Established in 2021 by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, the Excellence in Online Teaching Award recognizes faculty who excel in online teaching by utilizing best practices for online course delivery.
The recipients of this year’s Excellence in Online Teaching Awards will be recognized during the 2023 Faculty Awards Ceremony on Thursday, April 20 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Altgeld Hall Auditorium.
Kate Cady
A perceived barrier in online courses is that for all the evolving technology that brings students and professors together, there can be difficulty in having meaningful, engaging conversations in a virtual setting.
Students and colleagues of Kate Cady, professor in the communications department at NIU, believe that barrier does not exist in her courses.
Carolyn Clarke, a former president of the communications graduate student advisory council said that Cady’s online courses create a compelling arena for discussion. “She consistently put in the effort to bring a kindness and calmness to her classroom environment, making class feel safe. It’s harder to do in an online environment because verbal cues and norms cannot be relied upon. She was able to get students to engage with each other and her. This atmosphere was conducive to student performance. I can say personally that my success in the course was influenced by the high amount of engagement I had during the class periods.”
A fellow student in that course (COMS 640 Seminar in Gender and Communication) submitted the following comment. “Dr. Cady fosters an environment in her class that lets everyone feel at ease. After coming from a long, stressful day, she makes class time to not only have interesting conversations, but also talk amongst friends. I personally came out feeling like I can take on the world because she gives me perspective that makes me believe I can.”
Betty H. LaFrance, a fellow professor of communications, said that Cady’s students have praise for both the design and the content of her courses.
“She creates an educational environment which provides students with an exceptional and profoundly interactive online learning experience,” said LaFrance. “Students explicitly note that although the course material they encounter is challenging, novel and uncomfortable, Professor Cady approaches course-related work, especially class discussions, with respect, compassion and intellectual rigor.”
LaFrance also notes that Cady’s success in building compelling online courses is something she is more than happy to share with other faculty.
“She is an exemplar who we consult, and do so regularly, for advice regarding her approach to online instruction. She is patient, understanding, and uses humor to help convey information about best practices in pedagogy including teaching in a mediated environment.”
Lynn Dykstra
Lynn Dykstra makes connections with her students. For the Excellence in Online Teaching Award winner, it’s all about building relationships and engaging with Huskies beyond a virtual environment.
“It’s about the students,” said Dykstra, an instructor at NIU School of Nursing. “I try to connect with each student and there are ways to successfully do that with online students.”
One way she builds relationships is through office hours which students are encouraged to attend.
“It’s a meaningful way to engage with Professor Dykstra,” said a nursing student. “It became apparent that this was not just a requirement to fulfill, but it was a sincere way to engage all of us in thoughtful dialogue and build rapport.”
Dykstra began her career as a nurse more than 40 years ago and joined NIU School of Nursing as instructor a decade ago. She exemplifies a commitment to excellence in online teaching, course development and student engagement, and works consistently to meet those objectives.
“Based on my 14 years teaching secondary education and 10 years designing courses in higher education,I have found Lynn to be one of the most professional, dedicated, and compassionate educators,” said Rob Piercy, senior instructional designer, NIU Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. “She has taken her well-developed nursing skills and successfully implemented them into teaching, benefitting all her students by modeling humane professionalism and creating quality and rigorous online courses.”
Students laud her for her communication skills, being accessible, and for being “a nurse who has a wealth of knowledge and is a great resource.”
“Lynn Dykstra is the kind of nurse I strive to be, a direct personification of compassionate care, a conduit of healing and a facilitator of human connection,” said student Mallory Enders. “She is so much more than the accomplished components of a teaching excellence rubric; rather, she exemplifies caring as the essence of the nursing profession.”
Dykstra’s courses are rigorous and reflect relevant current practice. She is heralded for incorporating multiple methods of instruction and “basing assignments on students’ individual experiences, as many of them are practicing nurses.”
Students said steady feedback and frequent check-ins make it easy to become engaged in an online environment.
“The curriculum was personalized and relevant and presented in a way to pique interest and challenge existing viewpoints,” Enders said. “Healthy debates were fostered in the discussion boards, compelling students to evaluate their own nursing practice and the importance of leadership roles in the provision ofcare. Lynn’s active participation in all aspects of the course exemplified the level of engagement expected from all.”
Combined with being “innovative, kind, caring and fair,” Dykstra’s methods are a prescription for student success.
“For the past 10 years, Lynn has demonstrated exemplary effort to bring best practices to her courses while cultivating a personal connection with her students,” said Kari Hickey, acting chair, NIU School of Nursing. “She is dedicated to the nursing profession and her students, and consistently works to improve her skills as an online instructor.”
In turn, she is a valuable member of the College and Health and Human Sciences team.
“Lynn is great support to her fellow instructors and colleagues,” said Dean Beverly Henry. “We can count on Lynn to share her support and teaching tips with others.”
Donna Werderich
When Donna Werderich became a teacher in 1993, she consciously made that profession her identity.
Even her vanity license plate – POPQUIZ – and her personal email address with the same seven letters have manifested that since the beginning, and she’s still happy to answer “Yes!” when strangers ask if she’s an educator.
But her work with the NIU Department of Curriculum and Instruction faculty has given her more labels.
Kind. Caring. Available. Dedicated. Inspirational. Rigorous. Genuine. Champion. Mentor. Builder.
“Donna is the ‘heart and soul’ of the Middle Level Teaching and Learning program, which spans the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” says Laurie Elish-Piper, dean of the College of Education.
“She led the development of the program from the ground up, and she continues to work with faculty in the program to ensure their courses and rich, relevant and engaging for future middle school teachers,” Elish-Piper adds. “Her passion for teaching, and her commitment to students, are evident in all she does.”
Middle school is not where Werderich’s career began – her first job after graduation from Concordia University, where she earned a B.A. in Elementary Education, was teaching kindergarten in suburban Norridge – but middle school is where she has made her mark in language arts classrooms and later in preparing Huskies to follow in her footsteps.
And now, more than two decades into her NIU career, Werderich has added two more titles in the same year: Presidential Teaching Professor and recipient of an NIU Excellence in Online Teaching Award.
Werderich came to NIU to make what she calls “a ripple effect” through preparing teachers who will go on to impact countless children.
In doing so, she strives to foster an inclusive academic environment with the goal of knowing her students as individuals, learners and colleagues. She hopes to serve as a role model, providing opportunities for engaged and meaningful learning inside and outside of her classroom.
Current and former students appreciate that.
Kristen L. Walsh, a doctoral candidate and adjunct professor, says Werderich “exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding classroom teacher.”
“She establishes a positive classroom environment and teaches the necessary skills to voice, listen to and deeply understand each other’s points of view,” Walsh says. “She consistently encourages her students to consider how their viewpoints and opinions link back to the evidence and theories presented in course readings.”
Jan Solano, who earned her B.S.Ed. in Middle Level Teaching and Learning in 2020, is “eternally grateful” for Werderich.
“My most valuable experience from my time at NIU was through Project CUP (Clinical Urban Plunge), during which Donna mentored and guided me,” Solano says.
“My eyes were opened to the uncomfortable but powerful truth of the home lives of families and children who suffer from the effects of trauma and how harmful experiences manifest in behaviors and interactions seen in the classroom,” she adds. “There was much to unload, and not only did Donna help introduce me to methods to dissect, organize and synthesize the hundreds of notes taken on the experience, but she also helped me to process the heavy emotions I was feeling.”
Elementary Education major Tina Grimmer felt honored to take Werderich’s LTLA 341: Teaching Language Arts in Elementary School course.
“She applied rigorous standards to student performance and utilized discussion boards, peer conferencing, breakout rooms during synchronous sessions and an Author’s House to encourage peer collaboration,” Grimmer says. “She demonstrates respect for her students in the same way she expects it to be returned. NIU needs more professors who take the time to get to know their students and push them to succeed, especially in the world of online education.”
It was that LTLA 341 course that earned Werderich the NIU Certificate of Excellence in Online Teaching and the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program award in 2022, setting the stage for this spring’s Excellence in Online Teaching Award.
Werderich continued to deliver the course in a hybrid format after the pandemic to demonstrate to her future teachers a format that promotes differentiation and flexibility with models for various modalities of teaching and learning that align with state standards on integrating technology into the instruction of writing.
Student evaluations applaud “ample opportunities to try new things,” discussion questions that “really got me thinking as I observed my mentor teacher the following day,” a “multimedia memoir project (that) was a fun and engaging way of assessing our learning” and a professor who “was extremely supportive and always responded to questions quickly.”
Cynthia Paralejas, a senior instructional designer at NIU’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, has supported Werderich in preparing courses for an online environment.
“Through the years, Donna continued to improve and enhance her hybrid courses by incorporating innovative best practices she learned from attending various CITL programs and conversations with colleagues, especially feedback from her students,” Paralejas says.
“Donna is mindful of the opportunities and challenges inherent in establishing learner-content, learner-instructor and learner-learner engagement,” Paralejas adds, “and establishes clear guidelines on appropriate netiquette and expectations of professionalism online and during face-to-face interactions to help foster a welcoming community of learners.”
Michael Manderino, an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, says Werderich “uses her pedagogical skills to drive her instruction. As a result, she builds courses and experiences that are driven by her objectives and practices rather than simply selecting technology tools to be added to her courses online.”
“Every NIU Huskie, from preservice elementary and middle level teachers, in-service teachers and doctoral candidates who have Dr. Werderich as a professor are privy to responsively designed, engaging and innovative online courses that prepare them to be successful teaching professionals,” Manderino says.
“It is abundantly evident that students feel valued and respected by Dr. Werderich because of her thoughtful and innovative course design,” he adds. “They are willing to take risks and be vulnerable in their writing unlike any course I taught or observed. The students also reported immense growth in knowledge and confidence in writing and their abilities to teach it.”
