Category Archives: Awards

Communication Award Winner – Golf Cart Pedagogy

As instructional technologists and IT professionals, we often look for unique ways to capture our communities’ attention, competing with their ever-overloaded inboxes. We never expected that this oddball idea born from a lack of sleep and a lengthy car ride could take us from the narrow campus walkways to the bright lights of New Orleans, LA. Golf Cart Pedagogy, our higher-ed take on the popular hit Car Pool Karaoke, engages our College community.

Golf Cart on Campus

The core idea isn’t anything new: record and share interviews. We needed something different. At the time, it seemed like the strangest, silliest thing imaginable: take guests about campus on a humble, often-seen golf cart; drive around at super-slow, laughable speed; and converse about pedagogy, technology, and often humanity. Since its launch in April 2019, the ride-along has become an episodic campus cult classic, inviting guests from all walks of college life to share their experiences in higher education.

As we continued to see its popularity grow on campus, we were looking for a way to share the idea on a grander scale. On the encouragement of a colleague, we entered the first episode of Golf Cart Pedagogy for a SIGUCCS Communication Award. Honestly, the thought of others seeing our work from around the country was very exciting, yet scary. With a deep breath and a high-five, we decided to submit our work to SIGUCCS for consideration.

Then word came: we won a communications award for long format video. Imbued with the newfound pride and acceptance of our oddity, we really leaned full tilt into the silliness. And a little secret for those of you that know, one of the perks to winning this award is that you are given a poster session slot at the annual meeting to promote your work. Insert maniacal laugh… Our plan work for worldwide media domination began.

Golf Cart on Campus

As with most things we do, we find the most non-traditional way of going about it and commit fully. We turned our poster into the inside of a golf cart, and our session into a chance to interview our extended community of IT professionals. We even turned our session into an episode!

Reflecting back on our experience with SIGUCCS, we are left with fond memories, new friendships, and a wider view of higher ed. The real strength of a conference like the SIGUCCS annual conference is in the conversations and connections with a welcoming community of fellow professionals. We’re all able to come together, let our hair down (figuratively for some of us), and really dive deep into our institutional successes and opportunities. Furthermore, being an award winner allowed us to show off our inner rockstars for at least a few hours. This award now hangs with pride in our office and serves as a reminder that creativity and silliness do have a place in IT.

Anthony Dalton and Thomas Sciarrino
Muhlenberg College

SIGUCCS Hall of Fame Nominations

The ACM SIGUCCS Hall of Fame Awards were established to recognize individuals whose specific contributions have had a positive impact on the organization and therefore on the professional careers of the members and their institutions.

Examples of contributions that may be considered appropriate include serving as a Board Member or an officer, playing a major role in a conference, or participating on a SIGUCCS committee. What is considered important is not the breadth or length of the contribution, but the effectiveness or positive impact it had.

Recipients are listed on the online Hall of Fame. They also receive a physical token of the award and partial support to attend the annual conference to receive their award.

Nominations must be received by July 1. Submit your nominations today at https://siguccs.org/wp/participate/siguccs-awards/hall-of-fame-awards/

We look forward to celebrating all of our award winners at SIGUCCS 2019 in New Orleans.

Showcase your Communication Projects

As graphic designers, media specialists, content managers, and communication professionals, our tasks are really pretty basic. The only expectation is to educate, promote, engage, persuade, and create full campus awareness and outreach to hundreds or thousands of students, faculty, staff, alumni, as well as the surrounding university community. There are also bonus points and loads of kudos, too, if the completed tasks succeed with originality, follow all university brand guidelines, and hopefully, include three or four original photographs of happy smiling faces, all while managing the entire project on a shoestring budget and delivering all components of the outreach and promotional campaign on-time.

comm awards winner

Ready? And, go.

All of these appear to be the challenges, and the fuel, for most communication projects. On top of that, deciphering IT jargon to distribute information legibly for the masses of the university can often require some crafty MacGyver skills. With our communications work having such a broad university audience, my golden rule is simple. If my mother wouldn’t understand it, revisit, review, and rewrite. 

Nerds unite. We take geeks to heart and passionately believe that everyone is a bit of a geek about something. The SIGUCCS Communication Awards provide an excellent stage to showcase your communication team’s design geekdom and to receive external written feedback from last year’s winning teams who serve as judges. As a submitter, preparing submission entries each year allows me the opportunity to step back with a broad range view to reacquaint myself with and critique our team’s portfolio. Reviewing the excellent work of other institutions when serving as a judge is a unique opportunity to compare our work with numerous successful communications teams from other higher education learning communities.

communication awards winners

With so many of us facing similar design challenges, the takeaway of participating in the SIGUCCS Communications Awards is seeing how other creative teams resolve similar IT communication hurdles. All of these things provide each of us with an aha moment and hopefully, just hopefully, an opportunity to understand why design matters. Because honestly, it does.

Visit the SIGUCCS Communication Awards webpage for a full list of categories, criteria, and instructions for submitting your communications projects.

Gary Garbett, Senior Communications Coordinator
Virginia Commonwealth University

Nominate a SIGUCCS Volunteer for the Hall of Fame

The ACM SIGUCCS Hall of Fame was established to recognize individuals whose specific contributions have had a positive impact on the organization and therefore on the professional careers of the members and their institutions.

star StatuetteExamples of contributions that may be considered appropriate include serving as a Board Member or an officer, playing a major role in a conference, or participating on a SIGUCCS committee. What is considered important is not the breadth or length of the contribution, but the effectiveness or positive impact of it.

Recipients are listed on the online Hall of Fame. They also receive a physical token of the award and partial support to attend the annual conference to receive their award.

2018 conference logoThe Penny Crane Award for Distinguished Service and the SIGUCCS Hall of Fame awards are great opportunities to recognize volunteers and leaders in our organization and beyond. Nominations must be received by July 1.

We look forward to celebrating all of our award winners at SIGUCCS 2018 in Orlando!

SIGUCCS Penny Crane Award Nominations due July 1

It’s nomination season for SIGUCCS – hopefully you are already thinking about who you will nominate for the Penny Crane Award for Distinguished Service and the SIGUCCS Hall of Fame. These awards are great opportunities to recognize volunteers and leaders in our organization and beyond. (Nominations must be received by July 1.)

Here are the qualifications for a Penny Crane Award nominee:

  • Been a member of SIGUCCS over a relatively long term (but would not necessarily have to be a current member).
  • Been nominated via a 500-word statement from a current member of SIGUCCS (no self-nominations).
  • A record of long-term service to higher education and the computing profession, as indicated by a statement covering that service (normally a complete resume).
  • A record of extensive service to SIGUCCS, over a significant period of time (normally ten or more years), which could be checked against the records of SIGUCCS and ACM.
  • Received additional endorsements from at least four current or former members of SIGUCCS who are familiar with the contributions of the candidate.
  • Services which might qualify an individual include: SIGUCCS officer or board member, Conference or Program Chair, Conference Presenter, Chairing a SIGUCCS Committee, Serving in the Peer Review process, conducting workshops, representing SIGUCCS on an ACM Committee, representing SIGUCCS/ACM to another information technology organization

For more details about the award and nomination materials, visit http://www.siguccs.org/penny-crane.shtml

About Penny Crane

Penny CranePenny Crane was was an enthusiastic, dedicated volunteer for ACM and SIGUCCS including SIGUCCS board chair from 1986 to 1990. The Penny Crane Award for Distinguished Service was established by the SIGUCCS board to honor her long-time service and contributions.

SIGUCCS Conference attendees have heard the famous Penny Crane quote:

The rookies don’t have to go to all the sessions, and the old guys have to go to at least one.

That’s a pretty humorous sentiment, but more importantly one that shows deep value in the opportunity to meet and learn from other professionals in higher education at a SIGUCCS conference.

Penny’s SIGUCCS friends gathered their thoughts into a tribute document in 1999. http://www.siguccs.org/Conference/50/assets/PennyCrane.pdf

About the SIGUCCS Communications Awards

comm awards winnerThe SIGUCCS Communication Awards represent a unique opportunity for IT professionals to be recognized by their peers for excellence in something IT has a reputation for doing rather poorly. Jokes about nerdy, awkward IT folks abound, and not entirely without cause – some of us probably got into this profession just to avoid people! Turning technobabble into something useful and helpful for our customers is an area where many IT organizations – both inside and outside higher education – fall short. Skilled communication can make or break our relationship with our campus community, and for this reason SIGUCCS wants to recognize those IT professionals who are consistently striving to teach, train, and communicate in engaging and thoughtful ways.

The awards span a wide range of topics, some of which you might not think of as “communication” at first, like training materials and documentation. Some segments incorporate a little bit of marketing, like social media and websites, and some even recognize our student workers for their contributions. Across the categories, we want to see your efforts to connect with your customers, through traditional or cutting-edge means. SIGUCCS knows you’re not a professional PR guru, so don’t sell yourself short thinking that your project is boring or not snazzy enough. Did it work? Did you get the results you hoped for? We want to hear about it!

star StatuetteEven if your project doesn’t win in its category, you’ll still get helpful feedback from the judges – a panel of previous winners from the category. Judges’ feedback is a wonderful way to expand your mindset beyond what your institution likes and expects from your work, and can give you fresh ideas for another project.

Visit the SIGUCCS Communication Awards webpage today for a full list of categories, criteria, and instructions for entering your project.

~ Becky Cowin

 

 

2015 Communication Award Winners Announced

figurine star isolated on white

Each year ACM SIGUCCS sponsors a competition to honor the best publications, websites and promotional material produced by university and college centers.

The competition recognizes excellence in developing useful and attractive publications in a variety of media categories and provides SIGUCCS conference participants with an opportunity to review publications that may help them develop or enhance their own work. The winning entries will be displayed during SIGUCCS 2015 in St. Petersburg for perusal by the conference attendees.


Don’t delay registering to attend SIGUCCS 2015!
Early Registration Prices are available until Monday, October 12, 2015.
http://www.siguccs.org/Conference/2015/registration.php


2015 Award Winners

Category 1: Computing Services Public Website

Best of Category
Institution: Texas A&M University
Submission Title: Texas A&M Information Technology Flagship Website
Team Members: Allison Oslund, Laura Root, Tara Guin, Lacey Baze, Ethel Vaught, Chris Siems, Gaurav Mandan, Xavier Porter, Ashley Hildebrandt, Zinat Ahmed, Stephanie Hinze

Award of Excellence
Institution: Mercer University
Submission title: Mercer IT Website
Team Members: Denise Rogers, April M. Mills, Steve Ford, Rob Saxon, Todd Sayre

Category 2. Computing Newsletter (Print or Electronic)

No award

Category 3a. Printed How-To Guides

Best of Category
Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University
Submission Title: VCU fixIT Service Brochure
Team Members: Gary Garbett, Buddy Bishop, Dan Han, Sam Kennedy, Hope Adams

Category 3b. Electronic How-To Guides (individual)

No award

Category 3c. Electronic How-To Guides (collection)

Best of Category
Institution: Texas A&M University
Submission Title: New Aggie TechList
Team Members: Allison Oslund, Tara Guin, Morgan Hampton, Xavier Porter, Chris Siems, Miles Rucker, Michael Crocker, Andrew Lyssy, Ryan Burns

Award of Excellence
Institution: Williams College
Submission Title: Berhnard Music Lab
Team Members: Trevor Murphy, Randy Matusky

Category 4a. Instructional Classroom Materials

No award

Category 4b. Printed Quick Reference Guides

Best of Category
Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University
Submission Title: VCU Information Security Collective Responsibility
Team Members: Gary Garbett, Dan Han, Hope Adams

Category 5a. General Service Promotional Materials

Best of Category
Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University
Submission Title: VCU Technology Services 2013-2014 Report
Team Members: Gary Garbett, Sam Kennedy, Hope Adams

Award of Excellence
Institution: American University
Submission Title: The Road Ahead: IT Solutions Empower Campus
Team Members: Laurie Ambach, Amy Burroughs, Terry Fernandez, Sharjil Hasan, Cathy Hubbs, Jel Montoya-Reed, Kamalika Sandell, David Swartz

Category 5b. General Service Campaign Materials

Best of Category
Institution: University of Rochester
Submission Title: UR Tech Store Rebranding
Team Members: Sara May, Will Graver, Zachary Bokuniewicz, Tianyi Wang

Category 6a. Short Promotional video/Audio

Best of Category
Institution: University of Rochester
Submission Title: Technology Overview for Incoming Students
Team Members: Will Graver, Sara May, Tianyi Wang

Category 6b. Long Promotional Video Audio

Best of Category
Institution: Cuyahoga Community College – Eastern Campus
Submission Title: Advanced Technology Classroom (ATC) Tutorial
Team Members: Eric Kuentz, Cory Molner

Category 7. Use of Social Media

Best of Category
Institution: University of Rochester
Submission Title: The Institute of Popular Music You Tube Channel
Team Members: Will Graver, John Covach

Category 8. Student Created Materials

Best of Category
Institution: Lewis and Clark College
Submission Title: IT Baby
Team Members: Bennett Ramirez, Justin Counts

Award of Excellence
Institution: Whitman College
Submission Title: Angler Phish
Team Members: Ian Floyd, Kaitlin Justin

 

The 2015 SIGUCCS Communication Awards

Do you have what it takes to be “Best of …”? Submissions are now open for the SIGUCCS Communication Awards. Submit your entries between now and May 31, 2015.

More details about the process and the categories are available at http://www.siguccs.org/communication_awards.shtml

2014 Communication Award Winners
2014 Communication Award Winners

The SIGUCCS Communication Awards recognize excellence in the area of information technology communications. An often overlooked component of higher education IT, marketing and communications are becoming extremely important as budgets shrink and we are asked to do more with less. We often have to promote our services in new and creative ways.

Your entry can be print, web-based, video or a combination of these and should fall into one of the following categories:

  1. Computing Services Website
  2. Computing Newsletter
  3. How-to Guides
  4. Instructional Classroom or Quick Reference Guides
  5. General Service Promotional or Campaign Materials
  6. Video
  7. NEW! Social Media
  8. Student Created Materials

Work in the above categories must be created by staff or students affiliated with your institution (no outside commercially created work should be included) and submissions created by groups within your organization are encouraged.

Additionally, we acknowledge that students and student employees are important to our organizations. Therefore, we have one additional category specifically for student-created work. This provides an opportunity to recognize and reward the creativity and professionalism of our students.

Winners will be notified in mid-August and awards will be presented at the annual SIGUCCS Conference.

Questions? Contact Lisa Brown at siguccs_commawards@acm.org