The Information Technology Division hosted its fourth annual IT Awards recognition March 29.
“The power of recognition in our lives and at work is phenomenal,” said Cathy Hanson, IT Awards committee member and staff development coordinator. ”Recognition can build a stronger workplace environment where people come, stay and are committed to the values and goals of an organization.”
This year, four individuals were nominated for the Innovation Collaboration and Excellence Award, and four groups were nominated for the IT Team Award.
Luke Prather, instructional services consultant, received the Innovation Collaboration and Excellence Award. Adnan Akyuz, Angela Hodgson and Nancy Lilleberg nominated Prather for his leadership and collaboration with NDSU faculty and staff to implement a new student response (“clicker”) system on campus and for his innovative implementation of a “flipped” classroom, which included captured lecture for use outside of the classroom and student clickers for increased interaction in the classroom.
After receiving the award, Prather recognized the efforts of his colleagues. “I'm very appreciative to have received this award,” he said. “However, I have to acknowledge the work of my colleagues within the IT Division and across campus for helping to accomplish the student-focused goals of these two projects. Everything we do in IT is truly about collaboration.”
Other I.C.E. Award nominees included:
· Lincoln Bathie, desktop support manager, for his efforts to help Student Support Services, the Center for Writers and Academic Collegiate Enhancement adopt TutorTrac, a program that makes scheduling and tracking student services easier. Bathie also was recognized for going the extra mile to find solutions. Aida Martinez-Freeman, Enrico Sass and Kelli Layman nominated Bathie.
· Nancy Lilleberg, instructional services manager, was nominated for her work on the Web Design Program Steering Committee to envision and help set the direction for a new media and web design major. She was nominated by Ross Collins.
· Jill Peterson, database applications developer, was nominated for her work in developing a template for NDSU’s content management system that would allow NDSU to make every CMS page mobile. She received a joint nomination from Galen Mayfield and Laura McDaniel.
IT Team Award
The NDSU Central Authentication Service team, comprised of team leader Eric Christeson and members Richard Frovarp, Jill Peterson, Nathan Huff and Nate Olson, received the IT Team Award. James Ross nominated the group for their successful implementation of a central solution for multiple authentication and authorization sources, which also improved the security of NDSU users’ credentials.
During the ceremony, team leader Eric Christeson expressed his gratitude to his team members. “This was a top-notch group,” Christeson said. “We were able to come together as team, determine what needed to be done, and step up and complete the tasks at hand. No one person could have achieved the goals of this project alone; the project required input from all of the individuals involved.”
Other IT Team Award nominees included:
· Blackboard Support Group, including Nancy Lilleberg, Cj Johnson, Lorna Olson and Tammy Cummings. Paul Nelson nominated the group for their service,which he described as “Rapid responses and exceedingly useful advice and counsel. They frequently save my tail.”
· Media Support Staff, comprised of Micah McGowen, Steve Beckerman and Luke Prather, was nominated by Nancy Lilleberg. Lilleberg described the group as a truly cross-functional IT team and emphasized the synergy of these team members in collaboratively sharing their knowledge and expertise to serve users. Together this team tackles many projects by putting their heads together to achieve solutions.
· Clickers Team, which was led by Luke Prather and Nancy Lilleberg, involved the support of the instructional services team and many faculty and student participants across campus. Larry Peterson, who nominated the team, indicated the team did a superb job in organizing and obtaining feedback on the advantages and disadvantages of two clicker systems and making a recommendation for the campus.
More information about the IT Awards, past recipients and nominees, is available at www.ndsu.edu/vpit/award.