Bonnie Neas, vice president for information technology, presented the first annual divisional Award for Innovation, Collaboration and Excellence to Randy Wald, instructional services consultant, on May 21.
Wald was nominated for his creativity in producing “Bb Buzz,” a series of video training episodes for Blackboard users. The video clips are produced bi-weekly to help instructors learn about the basics and new features of Blackboard. Each clip features Wald and Tammy Cummings, who work together to produce a professional quality product.
“Great care goes into each ‘Bb Buzz,’ including research, writing the script, recording the screen shots, synchronizing the audio with the video and publishing the product in a useable format. “The short-and-to-the-point format is perfect for our busy faculty who need to know things quickly and just in time for when they need it,” said Nancy Lilleberg, information technology instructional services manager, who nominated Randy.
Other nominees included Jill Anderson, application developer; and Britt McAlister, enterprise application development manager; both from the enterprise computing and infrastructure department.
Anderson was nominated for her discovery of a new critical vulnerability on the TYPO3 Content Management System and collaborating with multiple NDSU engineers, the chief information technology security officer, law enforcement, information technology management and the TYPO3 user community to quickly identify and fix the problem.
McAlister has introduced several creative information technology solutions including a new Web development portal, new search architecture for NDSU’s Web site and the introduction of a planning tool called “scenarios” that help clients more clearly describe what they want from custom-developed applications.