Faculty News

Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award

Dr. Aileen Huang-Saad has been awarded the first place prize for the first Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award for her course "Biomedical Engineering Graduate Innovative Design." Sponsored by IBM Corporation with additional support from the Sakai Foundation, this award was designed to promote faculty best practices and innovation in using Sakai for teaching and learning. Although there are many ways in which technology can make the teaching process more efficient or productive, innovative applications of both pedagogy and technology can truly transform the educational experience. The intent of this award is to highlight examples of educational applications of Sakai, which fall into this innovative or transformative category.

The panel of judges, consisting of Dr. Paul Elsner, Dr. Karen Swan, and Dr. Ken Bain, reviewed the finalists' applications and participated in a course demonstration and interview via live web conference. The judges were very enthusiastic about Dr. Huang-Saad's course, with Dr. Swan noting that her course was "a really innovative course that fosters collaboration and uses real work problems." Dr. Bain stated that it provided the ability to "visualize and utilize a team enhanced environment", and Dr. Elsner declared that the course "was very adaptive and self-organizing."

Dr. Huang-Saad will be awarded travel expenses to attend the Sakai Conference in Paris, France on July 2. She will be a featured presenter during the conference. Congratulations to Dr. Huang-Saad!

Posted on June 9, 2008, 9:11 am