Perry, Hansen receive Blackboard Catalyst Awards Perry, Hansen receive Blackboard Catalyst Awards

At the recently concluded Blackboard World 2017 held in New Orleans, two Wichita State employees were awarded a Blackboard Catalyst Award, John Perry, associate professor and chair in the W. Frank Barton School of Business Management Department, and Lisa Hansen, OneStop director. Pictured above is Mark Porcaro, executive director of Online Learning at WSU, who received the award on behalf of John Perry who was unable to attend, and Hansen.

Perry was awarded the Teaching & Learning Catalyst Award. According to Blackboard, "This award recognizes those who have adopted flexible, distance and online delivery, including using mobile technologies to positively impact the educational experience."

Wichita State's online course offerings have greatly expanded over the past several years. Due to Perry's leadership, there has most noticeably been an increase in online learning within the business college. Perry's leadership in furthering online education can be seen through the success within his own courses, as well as his efforts to further faculty development and adoption of e-learning. Within his department, his courses garnish 90 percent more interaction by the students and, in turn, perform at higher levels.

Outside of his own courses, Perry is an activist within his department, furthering the online programs that are offered by his department by educating his colleagues. Through his weekly workshops and mentorship, more faculty members have started offering online courses and because of which, the business school has begun to offer three more online undergraduate business degrees. Perry's actions have widened the scope that his colleagues are able to teach while expanding students' opportunities to learn.

Lisa Hansen was awarded the Student Success Catalyst Award, which "recognizes individuals and / or institutions whose creative program application has led to increased retention, increased completion and/or improved outcomes."

Because of the desire to increase student satisfaction on campus, Wichita State partnered with Blackboard to create OneStop, a 24/7 student service center. OneStop provides Wichita students with support for various enrollment services, including an eLS help desk and retention solutions. The service center is extremely accessible to its students and can be accessed through phone, email, live chat and on-campus visits. The technology integrated into the student center minimizes "runaround" time for the students and efficiently directs them to the correct resource. During OneStop's first year, it handled more than 44,000 interactions and had a user satisfaction rating of around 90 percent.

For more information about the other 2017 Catalyst Award winners, go to http://press.blackboard.com/Blackboard-Catalyst-Awards-2017