Two programs in the College of Education have received a national award from the American Camp Association. The programs are interdepartmental collaborations that resulted in several online training programs for youth development professionals.
The recreation and leisure studies program design and technology program in the department of educational psychology and instructional technology are joint recipients of the ACA’s Special Recognition Award.
The project produced five of the seven online courses currently available on the ACA’s e-Institute (www.acacamps.org/einstitute/).
Master’s students in instructional design and development, with support from the ACA’s National Staff Education Team, transformed education materials into the online, interactive courses. The courses were field tested by undergraduate students in recreation and leisure studies. That feedback was synthesized to create a final product for the ACA.
“Our students seek service-learning clients who have instructional content but need technology and design expertise to bring that content to life,” said Lloyd Rieber, a professor in instructional technology. “They get a far richer experience knowing that the projects they are working on focus on real problems or opportunities.”
Gwynn Powell, associate professor in recreation and leisure studies, agreed.
“The combination of professional camp background and technical design skills has resulted in a collaboration that benefits everyone. Students and faculty appreciate that their work is going to be used by real people in the real world,” she said.
Additional education college faculty members involved in the project included Ikseon Choi, Greg Clinton, Michael Orey and Tom Reeves, all from the LDT program. Student project group members included Myra Blackmon, Radcliffe Campbell, Roman Gaddis, Tina Harkness, Eddie Hutchinson, Lucas Jensen, Hsing-Mei Kung, Suhwa Lee, Jennifer Lortz, Taylor Mason, Erin Noh, Melinda Pethel, Trudian Trail, Kim Rodriguez and Paul Schlag.