CLEAR Outstanding Online Course Award

The CLEAR Outstanding Online Course Award recognizes full-time UNT faculty members for excellence in online course design. This University-wide award honors courses that demonstrate high-quality instructional design through well-structured and engaging learning materials, dynamic and accessible interaction, and strong alignment between assessments and learning objectives.

2025-2026 Eligibility and Selection Criteria

In 2026, CLEAR will recognize one full-time faculty member for the development of an outstanding online course, as demonstrated through excellence in course design. The recipient of the $1,500 award will be recognized at UNT’s Salute to Faculty Excellence ceremony in 2026 and listed publicly alongside past winners.

Eligibility

All full-time faculty members (tenure system and professional faculty) are eligible, but previous awardees are not eligible for nomination for five years following the receipt of the award. Administrators, including those who teach, are not eligible. Only courses that were developed or redeveloped with CLEAR and delivered to students in the past two years (i.e., from fall 2023 to summer 2025) are eligible for a nomination.

The nominee must have developed or redeveloped the course as a part of CLEAR’s Online Course Development process. The award recipient must agree to allow the course design to be shared with other UNT faculty and administrators as a model for outstanding course design.

Faculty may be nominated by themselves, by their department chair, or by other faculty colleagues. CLEAR staff who collaborated with the nominee in course development may also submit a nomination. Nominees will be contacted and asked to submit a complete application packet if they wish to accept the nomination.

Selection Criteria

The selection is based on evidence of outstanding course design. The award recipient's course should feature well-structured and engaging learning materials, promote dynamic and accessible interaction, and align assessments with learning objectives. The Online Course Award Committee comprises members of CLEAR's Instructional Design Team.

Complete application packet should include in one PDF:

A direct link to the Canvas course section that the nominee wishes the Committee to evaluate.
A letter of support from the nominee’s department chair (maximum 300 words) to confirm the nominee’s good standing within their department and to highlight the impact and effectiveness of the nominated course.
A brief narrative (max. 300 words) outlining the faculty member's philosophy of teaching online and its application in the nominated course.

Selection Process

The Online Course Awards Committee reviews nominations and selects one award recipient by evaluating complete applications.

Use of Award Funds

Award recipients may use the awarded funds at their personal discretion.

Submission

Email nomination packets to Benjamin.Nye@unt.edu by 5:00 pm on Monday, November 10, 2025. Incomplete packets will not be considered.

Past Winners

2025 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Coursera
Dr. Jessica Craig
CJUS 5700: Evaluation and Research Methodologies

2025 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Canvas
Dr. Susan Watson
BAAS 4100: Managing a 21st Century Career

2024 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Coursera
Dr. Dexter Purnell
MKGT 3650: Foundations of Marketing Practice

2024 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Canvas
Dr. Kathryne Beebe
HIST 4221: Early Modern Europe and the World

2024 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Canvas
Dr. Jae Webb
MGMT 5710: Seminar in Business Ethics & Social Responsibility

2023 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Coursera
Dr. Kathryn Raign
TECM 1700: Professional Writing in the Workplace

2023 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Coursera
Dr. Marc Grether
MATH 1180: College Math for Business Economics

2023 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Canvas
Dr. LeAnn Boyce
ADTA 5240: Harvesting, Storing, and Retrieving Data

2022 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Coursera
Dr. Susan Watson
Fundamentals of Inquiry and Discovery

2022 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award in Canvas
Dr. Kara Fulton
Archaeological Science

2021 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Allyson Packer

2020 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Roxanne Long

2019 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Brian Lain
The Zombie as Rhetorical Figure

2019 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Award
Alexandra Veselka-Bush
Human Sexuality

2018 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Frances Perkins
Media Arts

2018 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Gayle Prybutok
Health Services Administration

2017 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Gayle Prybutok
Health Services Administration

2017 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Kelly Donahue-Wallace
Art and Business

2016 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Lisa Henry
Peoples and Cultures of the Pacific

2016 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Judi Bradetich
Child Development

2015 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Stephen Garretson
Family, School and Community

2015 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Royce George
Theories of Organizational Development and Reform

2014 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Nancy Boyd Lillie
Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

2014 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Manjula Salimath
International Management Perspectives

2013 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Elizabeth Arnold
Creating Consumer Experiences

2013 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Linda Stromberg
Instructional Leadership

2012 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Rossana Boyd
Pedagogy for English as a Second Language for EC-12 classrooms

2012 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Nicole Dash
Collective Behavior

2011 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Smita Mehta
Classroom and Behavior Management

2011 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Lou Pelton
Culture and Consumption

2010 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Susan Dadres
Economic Concepts

2010 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Kris Chesky
Occupational Health: Lessons from Music

2010 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Kelly Donahue-Wallace
Art History Survey I

2009 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Smita Mehta
Educational Aspects of Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities

2009 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Anat Barnir
E-Management

2009 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Susan Dadres
Principles of Macroeconomics

2009 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Lynn Johnson
Organizational Behavior

2008 Blackboard Exemplary Course
Dr. Tracey Gau
Masterpieces of World Literature from the Ancients Through the Early Renaissance

2007 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Derrick D’Souza
International Management

2007 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Nathan Cottle
Human Development

2007 Exemplary Online Course Designer Award
Dr. Becky Glover
Human Development

2007 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Susan Dadres
Economic Concepts

2007 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Dr. Lee Hughes
Principles of Biology I

2006 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Bob Insley and Michael Sexton
Communicating in Business

2005 Outstanding Online Teacher & Course Award
Dr. Elizabeth Figa
Storytelling for Information Professionals

2005 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
2005 WebCT Exemplary Course
Dr. Patricia Cukor-Avila and
Dr. Shobhana Chelliah
General Linguistics, Principles of Language Study (two courses)

2005 Exemplary Online Teacher & Course Designer Award
Jerry Dickenson
Resort and Club Management

2005 Exemplary Online Course Designer Award
Dr. Kelly Donahue-Wallace
Art Appreciation