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Congratulations to ...
 Cathy Bradford was honored as the KSU Staff Member of the Year at the Aug. 15 Staff/ Administrator Awards ceremony. While she was specifically recognized for her accomplishments as the Thrive Graduation Coach, Cathy's many roles and achievements during her seven-year tenure at KSU were noted. Cathy is performing a dual role this year as Learning Communities Director and Thrive Graduation Coach. Hillary Steiner, who joined First-Year Programs this fall as an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, won the Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology division of the American Psychological Association. Hillary accepted the award earlier this month at the APA's annual conference in Orlando, Fla. Pinder Naidu was one of nine individuals honored as a 2012-13 Clendenin Fellow. She will receive support as she completes a Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning Mathematics Education at Georgia State.
Lynn Boettler was the University College Distinguished Teaching Award winner for 2012, and Brian Wooten was honored with the college's Distinguished Professional Service Award. Stephanie Foote was given the college's newest award, the Faculty Development Award for emerging scholarship. The UC Faculty Development & Awards Committee will be meeting in the next few weeks to determine the 2012-13 deadlines for portfolio submission for all college awards.
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New initiatives continue to progress
 While many new initiatives were discussed at the college's fall meeting, there were a few that were not. The proposed graduate degree in First-Year Programs is still on the Provost's desk, waiting to go to the Board of Regents for review. KSU is limited in the number of degree programs it can submit as part of the new BOR procedures, and new guidelines will require the proposal to be updated with additional information.
IT 2101 has been sent downtown, but it is not yet a part of the General Education curriculum. Representatives from the college and Academic Affairs are working with the USG General Education Committee to revise and resubmit the proposal.
Finally, the path toward an Honor's College continues, as is evidenced by its inclusion in the 2012-17 KSU Strategic Plan. Provost Harmon has asked for a final proposal in early September, so he and President Papp can determine the appropriate next steps.
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Faculty expand scholarship arenas
 Katherine Kinnick's invited book chapter, "The Impact of Dual Enrollment on the Institution," was featured in the Summer 2012 issue of New Directions in Higher Education. Meg Murray, Debbie Geist, and Alison Hedrick co-authored a paper with Jorge Perez from the Coles College in the latest issue of the Journal of Information Technology Education. The paper, "Student Interaction with Online Course Content: Build It and They Might Come," also won the Best Paper Award for at the 2012 Informing Science + IT Education Conference in Montreal, Canada this summer.
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Start planning for spring courses
It seems odd to begin thinking of spring semester courses before drop/add for fall semester concludes, but it is time to do just that. Schedule Builder will open for all academic departments Sept. 4, and the entire schedule has to published in the EMS system by Sept. 21. Therefore, departments will have until Sept. 17 at noon to input all classes into Schedule Builder. The EMS optimization process will then start to ensure all classes are placed in appropriate classrooms.
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D2L transition launches this fall
 All KSU faculty will have access to Desire2Learn, the new learning management system, with a blank course the first week in September. Training will be offered through various outlets including IT workshops, UC workshops, and online manuals. Spring 2013 courses will be uploaded to D2L in October, so faculty can begin actively creating, migrating, and expanding their courses. Updates will be posted regularly at https://web.kennesaw.edu/d2l/ .
The UC Distance Learning Committee for 2012-2013 is chaired by Deborah Mixson-Brookshire. Debbie Smith and Mike Keleher represent University Studies, and Stephanie Foote and Carolee Larsen serve on behalf of First-Year Programs. The committee will be holding several workshops this fall on D2L, online learning, hybrid courses, and instructional technology.
DL Tip for the First Week of Classes: If you are teaching online or in a hybrid format, you likely have numerous activities, tests, quizzes and other materials readily available to your students. As a security measure, make sure you are regularly checking your roster in Owl Express and denying access or removing any student from your GaView gradebook who is no longer in your class. Need help with the gradebook? Contact one of the UCDLC members.
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