Excellence in Open Education Award

Kyndra Campbell

Kyndra Campbell, head of the Writing and Developmental Humanities program at Gallatin College, has won this year’s Excellence in Open Education Award. The award recognizes a faculty member who reduces barriers to education by using open information and resources in the classroom. It is sponsored by the MSU Library and comes with a $2,000 honorarium. 

In her role as department head, Campbell develops all curricula for the program and ensures all non-tenure-track faculty hired understand not only the student population but also the importance of pedagogy and delivery design to support engagement and learning.  

Campbell was ahead of the curve and embraced online learning well before COVID-19 shifted the education landscape. She moved some of her course sections online to accommodate changes in student learning and scheduling needs and along the way found that online delivery allowed students to share more in their writing than they do in person.  

In addition to offering online delivery, all of Campbell’s Gallatin College writing courses now use open educational resources, or OER. She has made a similar shift in some of the developmental writing courses at MSU, saving students nearly $6,000 in course material costs this semester. These changes are projected to save students $60,000 over a year’s time.  

“Kyndra is a strong candidate for this award because she has made the effort to share forward what she learns about online delivery to Gallatin College faculty,” said Sarah Maki, associate dean of Gallatin College. “She regularly conducts training for our faculty and I am certain she would do the same with what she has learned about OER.”