KEARNEY – Don Ray has received the 2016 Technology Excellence Award at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
The award recognizes exemplary performance of Information Technology Services staff who consistently provide a level of service significantly above and beyond specific job responsibilities.
Employees of IT Services are eligible to receive the annual award of $1,500. Nominations are made by faculty, staff or co-workers. The first award was presented in 2010.
Ray serves as assistant director of Academic Support Services for Information Technology Services. With his background in instructional technology, he has been involved in several projects to enhance the teaching and learning environment at UNK.
He was the academic lead for the migration of Blackboard from premise-hosted to a cloud-hosted environment. He manages Echo360 for lecture capture and the Zoom desktop video conferencing user community. He provided leadership for the statewide adoption of Zoom by K-12 schools and Nebraska higher education institutions who are members of Network Nebraska.
Ray also assists Museum of Nebraska Art with multimedia and video recording of events. He is a key leader in the adoption of Canvas as the learning management system at UNK. Ray teaches online classes, so he uses the tools that he supports. The training he provides for faculty and staff is based on experience using the tools for teaching and learning.
Technology Excellence Award Past Winners
2010 – Kay Liibbe
2011 – Dylan Evans
2012 – Jeremy Childress
2013 – Heidi Haussermann
2014 – Andrea Childress
2015 – Brandon Hammond
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