We are pleased to announce that two UNH College of Professional Online faculty members, Caroline Groves and Tyler Wilks, have received the Distinguished Faculty Award.
The annual Distinguished Faculty Award acknowledges adjunct faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the teaching/learning process at the College of Professional Studies (CPS) Online. This award recognizes distinguished teaching and other notable achievements such as curriculum development, critical committee and/or project-based work, assessment of prior learning, creating community connections, and mentoring.
Composed of experienced industry professionals and passionate lifelong learners, the faculty. bring a combination of practical knowledge and real-life experience to share. UNH CPS faculty are committed to providing high quality education for their students.
Connectedness to faculty is a signature of the student experience at UNH College of Professional Studies Online. According to alumna and current faculty member Sue Farris BS ‘09, “I know from personal experience what it’s like to be an adult learner and how skilled the faculty, staff and administrators were in supporting, encouraging, and challenging me to achieve my goals... the support and encouragement I received from the faculty left a long-lasting impression on me.”
Award criteria includes demonstrating excellence of teaching at UNH CPS Online for a minimum of five years, extraordinary responsiveness to individual student needs, including both supporting and challenging students, service to the college through committee work, creating community connections, and more, and demonstration of the faculty member’s own role as a lifelong learner.
About the Award Recipients
Caroline Groves, Senior Online Adjunct Faculty
Caroline serves as a faculty member for the Center for Business & Technology and her unique background in Human Resources, holding an MBA and an MPA uniquely qualifies her to teach multiple program and course offerings. Caroline has an average student evaluation score of 4.9 and is well-liked by students, who acknowledge her encouraging “bedside manner.” The committee most notably wanted to recognize Caroline’s role throughout the merger, which included several course conversions to the new 8-week model, securing Writing Intensive status for several undergraduate business courses, and collaborating to create our Writing Across the Curriculum Micro-Credential to support other faculty members across CPS-O in supporting student writing and teaching writing intensive courses.
Tyler Wilks, Senior Online Adjunct Faculty
Tyler serves as a faculty member for the Center for Healthcare, Human Services, and Behavioral Sciences and is committed to innovative pedagogy and finding new and creative ways to engage students. In the past academic year, Tyler has hosted two presentations for the CPS-O Professional Learning Community (PLC), which generated significant participation and discussion. In addition to hosting PLCs, Tyler is a regular attendee of the monthly PLC sessions, consistently engaging, asking questions, and sharing resources with colleagues. Tyler assisted in the 8-week course conversion project as part of the merger, and engaged on the Program Integration Committee for Psychology. In addition, Tyler serves on the Library Committee and as a New Faculty Onboarding Mentor, supporting the onboarding of three new Adjunct colleagues in the last academic year.