Purpose of the Award

Amanda Rugenski, right, receives a 2022 Creative Teaching Award.

Amanda Rugenski (R) receives a 2022 Creative Teaching Award.

The Creative Teaching Awards recognize faculty members who have implemented  a significant, creative teaching innovation and/or strategy in a course to improve student learning. These awards are presented annually by the Office of Instruction to encourage both instructional excellence and the dissemination of best practices by sharing promising innovations with faculty more broadly.

For 2024-2025, the competition will give priority to creative innovations in two domains:

  • promoting active learning across the curriculum
  • improving student writing and communication skills

Eligibility

  • Must be a full-time faculty member, including tenured, tenure-track, clinical, or non-tenure-track faculty.
  • The creative teaching innovation and/or strategy was implemented during the previous academic year or Fall 2024.

Keith Doughety (R) receives a 2022 Creative Teaching Award.

Criteria

  • Demonstrated effectiveness of the creative teaching innovation and/or strategy. The teaching innovation and/or strategy may include new uses of instructional technology, pedagogy that extends beyond the traditional classroom, new approaches to creative inclusive courses, innovative active learning implementations, new approaches for improving student writing and communication skills, new approaches to student collaboration, new methods for replicating the advantages of a small course in a high-enrollment course setting, or other new teaching strategies that have significantly improved student learning outcomes.
  • Demonstrated positive impact of the creative teaching innovation and/or strategy. The nomination should include a description of the impact of the teaching innovation and/or strategy on improving student learning outcomes, such as improving the DF and/or W rates in a course, improving final grades in the next course in the sequence, improvement of student’s course content knowledge or skills, etc.

The Nomination and Selection Process

Jillian Bohlen, left, receives a 2022 Creative Teaching Award.

Jillian Bohlen (L) receives a 2022 Creative Teaching Award.

Nominations and may be submitted online by any faculty member, dean, or department head.

Nominate

Nominating Process

All Nominations must be submitted via online form by January 17, 2025. The form asks for the following information:

  • Nominator’s name, contact info, and relationship to nominee
  • Nominee’s name, school / department, and rank
  • The course(s) or learning initiative(s) where the creative teaching innovation and/or strategy was implemented, including Course Prefix, Number & Title (or name of initiative if not a course), # of Students, Semester / Year, Instructor / Facilitator
  • Any other contributors and list their roles
  • A concise description of the creative teaching innovation and/or strategy (400 words maximum). Include in the description both its purpose and context and its learning goals
  • A concise description of the evidence demonstrating its contribution to student learning (400 words maximum)
  • Unit head letter of support, and (optional) evidence of success detailing the impact of the teaching innovation or strategy (three pages maximum, combined file)

Selection Process

  • Nominations will be reviewed by a committee selected from within the Office of Instruction.

Recognition:

  • Up to 5 recipients will be recognized during Honors Week March 31-April 4 and through various university marketing efforts.
  • Each recipient will receive a cash award that may be used to further their innovative teaching efforts or at their own discretion.

Send any questions  to [email protected]


Award Recipients

2024 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Lori Johnston
Lecturer
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication

Carol Britton Laws
Clinical professor
College of Family and Consumer Sciences

Leslie Gordon Simons
Professor of sociology
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Nandana Weliweriya
Lecturer in the department of Physics and Astronomy
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

2023 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Audrey Haynes
Associate professor,  political science
School of Public and International Affairs

Chris Herring
Lecturer, electrical and computer engineering
College of Engineering

Jane McPherson
Associate professor
School of Social Work

Ellen Neidle
Professor, microbiology
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Yoo-Kyoung Seock
Professor, textiles, merchandising and Interiors
College of Family and Consumer Sciences

2022 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Jillian Bohlen
Associate Professor, Animal and Dairy Science
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Keith L. Dougherty
Professor, Political Science
School of Public and International Affairs

Jennifer L. Gay
Associate Professor, Health Promotion and Behavior
College of Public Health

Amanda Rugenski
Lecturer
Odum School of Ecology

2021 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Leah Carmichael
Lecturer, International Affairs
School of Public and International Affairs

Tina Carpenter
Associate Professor, Accounting
Terry College of Business

Jennifer George
Lecturer, Human Development and Family Science
College of Family and Consumer Sciences

William Hollingsworth
Senior lecturer, Computer Science
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

2020 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

David Berle
Associate Professor
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Elizabeth Davis 
Senior Academic Professional, English
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Puliyur MohanKumar
Professor, Veterinary Biosciences and Diagnostic Imaging
College of Veterinary Medicine

Amy Trauger
Associate Professor, Geography
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Co-Recipients: Moon Jung Jang  and David Gay

Moon Jung Jang
Associate Professor of Graphic Design
Lamar Dodd School of Art

David Gay
Professor, Mathematics
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

2019 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Joseph Goetz
Associate Professor, Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics
College of Family and Consumer Sciences

Keith Herndon
Professor, Journalism
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications

Mark W. Huber 
Senior Lecturer, Management Information Systems
Terry College of Business

Sarah Shannon
Associate Professor, Sociology
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

2018 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Jeffrey Berejikian
Associate Professor, International Affairs
School of Public and International Affairs

Margaret Christ
Associate Professor, Accounting
Terry College of Business

Melissa Landers-Potts
Senior Lecturer, Human Development and Family Science
College of Family and Consumer Sciences

Simon Platt
Professor, Neurology and Neurosurgery
College of Veterinary Medicine

2017 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Trisha Branan
Clinical Assistant Professor, Pharmacy
College of Pharmacy

Jason Cantarella
Professor, Mathematics
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Julie Luft
Athletic Association Professor of Mathematics and Science Education
College of Education

Kristen Miller
Director, Biological Sciences
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

2016 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Jon Calabria
Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture
College of Environment and Design

Cecilia Herles
Assistant Director, Institute for Women’s Studies
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Ilse Mason
Senior Lecturer, Kinesiology
College of Education

Julie Moore
Assistant Department Head, Infectious Diseases
College of Veterinary Medicine

Tiffany Washington
Assistant Professor, Social Work
School of Social Work

2015 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Richard Menke
Associate Professor, English
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Montgomery Wolf
Senior Lecturer, History
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Brock Woodson
Assistant Professor, Engineering
College of Engineering

Siddharth Savadatti
Lecturer, Engineering
College of Engineering

2014 Creative Teaching Awards recipients

Norris Armstrong
Associate Professor, Genetics and Biological Sciences
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Marisa Anne Pagnattaro
Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, Legal Studies
Terry College of Business

Co-Recipients: Steven Lewis  and Craig Wiegert

Steven Lewis
Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Craig Wiegert
Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences


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