Hopkinsville Community College’s Instructional Designer Julia Laffoon-Jackson was recognized by her peers with the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Award.
College officials said the award recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges, and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning. Laffoon-Jackson is Chair of HCC’s Liberal Arts / Social Sciences Division and an English Professor. She’s been with the college since 2007.
“I am grateful to Hopkinsville Community College for the numerous opportunities it provides faculty to grow professionally and to the leaders of the KCTCS Optimizing Online Learning (KOOL) Academy who encouraged me throughout this journey of transforming my online course from good to great,” Laffoon-Jackson stated.
Professor Laffoon-Jackson was selected as a winner for her Writing I course.
“Online teaching, just like online learning, is much more difficult to do well than on-ground teaching. The fact that our learning management system has awarded its highest ranking to my English 101 course is recognition of the many months of planning, creating, developing, and revising that I put into making this course an excellent online learning experience for my students,” she explained.
The course demonstrated excellence in four areas:
Course Design: The elements of instructional design, such as its structure, learning objectives, and instructional strategies.
Interaction and Collaboration: The level of engagement offered by the course and the level of student interaction and collaboration.
Assessment: The evaluation of student work toward the achievement of learning outcomes and the quality and type of student assessments.
Learner Support: The resources made available to students, which may be accessible within or external to the course environment.
For nearly two decades, the ECP has honored instructors and course designers whose courses demonstrate best practices. Since its founding, thousands of instructors, teachers, and designers have used the ECP to evaluate and improve their courses with recognized best practices. To be considered for the honor, applicants must be a user of the Blackboard Learn learning management system. Submitted courses are evaluated by other course developers, instructional designers, teachers, and professors using the ECP Rubric.