PCC Adult Education Instructor Wins National Award
November 21, 2011
Tucson, AZ – Pima Community College Adult Education (PCCAE) Distance Learning Instructor Elisabeth Goodwin has won a 2012 Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) for her achievements nationally, statewide and at PCC.
Elisabeth has been with PCCAE since May 2003, and in February 2010 started working in Distance Learning. Since February 2010, Elisabeth has taken part in a University of Michigan project to mentor adult educators in Rhode Island who are starting a distance learning program. Also, she has written a 38-page best practices handbook for Adult Education Distance Learning that has been shared nationally through the Arizona Department of Education/Adult Education Services (AED/AES).
At AED/AES’ invitation, Elisabeth was part of a three-person team that evaluated software to be used by Arizona’s distance learning programs.
Also since 2010, Elisabeth has increased the size of PCCAE Distance Learning from 170 student hours to 3,524, making PCCAE’s program the largest in Arizona. Of those PCCAE Distance Learning students who took progress tests, 65.3 percent made gains as measured by ADE/AES requirements, exceeding the state goal of 58 percent.
Elisabeth is a lifelong learner who constantly seeks new professional development opportunities in order to improve her teaching, and to facilitate professional development for her colleagues, says Nancy Reeder, Advanced Program Manager at PCCAE’s Eastside Learning Center. “She is a passionate and perceptive educator who is genuinely interested in helping her students achieve their goals,” Nancy says.
“Elisabeth is highly professional,” says Deborah Gaddy, Academic Dean of Adult Education. “Her students love her.”
Elisabeth says that a good teacher has to combine subject-matter expertise with an eagerness to learn and try new things. A good instructor also has to be both compassionate and strict with students while being flexible and organized at the same time.
The unique challenge for a Distance Learning instructor, Elisabeth says, “is to know when to do and be all these things. You can’t see on your students’ faces if they understand what you are teaching or not, and you can’t look at your students to see if life is treating them well. Most of all, you have to remember and keep track of things like never before.”
Elisabeth will be recognized at NISOD’s 34th annual International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence in Austin, Texas, on May 27-30, 2012.
NISOD, a consortium of more than 700 community colleges and universities worldwide, annually recognizes faculty, staff and administrators for outstanding contributions to teaching, leadership and learning.
CONTACT:
C.J. Karamargin
Vice Chancellor for Public Information and Government Relations
(520) 206-4850
ckaramargin@pima.edu