Lee Daffin, WSU clinical associate professor of psychology, is the winner of the 2017-2018 Excellence in Online Teaching Award. Academic Outreach & Innovation (AOI) sponsors the student-nominated annual award, now in its second year.
The award, which includes a trophy and $3,000 in faculty development funds, is presented to a Global Campus instructor who demonstrates mastery in online instructional best practices and positively influences students by creating an engaging, inspiring and caring learning environment.
Kelly Dunn, a senior majoring in psychology was one of the six students to nominate Daffin, stating in her nomination, “Dr. Daffin has inspired me to pursue my interests and through that I was able to pick a program for grad school that I had been struggling with for two years. I can’t think of a professor who deserves this more than he does.”
Global Campus students nominated 57 unique faculty for the Excellence in Online Teaching Award, and several of them received multiple entries. “We were really pleased by the student response to the award this year,” said Rebecca Van de Vord, assistant vice president of AOI. “There were many compelling entries about how instructors inspired and challenged students to do their best while recognizing the challenges of being an adult learner.” The ten-member review committee, which included last year’s award winner Katy Fry, clinical assistant professor of history, unanimously selected Daffin the winner.
“Lee has done something really special with online students by creating a true sense of community,” stated Dave Cillay, vice president of AOI. “He has created an Online Psychology Students Resource Room in Blackboard Learn, where he communicates with students and shares opportunities for academic engagement, such as hypothesis testing, tutoring, and teaching assistantships.”
“I am as proud of this accomplishment as I was with finding out I was promoted to clinical associate professor a few weeks ago,” Daffin stated when hearing he was this year’s winner. Daffin will be honored for winning the Excellence in Online Teaching Award at the Global Campus graduation reception, May 4, 2018, on the Pullman campus.
