PULLMAN, Wash. — The SKEW newsletter, which was created as a resource for spreading the word about innovative teaching techniques at Washington State University, has received a Clarion Award as the outstanding newsletter in the non-profit category.
The Clarion Awards, presented by the Association for Women in Communications, is a competition open to all communicators. The awards annually recognize excellence in a wide variety of communications fields.
The SKEW newsletter is published by members of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology and the Writing Center at WSU. Its title is loosely based on the name of the building that houses the centers, the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education (SCUE).
“Typically, faculty mailboxes are inundated with printed academic material. Our motive was to produce a newspaper that took a fresh look at some of the perennial concerns of teachers in an edgy, humorous and unconventional but constructive way. Our hope was that the newsletter would avoid the direct route from mailbox to recycling bin,” said Jayme Jacobson, a graphic designer for the Center for Teaching and Learning who helps edit the publication.
Each quarterly edition of the newsletter – two issues of which are online at http://www.ctlt.wsu.edu/skew.asp — focuses on a different topic of interest and concern to faculty members.
In the introduction to the first issue, the editors wrote: “We … hope that this publication, along with its online companion, will become a place where teaching practices are showcased for others to consider. And more than anything else, we hope that our skewed take on teaching and learning will invite you to tilt your heads, rub your chins, and try something a little bit new in your classes.”
