Beaufort County Community College is pleased to announce that Professor Robin Lilley has been named a winner in Blackboard’s Exemplary Course Program (ECP). She is the first professor at the college to achieve the award, and only the third faculty member in North Carolina. Patricia Hayes, client success manager for Blackboard, presented the award to Lilley on Oct. 25, along with Dr. Dave Loope, president of BCCC, and Kate Purvis, BCCC Blackboard administrator.

Blackboard is the primary platform for online communication and instruction at BCCC. With most classes having an online component and some classes being exclusively online, how instructors utilize the platform has a significant effect on student success. The awards program recognizes faculty from schools, colleges and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning. Lilly is the lead professor for information technology at BCCC. With her achievement, BCCC joins the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and Wake Tech as only the third college in eastern North Carolina with Blackboard-certified exemplary faculty.

Lilley won for her CIS 110 course, “Introduction to Computers.” The course demonstrated excellence in course design, interaction and collaboration, assessment, and learner support. She chose to use the ECP rubric on her CIS 110 classes to broadly impact student success early in students’ college careers. About 200 students have experienced the improved class this fall.

“Our IT program at BCCC is now entirely online, meaning we rarely see many of our students in person,” said Lilley. “The ECP course rubric allowed me to design my course to promote and support learner engagement between me and other students as well as among students.”

Lilly also increased the number of announcements and videos she uploads each week.

“It’s much more time intensive, but I think these videos address questions and issues that may hinder learning, especially for our non-traditional students who are used to a higher level of interaction,” she noted.

Certification through Blackboard’s ECP is part of a larger initiative at BCCC to make online education a valuable option for students. The college expects to certify at least another five instructors in the next year. Purvis said the college is committed to providing online students the same rigor and quality of instruction as those attending traditional classes.

“Online instruction opens the door for students who want to continue their education, but due to schedule constraints or distance, cannot come to campus,” Purvis pointed out. “Robin has been the perfect trailblazer. Her support, positivity and enthusiasm for excellence has played an important role in encouraging others to do the same. Many of our professors are now choosing Blackboard’s ECP as their preferred route to certification. It’s a very exciting time.”

“In many respects, online learning is only as good as the technology and the faculty who use it,” Loope added. “Professor Lilly exemplifies a level of commitment to quality instruction in online format that faculty across the state and nation will emulate. BCCC is indeed fortunate to have her on our faculty.”

For 17 years, the ECP has recognized faculty and course designers whose courses demonstrate best practices. Since its founding, thousands of instructors, teachers and designers have used the ECP to evaluate and improve their courses with recognized best practices. To be considered for the honor, applicants must be a user of the Blackboard Learn learning management system. Submitted courses are evaluated by other course developers, instructional designers, teachers and professors using the ECP Rubric.

Lilley will be honored alongside other outstanding recipients on the Blackboard website, as well as in the Blackboard Community, a platform where the largest organized network of Blackboard users connect, collaborate and learn from their peers.

To learn more about the Exemplary Course Program, visit www.community.blackboard.com/community/ecp.