Students' Union thinks you should nominate your professor for a Teaching Excellence Award

The Students’ Union (SU) has been helping students honour outstanding teaching at the University of Calgary for almost 43 years. The SU’s Teaching Excellence Awards were first handed out in 1975 (they were called the Master/Superior Teachers Awards back then) and they continue to be the only teaching awards on campus to be decided entirely by students. In the era of social media and ratemyprofessor.com, these awards continue to maintain their relevance and importance.

Why recognize excellence in teaching?

For students, the in-classroom experience is definitive when it comes to evaluating their time at university. The creation of the Teaching Excellence Awards by the SU was an effort to encourage high-calibre teaching at the University of Calgary by recognizing those instructors who really shine. The hope was that by seeing their peers be recognized for outstanding pedagogy, others would be inspired to be more conscious of how they teach.

Award recipients are chosen for their ability to help students reach their highest potential. This can be achieved in any number of ways. For example, a professor might be nominated because they are good at communicating information, have the ability to foster creative thinking, or are fair and consistent in grading.

Most importantly for the SU, though, was that students be allowed to select award winners. “There are lots of ways to evaluate teaching,” explains Tina Miller, SU VP academic, “but impact on students is the most important in my opinion. Students know they are here to learn, but they appreciate a teacher who makes the process easier by being inspirational, innovative, or caring.”

How the awards process works

The SU accepts nominations for the Teaching Excellence Awards in the fall and winter semesters each year. They know students are busy, and so they have adapted the nomination process over the years to ensure students can submit them quickly and easily. Paper forms that had to be picked up have given way to an online form that can be completed in only a few minutes.

Nominations are tallied and only the instructors with the most in each faculty move on to the second part of the process: a class visit from a SU representative to administer a survey of students. The last step involves a committee of students meeting to analyze the data and make the final call.

The SU hands out awards to winning instructors and teaching assistants in every faculty at an awards banquet near the end of April each year. They also give out honourable mentions — such as the one received by President Elizabeth Cannon in 1996.

Should you nominate your professor?

The SU thinks you should! It’s easy and one of the best ways to encourage top-notch teaching remains the standard at the University of Calgary. Need another reason? Each year, the SU donates $5,000 on behalf of the winners to the Taylor Family Institute for Teaching and Learning — just another way the SU works to maintain teaching excellence on campus.