The Innovative Teaching Showcase is a website publication created each academic year by the Center for Instructional Innovation (CII) to spotlight WWU instructors' best practices in pedagogy, instructional technologies, and expanded learning environments. The advantages of being "showcased" are numerous. The CII often presents innovations from the Showcase website at campus-based functions as well as national conferences.

Each instructor's Showcase is completely different. Some instructors are showcased because of the way they teach an entire course, a single lesson, or the way they approach all their classes. The innovation does not necessarily have to involve the use of instructional technology. At the heart of each Showcase is the innovative method instructors use to facilitate their students' learning in unique and creative ways. For example:

• The use of "discovery learning" and the inquiry process in a Geology class to actively engage students in the course material. See Thor Hansen's showcase from 2001.
• Working with students to design assessment tools based upon learning objectives and learning outcomes. See Mike Mana's showcase from 2004.

The CII works with several nominated instructors annually to develop and publish their innovation on the Showcase website. Each separate section is composed of three parts: A multimedia showcase (using video, audio and graphics) which gives examples of the course; a portfolio (usually written by the instructor) that describes the innovative process in detail; and an institutional goals section, that links WWU's student learning outcomes in specific areas to those contained in the course. Previous showcases are available on the main Showcase home page.

Selecting only a few innovative instructors each year is always a difficult task. We make our decision based on the following criteria:

1. Each nominee is an excellent instructor.
2. Each nominee exemplifies this year’s theme.
3. Each nominee has an innovative solution or an unexpected solution to this year's theme.
4. We also try to balance nominations across the colleges; for this reason we might choose one person over another if everything else is equal based on this balancing process.

Time and again we are reminded of the depth and quality of instruction at Western. Those nominees who are not selected for the current year’s showcase will be considered for future showcases.

Yes. Whether you are nominated or you propose your own innovation makes no difference in the selection process. All nominees are contacted to determine whether they have the desire to be showcased and the time to contribute to the process. Anyone in the campus community may nominate a candidate for the Showcase.

Before publishing the Innovative Teaching Showcase website, the CII works with instructors who were nominated and agreed to participate in the development of the Showcase. The CII staff will meet with the instructor to determine an approach for displaying the innovation via both text and multimedia, arrange for class observations, videotaping, etc., and discuss connections to the institutional goals. The instructor is responsible for writing the "portfolio" component of the Showcase.