Online Learning Consortium Announces 2022 OLC Innovate Award Winners

Institutions and Academics Honored for Contributions to Online Education

BOSTON, April 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators, announces the 2022 OLC Innovate award recipients, honoring accomplished institutions and educators working in the field of online learning.

"We are pleased to honor these outstanding institutions and educators for their innovative efforts in the areas of online, blended, and digital learning," said Dr. Jennifer Mathes, Chief Executive Officer, Online Learning Consortium. "Their efforts with their colleagues and other institutions showcase leading programs in the education field."

OLC Innovate Award Recipients

NOVA Online, Northern Virginia Community College, "Jumpstarting Students' Online College Experience." Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) partnered with local public high schools to schedule cohorts of tuition-free online classes available to approximately 70,000 qualified Northern Virginia high school students. This opportunity (named Early Online College) targets high school juniors and seniors to jumpstart their higher education experience and earn college credit by attending up to two online courses per semester in addition to their high school courses.

Oregon State University Ecampus and Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University Ecampus, "OSU Virtual Chemistry Lab Platform."  OSU Ecampus multimedia team and the Chemistry Department developed an in-house virtual chemistry interactive lab platform and 28 labs. In just the last year, 1,416 students (unduplicated headcount) have taken 10,481 credit hours in chemistry courses using this lab platform. These students are mostly degree-seeking undergraduates in fully online programs, but a significant number are non-degree-seeking students who transfer these credits to other institutions that do not offer chemistry online or are post-baccalaureate students.

Dr. Carolyn Stevenson and Dr. Michele Riley, Purdue University Global, "The Alternative Credit Center at Purdue Global: Open Degree Programs, Portfolios, and Assessment." The Purdue Global Alternative Credit Center provides opportunities for both degree-seeking and nondegree-seeking students. It accepts eligible credits through portfolio development, open learning courses, course assessments, and work/life experience. Purdue University Global offers free online services and personalized mentoring to help learners identify and organize prior work and life experience and skills that could count toward a degree or career growth.

E-Learning Deanship, King Khiled University, "Electronic Laboratory Platform E-Lab." The Deanship of E-Learning at KKU developed E-Lab, which is an open platform, with the primary goal of explaining scientific concepts in a simplified, enjoyable form. The platform provided students access to equal learning opportunities by delivering learning resources electronically to access at anytime from anywhere. The platform helped KKU deal with urgent circumstances potentially preventing students from reaching the physical laboratories (such as the COVID-19 crisis).

OLC Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Scholarship Recipient

Dr. Kim Grewe is an instructional designer, professor, and OER lead at Northern Virginia Community College's distance learning center, NOVA Online; a curriculum developer and online course facilitator for the Online Learning Consortium; a program developer for the Regional Leaders of Open Education (RLOE) network; and a curriculum developer and online course facilitator for Open for Antiracism [a project led by the Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER) and College of the Canyons].  Regarding her most recent work in authentic assessment, one nominator shares, ". . . [Dr. Grewe] has worked to expand access and equity across the Commonwealth by looking for opportunities to evaluate learning by challenging historically acceptable approaches to assessment. Dr. Grewe has collaborated to create a robust campaign to engage thought leaders across Virginia in designing bias-free, culturally responsive, authentic assessments."

About OLC Innovate 2022

OLC Innovate 2022, a joint conference presented by OLC and MERLOT, provides a path for innovators of all experience levels and backgrounds to share best practices, test new ideas, and collaborate on driving forward online, digital, and blended learning.

This year's conference will take place both virtually (March 28 – April 1, 2022) and onsite (April 11 – 14, 2022) at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Dallas.

Join us as we challenge our teaching and learning paradigms, reimagine the learning experience, and ideate on how disruptions in education today will shape the innovative classroom of tomorrow.

About the Online Learning Consortium

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is a collaborative community of education leaders and innovators, dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime. The growing OLC community includes faculty members, administrators, trainers, instructional designers, and other learning professionals, as well as educational institutions, professional societies and corporate enterprises. Visit onlinelearningconsortium.org for more information.

Media contact:

Michael Chmura
Director, Communications and Community Relations
Online Learning Consortium
michael.chmura@onlinelearning-c.org

SOURCE Online Learning Consortium