2023 Ecampus awards celebrate excellence
May 10, 2023
The Oregon State University Ecampus Awards recognize Oregon State faculty and staff partners who have made significant contributions to creating meaningful and innovative online learning environments for Ecampus students. This year’s awardees are outstanding in their respective fields. Each embodies a fierce commitment to innovation that has helped make Oregon State a national leader in online education.
Ecampus partners with nearly 1,200 OSU faculty members each year to continue pioneering world-class learning at a distance. Through their hard work, these faculty and staff members help the Ecampus experience move beyond the expected and into the realm of the exceptional. Whether providing outstanding student support or creating revolutionary courses, the efforts of our Ecampus partners facilitate superior online education across the world.
Please join us in celebrating the six recipients of the 2023 Ecampus Awards for their superlative commitment to excellence, student success and quality online education.
Ecampus Innovation Award
Todd Kesterson, College of Liberal Arts
The Ecampus Innovation Award recognizes innovation in online courses in the areas of design, pedagogy, and media development.
Todd Kesterson, College of Liberal Arts
This year’s Ecampus Innovation Award recipient is Todd Kesterson, who teaches New Media Visualization in the College of Liberal Arts. Kesterson was recognized for his innovative use of virtual reality technologies in his NMC 351 course. The technology is used to explore a wide variety of social and scientific topics. Through extended reality experiences and future-oriented discussions, Kesterson’s students have the opportunity to explore and create with emerging toolsets.
Ecampus Appreciation Award
Lynn Greenough, Learn@OSU
The Ecampus Appreciation Awards recognize outstanding campus partners who have worked with Ecampus to make a substantial, positive impact on online programs and students. This year, Ecampus recognizes two colleagues for their contributions.
Lynn Greenough, University Information Technology
The first Ecampus Appreciation Award recipient is Lynn Greenough, Associate Director of Learn@OSU with University Information Technology. She’s honored for her role in forging and continually furthering the strong partnership between Ecampus and UIT-Academic Technologies. Greenough has been a critical partner in implementing critical technologies and features that Ecampus students and faculty need to thrive.
Noah Buckley, Office of Admissions
Noah Buckley, Office of Admissions
Our second Ecampus Appreciation Award recipient is Noah Buckley in the Office of Admissions. He receives this award for his work with initiatives that support admissions for a growing number of undergraduate Ecampus students. Through his leadership, Buckley has helped build a strong relationship between admissions and Ecampus student-facing teams that ultimately helps serve both prospective and current Ecampus students.
Ecampus Excellence in Online Teaching and Student Engagement Award
The Ecampus Excellence in Online Teaching and Student Engagement Awards recognize faculty members who exemplify excellence in online teaching and student engagement, as determined by current online student nominations.
This year, we received nearly 300 nomination submissions from students for more than 160 faculty members for this award. We reviewed exemplary nominations for these dozens of instructors, but this year’s awardees stood out for both the volume and contents their of nominations.
Blake Hausman, College of Liberal Arts
Marc Curtis, College of Agricultural Sciences
Doug Reese, College of Agricultural Sciences
The 2023 Ecampus Excellence in Online Teaching and Student Engagement awards go to: Blake Hausman in the College of Liberal Arts and Marc Curtis and Doug Reese in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Blake Hausman, College of Liberal Arts
Blake Hausman was nominated for creating courses that are both inviting, encouraging and sensitive toward emotionally challenging content. Students say that they so love Blake’s course materials that they actively seek out subsequent courses with him.
One student nomination said, quote, “He showed that he genuinely cared about his students and seemed to enjoy the variety of viewpoints, even if they differed from his.”
Marc Curtis, College of Agricultural Sciences
Marc Curtis was nominated for his patience, candor and encouragement with students, no matter their experience level coming into his courses.
Marc’s care for his students is best demonstrated in a personal story from one of his students, who wrote, quote, “I told him I am working on a grant for the Springwater Corridor, and he drove out to Portland to see it. He simply came to witness what I wanted to do with no real reason other than to help develop a student. I can’t imagine any instructor caring more than that.”
Doug Reese, College of Agricultural Sciences
Students nominated Doug Reese for his commitment to building personal connections with his students that empower them to succeed.
One student said, quote, “Dr. Reese goes above and beyond to help students. He has taught and helped me more than any professor I have had in my long educational career. His teaching methods are fair, inclusive and fun.”
2023 Quality Matters honorees
In addition to the Ecampus Award recipients, we’d like to acknowledge Oregon State faculty members whose Ecampus courses were recently certified or recertified by Quality Matters. QM is the highest measure of success for online course design, and we’re proud to recognize these instructors who have gone above and beyond to ensure excellence in their online classes.
- Tim Alcon, College of Engineering, CS 161
- Margaret O’Hara, College of Education, COUN 431
- Kimberly Japhet, College of Agricultural Sciences, SOIL 395
- Danielle Safonte, College of Engineering, CS 391
- Rachel Orben, College of Agricultural Sciences, FW 331
QM focuses on the design of online and hybrid classes, as opposed to the delivery or content of the courses.
Congratulations to all who received the 2023 Ecampus Awards, and thank you to the faculty and staff who work with Oregon State Ecampus to deliver superior education to students across the globe.
Discover how Oregon State faculty members develop award-winning online learning experiences. Connect with expert Ecampus staff to explore how you can take your online courses from ordinary to extraordinary.
