Mid-State fire instructor honored for innovative teaching

Metro Wire Staff

Mid-State Technical College this week announced one of its instructors has been honored for his design of an online firefighter course.

Fire Protection Technician Instructor Brandon Hageman has been named among 17 educators globally to receive the 2019 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Award. The award recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges, and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning, according to a news release from Mid-State.

Hageman won the award for his Strategies, Tactics and Incident Management course in the college’s online Emergency Services Management program, which explores the principles of fire ground control through the use of personnel, equipment and extinguishing agents.

According to the news release, the course demonstrated excellence in each of the award’s four areas:

• Course Design: The elements of instructional design, such as its structure, learning objectives, and instructional strategies.
• Interaction and Collaboration: The type and amount of interaction and collaboration facilitated within an online environment.
• Assessment: The quality and type of student assessments and instructional activities designed to measure progress toward learning outcomes, provide feedback to students and instructors, and/or enable grading or evaluation.
• Learner Support: The resources made available to students either within or external to the digital course environment.

Hageman said he’s received feedback from students over the years who “never could really tell me what a good online course looked like, but they could describe a poor one.” His new course helps bridge that gap.

“I made sure with this design to include redundancy throughout to ensure that students don’t have to click around trying to find their assignments. Facilitating an environment where students feel connected to their coursework was my end goal from the beginning,” he said. “It’s gratifying to be recognized for excellent course design by my peers in education”

Lee Blackmore, chief client officer and president of global markets at Blackboard, said courses recognized by the program “are seen by peers as setting the bar for engaging learned and maximizing academic outcomes for students.”

“I am pleased to welcome Brandon Hagemen to the ECP Award family,” he added.

To learn more about the Exemplary Course Program, visit blackboard.com/resources/are-your-courses-exemplary.

For information about Mid-State’s Fire Protection Technician and Emergency Services Management programs, visit mstc.edu/programs.