Congratulations to Christine Skelly, Karen Vignare, and Gwyn Heyboer for their leadership of My Horse University (MHU)! Their program and its partner, eXtension HorseQuest, led by Kathleen Anderson, University of Nebraska, were recently named winner of the 2009 Shirley Davis Award for Excellence in Synchronous Distance Learning. Christine is an associate professor of animal science and Karen and Gwyn are distance learning professionals in MSU Global.
MHU is a national online horse management program for horse enthusiasts. Founded by the MSU Department of Animal Science, MSU Extension and MSU Global, this program offers equine education courses and research-based information resources for horse owners and equine professionals that can be tailored to help them improve their understanding of horses and enhance their horse management practices. eXtension HorseQuest is an interactive learning environment delivering research-based knowledge from land-grant universities across America. Visitors can get online answers to their equine-related questions, locate horse events in their area, watch instructional videos, take short courses and participate in webcasts with equine experts across the nation. MHU and HorseQuest are complementary programs in which users seeking general horse information from HorseQuest may benefit from content developed for MHU, and if they are interested in designed courses and certificate programs in horse management, they are directed to MHU. Likewise, MHU links their clients back to HorseQuest for information that may go beyond the courses they are taking. In addition to Dr. Skelly’s leadership, MSU has contributed content by Karen Waite, Camie Heleski, Brian Nielsen, John Shelle, Judy Marteniuk, and Hal Schott to the program.
The Shirley Davis Award for Excellence in Synchronous Distance Learning, given by the National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN), recognizes individuals and institutions that provide superior distance learning opportunities via the Web or video conferencing of a superior nature in the areas of innovation, interactivity, production quality and administrative issues. The award will be presented June 23 at the NUTN annual conference on distance education in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The conference, “Quality in Motion,” will focus on the challenges to distance learning and technology in a troubled economy. Participants at the NUTN conference represent more than 60 higher education institutions across the country that focus on distance education and the technologies that support education.
