The Course of the Year (COTY) award is given once a year at the Association of Christian Distance Education (ACCESS) Conference for outstanding achievement in course design and content of distance learning courses.

This year, the CDE submitted Old Testament Archaeology, written by Dr. Charles Aling and Dr. Clyde Billington. When revising this course (which was first offered in 1999), the CDE had the privilege of taking Professor of History Dr. Billington to Israel to film course lectures on-location at sites like Jericho, Masada, Bethsaida, and the Mt. of Olives. Another strong component in the course is the extensive scholarly articles and original source writings from the ancient world.

Each year, the CDE submits a course that has been developed or greatly revised, as a way to measure course quality and to see how they compare to courses submitted by other colleges and universities. There are two contest categories: Independent Study and Online Delivery. Michael Wilder, Assistant Director for Instructional Design, says, “It’s a great way to have other instructional designers evaluate your course. They provide you with written feedback on ways to improve as well as ways the course excels.”

Check out our other COTY award-winning courses:

1996 - Concepts of Astronomy, Dr. Stephen Ratliff
1999 - Biblical Foundations for Intergroup Relations (now called Race and Ethnicity in America), Dr. Kenneth Young
2000 - Concepts of Chemistry and Lab, Dr. Daniel Crane
2002 - Foundations of Communications, Dr. Timothy Kowalik
2006 - Second Temple Judaism, Dr. Boyd Seevers

Thanks to Dr. Aling and Dr. Billington for their excellent written content and lectures, both here and in Israel. Thanks to Joel Johnson, Instructional Designer for the CDE, who did a fine job orchestrating the course revisions and who completed all the video editing. And thanks be to God for His faithfulness throughout the project and His goodness to us!