Congratulations to Math Department faculty members, Dr. Sarah Eichhorn and Dr. Rachel Lehman, and Math graduate student, May Mei! They will be recognized at the 19th annual Celebration of Teaching Ceremony. Sarah and Rachel have been awarded the 2013 Instructional Technology Innovation Award for their work with online courses. The purpose of this award is to encourage and recognize the effective use of instructional technology in undergraduate education. The Celebration of Teaching event is hosted by the Teaching, Learning & Technology Center and co-sponsored by the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Senate Council on Student Experience.

Sarah and Rachel developed two online mathematics courses in Algebra and Pre-Calculus and created 140 lecture videos to support these courses. The project was awarded and funded by the UC Online Instruction Pilot Program through competition. The courses serve not only UCI students but also the general public with quality, accessibility and flexibility.  So far more than 80,000 people have signed up for the online courses. These two courses, which are the only courses from UCI, along with three courses designed by other US universities, are being offered through Coursera and are the first five massive open online courses to be recommended for transferable credit by The American Council on Education (ACE). The success has been reported in a recent LA Times article.

Dr. Sarah Eichhorn is a Lecturer PSOE and the Assistant Vice Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Mathematics.  She earned her PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Arizona in 2004, and joined the department in 2007. Dr. Rachel Lehman has been a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics since earning her PhD from UCI in 1997. Both Sarah and Rachel have earned awards for their work in undergraduate education.  Rachel was awarded the School of Physical Sciences Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education Award in 2000 and the Celebration of Teaching Award in 2004.  Sarah received the Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education Award from the School of Physical Sciences in 2008 and the Alder Award from the Mathematical Association of America for distinguished teaching in 2011.

May Mei will be recognized at the ceremony for participating the 2012/2013 Pedagogical Fellows Program, sponsored by the Teaching, Learning and Technology Center (TLTC). Pedagogical Fellows are excellent and highly experiences Teaching Assistants who have been selected to receive "advanced pedagogical training in preparation for the services they will provide to new TAs during the annual TA Professional Development Program held during Welcome Week." Fellows also offer training workshops throughout the year to their peers. May, who shows great enthusiasm for teaching, was an excellent choice for this program.  She has given talks at the UCI Math Club and has participated in the UCI Future Mathematics Faculty Program. She also participated in the Sonya Kovalevsky Math Day at UCI and the UCI Math Circle, and she is a great asset to the Dynamical Systems seminar.  May has been an excellent addition to the Pedagogical Fellows Program.

Photos from the 2013 Celebration of Teaching Awards Ceremony are below.