{"id":9032,"date":"2025-12-18T19:18:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/?p=9032"},"modified":"2025-12-18T19:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:46:08","slug":"purdue-universitys-online-teaching-cohort-program-copilot-wins-online-learning-consortium-award-for-digital-learning-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/purdue-universitys-online-teaching-cohort-program-copilot-wins-online-learning-consortium-award-for-digital-learning-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Purdue University\u2019s\u00a0online teaching cohort program,\u00a0CoPILOT,\u00a0wins Online Learning Consortium Award for digital learning\u00a0innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Purdue&nbsp;University\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/innovativelearning\/programs\/copilot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cohort Program for Innovation and Leadership in Online Teaching<\/a>&nbsp;(CoPILOT)&nbsp;recently&nbsp;won an&nbsp;Online Learning&nbsp;Consortium&nbsp;(OLC)&nbsp;award for excellence in digital learning innovation. This recognition from OLC&nbsp;is a testament to the innovative work being done by Purdue\u2019s course production team, who created&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;to help Purdue instructors develop and deliver high-quality online&nbsp;courses across all campus colleges and schools.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCoPILOT&nbsp;represents a strategic investment in Purdue University\u2019s educational mission,\u201d said Dimitrios Peroulis,&nbsp;senior&nbsp;vice president&nbsp;for&nbsp;partnerships&nbsp;and online at Purdue University.&nbsp;\u201cIt empowers programs from every college to innovate and collaborate in ways that strengthen our collective ability to serve learners, drive discovery&nbsp;and advance Purdue\u2019s land-grant mission.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OLC is a leading&nbsp;professional&nbsp;organization&nbsp;that sets standards for quality and drives innovation in online education through its research, quality&nbsp;frameworks&nbsp;and annual conferences. The&nbsp;Excellence in&nbsp;Digital Learning Innovation Award recognizes&nbsp;outstanding achievements in developing creative and impactful digital learning solutions that&nbsp;promote accessibility and drive learner engagement.&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;was recognized for its hands-on approach to enhancing the online learning experience by giving Purdue instructors the support and resources they need to deliver excellence at scale.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1353\" height=\"1015\" data-id=\"9037\" src=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_151946080-edited.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9037\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_151946080-edited.jpg 1353w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_151946080-edited-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_151946080-edited-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_151946080-edited-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1353px) 100vw, 1353px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Larissa Cremeens\u00a0(left)\u00a0and Connie Hahn\u00a0(right) from Purdue&#8217;s CoPILOT team accept their OLC award.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" data-id=\"9035\" src=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251119_132306259-1024x771.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9035\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251119_132306259-1024x771.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251119_132306259-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251119_132306259-768x578.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251119_132306259-1536x1156.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251119_132306259.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Larissa Cremeens\u00a0(left)\u00a0and Connie Hahn\u00a0(right) from Purdue&#8217;s CoPILOT team accept their OLC award.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>CoPILOT&nbsp;takes&nbsp;a structured, cohort-based approach to instructor development. In the program, instructors&nbsp;are paired with other instructors in small cohorts, where they&nbsp;work individually and collaboratively to develop&nbsp;online courses. They also receive&nbsp;assistance&nbsp;from instructional designers and video producers, and&nbsp;they\u2019re&nbsp;connected with Purdue\u2019s myriad resources for online instructors.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By&nbsp;participating&nbsp;in&nbsp;CoPILOT, online instructors can get&nbsp;assistance&nbsp;developing&nbsp;asynchronous, accessible online courses that center active-learning and student engagement.&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;helps instructors plan, execute,&nbsp;teach&nbsp;and evaluate online courses, while still giving them&nbsp;agency&nbsp;over&nbsp;the course design process. From&nbsp;creating assessments to incorporating engaging videos and activities, instructors can use&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;to&nbsp;develop&nbsp;online courses that make students feel connected \u2014 no matter where they are.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dharmendra Saraswat, professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University, said&nbsp;participating&nbsp;in&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;helped elevate his teaching strategy, and it saved him&nbsp;an invaluable resource \u2014 time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCoPILOT&nbsp;has elevated my teaching and resulted in a reduced workload,\u201d said Saraswat.&nbsp;\u201cBy streamlining how my course materials are organized and presented, the program freed me from prep work and allowed me to focus on instruction and student engagement.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saraswat also said that&nbsp;CoPILOT\u2019s&nbsp;evidence-based approach to teaching and&nbsp;focus on quality helped him&nbsp;create more value for&nbsp;Purdue&#8217;s online students.&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;empowered him to&nbsp;build asynchronous online courses that were engaging&nbsp;and interactive, which&nbsp;in turn empowered students to be more successful in meeting course&nbsp;objectives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI feel&nbsp;CoPILOT&nbsp;translates into online classes that are objective, more interactive, and lead to a more supportive, practical learning experience,\u201d Saraswat said.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Courses developed through&nbsp;CoPIlOT&nbsp;are fully funded by the&nbsp;university, and participants in the program receive a $5000 stipend for their efforts.&nbsp;Participants are expected to attend regular meetings, complete course milestones by agreed-upon due dates, and devote at least&nbsp;five&nbsp;hours of work every week to&nbsp;building the course.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be considered for&nbsp;CoPILOT, instructors need to&nbsp;talk to their administration lead and department head, as well as fill out an application.&nbsp;Instructors can find their administration lead listed on&nbsp;CoPILOT\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/innovativelearning\/programs\/copilot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website,<\/a>&nbsp;where they can also submit an application.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Purdue University\u2019s Cohort Program for Innovation and Leadership in Online Teaching (CoPILOT) recently won an Online Learning Consortium (OLC) award for excellence in digital learning innovation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"area-of-study":[],"person":[75],"class_list":["post-9032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teaching-learning","person-faculty-staff"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855.jpg",1800,1014,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855.jpg",1800,1014,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855.jpg",1800,1014,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855-1024x577.jpg",1024,577,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855.jpg",1800,1014,false],"rt_custom":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PXL_20251120_152213143-e1765572014855.jpg",1800,1014,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"RM Barton","author_link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/author\/barton53\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/category\/teaching-learning\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Teaching &amp; Learning<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Purdue University\u2019s Cohort Program for Innovation and Leadership in Online Teaching (CoPILOT) recently won an Online Learning Consortium (OLC) award for excellence in digital learning innovation.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9116,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032\/revisions\/9116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9032"},{"taxonomy":"area-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/area-of-study?post=9032"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=9032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}