University's 2025 teaching award winners recognized

The winners of Ohio University teaching awards were recognized during the annual Faculty Teaching and Research Awards and Recognition event held Wednesday, April 16.

The Rising Star Teacher and Presidential Teacher awards, as well as the Provost Award for Excellence in Teaching, recognize outstanding teaching and academic pursuits inside and outside the classroom as acknowledged by peers and students. Undergraduate students bestow the honor of University Professor on full-time, tenure-track or instructional faculty each year. Winners of the award then have the freedom to develop and teach a course of their choosing during the following academic year.

The CTLA will highlight all finalists and award winners in future newsletters during the summer and beginning of fall, and a university-wide announcement will acknowledge all those recognized during the event.

Sabrina Curran, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences. Curran says a science classroom is the perfect space for the cultivation of critical thought. Every student brings with them different life experiences, and those experiences can only help to more fully enrich the learning environment. View Curran's video.

Andrea Walla, Associate Professor of Instruction, School of Media Arts and Studies, Scripps College of Communication. Walla’s ideal classroom experience is one where open dialogue happens between teacher and student. Real-world experience in the classroom is extremely important to her, and her students partner with clients, learning to communicate with a production team. View Walla's video.

Paul Shovlin, Assistant Professor, Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences. Shovlin creates a delicate balance between performativity and modeling, making transparent the mindsets at work in higher education as they relate to writing tasks and processes. He works to change perspectives and develop students’ tool sets. View Shovlin's video.

Victoria LaPoe, Professor, Scripps College of Communication, whose UP course is titled Artificial Intelligence, Ethical Sourcing, and Standpoint Theory. The course explores community standpoint theory and what it means for media to interview those impacted by stories. It will evaluate lived experiences reported on in comparison to officials' versions of people's experiences. View LaPoe's video.

Maria Postigo, Associate Professor of Instruction, Department of Modern Languages, College of Arts and Sciences, whose UP course is titled Legal Spanish. The course is designed for pre-law majors, international studies and undergraduate liberal arts majors wishing to expand awareness of the language or seeking positions in the legal field. View Postiga's video.

Linda Rice, Professor, Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences, whose UP course is titled C.S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud, and Questions of Life Meaning and Purpose. This course immerses students in readings, film, and discussion about compelling questions related to God, love, sex and the meaning of life. View Rice's video.

Kathleen Sullivan, Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Arts and Sciences, whose UP course is titled Deciding Like a Justice: Mock Supreme Court. In this course, students will get the chance to assume the role of a justice to see what it’s like to use the law to obscure political commitments, whether that be ideological, partisan or institutional. View Sullivan video.

The OHIO Place Initiative and the CTLA are offering a unique and deep “professional development away” opportunity available to faculty. The Teaching with Place-based, Community-engaged Pedagogies certification will launch this June and involves 10 days on-site at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

This experience prepares faculty across disciplines to teach courses or components of courses using place-based pedagogy that also engages and amplifies the work of community partners focused on economic development, health services, education access and resource conservation and management, as well as leadership.

Visit the CTLA teaching certifications web page to learn more about this and other cerficiations. Faculty interested should contact Michelle O'Malley, director, OHIO Place Initiative.

OHIO's June 2026 Blackboard LMS retirement is quickly approaching.  

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Canvas is the default LMS: Beginning Summer 2025, no courses will be auto loaded into Blackboard; all courses will be automatically created in Canvas. As of January 2025, 93% of courses using an OHIO-supported LMS were taught in Canvas, so we know many of you have already made the move. 

All Blackboard content will be deleted: All academic courses, manually created courses, and organizations will be permanently deleted by June 2026.  

Blackboard academic records will be archived: Starting June 2025, Blackboard courses that were generated by PeopleSoft for "real" courses will be archived in a third-party tool, solely for retaining student data. This information can only be accessed in unique circumstances, such as incompletes or grade disputes.  

During the archiving process, previously archived courses will temporarily reappear in Blackboard for both faculty and students. These courses will only be visible for a short period before being permanently deleted. 

Non-academic courses will not be archived: Blackboard organizations and manually created courses will not be archived and will be deleted by June 2026.  

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Save-Migrate-Delete: Review your Blackboard content now to determine what you will save, migrate, or delete to prevent losing access to needed materials. To help the University manage data storage costs, delete any content you no longer need by submitting your a request to delete a Blackboard course or organization. 

How to get help 

For more information and detailed guidance, please refer to the Blackboard Retirement page. 

By taking these steps, faculty can ensure key content is saved and help OHIO manage resources effectively. Thank you to the many faculty and staff who have already started saving and deleting content.  

To learn more and share feedback about this project or other teaching and learning tools and initiatives, join the monthly Teaching and Learning Technologies Advisory Community meeting.  

Elevate your courses in just 15-20 minutes! "Course Quality in a Click" is an Office of Instructional Design micro-workshop series designed to give you practical, actionable strategies to improve your course design, engagement, and accessibility. Each bite-sized session focuses on a key aspect of quality online learning.

Join to discover simple changes that make a big difference!

When using images in instructional materials, it’s important to include alternative text (alt text) so that all students can engage with your content—especially those using screen readers. 

This month’s OHIO-DAN session will explore the purpose of alt text, how to write it well and how to make it a natural part of your content creation process. 

Session Date: Thursday, May 29
Time: 4 to 5 p.m.
How to Attend: Join the OHIO-DAN Teams channel 

Attend to strengthen your digital accessibility habits and better support all learners! 

Because it's never too early to plan ahead ...

SAVE THE DATE: Fall 2025 Kickoff, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sept. 5, Baker Center, Room 240-242, featuring faculty panels, teaching and learning conversations and a carnival of workshops.