SIERRA VISTA — Online Campus Director George Self has one of the most recognized faces at Cochise College. No, it’s not just because of the funny hats and shameless costumes he wears about campus. It’s because he can often be found running a professional development workshop, designed for everyone from newbies at the college to seasoned faculty members.
George Self, Director of Online Campus
Those efforts were recognized last semester by Dr. Macaela Cashman, former director of professional development at Cochise College, who nominated Self back in June for an Exemplar Award, presented by the North American Council on Staff, Program and Organizational Development.
“Cochise College has benefitted greatly from George Self’s organizational and communication skills, work ethic, friendly attitude, and attention to detail,” wrote Cashman in her nomination. “Through offering ongoing professional development workshops, Faculty and Staff Development Day breakout sessions, and WebStudy training, he provides the opportunity for instructors to learn how to be innovative in their use of technology. He is generous in sharing his knowledge and technological skills with peers throughout the College.”
Self was notified that he received the award in October and was recognized at the annual International NCSPOD conference, though he did not attend.
This is the second year NCSPOD has offered the Exemplar Award. It was developed as an effort to recognize faculty, administrators and staff of NCSPOD member institutions for their professional development contributions. Each participating institution may recognize someone each year who best exemplifies professional development at their college.
This is the first year Cochise College has nominated a faculty member for an Exemplar Award.
“As the Director of the Online Campus, George has introduced instructors to innovative test creating software, lecture recording software, course evaluation systems, and most importantly, a new, improved online course management system,” Cashman wrote. “He is innovative, always the first to try out new software and teach others how to use it. He is the ‘Computer Guru’ of Cochise College. George is highly respected by the entire college, and they look to him for leadership and problem resolutions daily.”
Self holds a bachelor’s degree from Missouri Valley College and a master’s degree from Troy State University. He was hired at Cochise College in 1999. In the last decade, Self has made a continuous effort to keep up with the latest in computers and computer programs, among other pieces of technology, and he almost never hesitates to pass on that knowledge to colleagues.
“I suspect Macaela always liked having me do training because I volunteer to do it every time,” Self laughed. “And I think people feel like if they have to go to a day of training, they might as well go to one that has some kind of laughs involved.”
Self’s training and workshop sessions are typically well attended, perhaps because of the intriguing titles attached to them, or because attendees know his unique sense of humor — he has a supply of several dozen pieces of quirky hats at the ready — will mean a tutorial that’s anything but boring.
Self said he rarely, if ever, scours the Internet to mimic professional development workshops at other colleges. Instead, he considers what would be most useful, and interesting, for faculty and staff at Cochise. In November, Self and Grace Mah, CIS Instructor/Instructional Designer for Online Campus, offered a session titled “Apps for Ed,” a survey of iPad, iPhone, Droid and computer applications that can help enhance classroom instruction.
“I feel like all of us have some body of knowledge that we really need to share with each other,” Self said, listing qualifications of fellow faculty members within the college. “We don’t have to pay a consultant $5,000 to come and tell us something. We have all kinds of expertise in house.”