Flexible Teaching Awards

2024 | 2025 Academic Year

The Office of Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce another year of the Flexible Teaching Awards. We look forward to seeing nominations from a variety of courses.

Award Categories

  • Best Flexible Course Design
  • Best Flexible Course Delivery

2024-2025 Prizes

  • 1st place | $3,000
  • 2nd place | $2,000
  • 3rd place | $1, 000

2024-2025 Dates

  • November 1 – Courses without a quality review need to submit their application to the Online Learning Council (OLC - formerly known as CFLC)
  • November 15 – Courses with a quality review need to submit their application to the OLC
  • January 13, 2025 – OLCs submit nominations to the AAOLC

Submission Process

Note: Faculty may apply for multiple awards unless otherwise directed by their Online Learning Council (OLC). Contact your OLC for more information. 

Best Design

The Best Flexible Course Design award is given to courses that exemplify sound principles of course design. Courses nominated for this award should be detailed in their orientation, varied in their activities and assessments, rigorous, and strongly situated towards student success. Judges will use a rubric to evaluate nominated courses.

What you'll need for a Best Design Application

You’ll need the following before submitting your course for a Best Design award:    

  1. The course needs to receive a quality review. Contact the Flexible Teaching Award point of contact on your Online Learning Council if you are unsure whether your course has received a quality review. Courses in which the review is older than 2023 are not eligible without being reviewed again.   
  2. Select one module from the course that you consider exemplary.   
  3. Complete the application. (The application will need to be downloaded as a Word document.)
  4. Submit your application to your school/college Online Learning Council (See below for the representative for your school/college)

Online Learning Council Representatives

Contact your Flexible Teaching Awards representative for more information:

  • College of Engineering and Technology | Jack Troutt
  • College of Health and Public Services | Meagan McKell
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences | Shannon Rogers
  • College of Science | Dustin Shipp and Jason Slack
  • School of Art | Jim Godfrey
  • School of Education | Nicole Gearing
  • Woodbury School of Business | Ben Cummings

Best Delivery

The Best Flexible Course Delivery award is given to instructors who demonstrate engaged learning within their online course. In contrast to the Best Design award, which is given based on how the course is structured, the Best Delivery award is given based on what instructors do to support their students within an online course. Instructors submitting applications for Best Delivery should be able to explain how they are present within their course in multiple ways with demonstrated impact. 

What you'll need for a Best Delivery Application

For a Best Delivery application you will need to be prepared to present on the delivery of your course. Therefore, you’ll need the following:    

  1. Create a video presentation based on the provided template. Video presentations must be less than 10 minutes. You may use whatever video platform you would like (e.g. YouTube, or Kaltura) but you will need to provide a link to your school/college Online Learning Council. 

  2. Within the provided template, you will have two options: 

    1. Discuss a teaching challenge and the corresponding solution.
    2. Survey students using the provided survey. Instructions on how to use the survey in your course. 
  3. Submit your application to your school/college Online Learning Council (See below for the representative for your school/college)

Online Learning Council Representatives

Contact your Flexible Teaching Awards representative for more information:

  • College of Engineering and Technology | Jack Troutt
  • College of Health and Public Services | Meagan McKell
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences | Shannon Rogers
  • College of Science | Dustin Shipp and Jason Slack
  • School of Art | Jim Godfrey
  • School of Education | Nicole Gearing
  • Woodbury School of Business | Ben Cummings

Other Submission Rules

  1. Faculty may apply for both categories of awards. 
  2. Courses have been quality reviewed no earlier than 2023. 
  3. Courses or faculty may not be nominated if they have won for the same category within the last five years. 
  4. Faculty apply for Best Delivery do not need to be the same person who designed the course. 
  5. The following scheduling types are considered ‘Flexible:’ 
    1. FLS = Face-to-Face + Livestream 
    2. FFO = Face-to-Face + Online 
    3. LS = Livestream 
    4. LSO = LS + Online 
    5. V = Live Interactive 
    6. W = Online 
  6. Other rules will be provided by the school/college Online Learning Council. 

Questions?

Contact your Flexible Teaching Awards representative for more information:

  • College of Engineering and Technology | Jack Troutt
  • College of Health and Public Services | Meagan McKell
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences | Shannon Rogers
  • College of Science | Dustin Shipp and Jason Slack
  • School of Art | Jim Godfrey
  • School of Education | Nicole Gearing
  • Woodbury School of Business | Ben Cummings

Past Winners

View Previous Flexible Teaching Award Winners