2007 SwVCC News

Dr. Elizabeth Smith Receives National MERLOT Award

Dr. Smith Dr. Elizabeth Smith received the prestigious 2007 International MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) Volunteer of the Year Award at the MERLOT International Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 8.

Smith, who teaches French and Spanish at Southwest Virginia Community College, uses MERLOT resources in her classes; as a result of her interest in the high quality learning materials, she became a volunteer reviewer for the World Languages Discipline Community. Not only has she peer reviewed a very large body of submissions to the discipline, She uses the peer review process with her students to gain the student perspective for her review and to give her students practice in language usage.

MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed, education, online learning materials and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses.
Dr. Elizabeth Smith (right) shown with Dr. Laura Franklin, editor of the World Languages Editorial Board.