Our Awards

2019 Awards

Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE) Award of Excellence - Credit programming under 48 hours

Antimicrobial Stewardship in Primary Care

School of Pharmacy and the Centre for Extended Learning, University of Waterloo, Public Health Agency of Canada and the Sunnybrook Heath Sciences Centre

This series of multimedia modules, directed at community-based practitioners, provides current information about the consequences of use of antimicrobial agents, general principles for antimicrobial stewardship in primary care, as well as strategies to optimize antimicrobial use in a variety of common clinical scenarios.

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Non-credit programming over 48 hours

Data Science Certificate

Waterloo Professional Development and School of Continuing Studies, University of Toronto

This online program includes 4 courses and provides an opportunity for students to work with industry experts on advanced statistical modelling, machine learning and natural language processing and data visualization.

The self-paced format provides opportunities to practice coding and work with data through the use of Jupyter notebooks, to network with peers through group projects and online discussions, and to learn about current issues in the field of Data Science via a library of guest lectures.


2018 Awards

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Non-Credit Programming Under 48 Hours

Management of Oral Anticoagulation Therapy (MOAT) Online

Jeff Nagge, Pharm.D., School of Pharmacy
Marie Lippens, Antonina Joukova and Gregory Papazian, Centre for Extended Learning

Marie Lippins, Aldo Caputo and CAUCE Executives with the award

Photo credit: Left to right: Dr. Sheila LeBlanc (University of Calgary), Marie Lippens (University of Waterloo), Aldo Caputo (University of Waterloo), Carolyn Young (Western University)

MOAT Online provides pharmacists, registered nurses and nurse practitioners with the knowledge and skills to effectively and safely manage oral anticoagulation therapy under a medical directive.

Rationale for offering the program: Anticoagulation therapy management is not generally covered in Undergraduate curricula in Pharmacy. MOAT provides important continuing professional development (CPD) to pharmacists that can ultimately provide more patients with better care while expanding the role of the pharmacy in our health care system.

Experiential training online: Experiential training was deemed crucial to program design based on the advice of an expert panel, instructor observations of learners in the clinic and a retrospective investigation from 10 years of a prior blended version of the program.

MOAT Online provides experiential training to a dispersed target audience of working professionals using artificially intelligent (AI) simulated patient interactions, in an innovative partnership with Ametros Learning, Inc.

MOAT Online is offered in partnership with University of Waterloo Professional Development and the School of Pharmacy

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Design and Marketing - Broadcast and Video

  • Best in Show Award

  • Advertising - Broadcast and Video

The Myths of Online Learning

Janice Cooke

CEL's Janice Cooke and Aldo Caputo with CAUCE executives at the award ceremony

Left to right: Dr. Sheila LeBlanc (University of Calgary), Janice Cooke (University of Waterloo), Aldo Caputo (University of Waterloo), Carolyn Young (Western University)

Target Market: Adult and/or non-traditional learners who are considering attending post-secondary education in an online environment.

Objectives: To address some of the misperceptions and myths that are prevalent about online learning, and to try to convince our target market that these beliefs were not necessarily true. The myths we discuss were determined by

  • A survey and focus groups with adult students
  • Conversations our support and development teams have with students
  • An informal online review of attitudes towards online learning.

A short (1:39 min) video was determined to be the best vehicle to convey our message because it would allow us to showcase real online instructors discussing their experiences online.  We felt this would be stronger rebuttal of the misperceptions than other delivery tools. We were intentionally trying to make it generic with respect to quality online courses in Ontario instead of for Waterloo specifically to apply to a larger audience.

Project funded by Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development under the Ontario Postsecondary Access and Inclusion Program.  Production by Innertainment.


2017 Awards

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Non-Credit programming under 48 hours

Opiod Education Partnership

Feng Chang, Agnes Kluz, Rosemary Killeen, Tegal Patel, Stephanie Boragina, Antonina Joukova, Felicia Pantazi

This fully online program was created by the School of Pharmacy and the Centre for Extended Learning, with funding provided by Health Canada. The program was intended for pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and other health professionals to enhance their knowledge aiming to disseminate knowledge, and promote the appropriate use of opioids


2016 Awards

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Credit Programming Over 48 Hours

Masters of Mathematics for Teaching

Ian Vanderburgh, Tonya Elliott

The Master of Mathematics for Teachers (MMT) program is designed to provide current and aspiring teachers of mathematics with the opportunity to expand their knowledge base. In addition to providing a deeper understanding of mathematical foundations relating to core secondary school curricula, students are also exposed to significant areas of applications of modern mathematics. The primary focus of the program is on mathematics and its applications rather than on pedagogy, but it also challenges students to look for new and innovative ways in which they can bring their newfound knowledge into their classrooms.

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Non-Credit Programming Under 48 Hours

Drug Nutrient Interaction

Rosemary Killeen, Felicia Pantazi

This fully online program was created by the School of Pharmacy, the Centre for Extended Learning, and Dietitians of Canada. It is intended to help dietitians, pharmacists, nurses, physicians and other health professionals enhance their knowledge regarding the prevention and management of clinically relevant drug-nutrient interactions. The course also highlights the importance of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and prepares participants for changing and sometimes overlapping scopes of practice, with the ultimate goal of improving patient-centred care.

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Non-Credit Programming Over 48 Hours

OnCore-EnCours - Core Skills for Public Health Practice

Sheila Datta, Dina Meunier


2015 Awards

CAUCE Journal Award

"I gained a skill and a change in attitude":  A Case Study Describing How an Online Continuing Professional Education Course for Pharmacists Supported Achievement of Its Transfer-to-Practice Outcomes

Pia Zeni Marks, Brad Jennings, Barbara Farrell, Natalie Kennie-Kaulbach, Derek Jorgenson, Jane Pearson Sharpe, Nancy Waite

The convenience and flexibility of online learning clearly make it an attractive option for learners in professional development contexts. There is less clarity, however, about how it fares as a vehicle for enabling the applied, practice-oriented outcomes typically associated with professional development learning.

This paper presents a case study describing how transfer-of-learning strategies were employed in a continuing professional education (CPE) course developed for practicing pharmacists, called ADAPT (Adapting pharmacists’ skills and Approaches to maximize Patients’ drug Therapy effectiveness).

To gain insight into the extent to which learning was transferred to practice as a result of participation in the course, qualitative data were collected over a 12-month period from participants of the 2010 pilot offering of ADAPT. Participants reported making changes to their practice as a result of participating in the course, and they identified three course features as being particularly useful in facilitating practice transfer: providing learners with (i) a vision of targeted outcomes and skills, (ii) support to enable them to attain targeted outcomes and skills, and (iii) explicit preparation for action.

Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) Award Prix - Excellence and Innovation in the Integration of Technology

Online Mathematical Courseware - Secondary School Courseware Project

Tonya Noel

The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) courseware is a collection of curricular resources designed to support high school students and teachers in their teaching and learning of Pre-Calculus and Calculus course concepts. Interactive investigations and on-screen text with synchronized audio teach the concepts while self-assessment questions, exercises, and solutions help students consolidate their learning. The courseware provides a rich selection of freely accessible, engaging learning materials for users around the world.  

2012 Awards

CAUCE Award of Excellence - Non-Credit Programming Over 48 Hours

ADAPT - Patient Care Skills Development

Dina Meunier and Pia Zeni Marks

The ADAPT (“Adapting pharmacists’ skills and Approaches to maximize Patients’ drug Therapy effectiveness”) program was designed to meet the emergent learning needs of pharmacists to enable them to take more active patient care roles. Pharmacists leave the program with the specialized knowledge and skills they need move competently and confidently into these new roles.

The course facilitates the transfer of learning to practice: learners are provided with opportunities throughout the program to apply their new-found knowledge and skills to their workplace practices.  “Practise-at-work”-type activities, supported by a moderator, culminate, at the end of each module, in an action plan in which participants document the kinds of changes they intend to incorporate into their practices based on the knowledge and skills learned in that module. In this way, novice learners learn by engaging in authentic (i.e., real world) activities under the guidance of experts, whose guidance diminishes over time as learners gain competency. Peer interaction further supports learning, with discussion boards providing a social space for participants to reflect on learning and to learn from one another.