Apollo Club - Creating A Faculty Learning Community
Research indicates that much of how faculty learn to teach online and improve their online courses occurs through interaction with other faculty. The purpose of the Apollo Club is to promote faculty discussions about online teaching and to create a community of online faculty who share experiences with one another at UWG. The Apollo Club is free and open to all UWG faculty and staff interested in using distance technologies to enhance or deliver quality education. The club's name comes from the Greek god Apollo, who by one definition was "strongest when at a distance."
Apollo Luncheons / PresentationsMembers received a personal invitation to the free luncheons which are held monthly except during the Summer term. At these informal and fun luncheons, door prizes are awarded and a faculty member delivers a short presentation on a tool or teaching strategy that has worked particularly well in their online class environment. Non-members may attend by keeping an eye out on the faculty training calendar at http://www.westga.edu/~training |
Apollo Club ListservThe Apollo Club listserv provides a way in which faculty can openly discuss their questions about online learning, their success and their struggles. DDEC staff may provide occasional input as well as offer contest and prizes for participating. Substantial participation (25 posts or more from August through May) also counts toward the criteria for earning an Apollo Award. |
Apollo AwardsEach Spring the DDEC recognizes UWG faculty who have excelled in distance teaching and mentoring of fellow online faculty. Go here to see a list of the criteria, including two teaching distance courses with at least one meeting the Five-Star Standards, assisting with workshops, and participating in the listserv. |
- 2007 March Mardi-Gras Madness - Dr. Bridgett Gunnels demonstrated how she uses our live synchronous tool called Wimba's Live Classroom, to teach a completely online Spanish class.
- 2007 Amazing Online Teachers Receive Apollo Award - Dr. Barbara McKenzie, Chair and Professor of Media and Instructional Technology; Dr. Brad Prince, Professor of Management; Dr. Allison Nazzal, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction; and Dr. Janet Goodman, Assistant Professor of Special Education and Speech Pathology.
- 2007 Chase Away the Blues Luncheon - Dr. Elizabeth Bennett demonstrated the use of Pando in her online video production class. The tool makes sharing of files as large as 1GB more than ten times faster than uploading/downloading from the web.
- 2006 December Faculty Holi-Dazed by the Possibilities - Dr Prince shared his success using the software called Camtasia to capture movies and narrated presentations from his desktop to share with students online.
- 2006 October Faculty Learn Valuable Tips Over Spooktacular Lunch - Darlene Owens demonstrated how she uses pen-based electronic grading, audio, and video screen capture to provide feedback to her MIT students.