We are the only University in Turkey to receive the award from among 17 countries and 130 nominees. We received the Blackboard Catalyst Award for Leading Change.
Under the leadership of Learning Application and Research Center, Istanbul Okan University deserved Blackboard Catalyst Award for Leading Chance category for its success in online education process management during the pandemic process.
The annual Catalyst Award recognize and honor innovation and excellence in the Blackboard global community of practice, where millions of educators and learners work every day to redefine what is possible when leveraging technology. Winners are selected by a cross-functional team of Blackboard experts. The 58 winners were selected from 130 nominees, the most since the Catalyst Awards program began. Nominations were entered from institutions in 17 countries. This award is for institutions who are on the forefront of educational innovation. It recognizes campuses who have developed and implemented high impact educational strategies that scale. Awardees will have developed practices and/or technologies that have had a measurable effect on learning outcomes, student performance, or academic progression. The Blackboard Catalyst Award for Leading Change recognizes institutions that actively promote the widespread adoption of innovative strategies with the potential to increase rates of student success nationwide. İstanbul Okan University leads hybrid education transformation with 360° process design in the fields of academic, career, physiological, social and intellectual development within Blackboard Learn and Collaborate. The platform has aided, integration of educational technology tools, online supported education application via LTI/RestApi, including taking care of retention center, using analytics, allowing for continuous/incremental development of the courses, adaptation for different elements in the online learning structure such as AI or more advanced learning algorithms to democratize the learning more.
The award will be presented to our Learning Application and Research Center Manager Emel Koç at BbWorld, Blackboard's leading annual global conference, which will be held over a two-week period, July 13-15 and July 20-22.
