When I first heard that the Educational Research and Development Committee (ER&D) has decided to award the Apgar teaching award to Library and Technology Committee (LTS) and Strategic Growth Initiative (SGI), I could not contain my excitement. This to me is an unprecedented move, given the description of the award:

Teaching Awards

Apgar Award

Endowed by Anne Nelson Apgar ’70, the prize is meant to recognize a faculty member who motivates students’ interest, curiosity, and love of learning; proposes and applies new teaching concepts and methods; and serves as a mentor to stimulate students’ intellectual development. Based upon proposals for new and experimental courses, Educational Research and Development Committee ER&D selects a winner, who receives a plaque.

When the College decided to go all remote in March 2020, we needed to quickly turn our attention to how best to support the students and faculty. Thankfully, because of the spring break, we had two weeks to do this. What we did during that short period of time and thereafter was simply remarkable. But most importantly, the strong collaboration and coordination between LTS, PLTC (The Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center) and SGI was critical. Above all, the willingness on the part of the faculty to participate actively in workshops and other venues in numbers that we just could not believe was also critical.

Our staff conducted record number of information sessions/workshops (attended by over 250 faculty members), held virtual office hours and responding to tickets as quickly as possible. After some initial issues, things began to come together. Did we have continuing issues? Absolutely, but if they are things related to what we can do, we resolved them quick. But there were other complications totally outside our domain resulting from the weight of the crisis that we could not do much about.

We had a bit more time to help the faculty plan for the Fall and it was equally successful. It was so great to hear from the faculty about lessons learned as well as some of the best practices emerging from the presentations. We heard how this medium is turning out to be more inclusive – that the directed chat between the student and instructor is making some students participate more than in a traditional classroom where they may not be participating the same way.

And finally, we decided to receive the award on behalf of the entire organization because every one of the staff member contributed to the success in one way or the other. PLTC leadership deserves a huge praise because we simply could not have reached out to the faculty as effectively as we did without Professor Oscar Fernandez.

This is just an incredible and generous gesture on the part of the faculty. My staff and I are so thankful for this.