use of videos to illustrate a wide variety of techniques and aspects of speaking. The very polished and attractive nature of the videos and the site itself make it a real pleasure to use and a resource with wide potential for adoption by other schools across the country.
View nominations for 2005–2006