Feb. 28, 2013
Contact: Lesley Fry at (419) 995-8671 or Pam Joseph at (419) 995-8284

Ohio State Lima lecturer receives distinguished teaching award

Ruth Kinder, senior lecturer of chemistry at The Ohio State University at Lima, is one of three Ohio State lecturers receiving the 2013 Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer. Provost Joseph A. Alutto presented the award in a surprise visit to Kinder’s classroom on Thur., Feb. 28, 2013.

The Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer annually recognizes lecturers, senior lecturers or other auxiliary faculty members for their teaching excellence. This is the inaugural year for the award. Recipients are nominated by students, faculty and alumni, and are chosen by a committee of students, other award winning faculty and alumni. A maximum of three lecturers are chosen University-wide for this award and this year, Kinder is the only one from a regional campus.

"Ruth Kinder is one of the finest teachers we have on the Lima campus. Her success as an instructor is a combination of both making courses challenging and motivating students to succeed," said Dr. John R. Snyder, dean and director at Ohio State Lima. "Outside of the classroom, Ruth’s expertise with learning technology and assessment has led to invitations for her to conduct faculty development sessions on the Columbus campus. All of us on the Lima campus are proud to have her as a colleague and agree she is very deserving of this prestigious award."

Kinder has been teaching at Ohio State Lima since 1995. She has been instrumental in developing interactive materials to blend traditional classroom work with computerized individual coursework. In 2006, she introduced the blended introductory chemistry sequence, which has online content blended with face-to-face lab experiences. Kinder is the 2004 recipient of the Ohio State Lima Outstanding Teaching Award. She was recently promoted to the position of senior lecturer at the beginning of the 2012-2013 academic year.

One of her nominators wrote, "In addition to her skills in the classroom, Ruth Kinder is a leader at Ohio State in preparation and implementation of courses with significant on-line components. She calls these blended courses, as they combine on-line course materials with Ôin person’ laboratory sessions and in-class examinations. These courses were created from scratch, incorporating course content packets for lecture and laboratory-type applications, as well as exhaustive quantities of content for our online learning management system, Carmen. These materials speak to a very dedicated and organized instructor who is clearly an expert at presenting this material to its target audience at an appropriate level."

Kinder will receive a plaque and a cash award made possible by the Office of Academic Affairs.

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