Professor honoured for online course material in California

York marketing and women’s studies Professor Louise Ripley was honoured this month during a ceremony at the 2009 Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching (MERLOT) International Conference in San Jose, California.

Earlier this year, Ripley won the 2009 MERLOT Classics Award in the business category for her peer-reviewed online course material – “Introductory Marketing Unit for Principles of Marketing”. The award was given for Ripley’s exemplary online materials and her contributions to the academic community (See YFile, April 1).

Right: Louise Ripley accepts her award from Phil Moss, MERLOT director of educational partnerships and planning

“This is the first of eleven modules created to support Professor Ripley’s Principles of Marketing course. This is one of the most thorough modules, addressing the essential terminology and concepts without overwhelming introductory-level students,” said Cathy Swift, editor of the MERLOT BusinessEditorial Board. “The module consists of learning activities, examples, interactive assignments for students, theoretical foundations, and references supporting content in the course discussion.”

Ripley was one of 13 award winners this year in categories ranging from science & technology, arts and humanities to mathematics and statistics.

The MERLOT award program recognizes and promotes outstanding online resources designed to enhance teaching and learning, and is designed to honor the authors and developers of these resources for their contributions to the academic community.

MERLOT is an international initiative enabling faculty to integrate technology into higher education. It is an online community of faculty and institutions collaborating to increase the quantity of high quality web-based, interactive teaching and learning materials. The MERLOT Web site is a free gateway for these Web-based materials.

For more information about the MERLOT awards program for exemplary online learning resources, contact Cathy Swift at cswift@calstate.edu.