Course Development and Web Services

About Us

Awards

Educause Teaching and Learning Award

The University of Central Florida's online learning initiative has had a transformative effect on teaching and learning at this institution of more than 44,000 students. Beginning with a few online courses in 1996 to increase access opportunities for a specific group of students who were spread across the state, Online@UCF today engages approximately 75 percent of the UCF faculty and tens of thousands of students both on and off campus. Clear teaching and learning objectives, articulated in very specific terms, include:

• maintaining quality educational opportunities for all students,
• responding to changing student demographics,
• increasing access to higher education for students in the UCF service region who require and/or desire the flexibility that online courses provide,
• developing a community of faculty whose goals are to deliver highly interactive, learner-centered, student-engaged, and pedagogically sound online courses.

Today, the initiative encompasses 14 online degree programs and hundreds of hybrid and Web-enhanced courses (over 3,200 online courses overall), and cumulatively generates more than 12 percent of the university's annual student credit hour production. Student registration in online course sections almost always reaches capacity before face-to-face sections, and students rate their online courses as excellent up to 14 percent more often than they do their face-to-face courses.

The success of UCF's online learning initiative is attributable to close alignment with institutional goals, skillful execution, a faculty-centered approach based on a nationally recognized faculty development process, and continuous, rigorous assessment. Online@UCF is producing strategic benefits for UCF because it improves teaching, enhances student learning, expands access to high demand programs, and helps the university manage growth. According to UCF President John Hitt, "The rapid acceptance of online learning and the resulting qualitative outcomes are transforming teaching and learning at the University of Central Florida."

27th Annual Telly Awards- Excellence in Video Production

Level2 Productions Team- Tim Reid, Ryan Seilhamer, and Emely Jimenez

Course Development & Web Services is a proud winner of the 27th Annual Telly Awards for excellence in Video Production. We received a Bronze award for Training in the Film/Video: Internet Online Segments, Programs, or Productions category.

This video, "IT Security at UCF", is the first production that has utilized and benefited from the capabilities of our new media production facility, Level2 Productions @ UCF. This production was a collaboration between Course Development & Web Services and Computer Services & Telecommunications, a fellow unit within the division of Information Technologies & Resources at UCF. Course Development & Web Services and Computer Services & Telecommunications produced the video.

We must extend our thanks to the rest of the teams of Course Development & Web Services who were greatly involved with this project. The Digital Media Team provided production support. Victor Davila designed and produced the illustrated character. The Admin team, the Advanced Systems team, the Digital Media team, the Executive team, the Instructional Design team, the New Media team, the Techrangers, and the Web Strategy team lent people and offices to be photographed for the making of the video.

http://engage.ucf.edu:28158/ramgen/ucf/cst/itsecurity.rm (11/27/06)

WebRevalue Receives Davis Productivity Award

August 2005 - A seven-member team comprised of staff from Computer Services & Telecommunications, the UCF Card Office, and Course Development & Web Services was presented with a Davis Productivity Award plaque on June 15, 2005 for developing a Web-based system that allows students and their families to add value to their smart card UCF ID cards online through a Web interface or a campus kiosk.

Previously, UCF Card users were required to visit the Campus Card Office during regular business hours to replenish their card balances, or utilizecash-to-card machines located around campus. The creation of this self-service application has resulted in improved 24x7 service and convenience.

By sharing the development effort with the vendor, the team realized a savings of over $90,000. An additional $4,500 in labor costs was saved during the pilot rollout between May 2004 and August 2004, and a projected annual labor savings of over $25,000 is expected.

Since the implementation of the project, 31 percent of transactions that were formerly conducted through visits to the UCF Card Office are now being handled through the Internet.

WebRevalue project team members are: Tamara Kidder, David Merrill, Sean Hicks and Christy Mauriell of the UCF Card Office; Aaron Stremish, Harold Miles and Ron Carey of Computer Services; and Wai “Sammy” Chan of Course Development & Web Services.

American Association of Webmasters Gold Award

June 2005 - Both the UCF main site and the Campus Map have been awarded the Gold award from the American Association of Webmasters. The American Association Of Webmasters Awards are primarily designed to supply formal recognition to webmasters and designers who have shown outstanding achievement in Web design, content and creativity.

Davis Productivity Awards

February 2005 - The following employees from Course Development and Web Services' Techranger^SM Team were nominated for their work on development for the TechStream software application: Kitzzy Aviles, Robert McClanahan, and Daniel Paulson. TechStream is an in-house, Web-based software application that streamlines the collection, tracking, and processing of work requests submitted for online Web publishing.

Officer Eric Walton of UCF's police Department and CDWS employee Francisca Yonekura were nominated for their efforts to streamline UCF's blended Field Training Officer (FTO) program and the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) in-service training program. The initiative blended the unique needs of the Police Department with UCF's existing faculty support program in a training program that incorporated online modules, one-on-one field training, mastery learning, and just-in-time assessment. The result allowed officers to spend less time in a classroom and more time on the campus.

Both of these nominations received awards and plaques. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Sloan-C Honors Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning

November 15, 2003 - The award for Excellence in Online Teaching & Learning Faculty Development was given to the University of Central Florida for its Faculty Development Initiative. Approximately 75% of all UCF faculty are engaged in teaching online courses, developing nearly 2,000 online courses, including 9 online degree programs and 6 online graduate certificates, with an annual growth rate of 35%.

The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), an association of more than 450 institutions and organizations of higher education engaged in online learning, presented the 2003 awards at the 9th Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida, November 15, 2003.

Davis Productivity Award for ePay

CDWS developed the ePay system which won a 2003 Davis Productivity Award. The Davis Productivity Awards recognize and reward state government employees whose work significantly and measurably increases productivity and promotes innovation to improve the delivery of state services and save money for Florida taxpayers and businesses. More information about Davis Productivity Awards is available at http://www.floridataxwatch.org. The ePay system is now available through MyUCF.

Virtual Tour

UCF's Virtual Tour, which was launched in fall 2001, was honored by the website CampusTours.com as its October 2001 Featured Virtual Tour and was awarded the CampusTours 4-Star Tour Award. According to the website, "The UCF Virtual Tour is a true marvel of tour technology combining audio, video, animation, interactive panoramas and a slick presentation complete with Ryan, an animated guide to the Central Florida Campus."

2000 Excellence in Distance Learning Program Award - United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA)

Washington DC, March 2000 - Provost Gary Whitehouse received an award on behalf of UCF from the United States Distance Learning Association for excellence in distance learning programming within higher education.

The award recognizes UCF's comprehensive approach to support faculty and students engaged in distance learning.

APQC-SHEEO Faculty Development Award for Teaching with Technology

November 1998 - The University of Central Florida was named as a best practice for faculty development in the use of technology. UCF was one of seven institutions nationally to receive this award along with Virginia Tech, California State University-Center for Distributed Learning, Bellevue Community College , College Boreal, The Air Force's Staff College, and Arthur Andersen. The seven-month benchmarking study was conducted by the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO).

UCF has many support units that contribute to the overall support for faculty use of technology. Course Development & Web Services was cited for its faculty development course for preparing faculty to teach on-line, IDL6543, and the support of Techrangers, who produce web-based course materials in collaboration with faculty.