The following courses were selected as winners in the inaugural ANGEL Course Contest, in which students nominated courses they felt included effective uses of Penn State's Course Management System, ANGEL. Head instructors are listed for each course.
Best Overall Use of ANGEL, EGEE 101:
Energy and the Environment (Spring 2004), University Park, Jonathan P. Mathews
Best Large Enrollment BI SC 004:
Human Body Form and Function (Spring 2004). University Park, Michael B. Troyan
Best Completely Online Course, METEO 101:
Understanding Weather Forecasting (Spring 2004), University Park, Lee M. Grenci, David M. Babb
Best Science EGEE 102:
Energy Conservation for Environmental Protection (Spring 2004), University Park, Sarma V. Pisupati
Best Humanities ART 001:
Introduction to the Visual Arts (Fall 2003), University Park, David M. Ebitz
Best Professional Skills ACCTG 211:
Financial and Managerial Accounting (Spring 2004), University Park, Kenneth W. Pasch
Best Language Course SPAN 003:
Intermediate Spanish (Spring 2004), DuBois, Deborah J. Gill
Best Lower Level O T 202:
Occupational Therapy for Developmental Disabilities (Fall 2003), DuBois, Margaret Pendzick
Best Upper Level SPLED 400:
Teaching Exceptional Students in General Education Settings (Fall 2003), University Park, James K. McAfee
Best Graduate Seminar INSYS 527:
Designing Constructivist Learning Environments (Spring 2004), Great Valley, Amy S. Ackerman
Best Solo Instructor Developed PSY 002:
Introduction to Psychology (Spring 2004), University Park, Jeff M. Love.
In order to receive student input on the effectiveness of ANGEL in their courses, Education Technology Services (ETS), part of Information Technology Services, asked students to submit nominations for courses that used the ANGEL tools effectively to improve their learning in the course. Marilynne Stout, director of ETS, noted, "This contest was a way for us to find out from the students what types of ANGEL tools are working for them; after all, the students are the main stakeholders."
Over seventy courses were nominated, from almost every Penn State campus. The final judging panel, which consisted of instructional designers who have worked with multiple instructors to place course content into ANGEL, examined the nominated courses and selected as winners those courses which used a variety of tools to maximize the impact of ANGEL to improve student learning.
The winner of the Best Overall Course award, EGEE 101 Energy and the Environment used a combination of weekly quizzes, discussion boards, drop boxes, posted lecture material, multimedia files, and a detailed syllabus and calendar. Ten students nominated this course, with the following comments:
"Dr. Mathews used audio files and videos to go with the 'lecture' material online. This allowed him to really SHOW the class what he was talking about, as well as allow the students develop a relationship with the professor they only see twice a year."
"The content was in a very user-friendly format. The downloads and audio files were quite informative. The online quizzes and tests were very convenient and offered quick feedback."
"Every tool used by the instructor is vital. No single tool can be considered the most useful. They work together to create and foster an ANGEL learning environment unlike any other class I have taken before."
Other winning courses used a similar range of tools, including surveys, external links, embedded multimedia and Flash, drop boxes, detailed announcements and calendars, and extensive use of discussion boards. Dr. Stout concluded, "We found an innovative use of an ANGEL tool in each of the nominated courses."
Although prizes were awarded in categories by discipline and course type, the contest committee also included a prize for "Best Solo Instructor Developed" for courses which did not include technically complex media or pages. Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, noted, "Courses like BI SC 4 are incredible, but not all instructors have access to the technical skills or the multimedia staff to develop a course that technically complex. We wanted to show that ANGEL can be used in an exemplary fashion even if an instructor did not have access to these resources."
In order to share the ideas with the Penn State community, ETS will develop a showcase this summer which will be open to Penn State instructors. Instructors or department heads who wish to review student comments about their courses can contact L-WEBFAIR@LISTS.PSU.EDU. ETS congratulates the instructors of all the nominated courses for their efforts.