The Wayne State University Library and Information Science (LIS) Program was recently selected as the winner of the Excellence in Distance Education award in Sonic Foundry’s 2006 Rich Media Impact Awards at the EduComm conference in Orlando, Fla.

ECHO (Enhancing Courses Held Online) is the LIS Program’s online distance learning instructional project that was developed by implementing Mediasite technology with the goal of providing distance students with access to course content “live” and “on-demand.” The course instructional benefits include the use of polls to reinforce learning concepts, Q&A for live discussions, and links to collateral material.

“The LIS Program at Wayne State University is proving that Mediasite truly is a revolutionary communications medium,” said Rimas Buinevicius, Sonic Foundry’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re delighted to honor how the Wayne State LIS Program is transforming the way they not only communicate, but also compete in today’s marketplace.”

Sonic Foundry recognized 22 organizations across eight categories for their innovative ways of using rich media within their organizations. Nominations were received from members of the Mediasite user community. Finalists were selected for demonstrating how rich media has transformed their organizations through measurable improvements in accessibility, cost savings, efficiency and productivity.

“This award recognizes the hard work the faculty have done in the past five years to develop our curriculum from one that offers only on-site education to one that provides a blending of on-site, Web-centric, and fully online courses to develop library and information professionals for the 21st Century,” said Joseph J. Mika, director of the Wayne State LIS Program.

The Wayne State University Library System consists of the universities\' five libraries: The David Adamany Undergraduate Library, the Purdy/Kresge Library, the Shiffman Medical Library, the Arthur Neef Law Library and the Science and Engineering Library, the Library and Information Science Program and the Office for Teaching and Learning.

Wayne State University is a premier institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 12 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.