The New Media Consortium has announced the recipients of the 2013 NMC Center of Excellence Award. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the NMC and recognizes demonstrated excellence and outstanding achievement in the application of technology to teaching, learning, or creative inquiry.

“The NMC Center of Excellence Awards celebrate the innovation and creativity that is part of the fabric of every member institution,” said NMC CEO Larry Johnson. “The NMC organizations recognized this year represent the best of our field, and each has had a tremendous history of accomplishment.”

Symbolized by a specially struck medallion suspended in a translucent obelisk, the NMC Center of Excellence Award has been designed purposefully to make it distinct from other award or recognition programs. Universities and colleges do not compete for the award, nor is it granted within predefined categories. The selection process is based on the MacArthur Awards, and like that program, the nominators and others involved in the selection process remain anonymous as a core principle of the program. They are chosen from organizations both within and outside the NMC, and represent a considerable diversity of knowledge.

The 2013 NMC Center of Excellence Award recipients are:

Centro Superior para la Enseñanza Virtual (CSEV)
Recognized for developing inventive and interactive models to transmit knowledge on online environments through their unX program. The unX program delivers massively open online courses in an online learning and entrepreneurship community where members can learn, contribute, and enrich it progressively, adopting different roles in the educational process of open innovation.

The Ohio State University
Recognized for the high level of emerging technology strategy incorporated in their course instruction via the Digital First Initiative. To date, Digital First has facilitated the development of over 20 iTunes U courses, expanded wireless classroom capabilities to accommodate three connections per seat, helped facilitate the deployment of iPads to 40 departments, and passed nearly $100,000 in technology savings to students through the First Opportunity Technology Program in partnership with the OSU campus computer store.

“The 2013 recipients are all acknowledged leaders in the application of technology by any standard,” Johnson stated at the NMC Center of Excellence Awards ceremony at the 2013 NMC C-LAB Meeting when the awards were presented. “The institutions recognized with the NMC Center of Excellence Award are a group that includes schools large and small, the well-endowed and the not-so-well-endowed; they represent the best of the NMC. Together and individually they exemplify the state of the art. Today’s recipients are extremely worthy additions to that list.”

“UnX is the first Iberoamerican community for digital entrepreneurship aiming at piloting new methodological models to transmit knowledge on online environments,” said Daniel Torres, Director General of CSEV “The unX entrepreneurship community strongly fits in NMC´s mission as UnX is the result of an exploration into new and emerging technologies to make learning more engaging and relevant. “

"The Digital First mission is to inspire innovative instruction through emerging technology," said Mike Hofherr, Associate Vice President of Distance Education and eLearning, The Ohio State University.  "We have enabled faculty and staff innovators at The Ohio State University to harness the power of new technology in their teaching, learning and research. Digital First hopes to give students confidence that the degree they earn from The Ohio State University will remain one that reflects the skills they’ll need to be leaders of a 21st century workforce. I am convinced that the work of Digital First will continue to enhance teaching and learning at Ohio State, and will have far-reaching impact on the entire community of innovators represented by NMC."