Delta College receives 2022-2023 Innovation of the Year award

The League for Innovation in the Community College has awarded Delta College the 2022-2023 Innovation of the Year award. The League for Innovation in the Community College is a nonprofit organization whose mission it is to cultivate transformational innovation across institutions of higher education.

One of the areas in which Delta College received recognition was Web-Based Audiovisual Platform for the Health Profession for its simulated labs for healthcare, dental, and physical therapy that include enhanced audio/video recording capability in the health professions labs/simulation rooms, control room, and testing rooms, Physical Therapist Assistant area instructor and student stations with microphones and cameras, x-ray/sterilization areas and lecture classrooms, and patient cameras and microphones with optical and digital zoom for oral view and patient-student interaction in the dental clinic.

Those credited with being instrumental in these innovations are Mitch Ziehmer, who is the support technician of information technology, Greg Luczak, who is the assistant director of business services; Pamela Livingston, who is the assistant professor of dental hygiene; Lori Kloc, the healthcare simulation educator, Chris Hausbeck, the associate professor of physical therapy, and Jim Czyweksi, who is the director of user services.

In an article posted on Delta College’s website, Hausbeck talked about how he hopes the award will inspire his fellow educators to innovate as well, and how innovations will help students to have a greater potential in their careers.

“I am beyond excited to have this new technology in my classroom. In physical therapy, it’s essential to have great observation skills. We will use the system to record students performing interventions and then have them watch and reflect on their performance,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic caused the school to use more web-based audiovisuals, which have now been embraced as a long term approach to educating students. 

Kloc talked about this method, saying, “It sets the college apart from all other colleges because Delta saw the importance of incorporating technology into new learning methods. It started as a safety measure, but now we can see many interesting and innovative ways students can self-evaluate and reduce their performance anxiety. The possibilities of how we will be able to use this technology are endless.”

More information about Delta College can be found at the school’s website.