Sinclair Community College’s motto, “Find the need and endeavor to meet it,” mirrors the intentions of the Innovation of the Year Award, and inspired Shan Huang, Vandana Rola and Marigrace Ryan, who won the award for pioneering online astronomy and biology labs.
The online module model started in 2006 but took a year of research before it made its official launch as an online class in 2007. Huang, who was teaching a face-to-face astronomy lab at the time, used her students to test out the lab.
“The preconception was that the lab has to be hands on,” said Huang, “We needed it to mirror the face-to-face experience.”
With Physics Department Chair Art Ross and Distance Learning Dean Nancy Thibeault helping her along the way, Huang wrote a proposal for the funding and year of research. After the year of research, they discovered that an online astronomy lab was attainable, and the college started development work.
After the development of the online astronomy lab and at the request of health information management, an anatomy and physiology online lab came into development. Ryan, who has been a college biology professor for 25 years, was asked to help with the development.
“I had to put myself in the position of an online student to understand how it should be delivered,” said Ryan.
The development was started in spring of 2008 and the course was offered later that year in the fall. The second sequence of the course was offered later in winter of 2009. Ryan said that the course looks into the functions of the body; students are able to look through the microscope and perform different experiments and dissections.
“After development and putting it online, we put it into course enhancements for face-to-face students. They think it’s great. They really like it. It’s a benefit I didn’t realize would happen,” said Ryan.
Since offering the courses online, enrollment has grown.
“We have such a strong support system,” said Ryan. “Distant learning is fantastic.”
After already receiving the nationally recognized 2011 Bellwether Award, Ryan said it was nice to be recognized at home.
“The success rate for the online courses is at 70 percent, while face-to-face success rates are at 75 percent, which is much better than the average 65 percent,” said Rola.
Rola said that the courses are important for the students who live a significant distance from the campus, or those whom are too busy to make it to campus at a certain time.
Upon receiving the notification through an email that they had won the award at the beginning of April, Rola said she was very happy. She said that it was a team effort, and that their hard work paid off. Rola also said that winning the award offers encouragement to do better.
“I was carrying a silly smile for two days after that. I was very glad our effort was recognized,” said Huang.
“I was surprised because we had been working for five years. None of us thought to nominate it for the innovation award. Part of that was because it was such an overwhelming project,” said Ryan.
For now, they are in the process of developing online physics labs.
“We’re a country of innovation,” said Huang, “The award has been there since I came to Sinclair. Their goal is to encourage and honor people with success in their projects, and encourage people to work toward it.”