Sandburg’s Kellogg Receives Innovation of the Year Award

  Aaron Frey
  Friday, May 12, 2017 10:19 AM
  Campus News

Galesburg, IL

Dave Kellogg, coordinator of criminal justice at Carl Sandburg College, recently was recognized as a recipient of a 2017 Innovation of the Year Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College. Kellogg won the honor for initially adopting the College’s use of telepresence robots in the classroom.

The College purchased a telepresence robot last summer through a mini-grant from the Carl Sandburg College Foundation, and Kellogg has used it in his classes on the Main Campus in Galesburg throughout the academic year. The robot, which stands about 4 feet tall, has a barrel-shaped bottom to move about and a column that extends up to hold an iPad, which produces an internet connection.

Students who are offsite, such as those at the College’s Branch Campus in Carthage, can log in remotely to control the robot and see the classroom. It also allows students on the Main Campus to see and more easily communicate with classmates who are offsite, almost as if they were in the room with them.

The use of the robot quickly became popular among other instructors at the College, leading to the purchase of five more. Six classes at Sandburg currently have students who attend via the robots.

“It is all about the connectivity to students,” Kellogg said. “To get a group of students together and after about five minutes they forget about the technology, and it is just another person in the group. This is the most connectivity I have seen in distance education. The students really get to know each other. For faculty that engage in student-centered learning, it allows students from multiple sites to work collaboratively. Instructional design requires faculty to engage millennial students in different ways.”

Established more than 30 years ago, the League’s Innovation of the Year competition recognizes innovative programs, practices, partnerships, policies and activities that improve the abilities of institutions to serve students and the community, and it honors those who have created and implemented them. Nominations for the Innovation of the Year Awards are judged on quality, efficiency, cost effectiveness, ability to be replicated by other institutions, creativity and timeliness.

Press Contact

Aaron Frey
afrey@sandburg.edu
3093415301

Subscribe

  Email

  RSS

Connect

  Facebook

  Twitter

  YouTube