Pedagogy Toolkit Podcast Team Wins Global Campus Innovation Award

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The Global Campus presented its Lightbulb Award to five members of the Instructional Design and Support Services team for their outstanding work on creating the Pedagogy Toolkit podcast. This group of talented instructional designers created the podcast to inform and support online instructors.

The team received the award from Cheryl Murphy, vice provost for distance education at the U of A, at an April staff meeting.

"When we make space for creativity, great things happen," Murphy said. "They are scripting, recording and editing several episodes that will run biweekly and will soon be available on most favorite podcast syndication hubs. I recently got a sneak peek (listen) to one of the first ones, and it was terrific!"

All topics will revolve around and support the art or science of teaching, the function and work of a teacher, and instructional methods used in instruction — in other words, pedagogy. They can be found on the Pedagogy Toolkit podcast website and viewed using multiple podcast and listening platforms.

The intent of the podcasts is to build a community of online instructors. It will provide faculty and instructors with a wide range of resources to aid in their online instruction. Podcasts will discuss diverse trends in education, best practices, learning theory, clarify the science behind teaching and explain why pedagogy matters in higher education. A variety of voices and cohosts — subject matter experts such as authors, technical experts and educators — will guide the discussion. As the podcasts gain traction, the podcasters intend to interview instructors who have benefited from the podcast.

In effect, anyone who wants to improve their online instruction can listen to what is being implemented at Global Campus and learn how to make it work in their own individual context.

The team to receive the award consists of five instructional designers — Charini Urteaga, Camie Wood, Amalie Holland, James E. Martin and Alex Dowell.

Ken Muessig, instructional design manager and immediate supervisor for the team, applauded their hard work.

"This recognition is well deserved," Muessig said. "The idea for this podcast sparked something in this group, and they took the initiative to make it happen. This podcast is another one of the ways that our team helps to inform and support all the instructors who teach online for the University of Arkansas. Even though the podcast is targeted to our campus, a lot of the information and conversation is universal to higher education. I'm excited to see how far this will reach."

Dowell began his career at the U of A as an admissions counselor, becoming an assistant director of new student orientation and recruitment in 2021. After completing a master's degree, he joined Global Campus in February 2023. Dowell's typical duties include project management on for-credit online courses, design and review of courses on Blackboard, and collaboration with faculty and instructors to help them engage well when teaching online. For the podcast, Dowell assists in researching, writing and editing episodes and serves as co-host.

Holland came to the U of A in 2003 as an associate editor in agri communications and served as the director of the Center for World Languages until 2016. She left to work in K-12 education and curriculum for several years, then returned to the university in December 2022, joining Global Campus. She assists in planning and hosting the podcast and serves as a content contributor for individual episodes.

Martin first worked for the U of A in the early 2000s and has been with Global Campus since December 2021. He works with faculty, primarily in the College of Education and Health Professions, building online classes. Martin collaborates on planning episodes, helps with technological aspects of podcast publishing, co-manages the distribution and direction of the podcast, and composed the theme music.

Wood started at the university in 2019 as a graduate assistant and doctoral student. During spring 2022, in the course of her work as a GA, Wood partnered with Global Campus to develop a course for graduate students. She joined Global Campus in July 2022. Her typical job duties include facilitating course rebuilds and the development of new courses, instructor training, course evaluation, data analysis and presentation, and project management. For the podcast, Wood serves as a creative director, producer and host. In partnership with Urteaga, Wood conceived and developed the podcast idea. Wood also oversees the overall branding, vision and direction of the podcast.

Urteaga joined Global Campus in 2015 as an academic technologist on the Learning Technology Support Team. After completing a master's degree in educational technology and gaining experience with instructional design and pedagogy, she accepted an open position on the instructional design team. Urteaga's typical duties include consulting with faculty and subject matter experts regarding ongoing course development, evaluation and revision. She also reviews and advises on course and program alignment and helps to ensure quality in all the online courses. Urteaga was one of the podcast originators and assisted in its evolution. She has since stepped back due to an increased project load, but she is happy that other IDs are keeping the idea and the podcast moving forward.

The Pedagogy Toolkit podcast team expressed gratitude to the Marketing and Communications team at Global Campus for their help to make on-campus connections, see what the U of A is currently doing with other podcasts and learn the university's guiding policies regarding representing the U of A in a podcast. They also thanked Brysen Taylor from the media team for his help to create an image that follows the U of A guidelines for visual presentation.

Global Campus instituted the Lightbulb Award to honor staff members for outstanding innovation that goes above and beyond their routine job responsibilities. This award is open to appointed and hourly staff who work for Global Campus.

Global Campus supports U of A colleges and schools in the development and delivery of online, distance and workforce education programs and courses. It provides instructional design services, technology services and assistance with marketing, recruiting and strategic academic development.

Global Campus also supports the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students studying in online degree programs.