By Angela Glascock, Hutchinson Community College

Each year, Colleague 2 Colleague awards three outstanding individuals in the categories of Innovation in Teaching, Outstanding Technical Support Staff, and the Jonathan Bacon Leadership Award. The winners this year are Debra Erikson, Phyllis Epps, and Greg Rose.

Debra Erikson, winner of the Innovation in Teaching Award, is a Biology Instructor for Allen Community College. She has the spirit to inspire her students in both face-to-face and online classes and ensure she meets the needs of a variety of learning styles through her choice of activities and tools. As an example, she integrates Facebook into her courses to add connections and sense of community for students as well as encourage engagement in learning.

As the Manager for Tech Training and Instructional Support at Kansas State University, Phyllis Epps has worked with hundreds of K-State faculty, staff, and students. According to her nomination, “exploration and innovation are Phyllis’s daily mantra,” and this statement is just a small part of why she won the award for Outstanding Technical Support Staff. Not only is Phyllis adept at using technology, she is also a careful listener who works to understand what each person needs and then recommends the solution that best fits the situation.

The winner of The Jonathan Bacon Leadership Award is Greg Rose, Director of Operations for Park University. He is someone who has “pushed the envelope” at any level in support of instructional technology. One example of his innovation is a visual mapping for online course design which clearly shows the relationship between learning activities and outcomes. This tool uses a cloud-based Web 2.0 tool for all involved parties to easily collaborate from any location.

​For 2012-2013, the Awards Committee modified the process for selection slightly by adding a level of anonymity to the judging. The committee sent out a call for nominations. As nominations came in, each was assigned a code and the names were removed from the forms. Then, the category nominations went to three separate panels of outside judges. These judges used a rubric to score the nomination information and returned the results to the committee where the scores were aggregated and a winner was declared based on the highest rubric score. The names were then re-associated with the nominations and the winners notified.

​Our thanks go to everyone who nominated colleagues for these awards. Look for a few updates to our process for the coming year. And be thinking of worthy people to nominate for the 2013-2014 awards!

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