UWF Academic Technology Center receives international award

The University of West Florida Academic Technology Center received the Excellence in Faculty Development for Online Teaching Award given by the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), an association of institutions and organizations of higher education engaged in online learning.
The award was presented at the 14th Annual International "Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks: Improving Learning in a Networked World" Sloan Consortium Annual Awards Nov. 6 in Orlando.
The award recognized the UWF Academic Technology Center for building an exceptional framework for faculty development and ongoing support allowing for outstanding online instruction benefiting UWF students.
The investments made in online learning are paying real dividends as enrollments continue to soar," said Bruce Chaloux, president of Sloan-C. "Our watchwords of quality, scale and breadth are epitomized by individuals and institutions we honor this year."
To accommodate the growth of online learning, the Academic Technology Center created "Studio e," a professional development process designed to assist faculty in the development and implementation of fully online courses. In "Studio e," faculty design and implement a fully online course with the assistance of faculty experts, instructional designers and multimedia specialists.
The program enables faculty to incorporate engaging online learning strategies, promote student interaction and design and develop frameworks for quality online instruction.
"We are extremely honored to be recipients of this international award," said Pamela Northrup, associate provost at UWF."UWF faculty participating in 'Studio e' are receiving professional development and design support that is evaluated as world class. This is just one more way to look at quality in online learning."
The Sloan Consortium is an institutional and professional leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, helping institutions and individual educators improve the quality, scale and breadth of online education.
Membership in the Sloan Consortium provides knowledge, practice, community and direction for educators. Originally funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sloan-C is now a non-profit, member-sustained organization.
For more information, contact Northrup at (850) 474-3255 or e-mail pnorthru@uwf.edu.