For the second time, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) has granted its Peterson's Award for Innovative Distance Education to UMUC, this time for its Web-based Spanish 101 (Elementary Spanish I).

"This award is given to higher education institutions whose distance education applications exemplify the best in instructional design and effectiveness," wrote Kay J. Kohl, executive director of UCEA, in a letter informing UMUC's then-Interim President Robert E. Myers Jr. of the award.

UCEA is one of the oldest college and university associations in the United States, and is the principal U.S. organization for continuing higher education. The Peterson's Award was established to improve the quality of teaching and learning and to promote the effective use of information technology in secondary and post-secondary education. UMUC received the award on May 11.

"We won the award because we looked at what one needs to get out of language training, and then we looked to see how we could provide that," says Lucinda Hart-Gonzalez, director of English, humanities, and modern languages for Undergraduate Programs. "We found that we could actually do it better online-and that was revolutionary."

The course is formatted to develop language skills right from the start, and to build interpersonal communication incrementally. Students begin reading and writing to the instructor and each other, first at their own pace in conferences or via e-mail, and later in real time in a chat-room environment, while practicing speaking and listening on their own with video and CD-ROM. Later, they move on to interpersonal listening and speaking-again, first at their own pace, using recordings and voice mail, and finally in real time, on the telephone, or in voice conferences.

"In the online environment," says Hart-Gonzalez, who served as curriculum specialist for the project, "we're finding that students who might be shy about speaking out when 20 people are staring at them don't feel as shy sitting behind the 'wall' of the computer."

"Our distance students are just doing magnificently," she continues. "By the end of this course, they can do something that most students in a classroom-based course can't-they can talk on the telephone. And that's a real, marketable job skill."

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