Office of the
Chief Information Officer

Home

Index to Current and Past Years

Contact Us

Dennis Pearl receives recognition from Patrick McGovern, chairman of International Data Group, at the Computerworld Honors Awards

By Richard Wofford

The Pew Statistical Buffet and the Web Media Collective projects are finalists for 2003 Computerworld honors in the categories of Education & Academia and Media and Arts & Entertainment, respectively. The awards program singles out innovations in information technology that benefit society. Microsoft's Bill Gates nominated Ohio State University to be part of a collection that includes more than 300 of the year's most innovative applications of technology from 36 states and 33 countries. [see Computerworld Honors]

Computerworld is a weekly newspaper that provides news-driven topical analysis on the impact of technology at medium and large sized corporations. Computerworld focuses on the business benefits of technology from the users' point of view.

The 60 finalists from 16 countries represent visionary applications of information technology from the 2003 Computerworld Honors Collection. Finalists were selected by a panel of distinguished judges on the basis of benefit to society, importance of information technology, originality, success and difficulty.

"It's great for our project to be honored in this way," says Dennis Pearl, Pew Statistical Buffet project director and professor of statistics. "Large multi-section courses have been the bane of higher education in the United States for decades. The buffet model, illustrates that class size can be a strength rather than a weakness."

Pearl and his Ohio State colleagues from the statistics department, Faculty and TA Development group and TELR (Technology Enhanced Learning and Research group) designed the buffet model to give students a choice of content delivery strategies in a multi-section statistics course. Their choice is informed by a detailed self-assessment and the testimony of previous learners. Automated course administration and individualized Web content optimizes each student's experience and success while decreasing costs. [Full Case Study]

Diane Dagefoerde and colleagues from the college of Humanities collaborated on the design of six Web-based digital media collections containing almost a million media assets--books, TV programs, music, photographs, art, and software--used in more than one hundred university courses. [Full Case Study]

Finalists in each of the categories will be honored on June 2 at a black-tie gala at Washington, DC's historic National Building Museum. This year, more than 800 industry leaders and professionals will attend the event, including award recipients, chairmen, judges and leadership award winners.

News release from Computerworld Honors Program:

The Pew Statistical Buffet

Web Media Collective